Springfield, VA, USA. Two graduate students have scored an academic trifecta. They learned how to launch their careers via publish-or-perish principles, google the obvious, and cozy up to transgenders. The results of their efforts (referred to in some circles as, um, research) awaits the unwary in the Journal of Career Development (http://jcd.sagepub.com/). The University of Oregon (http://www.uoregon.edu/) is a public research university and a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) (http://www.aau.edu/), one of only two such universities in the greater Northwest. It is located in Eugene, Oregon, two hours from Portland and one hour each from the Pacific Coast and the Cascade Mountains. The UO library holds 2.6 million volumes and 18,000 periodicals — the second largest such collection in the Northwest. At least that’s what the OU public relations department says. They seem to be very fond of their almost 4000 graduate students as indicated by this press release blurb: Two University of Oregon doctoral students dove into issues of transgender identities — in the workplace and professional counseling — and surfaced with a call for psychologists and vocational counselors to not only treat but to act as advocates for their clients — and to help end discrimination in the workplace. Right here, in the Cascade Mountains, two graduate students have discovered the Tao of Transgender and have shared their wisdom with the world. This is where they have shared their vision: Transgender Identities and Gender Variance in Vocational Psychology: Recommendations for Practice, Social Advocacy, and Research. Maya Elin O'Neil, Ellen Hawley McWhirter, and Alison Cerezo. Journal of Career Development 34(3) 286-308. doi: 10.1177 / 0894845307311251 [ Download PDF (http://ts-si.org/files/TG-IdentitiesONeilHawleyMcWhirter286.pdf) ] The Great Northwest, Gateway to Transgender and filling a void in both the academic literature and support possibilities. Ok. I’m game. Let’s read...

Boise, ID, USA. Reducing breast discomfort before a mammography exam is a simple matter of applying pain-relieving gel. The results from a clinical trial to be published in the print journal Radiology (http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/). Even better, the anesthetic is a readily available as an over-the-counter (OTC) preparation that is easy for women to apply and remove at home. Breast cancer affects more women than any other non-skin cancer and, according to the American Cancer Society (http://www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp), accounts for more than 40,000 deaths annually in the U.S. Most experts agree that the best way to decrease breast cancer mortality is through early detection using mammography and a clinical breast exam. Clinical Trial. Clinical Remedication to Reduce Discomfort during Screening Mammography. Colleen Lambertz, James R. Maxwell, Christopher J. Johnson, and Paul G. Montgomery. Print publication scheduled for Radiology in September 2008. For a mammography exam, a radiologic technologist positions the patient's breast on a platform in a mammography unit. The breast is then gradually compressed with a paddle. The patient may feel pressure and occasionally some discomfort or pain. Fear of this discomfort leads many women to avoid mammograms altogether. Studies have shown that as many as two-thirds of women don't follow established guidelines for mammography. We now have something that we know reduces discomfort with screening mammography in women who expect higher discomfort — lidocaine gel, said the trial's principal investigator, Colleen Lambertz, F.N.P., a nurse practitioner at St. Luke's Mountain States Tumor Institute (http://www.stlukesonline.org/boise/specialties_and_services/Cancer_Care/index.php) in Boise, Idaho. With a more positive experience, we hope women will undergo more regular mammography screening. Mammography is the only screening tool proven to reduce mortality from breast cancer in women over 40, said study co-author James R. Maxwell, M.D., medical director of St. Luke's Breast Care...

Austin, TX, USA. The phrase survival of the fittest is a metaphor, not a scientific description, most often used by social science majors and members of the press. [N1] However, as a late Darwin metaphor, it generally is not used in modern times by evolutionary biologists, who almost exclusively use the more scientifically accurate natural selection. While natural selection generally favors the organism that most nearly fits a given niche, evolutionary biologists have long wondered whether this leads to the best possible organisms in the long run. A team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) (http://www.utexas.edu/) [N2] has developed a new theory, which suggests that life may not always be optimal. The Ascent of the Abundant: How Mutational Networks Constrain Evolution. Matthew C. Cowperthwaite, Evan P. Economo, William R. Harcombe, Eric L. Miller, Lauren Ancel Meyers. PLoS Comput Biol 4(7): e1000110. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pcbi.1000110 [ Download PDF (http://ts-si.org/files/journal.pcbi.1000110.pdf) ] Genetic mutations create the raw material that natural selection acts upon. The short-term fate of a mutation is often quite clear. Mutations that make organisms more fit tend to persist through generations, while harmful mutations tend to die off with the organisms that possess them. The long-term consequences of mutations, however, are not well understood by evolutionary biologists. The researchers have shown that what may be good in the short run, may hinder evolution in the long run. A team led by Dr. Matthew C. Cowperthwaite and Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers [N2-5] developed computer models of RNA molecules evolving by mutation and natural selection. RNA molecules, which are very similar to DNA, play key roles in essential life processes and serve as the genetic material for some of our deadliest viruses, including influenza and HIV. Their computer models show that the evolution of...

Washington, DC, USA. Every state but Alaska has issued at least one AMBER Alert — a public announcement of a child abduction using the media, email and traffic signs — since Texas launched the first program in 1997. But the number of alerts has been dropping off, and state officials say that’s not a bad thing. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) (http://www.missingkids.com/), the number of alerts has declined in the past three years. There were 275 issued nationwide in 2005, falling to 262 in 2006 and 227 in 2007. As of May 31 this year, there were only 74 alerts. Last month, the disappearance of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett prompted Vermont to issue its first-ever AMBER Alert. The notice was canceled July 2 when police found her remains. Her uncle has been charged with her kidnapping. Before the girl’s disappearance, Vermont and Alaska were the only states that hadn’t found cause to use their AMBER Alert programs. Now, Alaska remains the holdout. Bob Hoever, NCMEC’s associate director of training, said even if he can’t pinpoint exactly why the number of alerts is dropping, he is encouraged by the decline. Hoever said the existence of the program itself could be a deterrent to some would-be abductors and the number of abductions could be falling. Once an alert is issued, descriptions of the child and any suspects are made public. “More people are surrendering children once they hear there’s an alert,” Hoever said. Last year, he said 16 abductors admitted they surrendered because an AMBER Alert was issued. Also, state AMBER Alert coordinators are better informed, he said, using the program only when situations warrant an alert. Program officials worry that overuse of the program might cause the public to...

Lancaster, PA, USA. It has all the elements of a sensational fiction thriller — an allusive title, Bonus Gate, cold cash in the form of illicit bonuses handed out to both witting and unwitting accomplices, titillating sexual encounters, dirt surreptitiously uncovered and used on political enemies, and all mixed well with a cast of unlikely characters and comedic hijinks worthy of Hollywood’s finest. Are we describing the latest crime novel published just in time for summer reading on hot, crowded beaches? Alas, no! Hot reading this may be, but fictional it is not. It is all too real. And the real world crime alleged at its core has so far led to the indictments of 12 Pennsylvania House Democratic representatives and staffers. But if Bonus Gate has grabbed our attention, it isn’t yet clear just what all the attention is about. What exactly is Bonus Gate, what are its implications, and what might it foreshadow for state politics? So far most interest has focused on two allegations: that illicit bonuses using public funds were paid to some House Democratic caucus employees for political campaigning and that extensive campaign work was done on state time by some caucus employees. But these charges capture only part of the matter. The scope of alleged wrongdoing is much broader. Indeed according to two grand jury presentments, the political practices carried out in the caucus over the past few years represent a new campaign scheme funded by public dollars. None of this is penny ante politics. Indeed the scope of it is breathtaking.It is alleged that the architects of Bonus Gate built and operated a fully functioning campaign organization embedded within the Democratic caucus. At its highpoint it included extensive field work, strategic and tactical planning, opposition research,...

Chicago, IL, USA. Scientists and scholars must document their sources in professional publications, but can there be an objective standard for their number and diversity? A sociologist implies as much by analyzing how rapid access to increasing numbers of academic journals has narrowed citations to fewer and more recent papers. James Evans is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago (http://www.uchicago.edu/), who focuses on the nature of scholarly research. He argues in National Science Foundation (NSF) (http://www.nsf.gov/). Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship. James A. Evans. Science 2008 321(5887) 395-399. doi: 10.1126 / science.1150473. Abstract Online journals promise to serve more information to more dispersed audiences and are more efficiently searched and recalled. But because they are used differently than print—scientists and scholars tend to search electronically and follow hyperlinks rather than browse or peruse — electronically available journals may portend an ironic change for science. Using a database of 34 million articles, their citations (1945 to 2005), and online availability (1998 to 2005), I show that as more journal issues came online, the articles referenced tended to be more recent, fewer journals and articles were cited, and more of those citations were to fewer journals and articles. The forced browsing of print archives may have stretched scientists and scholars to anchor findings deeply into past and present scholarship. Searching online is more efficient and following hyperlinks quickly puts researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but this may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon.

Chicago, IL, USA. As human beings, we use categories to organize the details of a complex world. We experience a certain comfort in the convenience and predictability of categories. That seems to work until somone else comes along with their own category for us that we don't like. Well, the other person got it wrong: we don't fit into that category, or do we? Is it possible that comfort alone is a justification for categorization? Out in the real world of daily choices, most of us have stood in a supermarket aisle, overwhelmed with the array of choices. New research suggests those choices are easier if the options are categorized. The Mere Categorization Effect: How the Presence of Categories Increases Choosers’ Perceptions of Assortment Variety and Outcome Satisfaction. Cassie Mogilner, Tamar Rudnick, and Sheena S. Iyengar. Journal of Consumer Research. August 2008. Vol. 35. doi: 10.1086 / 588698. ISSN: 0093-5301/2008/3502-0002. The findings appear in the Stanford University (http://www.stanford.edu/)), Tamar Rudnick, and Sheena S. Iyengar (both from Columbia University (http://www.columbia.edu/)) say that “People confronted with highly categorized large selections are happier with their decisions because they experience a sense of self-determination as a result of perceiving differences among the available options.” In one study, participants chose magazines from different displays, some that were categorized and some that were not. Those who were asked to choose a magazine they weren’t familiar with tended to be more satisfied with their choices if they came from categorized selections. In another study, people at a food court were randomly selected to choose coffee from several menus. The coffee options were either categorized or uncategorized. “Consumers who chose a coffee flavor from a menu divided into seemingly meaningless categories such as Categories A, B, and C were just as happy as those who...

Springfield, VA, USA. In an earlier column, I discussed the uproar among the District of Columbia’s transgender community over proposed revisions of the rules and regulations governing gender identity and expression. The stated purpose of the change is to clarify how the gender identity or expression regulations apply to transgender individuals in District Government custody (e.g. trans folks who have been arrested for violating the law). The rulemaking also repeals the requirement for gender neutral signage (“restroom” vice men or women), clarifies the types of accommodations that may be provided in gender-specific facilities where nudity is customary (e.g., a shower room or locker room), and establishes the name requirements for identification badges of District government employees. The outrage from the D. C. transgender community is astonishing. You’d have thought that the District Columbia had proposed setting up death camps to store trans folks. The howling protests and public wailing! Of course most of it sounded like Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. I want I want I want I want. ME! So when I wrote the last column, I had to figure out best I could what all the commotion was about. The rule changes seemed reasonable. Most of them were just clarifications, something that rule making bodies do all the time. Luckily, since I wrote that column, a representative of the D. C. transgender community has clarified their concerns and, more specifically, identified the root causes of the transgender problem. What follows is a summary of their protest agenda, the best I understand it. This is what they protest. This is the Trangender Gender Spectrum Manifesto √ The trans folks and only trans folks have the self-evident right to determine the standards for what is safe and secure...

Washington, DC, USA. A former Maryland senator won’t be answering his phone for a few years. A Michigan ballot reform group needs a better proofreader. And an astronomical impossibility ensures that South Carolina’s new license plates won’t be heading off into the sunset. In case you missed those stories this week, Worth Noting fills you in. Looking to call former Maryland senator Tommy Bromwell (D)? Feel free to leave a message, but don’t expect a callback. According to The Gazette, Bromwell, who entered a federal prison in Massachusetts July 1 for racketeering and tax-crime convictions, recorded this outgoing voicemail greeting: “I can’t come to the phone right now because I’m in jail. If you care to leave a message, I’ll call you back in six years. By the way, I'm doing okay.” If you want to amend your state’s constitution, make sure you actually know what’s in it. A reform group in Michigan learned that lesson the hard way. The Detroit Free Press reports a 21,000-word ballot reform proposal by Reform Michigan Government Now! refers to a non-existent section of the Michigan Constitution. The mistake may prove fatal to their proposal. It may be a little wrong, but it looks good. South Carolina’s new “sunrise” license plates feature two stalwart symbols of the state — a palmetto tree and a waxing moon. Only problem is the image on the plate is an astronomical impossibility, the Charleston Post and Courier writes. One sharp-eyed former science teacher noticed the moon didn’t look right, so she checked it out with a planetarium. Turns out, the angle of the crescent depicted on the tags does not occur at sunset in the northern hemisphere. No smoking, no problem. People who needed a nicotine fix in Iowa were stymied when the state...

Washington, DC, USA. The Manual for Diagnosis of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) (http://ts-si.org/content/view/3213/992/) has long outlived its intended purpose, the legitimization of psychiatry as a medical discipline. Even if we forgive the suspect origins of the DSM and respect the intentions of subsequent generations, the book — and that is what it is — has been overtaken by events. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) (http://www.psych.org/) has begun work on a revised version, the DSM-V (http://ts-si.org/content/view/3213/992/). There is considerable discussion within the caring professions on how to express various conditions and disagreement on whether some of them should even be included in the DSM-V. But this is like trying to put a new coat of paint on a ship as it slips beneath the waves. Science and medicine have progressed apace, but psychiatry has nowhere near the acceleration of the other disciplines upon which it depends. The genome, the entirety of an organism's hereditary information, has been known to scientists since the 1920s. The 1950s saw the description of DNA. The pace and sophistication of scientific findings from embryology and neurobiology has accelerated ever since. Those are just some of the milestones among many more. And psychiatry? The DSM-IV reached publication in 1994 (with a minor text revision in 2000). The DSM-V is currently in consultation, planning and preparation, but it isn't due for final publication until May 2012. Hard scientific research has already outstripped the DSM. I seriously doubt that the DSM-V will be up-to-date upon its publication. Clinical psychoogists start with triage, sorting out normal, stressed out — perhaps even eccentric — people from the truly pathological. A growing number of mental health professionals criticize the lack of an empirical foundation for the DSM. They stress that it has become a bloated compendium...

Springfield, VA, USA. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) (http://www.psych.org/) publishes the APA (http://www.psych.org/) named the Work Groups and membership for next revision, DSM-V, mandating an early draft for comment in 2009 and completion scheduled for May 2012. The APA (http://www.psych.org/) announcement stimulated wide interest in the professional, patient, and activist communities. TS-Si.org (http://ts-si.org) has expanded its coverage of this important development with a variety of articles that touch on the DSM-V deliberations. Reactions and suggestions from our readers are always welcome. You can see current comments from our readers in the TS-Si.org Comments Section (http://ts-si.org/content/blogcategory/227/1118/). Annotated list originally published 29 May 2008, with periodic updates.

Binghamton, NY, USA. Charles Darwin originally envisioned that adaptations can evolve at all levels of the biological hierarchy, from genes to ecosystems. He proposed an evolutionary explanation for morality and pro-social behaviors — individuals behaving for the good of their group, often at their own expense. This anticipated the future discipline of Sociobiology, an attempted synthesis of scientific disciplines that can explain behavior in all species by considering the evolutionary advantages of social behaviours: the theory of group selection. Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology. Wilson, David Sloan and Edward O.Wilson. The Quarterly Review of Biology 82(4):327-48. [ Download PDF (http://ts-si.org/files/RethinkingSociobiology.pdf) ] Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was an English biologist and one of several scientists considering theories of evolution. Darwin published On the Origin of Species (1859) (http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Species-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/product-description/019283438X), which set forth his theory that animals evolved through variation and natural selection of those most fit to survive in particular environments. Darwin did not totally keep his distance from the social, racial and religious consequences of his theories, but participated in the debate. In Sexual Selection And The Descent of Man (1871) (http://www.amazon.com/Sexual-Selection-Descent-Man-1871-1971/dp/0202020053) he applied his theory directly to the question of human beings. Although a high standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other men of the same tribe … an advancement in the standard of morality will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over another. — Charles Darwin. However, a century after Darwin published his famous passage, explanations based on group selection had become taboo and did not recover. For evolutionary biologists, an allele (/əˈliːl/; Gr. αλληλος allelos — each other) is one member of a pair or series of different forms of a gene. Group selection is the idea...

Baltimore, MD, USA. There is enduring interest in how infants and young children perceive themselves and their surrounding world, then perform complex reasoning tasks to make sense of it all (or at least the high-priority portions). Those born with Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS) well know of this, but often face doubts about their veracity. Let's try a test of your memory. Which is easier to remember: 4432879960 or 443-297-9960? The latter, of course. Adults seem to know automatically, in fact, that long strings of numbers are more easily recalled when divided into smaller bite-sized chunks, which is why we break up our telephone and Social Security numbers in this way. Conceptual knowledge increases infants' memory capacity. Lisa Feigenson and Justin Halberda. PNAS EE 14 July 2008. doi: 10.1073 / pnas.0709884105 [ Download PDF (http://ts-si.org/pnas0709884105.full.pdf) ] Now researchers at The Johns Hopkins University (http://www.jhu.edu/) have discovered that children as young as 14 months old can — and do — use the same technique to increase their working memories, indicating that chunking information in this way is not a learned strategy, but is, instead, a fundamental aspect of the human mind. Lisa Feigenson and Justin Halberda, assistant professors of psychological and brain sciences at The Johns Hopkins University (http://www.jhu.edu/). Photos courtesy of Will Kirk at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (http://www.pnas.org). Lisa Feigenson works out of the Hopkins Laboratory For Child Develoment (http://www.psy.jhu.edu/~labforchilddevelopment/) on issues of broad relevance to cognitive psychology. A central focus is to determine the mental representations that store information and find out what computations can be performed over those representations. The study of infants and young children is important, Feigenson says, because infant performance can provide information on the cognitive primitives available throughout the...

Perth, Western Australia, AUS. When in government, there is likely to come a time when you have honed your bureaucratic skills to such a point that you have achieved promotion to a reasonably senior level in your department. It is at this point that you will be in a position to implement advanced procrastination methods. Now that you are in charge of large numbers of people, you will find yourself responsible for human resource issues, business planning, staff accommodation, and many more important administrative matters. All of these areas significantly broaden your influence and increase your ability to cause obstruction to progress. The Operational Review Whenever a branch, or even department, appears to be on the verge of achieving decision-making status, be this because an overzealous manager believes this is the purpose of the branch, or that procrastination options have been exhausted, the correct step is to order a review of the branch in question to investigate whether it is delivering the appropriate level of service. This review will take up considerable time and distract the senior branch officers by requiring them to sit down and write tedious explanations and justifications of their activities. An external consultant is often brought in to carry out the review. This consultant is unlikely to have any knowledge of the actual activities of the branch or the areas within which staff work, causing a great deal of time to be expended with repetitive explanations. Their lack of knowledge is likely to lead to an extended review period and a good chance that their conclusions and recommendations will be totally inappropriate. A bonus associated with the review process, and the lengthy period of time that it takes, is that staff within the branch are distracted and find concentrating on their work difficult because...

San Franciso, CA, USA. Scientists have identified about two dozen genes that control embryonic stem cell fate. The genes may either prod or restrain stem cells from drifting into a kind of limbo, they suspect. The limbo lies between the embryonic stage and fully differentiated, or specialized, cells, such as bone, muscle or fat. The new findings come from the first large-scale search for genes crucial to embryonic stem cells. The research was carried out by a team at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) (http://www.ucsf.edu/) and reported in the journal UCSF (http://www.ucsf.edu/) associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics, and the paper's senior author. She has done foundational research on decipherig commands that control the X chromosome shutdowns in the cells of every human female. Photo by Robert Foothorap. The genes we identified are necessary for embryonic stem cells to maintain a memory of who they are, says Panning. Without them the cell doesn't know whether it should remain a stem cell or differentiate into a specialized cell. The scientists used a powerful technique known as RNA interference, or RNAi, to screen more than 1,000 genes for their role in mouse embryonic stem cells. RNAi is a gene-silencing process that inhibits gene expression by causing the degradation of specific RNA molecules or hindering the transcription of specific genes. The technique allows researchers to knock down individual genes, reducing their abundance in order to determine the gene's normal role. The RNAi Process. Small RNA molecules activate a cellular response to destroy a specific mRNA. Image courtesy of Richard Robinson; adapted under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Source: RNAi Therapeutics: How Likely, How Soon? Richard Robinson PLoS Biology 2(1) e28 doi: 10.1371/ journal.pbio.0020028 The research...

Lancaster, PA, USA. John McCain is winning — and winning handily. This is from the latest Franklin Marshall College National Poll (http://www.fandm.edu/x16308.xml) of 1,501 registered adults conducted in partnership with Hearst-Argyle (http://www.hearstargyle.com/index.html). McCain is cleaning up more than 3 to 1 among voters who think the country is headed in the right direction, he’s ahead 20 points among voters whose personal finances are better off compared to last year, he’s clobbering Obama 4 to 1 among voters who think family values are the top issue of the campaign, he’s hammering him by 25 points among voters who say foreign policy is the biggest issue, he’s beating him 5 to 1 among voters who list illegal immigration as the top issue, and he’s winning by more than 20 points among voters who rank taxes as the most important issue. Good news for McCain? Maybe not! Winning only matters if what you’re winning matters too. And in McCain’s case, it largely doesn’t. In fact as the Franklin Marshall College Poll also reveals, despite losing on a wide range of usually salient issues, Barack Obama leads John McCain nationally by six percentage points. McCain is winning the issue battles but losing the electoral war, because the issues he is winning are not the issues most voters care about. Family values, immigration, foreign policy, country on the right track, and better off finances — count McCain a winner. But on the issues voters say are most important to their vote choice this year — the economy, Iraq, and health care — McCain is a big loser. Math, not politics, matters here. For example, McCain is winning among voters who say the country is moving in the right direction, but such voters make up a paltry 17%...

Washington, DC, USA. At a time when the presidential candidates are feverishly trying to flip red and blue states, a group of governors is finding that switching a state’s partisan leaning is no easy matter. How hard is it to change the political complexion of a state? Not even a strong legislative record and high popularity may be enough for four Republican governors in predominantly Democratic states and four Democratic governors in heavily Republican states. Two of these eight fish-out-of-water governors — Democrats Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Brad Henry of Oklahoma — seem to have the best shot at seeing a fellow party member succeed them in 2010. A same-party successor is less likely — but possible — for Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger (Calif.), M. Jodi Rell (Conn.), Linda Lingle (Hawaii) and Don Carcieri (R.I.) and Democrats Phil Bredesen (Tenn.) and Dave Freudenthal (Wyo.). All of these governors are term-limited except Rell, but while Rell is allowed to run again, she hasn’t signaled that she will. Besides dealing with the obvious obstacles of building a party infrastructure in what is often hostile political territory, many of these governors have not placed a high priority on boosting their party or on grooming a protege. In fact, roughly half of the eight have treated their own party with either benign neglect or outright hostility, according to 25 national and state political observers interviewed. Here’s Out There’s analysis, with Republican incumbents first: CALIFORNIA: By far, the Golden State is the biggest gubernatorial prize of all. The GOP does have a shot at holding the governorship if the state party doesn’t demand a candidate who is a strict conservative. In recent years, the state GOP has been unhappy with Schwarzenegger, despite his generally high popularity, because of...

Bristol, UK. When we are confronted by threatening siruations, the speed at which we react could have life or death implications. In our distant and more primitive past, the application of speed and wit could have meant escape from a wild animal. Today, it might mean swerving on a highway to avoid a head-on car crash. Many scientists have thought for some years that mammals have two decision-making systems in their brains which operate at different speeds to cope with different situations. New research supports this theory. It shows that the evolutionary pressures arising from the older, faster, but less accurate, part of the brain may have shaped the more recent development of the slower-acting but more precise cortex, found in humans and higher animals. The research findings appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (http://publishing.royalsociety.org/index.cfm?page=1087). Pete Trimmer, from the University of Bristol (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/) and lead author on the study, says: If we compare the brain of a human with that of a reptile, we find they are very similar except that mammals have a large 'outer cortex' around the outside of the existing 'sub-cortical' brain, that is common to other vertebrates. The fact that lizards make decisions indicates that the sub-cortical brain in humans is also likely to be used in decision-making. However, fMRI scans now reveal that parts of the outer cortex (which developed more recently in our evolutionary past) are also used when making decisions. There are a number of interesting questions that pose challenges for researchers. Why does the brain need these two decision-making areas? What benefit does the new cortex bring? After all, extra brain means extra weight and energy required to carry it around. Furthermore, is the older sub-cortical system now largely redundant? If so,...

Tampere, Finland. Delivering what may prove to be a decided mixed blessing to post-op women (and others) everywhere, researchers have shown that having intercourse more often may help prevent the development of erectile dysfunction (ED). The findings of a new baseline study were published in Download IIEF-5 PDF (http://ts-si.org/files/IIEF-5ScoringSystem.pdf) ] Writing in the article, Juha Koskimäki, MD, PhD, Tampere University Hospital (http://www.uta.fi/tiedekunnat/laak/english/index_eng.html), Department of Urology (Tampere, Finland), states: Regular intercourse has an important role in preserving erectile function among elderly men, whereas morning erection does not exert a similar effect. Continued sexual activity decreases the incidence of erectile dysfunction in direct proportion to coital frequency. The study clearly indicates that regular intercourse protects men from the development of erectile dysfunction, which may, in turn, impact general health and quality of life. The investigators advise clinicians to support the sexual activity of their patients. Regular Intercourse Protects Against Erectile Dysfunction: Tampere Aging Male Urologic Study. Juha Koskimäki, Rahman Shiri, Teuvo Tammela, Jukka Häkkinen, Matti Hakama, and Anssi Auvinen. The American Journal of Medicine, 121(7) 592-596. ISSN: 0002-9343 Abstract Background. Erectile dysfunction is common among men aged more than 60 years. Its cause involves both physiologic and psychosocial factors. Methods. To evaluate the effects of coital frequency on subsequent risk of erectile dysfunction, data were analyzed from a population-based 5-year follow-up study that was conducted in Pirkanmaa, Finland, using postal questionnaires. Assessment was based on the 5-item version of the validated International Index of Erectile Function. Men with erectile dysfunction at entry were excluded from the analysis. The study sample consisted of 989 men aged 55 to 75 years (mean 59.2 years). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (32%), heart disease (12%), depression (7%), diabetes (4%,) and cerebrovascular disorder (4%). Results. The overall incidence of moderate or complete erectile dysfunction was 32 cases...

Philadelphia, PA, USA. Declaration of Independence The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of...

Washington, DC, USA. The respected World Values Survey (WVS) (http://margaux.grandvinum.se/SebTest/wvs/index_html) shows happiness increased worldwide from 1981 to 2007. Did you know that USA ranks number 16 in world happiness? In fact, the United States ranks ahead of more than 80 countries, but below 15 others in happiness levels. The World Values Survey (WVS) is the work of a global network of social scientists who perform periodic surveys addressing a number of issues. The latest surveys, taken in the United States and in several developing countries, showed increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries for which substantial time series data was available. European and World Values Surveys: Four-Wave Integrated Data File, 1981-2004, v.20060423, 2006. The European Values Study Foundation and World Values Survey Association. Aggregate File Producers: ASEP/JDS, Madrid, Spain/Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands. Aggregate File Distributors: ASEP/JDS and ZA, Cologne, Germany. [ Download Country Ranking PDF (http://ts-si.org/files/HappinessData2008pr111725.pdf) ] [ Download Data Files Zip (http://ts-si.org/files/xwvsevs_1981_2000_v20060423_sav.zip) (SAV Format, 46Mb ] [ WVS Conditions of Use PDF (http://ts-si.org/files/WVSConditionsOfUse.pdf) ] The World Values Survey (WVS) (http://margaux.grandvinum.se/SebTest/wvs/index_html) researchers have interviewed more than 350,000 people and measured happiness since 1981. [N1] Researchers responsible for the analysis, from the Institute for Social Research (ISR) (http://www.isr.umich.edu/home/) at the University of Michigan (http://www.umich.edu/), say the overall rise in reported happiness is due to greater economic growth, democratization and social tolerance. The survey data was released in Perspectives on Psychological Science (http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1745-6916 site=1) [N2]. Denmark tops the list of surveyed nations, along with Puerto Rico and Colombia. A dozen other countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden also rank above the United States, which maintains about the same relative position as it did in WVS's 2000 survey. Political scientist Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the...

Washington, DC, USA. As fuel and energy costs continue to soar to record highs, a growing number of states are offering more of their public employees compressed workweeks to hold down states’ energy spending and give long-distance commuters some relief from paying high gas prices. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.(R), announcing on June 26 the most comprehensive plan in the country, ordered about 17,000 state employees to a 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. work schedule Mondays through Thursdays — a plan set to begin the first week of August and continue for at least a year. Essential services, such as highway patrols, courts, public schools and colleges, will not be affected by the changes, which are expected to save the state $3 million, Lisa Roskelley, the governor’s spokeswoman, said. Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina already have offered optional compressed workweeks to a handful of its state employees, while a smattering of other states — Arkansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Vermont among them — are considering expanding existing programs to more state agencies. Utah stands alone as the only to state to make four-day workweeks mandatory for agencies and shut down offices on Fridays. About 1,000 of the 3,000 state buildings will be closed that day under the new plan. Departments in other states with similar programs remain open five days a week, but stagger workers’ schedules, although many have for years offered flex-time and four-day schedules to some employees. Supporters say four-day workweeks help commuter-clogged roads, give people access to government services for longer hours, reduce emissions and conserve energy at state facilities — a residual benefit that saves taxpayers money. Keeping workers home once a week also appeals to rural states where mass transit is limited or nonexistent. Critics...