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Sociologists explore 'emotional labor' of black professionals in the workplace

BOSTON — Black professionals make extra efforts in the workplace to fulfill what they believe are the expectations of their white colleagues, according to research to be presented today at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

Sociologists Marlese Durr of Wright State University and her co-author Adia Harvey Wingfield of Georgia State University argue that black professionals engage in two types of "emotional performance" in the workplace: General etiquette and racialized emotion maintenance.

Bulging prison system called massive intervention in American family life

BOSTON – The mammoth increase in the United States' prison population since the 1970s is having profound demographic consequences that disproportionately affect black males.

"This jump in incarceration rates represents a massive intervention in American families at a time when the federal government was making claims that it was less involved in their lives," according to a University of Washington researcher who will present findings Sunday (Aug. 3) at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Family type has less-than-expected impact on parental involvement

BOSTON — Children in step-families and in other non-traditional families get just as much quality time with their parents as those in traditional families, with only a few exceptions, according to research to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association today.

Male college students more likely than less-educated peers to commit property crimes

BOSTON — Men who attend college are more likely to commit property crimes during their college years than their non-college-attending peers, according to research to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Allergic-like reactions to iodinated contrast material treated safely with commonly used medications

Patients who have had acute allergic-like reactions to nonionic iodinated contrast material rarely develop any serious long-term problems and can be treated safely with commonly used medications according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Hospitals in Ann Arbor.

Innovative diabetes program in Bloomington-Normal, Ill., a success

Diabetes Checks & Balances, a unique program launched locally to help people manage the disease, helped decrease emergency room visits and hospital admissions among participants.

'Convenience' of screening mammography facilities plays major role in patient retention

Patients cite "convenience to home or work" as the main reason they changed mammography facilities, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and The Barrett Center in Cincinnati, OH.

The study included 303 current mammography patients ("stayers") and 117 patients who no longer received mammography at the university-based center ("leavers"), said Mary C. Mahoney, MD, lead author of the study.

Innovative diabetes program in Bloomington, Ill., a success

Diabetes Checks & Balances, a unique program launched locally to help people manage the disease, helped decrease emergency room visits and hospital admissions among participants.

Highlights from the August 2008 Journal of the American Dietetic Association

Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Is Low among Black Men

Despite efforts to stress the importance of eating fruits and vegetables, daily consumption of these foods among men remains low, particularly among black men, according to researchers at Columbia and Temple universities, the University of Pennsylvania and the National Cancer Institute.

'Office of the future' environment study

Mayo Clinic endocrinologist James Levine, M.D., Ph.D., has continued his research in environment-changing innovations with a six-month study of a real-life office that was re-engineered to increase daily physical activity or NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). The study began in late 2007 and ended in 2008 at SALO, LLC, a Minneapolis-based financial staffing firm. Of the 45 employee volunteers involved in the scientific study, 18 were studied for weight loss and other changes.

Re-engineering included:

Innovative diabetes program in McLean County a success

Diabetes Checks & Balances, a unique program launched locally to help people manage the disease, helped decrease emergency room visits and hospital admissions among participants.

Size-specific cracking shakes

LIVERMORE, Calif. - Certain sizes of nanostructures may be more susceptible to failure by fracture than others.

That is the result of new research by LLNL's Michael Manley and colleagues from Los Alamos National Laboratory that appears as a Rapid Communication in the journal Physical Review B.

As the size of a structure gets to the nanoscale, atomic vibrations (also known as phonons) begin to feel its size and shape in an effect called phonon confinement.

Higher HIV infection estimate shows need for routine screening, more funding for care

Arlington, VA—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected soon to increase the estimate of new HIV infections in the United States by 40 percent. This highlights the need to make HIV testing a routine part of medical care and provide better funding to care for those who test positive, according to the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA).

Cutting the brakes on the immune system

Your immune system may have more in common with a Corvette than you thought.

When a virus or bacteria enters a human body, the immune system revs up to fight and expel the invader. Once the invader is gone, the body puts on the brakes to stop the immune response.

But a new study by Patrick Gaffney, M.D., and Kathy Moser, Ph.D., of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation shows that variation of a particular gene—known as TNFAIP3—may cause the immune system to keep going at full speed long after the threat is gone, causing damage to the body.

Penn researchers find a new role for a 'Foxy Old Gene'

PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that a protein called FOXA2 controls genes that maintain the proper level of bile in the liver. FOXA2 may become the focus for new therapies to treat diseases that involve the regulation of bile salts. The study was published online this week in Nature Medicine.