EAST LANSING, Mich. — "Fifty Shades of Grey," the best-selling novel that's promoted as a tale of erotic romance, actually perpetuates the problem of violence against women, a new study finds. Reporting in the Journal of Women's Health, Amy Bonomi and co-authors conclude that emotional and sexual abuse is pervasive in the novel, with the main female character, Anastasia, suffering harm as a result. About 25 percent of women are victims of violence by intimate partners. "This book is perpetuating dangerous abuse standards and yet it's being cast as this romantic, erotic ...

NEW YORK CITY — An Indiana University study found that higher-performing elementary school students received a disproportionate number of resources from their parents, compared to their lower-performing peers. Lower-performing students received resources geared toward improving their academic performance, said study author Natasha Yurk, a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at IU Bloomington's College of Arts and Sciences. Higher-performing students received greater and more diverse resources, such as shared meals or enrollment in extracurricular activities. ...

NEW YORK CITY -- Although working mothers and fathers are almost as likely to think about family matters throughout the day, only for mothers is this type of mental labor associated with increased stress and negative emotions, according to new research to be presented at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. "I assume that because mothers bear the major responsibility for childcare and family life, when they think about family matters, they tend to think about the less pleasant aspects of it -- such as needing to pick up a child from daycare ...

NEW YORK CITY — An Indiana University study found that the percentage of votes for Republican and Democratic candidates in 2010 and 2012 races for the U.S. House of Representatives could be predicted by the percentage of tweets that mentioned those candidates — and it didn't matter whether the tweets were positive or negative. "Think of this as a measurement of buzz," said Fabio Rojas, an associate professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. "We call this the 'all publicity is good publicity' finding. Even if you don't like somebody, ...

NEW YORK CITY — A new University of Cincinnati-Blue Ash College study explores the evolution of hip-hop from party music into a political platform. Todd Callais, an assistant professor of sociology, criminology, and criminal justice at UC-Blue Ash, focused on the hip-hop industry because of its impact on society and because there is a clear timeline of its development. "You can identify a beginning to the hip-hop culture that was fairly recent," said Callais, who will present his research at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. "It started ...

NEW YORK CITY — Adolescents who have half-siblings with a different father are more likely to have used drugs and had sex by age 15 than those who have only full siblings. That's according to new research from Karen Benjamin Guzzo, an assistant professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University, and Cassandra Dorius, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at Iowa State University. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, they examined a phenomenon known as "multi-partnered fertility" or MPF. This happens when parents who ...

NEW YORK CITY — Since the mid-1980s, unrestrained household spending has damaged American family finances — despite the fact that globalization and technological change have caused consumer prices to fall widely, says Queens College sociologist Joseph Nathan Cohen. In his paper, "The Myth of America's 'Culture of Consumerism': Policy May Help Drive American Household's Fraying Finances," which Cohen will present at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, he examines the factors that keep American families from tightening their belts. A brief ...

NEW YORK CITY — Smart people are just as racist as their less intelligent peers — they're just better at concealing their prejudice, according to a University of Michigan study. "High-ability whites are less likely to report prejudiced attitudes and more likely to say they support racial integration in principle," said Geoffrey Wodtke, a doctoral candidate in sociology. "But they are no more likely than lower-ability whites to support open housing laws and are less likely to support school busing and affirmative action programs." Wodtke will present his findings at ...

NEW YORK CITY — An Indiana University study found that the percentage of votes for Republican and Democratic candidates in 2010 and 2012 races for the U.S. House of Representatives could be predicted by the percentage of tweets that mentioned those candidates — and it didn't matter whether the tweets were positive or negative. "Think of this as a measurement of buzz," said Fabio Rojas, an associate professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. "We call this the 'all publicity is good publicity' finding. Even if you don't like somebody, ...

NEW YORK CITY — Chapman University's David Frederick will present new research at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association that examines men's and women's beliefs about who should pay for dates during courtship, and how couples actually go about splitting expenses. The paper, "Who Pays for Dates? Following versus Challenging Conventional Gender Norms," contains survey data from more than 17,000 participants; a quarter of whom also provided written commentaries to explain their beliefs and actions regarding paying for dates. "The motivation for ...

NEW YORK CITY — Wealthier minorities were more likely to receive subprime loans than were affluent whites, according to a New York University study of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2006 — the peak of the previous decade's housing boom. Moreover, black and Latino applicants were more likely to be denied prime loans — even after controlling for gender and income. The study, which will be presented at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, was conducted by Jacob Faber, a doctoral fellow at NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and ...

Contact: Ben Lewis, Ph.D. benlewis@ufl.edu 352-294-4920 University of Florida Rosemary Fama, Ph.D. rfama@stanford.edu 650-859-5064 Stanford University School of Medicine Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Women seek alcohol treatment between an average of 4 to 5 years earlier than men The term "telescoping" refers to a more rapid progression of alcohol-related diseases in women. A new study looks at gender differences among individuals seeking treatment for a substance use disorder. While certain aspects of the findings confirm telescoping ...

Contact: Tammy Chung, Ph.D. chungta@upmc.edu 412-246-5147 Pittsburgh Adolescent Alcohol Research Center Mildred Maldonado Molina, Ph.D. mmmm@ufl.edu 352-294-5797 University of Florida Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Racial differences in types of alcohol drinks consumed by adolescent girls Much more is known about racial differences in rates of alcohol use than types of alcohol consumed. A new study of racial differences in types of alcohol beverages consumed during adolescence has found that, in general, black and while girls report significantly ...

Contact: Sherry McKee, Ph.D. sherry.mckee@yale.edu 203-737-3529 Yale University School of Medicine Christopher W. Kahler, Ph.D. christopher_kahler@brown.edu 401-863-6651 Brown University Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Cigarette taxation helps to reduce drinking among groups considered vulnerable A new study has examined the effects of cigarette taxation on alcohol consumption. Results suggest that increases in cigarette taxes are associated with modest to moderate reductions in alcohol consumption among vulnerable groups. Vulnerable ...

A new study is revealing the multiple health concerns faced by an estimated 3,000 tenants in single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES). The results of the study aim to better inform the provision of health care and housing among an often-overlooked segment of the population. Due to their affordability, SROs are often the only alternative to homelessness for low-income individuals in Vancouver and other major cities. Some SROs are substandard and many tenants suffer from substance dependence, mental illness and infectious diseases. The ...

Bethesda, Md. (Aug. 9, 2013)—Researchers have long been aware of a phenomenon in speech called coarticulation, in which certain sounds are produced differently depending on the sounds that come before or after them. For example, though the letter n is usually pronounced with the tongue pressed near the middle of the mouth's roof (as in the word "ten"), it's pronounced with the tongue farther forward when it's followed by –th (as in "tenth"). A decade ago, researchers discovered that this phenomenon extends to a different kind of communication, American Sign Language. Knowing ...

TEMPE, Ariz. – One of the biggest mysteries in contemporary particle physics and cosmology is why dark energy, which is observed to dominate energy density of the universe, has a remarkably small (but not zero) value. This value is so small, it is perhaps 120 orders of magnitude less than would be expected based on fundamental physics. Resolving this problem, often called the cosmological constant problem, has so far eluded theorists. Now, two physicists – Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University and James Dent of University of Louisiana-Lafayette – suggest that ...

A new analysis of dinosaur fossils by University of Pennsylvania researchers has revealed that a number of specimens of the genus Psittacosaurus — once believed to represent three different species — are all members of a single species. The differences among the fossil remains that led other scientists to label them as separate species in fact arose from how the animals were buried and compressed, the study found. "Because of the vagaries of fossilization, no two fossils are the same," said senior author Peter Dodson, professor of anatomy in Penn's School of Veterinary ...

A team of chemists in SU's College of Arts and Scientists has used a temperature-sensitive polymer to regulate DNA interactions in both a DNA-mediated assembly system and a DNA-encoded drug-delivery system. Their findings, led by Associate Professor Mathew M. Maye and graduate students Kristen Hamner and Colleen Alexander, may improve how nanomaterials self-assemble into functional devices and how anticancer drugs, including doxorubicin, are delivered into the body. More information is available in a July 30 article in ACS Nano, published by the American Chemical Society. One ...

Tropical Depression 11W formed in the western North Pacific Ocean and appears to be tracking toward Luzon, in the Northern Philippines. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the tropical depression as it continues to organize and strengthen. On Aug. 8 at 1853 UTC (2:53 p.m. EDT) NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite showed some cloud top temperatures in bands of thunderstorms and around the center of Tropical Depression 11W were as cold as -63F/-52C, indicating strong storms. What does Infrared ...

The Central and Eastern Pacific Oceans continue to be active on Aug. 9, as Hurricane Henriette weakens and two other low pressure systems continue developing. All three systems were captured on the one panoramic satellite image. An image from NOAA's GOES-West satellite on Aug. 9 at 1200 UTC (8 a.m. EDT) captured all three tropical systems. The storm farthest west is Hurricane Henriette, followed by System 92E to the east. System 92E is trailed by System 93E even further east. The GOES-West imagery shows that System 92E has a more developed circulation, and the National ...

Chemists in The College of Arts and Sciences have figured out how to synthesize nanomaterials with stainless steel-like interfaces. Their discovery may change how the form and structure of nanomaterials are manipulated, particularly those used for gas storage, heterogeneous catalysis and lithium-ion batteries. The findings are the subject of a July 24 article in the journal Small (Wiley-VCH, 2013), co-authored by associate professor Mathew M. Maye and research assistant Wenjie Wu G'11, G'13. Until now, scientists have used many wet-chemical approaches—collectively known ...

New research on two promising gene therapies suggests that combining them into one treatment not only repairs muscle damage caused by Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but also prevents future injury from the muscle-wasting disease. The work, led by a team at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, is the first to look at the approach in aged mice, a key step toward clinical trials in patients. The findings were published in July in Human Molecular Genetics. "We're excited about the fact that these are older mice and we're still able to see a sustained functional ...

LOS ANGELES (Aug. 9, 2013) – A unique nanoscale drug that can carry a variety of weapons and sneak into cancer cells to break them down from the inside has a new component: a protein that stimulates the immune system to attack HER2-positive breast cancer cells. The research team developing the drug – led by scientists at the Nanomedicine Research Center, part of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute in the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center – conducted the study in laboratory mice with implanted human breast cancer cells. Mice receiving the ...

Contact: Marco Leyton, Ph.D. marco.leyton@mcgill.ca 514-398-5804 McGill University Terry E. Robinson, Ph.D. ter@umich.edu 734-358-8055 The University of Michigan Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Brain dopamine may serve as a risk marker for alcohol use disorders There are known risks for and protective factors against the development of alcohol use disorders (AUDs). A new study has found that striatal dopamine responses to alcohol ingestion may serve as a neurobiological marker of vulnerability to AUDs. Specifically, when given alcohol, ...