Research conducted at the University of Chicago shows that female elementary school teachers who are anxious about math often pass the phobia on to female students. Published in a recent edition of PNAS, the findings are the product of a year-long study on 17 first- and second-grade teachers and 52 boys and 65 girls who were their students. The researchers found that boys' math performance was not related to their teacher's math anxiety while girls' math achievement was affected.

To determine the impact of teachers' mathematics anxiety on students, the team assessed teachers' anxiety about math. Then, at both the beginning and end of the school year, the research team also tested the students' level of mathematics achievement and the gender stereotypes the students held.

When the menu boards at a McDonald's restaurant included the calorie content for the various meal options, parents chose lower calorie items for their children, according to a new study in Pediatrics. The authors say their study is the first to suggest that labeled menus may lead to significantly reduced calorie intake in fast food restaurant meals purchased for children.

Scientists from the University of Kentucky and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya have discovered a new predatory thrips – Karnyothrips flavipes – which feeds on the eggs and larvae of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei.

The authors say the discovery could have important implications for the management of the coffee berry borer throughout the world. Their study, the first to quantitatively prove predation on the coffee berry borer, is published online in Naturwissenschaften - The Science of Nature.

Scientists from Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries say a major increase in maximum ocean wave heights off the Pacific Northwest in recent decades has forced scientists to re-evaluate how high a "100-year event" might be, and raises special concerns about flooding, coastal erosion and structural damage.

The new assessment, published in the journal Coastal Engineering, concludes that the highest waves may be as much as 46 feet, up from estimates of only 33 feet that were made as recently as 1996, and a 40 percent increase. December and January are the months such waves are most likely to occur, although summer waves are also significantly higher.

A comparison of two popular weight loss methods demonstrates that both are equally effective at helping people lose significant amounts of weight. But the low-carbohydrate diet proved better at lowering blood pressure than the weight-loss drug orlistat, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Studies had already indicated that a low-carbohydrate diet and prescription-strength orlistat combined with a low-fat diet are effective weight loss therapies. But the two common strategies had not been compared to each other, an important omission now that orlistat is available over-the-counter. In addition, few studies provide data on these treatments for overweight patients with chronic health issues.

 The authors of a new study in Energy&Fuels say they have developed an advanced "closed-loop control" approach for preventing diesel engines from emitting greater amounts of smog-causing nitrogen oxides when running on biodiesel fuels.

The new technique uses advanced models to self-adjust engine settings based on feedback from sensors. Software algorithms use data from the sensors to determine the fuel blend being combusted. If the fuel is changed, the system identifies the new fuel and makes critical adjustments to fuel-injection timing, the air-to-fuel ratio and how much exhaust is rerouted into the cylinders.

A weekly visit to the Cornell Arxiv is more than enough for a physicist like me, since my daily work is not affected too much by whatever happens to be published there. Oftentimes, when I browse the contents of hep-ph (the folder containing preprints on particle phenomenology) I do not end up actually reading any papers, and limit myself to "sniffing" what is going on, by looking at the titles and author names. But at times I venture to browse through the pages, with mixed results.