Culture

West Lafayette, IN—September 21, 2010— While most citizens recognize that corruption is "bad," the average citizen is unaware of the benefits enjoyed by politically connected firms, or how common government favors are worldwide. In the U.S., many citizens were outraged at the provision and size of bailouts for "too big to fail" banks. A new study from the journal Financial Management claims that not only does corruption exist in the corporate world, but that political connections are extremely important for corporate success.

As the United States prepares for the upcoming flu season, a group of researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health continues to model how H1N1 may spread.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed new software that offers significantly enhanced security for cloud-computing systems. The software is much better at detecting viruses or other malware in the "hypervisors" that are critical to cloud computing, and does so without alerting the malware that it is being examined.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – More than 35 years after Oregon began one of the nation's most ambitious land use planning programs, a new study suggests it's still difficult to demonstrate that it has accomplished one of its primary goals – protecting agricultural lands and a thriving forest, farm and ranching industry.

A landmark report on the Global Economic Impact of Dementia finds that Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are exacting a massive toll on the global economy, with the problem set to accelerate in coming years. The World Alzheimer Report 2010 – issued on World Alzheimer's Day by Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) – provides the most current and comprehensive global picture of the economic and social costs of the illness.

A new landmark study, which demonstrated it is possible to recruit large numbers of women into a clinical trial evaluating treatments for HIV infection, found no significant gender-based differences in response to the anti-HIV drugs darunavir and ritonavir — at least among those who remained in the trial to the end.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Researchers have discovered that women, female monkeys and female mice have major similarities when it comes to how bisphenol A (BPA) is metabolized, and they have renewed their call for governmental regulation when it comes to the estrogen-like chemical found in many everyday products.

On spring winds, something wicked this way comes--at least for the mountains of the Colorado River Basin and their ecosystems, and for people who depend on snowmelt from these mountains as a regional source of water.

SPRINGFIELD, MO—The American elderberry is showing promise as a profitable commercial fruit crop. Traditionally used for making jelly, juice, and wine, elderberry is becoming increasing important in North America's burgeoning "nutraceutical" industry. Historically, elderberries have mostly been harvested from the wild; researchers have made recently made efforts to select or develop improved cultivars. Increased interest and emerging markets are encouraging scientists to develop improved elderberry cultivars that yield consistent, superior production.

You remember that government health reform would not be mandatory when it was being sold to the public - and then you might recall it suddenly became mandatory and suddenly the most politically charged feature of health reform law, leading to lawsuits by 20 states who don't want it and say mandated health insurance is unconstitutional because it gives the federal government more power than it actually has.

We are all scientists now, thanks to Galaxy Zoo, The Great Sunflower Project, Foldit and countless other projects that allow individuals to take part in scientific research directly or indirectly. In the case of something like SETI@home, users share computer CPU time with researchers whereas Galaxy Zoo is more about active involvement with the classification of stellar objects in images of the night sky, for instance.

Healthy reefs with more corals and fish generate predictably greater levels of noise, according to researchers working in Panama. This has important implications for understanding the behaviour of young fish, and provides an exciting new approach for monitoring environmental health by listening to reefs.