Expert Queries

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A popular theory about how a major component of vaccines works within the body has been shot down by a Purdue University study.

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Students at universities around the country are learning money management and investment skills by making real-life stock market investments with donated money.

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Donations of leftovers by restaurants to food pantries and other human service agencies are declining marketdly as restaurants become better managed, according to a study by Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration.

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Cornell University researchers have found that pay hikes, not promotions, are critical in retaining high-performing employees. Looking at more than 5,000 petroleum company employees showed that high salary growth proved critical in retaining high performers. promotions, on the other hand, had no effect on turnover of those high performers.

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Jim Adam agreed to chair a major fund-raising campaign for ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and donate $150,000 of his company's funds.

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Foster Wheeler Corp. has contributed $200,000 to a fund-raising campaign operated by ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), a philanthropic gesture which demonstrates the firm's commitment to the future of mechanical engineering throughout the world.

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Highlights Family Practice Management June 1997 1. Inner City Primary Care 2. Computerized Medical Practice 3. Embracing Alternative Medicine 4. Family Practice in Rural America 5. Cash Patients in Managed Care 6. Giving Back to the Community

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Phillips Petroleum Company announced the pledge of $150,000 to a foundation operated by ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) to recognize the significance of technical personnel to Phillips, and at the same time helping to ensure the health of the mechanical engineering profession today and in the future.

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Trade and environment experts from the United States and Japan today (July 2) issued a joint statement offering recommendations for better management of environmental issues by international organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Recommendations included a more focused mandate for the WTO's Committee on Trade and Environment, and closer attention by policy makers to the idea of forming a global environmental organization that would operate in tandem with the WTO.

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High blood pressure speeds the loss of memory and other cognitive abilities in the elderly, and actually causes their brains to shrink in size, according to a new study reported in the American Heart Association Journal Stroke.

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Boston researchers say they have evidence that supports the safety of nifedipine, a calcium channel blocker used to treat high blood pressure. Their report appears in the July issue of the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.

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In business, too much of a good thing can be hazardous to your health, says Stanford Business School's William Barnett, who took a close look at the volatile semiconductor industry to see why certain companies survive the industry's notorious shakeouts and others do not. He found that when a company introduces more than one product at a time, the firm benefits from its larger size, but also suffers a higher risk of failure. In other words, while growth is good, growing all at once is not.

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The Federal Agency Forum on Child and Family Statistics released today, in Washington, D.C., a new report that offers a composite picture of the well-being of the nation's children.

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Cancer patients wanting cutting-edge therapy or whose disease no longer responds to traditional treatment may find new hope on the "information super highway." The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has posted its clinical trials available for cancer patients on a World Wide Web site.

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The University of Iowa is one of two research centers coordinating a worldwide surveillance program to track the escalating spread of bacteria resistant to current antibiotics.

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The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) was enacted by Congress and signed by the President in 1993 to "improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Federal programs by establishing a system to set goals for program performance and to measure results."

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Entrepreneurs think differently than corporate managers when it comes to making business decisions -- and not in ways that seem favorable at first glance. A new study of 219 entrepreneurs and managers found that entrepreneurs were more likely to be overconfident about the correctness of their decisions and were more prone to make broad generalizations based on limited experience.

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The only plant-based anti-HIV agent has gone into clinical trials at Sarawak MediChem Pharmaceuticals, Inc., of Lemont, IL. The agent, (+)-Calanolide A, comes from the plant Calophyllum lanigerum, which was discovered by scientists at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in the forest of Sarawak, Malaysia.

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Workaholics have a bad reputation as people whose obsession with work is often harmful to themselves and possibly even bad for their companies. But a new analysis of previous research suggests that there may be "good" workaholics: people who work a lot because they enjoy their jobs, have strong career identities and a desire for upward mobility.

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Scientists have found the strongest evidence to date that human activityóburning fossil fuel and cutting down forestsócauses global warming. Researchers uncovered the evidence using statistical analysis. Their full report, ìEvidence for Human Influence on Climate from Hemisphere Temperature Relations,î will appear in Nature on July 3.

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We're all supposed to learn from the success and failures of others. It's far less painful than making our own mistakes. But do corporations really learn from the experiences of other firms? Stanford Business School's Pamela Haunschild finds that they do.

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A remarkable cement/concrete technology called geopolymeric cement that can significantly reduce global CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions. This is important because by the year 2000, almost 10% of all global greenhouse gases will come from new construction with Portland cement based concrete.

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As children chase twinkling insects this summer, consider this: Light cues keep predators from snacking on baby fireflies, University of Delaware scientists report in the Journal of Insect Behavior, released July 2. Their study is believed to offer the first evidence of an insect using bioluminescence--rather than coloration--as an "aposematic display," which warns predators of an unappetizing or hazardous meal.

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A cool, wet spring. A drenching summer thus far. It's a match made for aquatic plants that thrive in water. Seed that may have laid dormant for years is exploding into a tangled mess of aquatic weeds over much of Texas. That could impact the usefulness of ponds for livestock and fish.

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EAST TEXAS -- We have used up God's wood in the United States, according to a Texas A&M University professor of forest science. "Now we have to grow our own," said Dr. Richard Fisher, speaking at the 1997 East Texas Forestry Field Day.

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As summer heats up and more people head outdoors, precautions need to be taken to avoid two tick-borne illnesses -- Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Both diseases are still carried by ticks in Texas, according to an entomologist with Texas A&M University.

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No signs of "mad cow disease" have been found in Texas by the state's only laboratory which handles bovine autopsies, the laboratory's director said.

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Study finds that following AHA recommendations for electrode placement during defibrilation allows the most current to reach the heart.

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In a study of 448 drug-involved inmates released from Delaware's Gander Hill prison, a model three-step treatment program helped 77 percent avoid arrest for at least 18 months, while 47 percent remained drug free, University of Delaware researchers report in today's Journal of Drug Issues.

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July 1, 1997 Annals of Internal Medicine from the American College of Physicians 1) Alternative Medicine Therapies 2) Patient Preferences for Physician Communication about End-of-Life Decisions 3) Diagnosing Syncope - Part II

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Doctors may have a way to identify people with heart disease whose coronary arteries will become obstructed again after they have been propped open with tiny metal tubes called stents. The clue may be found, French scientists say, not in the individuals' diseased blood vessel but in their genes, according to a report in today's American Heart Association journal Circulation.

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Physicians might better serve their patients if they promoted physical activity as fervently as they do smoking cessation and controlling blood cholesterol levels, according to a science advisory published today in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.

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Circulation, the American Heart Association journal will be published weekly beginning in January 1998 under a new name Circulation - Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Innovation is always necessary if a firm is to become a leader in the high-technology area, say Stanford Business School's Evan Porteus and Glen Schmidt. But while the ability to innovate can get a firm to the top, it alone is unlikely to keep it there as new technologies and the generations of products that accompany them arise.

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The securities research analysts who advise your broker on the best stock market picks may not be trying to mislead you deliberately, but beware of their rosy attitudes.

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Under its Evidence-based Practice Program, HHS' Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) is awarding 12 five-year contracts to institutions in the United States and Canada to serve as Evidence-based Practice Centers.

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Using the antibiotic erythromycin for treating community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in most outpatients aged 60 and under significantly reduces treatment costs compared with the use of other antibiotics and has no adverse effect on medical outcomes. This finding is from an AHCPR-funded study which provides the first objective data to compare the clinical effectiveness and costs of antibiotic therapy with clinical guidelines for community-acquired pneumonia.

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A Purdue University researcher has developed a way to take specialized instruments from the chemistry lab and shrink them one thousand to one million times and put them on a computer chip.

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A Purdue University effort to create a more positive environment for female engineering and science students is attracting the attention of colleges, universities and the corporate world.

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Recently identified bacterium causes disease; first report of legionella species in human disease testing antibiotic resistance in the 50's.

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The Amazon Basin, home to largest rainforest in the world, is known for its astounding variety of plants and animals. But the rainforest may be also be home to an even more overwhelming variety of previously unknown bacteria and this diversity, just as with plants and animals, may be jeopardized by deforestation, says a report in the July issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

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Nuclear waste disposal, risks from food impurities and potential flu treatments are among the topics that will be discussed at the 214th American Chemical Society national meeting here September 7-11. Approximately 10,000 registrants are expected to gather for about 400 technical sessions to be held in the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Las Vegas Hilton, and the Stardust hotel.

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The American Lung Association supports the new health standards for smog and soot announced today by the Clinton Administration, and thanked the Administration for its "steadfastness and courage" in resisting a massive polluter lobbying campaign that sought to weaken or kill the stronger new standards.

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Robert J. Eng, associate professor of marketing at Babson College, was selected by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to receive a Fulbright Scholar award to the People's Republic of China. His research will center on two emerging business issues for China: finding, attracting, and retaining qualified personnel; and examining the country's distribution and transportation networks.

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Press release of issue dated June 28 for New Scientist, the international science and technology weekly news magazine. 1) Pot Bellies Are Made In The Womb; 2) No More Washday Whites That Come Out Pink; 3) Failing Airframe Speaks Volumes To Engineers; 4) Attention Problem Tracked In Twins; 5) Tadpoles Rule The Nursery By Behaving Badly; 6) Gene Tests Pose Challenge For Privacy Guardian; 7) Sentient Beings; 8) Camera Goes On Smog Control; 9) Were Aussie Birds First To Sing? ; 10) Can't See The Tanks For The Trees; 11) New Homes For Air Force Chimps; 12) Escape From Mars; 13) Little And Large; 14) Packing Them; 15) Flipper's Secret

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American Psychiatric Association Tips - July 1997 - 1) Research Offers Insight into Depression and Alcohol; 2) How Refugees Cope with Adversity; 3) Older People with Schizophrenia Lose Ability to Function; 4) APA Seeks Nominees for Journalism Awards -- $1,000 Honorarium; 5) Save the Date - APA Calendar of Events

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Researchers from Cornell and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale found that Seven percent of college students said they had carried a weapon on campus, translating to some 980,000 students nationwide. That is less than for the general population and for high school students, but still a problem for campuses, since weapon-carrying male students also report that they drink more alcohol, engage in binge drinking and substance abuse, and get in more fights and arguments.

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Scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research Inc., located at Cornell University, have discovered and cloned a protein that, when delivered into an insect's gut by way of a "trojan horse," attacks the pest's intestines, rendering the pest helpless against a companion virus.

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Treating female stress urinary incontinence initially with surgery provides an effective long-term cure for most patients, according to treatment guidelines for this common urological disorder released here today by the American Urological Association.

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A report in the July report of Nature Genetics offers new hope for families affected with the genetic disorder Alagille syndrome. Nancy Spinner, Ph.D., and a team of geneticists at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have demonstrated that mutations in a gene dubbed "Jagged 1" are responsible for the developmental disorder, which affects structures in the liver, heart, skeleton, eye, face, kidney and other organs.