Culture

LOS ANGELES—November 18, 2009—Although the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 overturned segregation within many U.S. metropolitan communities and districts, school districts were slow to change and have remained segregated between districts. A recent study in Law & Social Inquiry examines how the political process of creating new school districts in Southern communities changed the nature of segregation and seriously affected municipalities and districts now divided along racial lines.

To exploit the quantum world to the fullest, a key commodity is entanglement—the spooky, distance-defying link that can form between objects such as atoms even when they are completely shielded from one another. Now, physicists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaborative organization of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland, have developed a promising new source of entangled photons using quantum dots tweaked with a laser.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Tax increases are the only solution to a widening budget crisis that a new study says has landed Illinois among the nation's most financially troubled states, a soon-to-be-released report by a team of University of Illinois economists warns.

Illinois is among nine states spiraling toward an economic disaster that could rival California, where a $24 billion budget shortfall has netted IOUs, widespread layoffs and forced furloughs, according to a study released last week by the Pew Center on the States, a nonpartisan think tank.

Some obese people misperceive that their body size is normal and think they don't need to lose weight, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009.

In the Dallas Heart Study of 5,893 people, researchers found that 8 percent of the 2,056 who were obese said they were satisfied with their body size or felt they could gain weight.

This release is available in http://chinese..org/zh/emb_releases/2009-11/jaaj-poh111309.php">Chinese.

Between 1999 and 2006, the prevalence of adults in the U.S. with high levels of LDL cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol, decreased by about one-third, according to a study in the November 18 issue of JAMA. But a high percentage of adults still are not being screened or treated for high cholesterol levels.

In clinical trials for cancer, it is standard for clinicians rather than patients to report adverse symptom side effects from treatments, such as nausea and fatigue. At present, patient self-reporting, although important, is not a well studied source of this information. A new longitudinal study from researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center finds that while clinicians' and patients' reporting of treatment side effects are very different from each other, together they provide a more complete, clinically meaningful picture of the treatment experience.

In recent decades, a new global middle class has exploded, with a total population exceeding one billion people. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research explores the consumption attitudes of some of these members of the "new class."

If you feel like you're in a losing battle with a triple-chocolate cake, a "mental budget" can help, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

From simple decisions like "Should I eat this brownie?" to bigger questions such as "Should my next car be a hybrid?" consumers are involved in an inner dialogue that reflects thoughts and perspectives of their different selves, according to the authors of a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Shalini Bahl (iAM Business Consulting) and George R. Milne (University of Massachusetts) studied the multiple perspectives that exist within consumers and explored the ways they navigate inconsistent preferences to make consumption decisions.

Hardening of the arteries has been detected in 3,500-year-old mummies, so we may have to look beyond modern risk factors to fully understand heart disease, according to research presented American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009.

Although atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is commonly ascribed to modern risk factors, this study found evidence of the disease which causes heart attacks and strokes in ancient Egyptian mummies.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A police officer who works the night shift, typically from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., already is at a disadvantage when it comes to getting a good "night's" sleep.

Add frequent overtime to that schedule, and an officer may be climbing into bed as the sun comes up, setting the stage for short and unrestful slumber.

The dramatic increase in overweight and obesity in adult Americans over the past 20 years has undermined public health success at reducing risk for heart disease, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009.

The strongest evidence yet that the rise in atmospheric CO2 emissions continues to outstrip the ability of the world's natural 'sinks' to absorb carbon is published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Canadians know that too much salt isn't good for their diets, but half still continue to shake it on, according to a new study by University of Alberta researchers.

In a survey of 890 people measuring knowledge and behaviours regarding sodium intake, U of A nutrition researchers Anna Farmer and Diana Mager discovered that the majority of Canadians believe they consume too much sodium and that most are aware that too much sodium can lead to health problems. But only half are actually doing something about it.

Waltham, MA—Today the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University's Heller School released a new research and policy brief which reports that four in ten U.S. families lack sufficient assets to pay for essential expenses in the face of unemployment.