Culture

Who belongs in America? Immigration has sparked a raging national debate about that question — including in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, Texas, the first U.S. city to adopt an ordinance requiring renters to prove they are legal residents.

DURHAM, N.C. -- A study that examined 30 years of standardized test data from the very highest-scoring seventh graders has found that performance differences between boys and girls have narrowed considerably, but boys still outnumber girls by more than about 3-to-1 at extremely high levels of math ability and scientific reasoning.

At the same time, girls slightly outnumber boys at extremely high levels of verbal reasoning and writing ability.

New research from the University of Sheffield has found that social and psychological factors have the biggest influence upon women's sexual behaviour during the menopause, rather than biological changes such as declining hormone levels.

The study, which will be published in the Journal of Health Psychology, found that contrary to previous evidence, women's experience of sexual activity during the menopause differs greatly between individuals, and is not always directly linked to biological factors.

TORONTO, July 6, 2010 – Anxiety and uncertainty can cause us to become more idealistic and more radical in our religious beliefs, according to new findings by York University researchers, published in this month's issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

SALT LAKE CITY – Severe trauma to the head and spine resulting from all-terrain vehicle (ATV) accidents are increasing dramatically according to research released today from the University of Utah Department of Neurosurgery. The research, to be published in the journal Neurosurgery, highlights the need for efforts to improve ATV stability, increase helmet use, and greater efforts to train riders in safe operation of the vehicles.

Is being competitive a good or a bad thing when you're a teenager? Well, a bit of both actually: competing to win is detrimental to girls' social relationships and was linked to higher levels of depression, whereas this was much less the case for boys. However, competing to excel is beneficial to the well-being of both genders. A new study[1] by Dr. David Hibbard from California State University and Dr.

Physicians who prescribe erectile dysfunction drugs for their male patients should be sure to discuss the importance of safer sex practices, even with older patients: that is an important implication of a report in the July 6 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The analysis of insurance records of more than 1.4 million U.S. men over 40 found that those who used ED drugs were more likely to have sexually transmitted diseases than were non-users.

A short delay in school start time appears to be associated with significant improvements in adolescent alertness, mood and health, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Children saw fewer television advertisements for certain foods, including those for sweets and beverages, in 2007 compared with 2003, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the September print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, children now see more fast-food ads, and racial gaps in exposure to all food advertising have increased.

Depression is commonly reported in people with Alzheimer's disease and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, with several studies suggesting having a history of major depression may nearly double your risk of developing dementia later in life. However, it has been unclear if depression is a symptom of the disease or a potential cause of the disease.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Prison-based programs to de-radicalize terrorists show promise, if well-run, says a new joint report from U.S. and British researchers. Their initial findings – the most comprehensive to date, based on programs in 15 nations – were presented at a conference this week.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Researchers at the University at Buffalo conducting a neighborhood-scaled exploratory study that tested the association between the food environment, the built environment and women's body mass index (BMI) have found that women with homes closer to a supermarket, relative to a convenience store, had lower BMIs, and that the greater the number of restaurants within a five minute walk of a woman's home, the higher her BMI.

Pear psylla is a cicada-like pest with a vexing tendency to develop resistance to insecticides. But now, a new weapon could be in the works.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and University of California-Riverside (UCR) scientists have jointly identified a key component of the female psylla's chemical sex attractant, or pheromone, which could set the stage for luring amorous males to their doom.

The extinction of woolly mammoths and other large mammals more than 10,000 years ago may be explained by the same type of cascade of ecosystem disruption - they mean you and me - that is being implicated today in the global decline of predators such as wolves, cougars and sharks, life scientists report July 1 in BioScience.

Then, as now, the cascading events were originally begun by human disruption of ecosystems, a new study concludes, but around 15,000 years ago the problem was not the loss of a key predator, but the addition of one — human hunters with spears.