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UF Survey: Stock Market Gains Help Boost Florida Consumer Confidence

Published: December 30 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Consumer confidence among Floridians rose two points this month, fueled primarily by gains in the stock market and an improving job market, University of Florida economists say.

Cultural Training Increases Competence Of Nonminority Psychologists

Published: December 29 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Traditional thinking holds that psychologists with ethnic or racial backgrounds like those of their minority patients may be better suited to counsel them.

UF researcher: more intensive search patterns may prevent deaths of lost Alzheimer’s patients

Published: December 10 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Most Alzheimer’s and dementia patients who are found dead after becoming lost in the community stray no farther than a mile from their home or living facility, yet it may take days or weeks to locate them, according to a new University of Florida study.

Draft may be needed to rein in all-powerful military

Published: December 28 2003

When we lost the draft a generation ago, we lost a lot. We lost the ability to have a meaningful discussion about anything that involves the military. The Pentagon has begun significant call-ups for the next major rotation of troops in Iraq, but it has no realistic plan for covering our military and domestic security commitments without exhausting our reserve forces.

UF Research: Cheap Electronic Displays Possible On Many Products

Published: December 23 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It won’t be in time for this Christmas this year, but electronic displays may soon migrate from computer screens and television sets to such inexpensive consumer products as coffee machines, toys and even greeting cards.

UF Study: Strong Families Enjoy Most Support From Those Who Find It Difficult

Published: December 22 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The most positive attitudes about the value of marriage and the importance of families are found among groups that experience the greatest difficulty forming and maintaining healthy family relationships, a new University of Florida study finds.

Cancer More Likely To Recur In Blacks Treated For Head And Neck Cancer

Published: December 18 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Black people treated for head and neck cancer have double the risk of cancer recurring elsewhere in the body and thus are far more likely to die within five years than white patients who received essentially the same treatment for the same type of malignancies, University of Florida researchers have found.

Science paper: overharvesting of Brazil nuts leading to fewer trees

Published: December 18 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Brazil nuts, those time-honored holiday stocking stuffers, will continue to help save the rainforest — as long at least a few of the brown morsels are left behind to grow into trees.

UF study: elderly admit hearing loss but not necessarily its effects

Published: December 17 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The elderly aren’t as stubborn as stereotyped in their unwillingness to admit hearing loss, although they may still deny the strain it creates for themselves and others, a new University of Florida study finds.

Scientists Link Loss Of Key Protein With Symptoms Seen In Common Adult Form Of Muscular Dystrophy

Published: December 11 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The root of the most common type of adult-onset muscular dystrophy appears to be a form of genetic stuttering that blocks the action of key proteins in cells, researchers from the University of Florida and the University of Rochester report in this week’s issue of Science.

UF researcher: more intensive search patterns may prevent deaths of lost Alzheimer's patients

Published: December 10 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Most Alzheimer's and dementia patients who are found dead after becoming lost in the community stray no farther than a mile from their home or living facility, yet it may take days or weeks to locate them, according to a new University of Florida study.

First experiments on birds of paradise tie metabolism, ecology

Published: December 10 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Birds of paradise, those resplendent, elaborately-shaped birds of the South Pacific, hardly seem like a potential source for ironclad biological fact.

University of Florida to establish a college of public health

Published: December 5 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In an effort to improve the overall health and quality of life for Floridians, the University of Florida will establish a new college of public health, school officials announced today.

High Blood Pressure Treatment May Help Prevent Diabetes

Published: December 3 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Aggressively lowering high blood pressure with a treatment strategy that includes a calcium antagonist not only decreases the risk of heart attack, stroke or death – in a surprising twist, it also appears to slash the chance high-risk patients will develop diabetes, University of Florida researchers reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Sports and academics: TheCenter at UF uncovers new insight

Published: December 3 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Research university investment in high-profile sports programs competes with institutional investment in teaching and research quality according to a new report released by TheCenter, a higher education research unit at the University of Florida.

UF Researchers Preparing To Send Life To Mars

Published: December 22 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With a fleet of space probes on their way to the Red Planet, fans of Mars exploration are bound to be on the edges of their seats this holiday season.

‘Willy’ Didn’t Yearn to Be Free

Published: December 27 2003

By: Clive D. L. Wynne Clive D. L. Wynne, associate professor of psychology at the University of Florida, is author of the forthcoming “Do Animals Think?”

UF Researchers Find Some Hodgkin’s Patients Develop Heart Problems Years After Radiation Treatment

Published: December 2 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Patients who successfully weather the powerful treatments used to send Hodgkin’s lymphoma soundly into remission are often considered cured of their cancer. But a new study shows that years later they may develop serious heart problems because of the radiation therapy they receive, University of Florida researchers report in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

With Nature’s Help, A Better Vision System For Smart Weapons

Published: December 11 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The next generation of smart weapons may “see” targets with a manmade version of that wonder of the natural world, the insect eye.