November 10, 2009

Ten remarkable Hispanic students beginning their college careers this fall were announced today as the first group of Alliance/Merck Ciencia Scholars. According to Dr. Jane L. Delgado, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, "These students will redefine the frontiers of science. I have no doubt they will be the next generation of Nobel prize winners, lab directors, professors, and health professionals leading scientific discovery that improves our health and well-being." Dr. Delgado also announced that the applications for the next class of Ciencia Scholars opened up today. Interested students can apply online at www.AllianceScholars.org. Each Alliance/Merck Ciencia Scholar recipient announced today will major in a STEM field and will receive up to $42,500 in college scholarship and summer research internship support over the next four years. In addition, the Alliance announced that 25 Hispanic college students majoring in a STEM field are recipients of a $2,000 Ciencia National Scholarship to help them complete their education. Full release.

Peter C. Agre, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Nobel laureate in chemistry, is among the members of a non-governmental American delegation that will visit Cuba for some science diplomacy on Nov. 10-13. The visit includes meetings with leading Cuban scientists and policy officials. It is meant to explore research issues and multilateral science venues that might be conducive to U.S.-Cuba scientific cooperation. The trip comes at a time when scientists in the United States and in Cuba have been urging expanded scientific cooperation between the two nations. In an Oct. 17, 2008 editorial in the journal Science, Michael Clegg, the foreign secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and Sergio Jorge Pastrana, foreign secretary of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, noted that the U.S. embargo on exchanges with Cuba, established in 1961, continues to hamper scientific cooperation. They called for a new framework for cooperation and urged that the present U.S. license permitting restricted travel to Cuba be expanded to allow direct cooperation in research. President Barack Obama has said he wants to end five decades of bitterness between the two nations. Full release.

Far from being a topic rooted only in science, how we protect animal welfare is affected by such diverse elements as politics, ethics and semantics, international speakers at a welfare symposium at Michigan State University said Monday. The three-day Joint International Educational Symposium on Animal Welfare, developed and co-sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), kicked off with speakers from as far away as Australia and nearby as East Lansing discussing the vast array of inputs and influences affecting animal welfare decisions. Dan Marsman, DVM, Ph.D., chair of the AVMA Animal Welfare Committee and head of the Animal Welfare and Animal Alternatives Section, Product Safety & Regulatory Affairs Department at Procter & Gamble, was particularly excited at the opportunity to bring together a diverse group of individuals with such broad backgrounds to exchange information and determine how they might work cooperatively to find reasonable approaches to animal welfare challenges. Full release.

The U.S. Broadband Coalition will release its report, "Bridging the Divide and Increasing the Intensity of Broadband Use Across All Sectors of the Economy," in the Federal Communications Commission's main hearing room on Friday, November 13, 2009, from 1-3 p.m. (Eastern time). Links to the text of the report and to a live webcast of the event will be available on Friday morning on the Coalition's website, www.bb4us.net. Blair Levin, the head of the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative Task Force, will welcome the Coalition, and Brian David, Director of Adoption and Use, will be a featured speaker. The U.S. Broadband Coalition is a diverse array of more than 160 organizations working toward a comprehensive national broadband strategy to ensure America's success in the emerging knowledge-based global economy. The Coalition includes communications providers of all kinds, high-technology companies, manufacturers, labor unions, educational institutions, utilities, consumer groups, public interest organizations, units of state and local government, and many other stakeholders in America's broadband future. Full release.

In the first ever statistical analysis of whether openly gay service has any impact on military readiness, a new study shows that knowing a gay or lesbian unit member has no bearing on the unit's cohesion. The study, "Attitudes of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans toward Gay and Lesbian Service Members," appears in the prestigious journal, Armed Forces and Society, and was written by two prominent researchers, Bonnie Moradi of the University of Florida and Laura Miller of the Rand Corporation. Rand is a prominent, military-created think tank which has advised the Pentagon on national security issues for generations. In 1993, Rand conducted the largest study of gays in the military and found that sexual orientation was "not germane" to military service, but resistance by the Joint Chiefs of Staff blocked the lifting of the gay ban and "don't ask, don't tell" was implemented as part of a compromise. Full release.

New Mayo Clinic research studied the association between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and prostate size and found that routine annual evaluation of prostate growth is not necessarily a predictor for the development of prostate cancer. However the study suggests that if a man's PSA level is rising quickly, a prostate biopsy is reasonable to determine if he has prostate cancer. These findings are being presented this week at the North Central Section of the American Urological Association (http://www.ncsaua.org/) in Scottsdale, Ariz. These Mayo Clinic study findings were based on data in the Olmsted County Study of Urinary Health Status among Men, a large cohort study of men living in Olmsted County, Minn. Researchers randomly selected 616 men between the ages of 40 and 79 who did not have prostate disease. Patients participated in examinations every two years for 17 years, which included PSA and prostate volume measurements using ultrasound, to determine changes in prostate disease. "One of the major advantages of this large cohort study is that the men have participated in this study for over 17 years," says Rodney Breau, M.D., a Mayo Clinic urologic oncology fellow who led the study. "Because of this, we have the ability to look at long-term relationships between prostate growth, change in PSA and development of prostate cancer." Full release.

With just a little more than two weeks to go until the traditional Black Friday shopping blitz, consumers are showing more interest in purchasing personal electronics. One quarter (24.9%) of Americans are planning to buy small or personal electronics this month, up five percentage points from October, according to the Consumer Reports Index. The Consumer Reports Next-30-Day Retail Index shows that planned retail purchasing for November was up slightly to 9.0 from 8.3 for the prior month. Planned purchasing of personal electronics in November has surpassed the near-term high in July '09 (22.1). Major home electronics ticked up slightly to 10.7 percent from 10 percent in October -- its highest level since June. However, overall the bulk of consumers are reluctant to increase their retail spending habits as we approach the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. Retail purchases in the past 30 days, as well as the overall outlook for the next 30 days remain soft, with little interest in increasing spending in other areas like appliances, yard and garden tools, cars or new homes. Full release.

Almost half of the world's main donor governments are not doing enough to ensure that public funding for humanitarian assistance is reaching those most in need, when they need it most, according to DARA's 2009 Humanitarian Response Index (HRI)(TM), launched today in Washington DC. Now in its third year, the Humanitarian Response Index annually measures how well 22 of the world's main donor governments plus the European Commission comply with best practices for humanitarian aid, which were established in 2003. Endorsed by Kofi Annan and Jeffrey D. Sachs, the HRI includes field research in 13 humanitarian crises and helps hold government donors to account for the quality and effectiveness of the aid they provide. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu affirms in the foreword to this year's HRI report, "The lofty ideals contained in political declarations are not enough -- concerted action must follow -- and these efforts must be monitored vigilantly so that governments do not slip in their commitments. This is why the Humanitarian Response Index is so important." Full release.

Americans do not believe they know much about depression, but are highly aware of the risks of not receiving care, according to a survey released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). See full survey results at http://www.nami.org/depression. The survey provides a "three dimensional" measurement of responses from members of the general public who do not know anyone with depression, caregivers of adults diagnosed with depression, and adults actually living with the illness. * Seventy-one percent of the public sample said they are not familiar with depression, but 68 percent or more know specific consequences that can come from not receiving treatment--including suicide (84 percent).* Sixty-two percent believe they know some symptoms of depression, but 39 percent said they do not know many or any at all. One major finding: almost 50 percent of caregivers who responded had been diagnosed with depression themselves, but only about 25 percent said they were engaged in treatment. Full release.

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