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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Accountants who can write? ... In proper, readable English? Some would say that's as likely as having the Internal Revenue Service offer refunds for poor customer service. But turning out future accountants with communications skills that are as well developed as their bookkeeping prowess is an increasingly important goal of the Department of Accounting at the University of Iowa College of Business Administration.

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DALLAS, April 3 -- Women and certain other groups of patients who undergo carotid endarterectomy -- a common procedure used to clear blockages in the blood vessels to the brain -- may have a higher risk for death or stroke following the surgery, according to a study in this month's Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

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DALLAS, April 3 -- Stroke survivors have the potential to live independent lives into their 80s and 90s just as well as people of the same age and sex who have not had a stroke, according to a study in this month's Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Cornell Law professor Fred McChesney exposes a political phenomenon that pays congressmen for legislative inactivity in his new book, "Money for Nothing: Politicians, Rent Extraction, and Political Extortion"

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New research shows mounting evidence that some people are "destined" to become smokers because they are inherently more sensitive to the effects of nicotine than people who are not tempted to smoke again. These findings suggest how one in three kids who sample a cigarette will become lifetime tobacco customers.

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A study published today in the March issue of the journal Neurology provides more evidence that the medication Copaxone, the only non-interferon treatment for multiple sclerosis, reduces the number of relapses and slows the progression of disability. The study is a one-year extension of research at 11 medical centers in the United States.

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She wasn't faster than a speeding bullet, but new research seems to indicate that Lucy and other early human ancestors walked with greater ease and efficiency than previously believed, despite their short leg, says a University of Washington anthropologist.

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A unique molecular defect in an unusual blood disorder first identified and described at Johns Hopkins by the late Sir William Osler almost a century ago has now been discovered by a team of his professional descendants.

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With continued unrest threatening to boil over in corners of the former Yugoslavia, a professor at a small New Hampshire college is working to plant seeds for peace and stability there. Douglas Challenger, professor of sociology at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, N.H., is helping educators in the former Yugoslavia learn how to promote concepts of democracy in the classroom.

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Molecular biologists from Texas A&M's Institute of Biosciences and Technology and from Duke University may have found a genetic switch in prostate cancer cells that can change a quiet tumor into an invasive, deadly cancer that spreads throughout the body.

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A year ago, the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota was ravaged by one of the most destructive floods in United States history.

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The American College of Physicians (ACP) today published the fourth edition of its Ethics Manual. The ACP Ethics Manual appears in the April 1, 1998, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, published by ACP.

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1) Ticlopidine linked with rare blood disease, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). 2) Internal medicine experts explore the physician-assisted suicide debate. 3) Annals editor concludes two-part series on medicine and commerce. 4) ACP issues fourth edition of ethics manual. (see separate release)

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Ultrasound waves may be as effective as magnetic resonance imaging at detecting small blood vessel blockage after a heart attack, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins.

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DALLAS --Like the flashing yellow sign on a road under construction, glowing molecular markers might help computer-chip makers avoid 'potholes' on super-flat blueprinting materials, a University of Delaware researcher reported today during the American Chemical Society meeting.

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Say "glass" and most people think of window panes. But, under the right conditions, metal can also form glass, and it can have very useful properties for products from transformers to golf clubs. A Johns Hopkins engineer is working on new metallic glasses with superior strength, elasticity and magnetic properties.

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DALLAS--The properties of materials synthesized by strongly bonding together segments of different "homopolymers"--long-chain plastics composed of a single repeating chemical unit--are significantly better than would be predicted, a University of Delaware researcher reported March 31 during the American Chemical Society meeting.

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Patients with mutant p53 become resistant to treatment. In fact, the proliferating cells can develop other mutations and become more and more resistant. Sayed Daoud's approach is to focus on the p53 gene itself by using a combination of drugs, one to attack the tumor itself and one to inhibit the effect of the mutated p53. When the effect of the mutated p53 is inhibited, the cell usually will, as Daoud puts it, "crash and die."

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Laboratory mice which have been genetically altered to produce human growth hormone grow to be 25-30 percent larger than normal mice---with much of that size difference coming from bigger bones, according to researchers.

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New images of the inner coma, or gassy head, of Comet Hyakutake are now available. The computer-generated color pictures were taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in April 1996, during observations made using Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, as part of a study of water photochemistry in comets.

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Until laboratory tests identify sources of a bacterial disease killing songbirds in the East and Midwest, Cornell University scientists say people who feed birds should not blame themselves for the recent outbreak of salmonellosis in redpolls and other flocking species.

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5,000 doctors of internal medicine (internists) will attend the American College of Physicians' (ACP) 1998 Annual Session, the nation's largest gathering of adult health specialists. Faculty are internal medicine's best and brightest. Full complement of experts in end of life care.

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Cornell art history expert Robert G. Calkins' book covers Medieval architecture using text, photographs and a CD-ROM.

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A Dartmouth physicist who has taken a molecular approach to the problem of icing has discovered that applying a small electric voltage across an ice-metal interface can break the bond between ice and metal surfaces.

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Drawing examples from popular culture to explain clinical disorders, two Vanderbilt researchers are using anecdotes from Star Trek movies and episodes to explain the neurological and psychological bases of emotions, perception, aggression, memory and sex.

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Findings of a multi-year heart transplantation study indicate that the heart donor pool can be expanded through the use of undersized hearts. The donor pool for heart transplants could be increased by at least 25%. The use of undersized donor hearts can help to alleviate a shortage of donor organs and save lives.

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Ticlopidine, a drug that acts like aspirin and is widely used to prevent stroke as well as blood clot formation following placement of cardiac stents, can cause thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, a rare but potentially deadly circulatory disease.

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People who have suffered paralyzing injuries sometimes can regain limited control of their muscles, thanks to electrical stimulation techniques now under development, but pulse patterns should be varied to help patients stay strong longer, University of Delaware researchers report in the new Journal of Neurophysiology.

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At the annual American Association of Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute researchers are presenting exciting evidence from animal models that blocking two cellular growth pathways causes tumor cells to die.

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Certain mothers who smoke while pregnant are at high risk of passing along genetic damage to their babies, according to study results presented by University of Pittsburgh scientists on Tuesday, March 31, at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans.

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University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute researchers are reporting at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans that they have found the first specific marker that distinguishes tissues from individuals with bladder cancer from those without disease and that can be easily isolated from urine.

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The first fundamental breakthrough in diagnostic ultrasound in more than a decade was introduced today at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta. The Model 1, real-time volumetric ultrasound imaging system, developed by Volumetrics Medical Imaging, Inc. of Durham, N.C., provides instantaneous, quantifiable ultrasound scans of a whole organ, rather than a single slice.

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For the five million Americans who suffer from congestive heart failure, a new study shows that patients taking high doses of the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor Zwstril (lisinopril) may live longer and be hospitalized less often than those on low dose therapy. The results were announced today at the 47th Annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Session.

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Do antioxidant vitamins protect healthy people from free-radical damage? Can some diseases be slowed or reversed with antioxidants? Perhaps surprisingly, no measurement technique has existed to easily and directly assess the corrosive effects in individuals of these highly reactive types of oxygen. Now, scientists have developed such a test.

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UC Irvine researchers have found a way to introduce foreign genes into mosquito chromosomes, a technique with the potential to transform future generations of the insects so they can no longer carry deadly diseases such as malaria. The researchers report their work in the March 31 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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What if a common, naturally occurring substance could shrink tumors, stop their growth, even make cancer cells normal again? A University of Maryland researcher is finding that it can.

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DALLAS, March 31 -- A gene therapy approach to circumvent leg blood vessels obstructed by atherosclerosis that was reported last fall at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions has been successfully extended to a larger group of patients.

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Two separate pathways are now associated with the growth of human tumors. The Src-STAT-3 pathway plays a critical role in the proliferation of human breast, prostate, ovarian and lung cancer cells. This discovery will offer researchers a target for the development of new diagnostic tests and anti-cancer agents.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- There are some good, good vibrations coming out of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at the Vanderbilt Engineering School.

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Researchers have embarked on fabricating multi-layer assemblies that they hope will capture the sun's energy for useful purposes much as the process of photosynthesis does in plants.

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Scientists from around the world will gather at the University of Wisconsin, April 17-18, to discuss their latest findings demonstrating the biological underpinnings of emotion, and the profound effects positive and negative feelings can have on human health. The latest technological advances used to identify brain systems associated with different emotions will also be described.

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Media Advisory about Sea Grant-sponsored symposium on wetland and marsh ecology and restoration issues using the largest wetland restoration project in the U.S. as a backdrop and example.

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High-profile shootings by students in Mississippi, Kentucky and Arkansas generate interational headlines and parental fears that school violence is the norm. But a professor who developed a method for reducing school crime says deadly incidents are anomalies that should mobilize the public to action.

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"The Arkansas schoolyard shooting and other recent acts of school violence are a wake-up call to the nation about our children," said Michael Faenza, President and CEO of the National Mental Health Association.

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"Full parity is cheap and good public policy precisely because behavioral health treatments work. Treatment restores functioning at home, work and school, reducing other social costs by improving lives," said Michael Faenza, President and CEO of the National Mental Health Association.

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A new analysis shows the tendency to "catastrophize"---to see the bad that happens to you as part of a pervasive pall of evil and pain that happens to everyone, everywhere---has been linked to an increased risk of dying before the age of 65.

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A recent University of North Texas study of three public elementary schools in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex indicates that positive teacher attitudes toward information technology result in similar positive attitudes among students.

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University of Delaware geographer John R. Mather received the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Lifetime Career Honor at the group's 94th annual meeting in Boston on March 28.

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A gene that has a large effect on the aggressive stinging behavior in Africanized honey bees ó the so-called "killer bees" ó has been identified by a group of scientists at three institutions. Greg Hunt, a bee specialist with Purdue University and principal investigator on the research project, says finding the mean gene in honey bees "may help us understand what makes Africanized bees so aggressive."

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Researchers at Ohio State University are developing an early warning system for aircraft degradation -- paint that changes color when the metal beneath it begins to corrode.