The recent rise in gasoline prices may end up causing significant losses in room sales for the U.S. lodging industry, according to a study conducted at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. The study, which was done at the Cornell Hotel School's Center for Hospitality Research, confirms that when gas prices rise, fewer people rent hotels rooms, particularly rooms at mid-market and economy hotels with suburban or highway-oriented locations. While a link between the cost of gas prices and hotel occupancy rates had long been suspected, the dramatic news is that gas price increases turn out to be far more harmful to the U.S. lodging industry than people had previously guessed. (May 8, 2002)
Cornell University mathematics professor Richard T. Durrett, an expert in probability, and Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and author, have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. They are among the 177 fellows and 30 foreign honorary members elected to join the class of 2002. The academy, founded in 1780, honors distinguished scientists, scholars and leaders in public affairs, business, administration and the arts. The two new fellows will be inducted during academy ceremonies to be held at the academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 5. (May 8, 2002)
How do the health and well-being of employees drive business productivity and profitability? How do depression, stress, musculoskeletal disorders, migraines, obesity and pain affect productivity, and what kinds of management practices can help? Are they cost effective? Does investing in people or technology reap larger productivity payoffs? These kinds of questions are the focus of a new research center, the Cornell University Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS), which has been established in collaboration with MEDSTAT, a health-information company headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich. (May 8, 2002)
Cornell University researchers say the discovery of the two different mutations for X-linked progressive retinal atrophy (XLPRA1 and XLPRA2) in dogs, as reported in the May 1, 2002, issue of Human Molecular Genetics (Vol. 11, No. 9).
The Pew Charitable Trusts have granted $2 million toward the renovation of White Hall on the Cornell University Arts Quad. Named after Andrew D. White, Cornell's first president, White Hall is a $12 million project now underway and slated for completion in the fall of 2002 and ready for occupancy in Spring 2003. It is the top capital funding priority for the College of Arts and Sciences and an important part of the university's initiative to enhance undergraduate education. (May 7, 2002)
Although Cornell University's former low-level radiation disposal site (RDS) in Lansing does not pose unacceptable health risks, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced a final, $10 million strategy for cleaning up the site. The state plan, known as a record of decision, calls for constructing an underground clay wall around the waste area, injecting cement grout into fractured rock to isolate the most highly contaminated groundwater and using recovery wells to remove paradioxane, the main contaminant at the site, from the groundwater. (May 7, 2002)
New York, NY (May 4, 2002) A study done at the Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons by Dr. Meridith Sonnett, associate director of pediatric emergency medicine, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, and principal investigator, showed that children and older teenagers presenting to the Hospital's emergency department (ED) with psychiatric emergencies differed in types of illnesses and the need for care between age groups.Dr. Sonnett said that the results of this study were extremely important in highlighting the future direction of psychiatric care for children. "It is clear that psychiatric emergencies in children have reached epidemic proportions," she says. "It is also clear that younger children have unique needs that must be addressed separately from older children and adults. For example, 25 percent of children diagnosed with "diseases usually diagnosed in childhood-- such as attention deficit disorder-- may require a more specialized approach, given that their problems may not strictly be psychiatric in nature, but more behavioral in origin."
Sandra Steingraber, the Cornell ecologist and author who studies health effects of exposure to environmental toxins, is featured in a Bill Moyers television special report, "Kids and Chemicals," scheduled to air on PBS stations Friday, May 10, at 9 p.m.
For its efforts in teaching farmers and homeowners how to use ecologically sound pest-management techniques, Cornell University's New York State Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Environmental Quality Award, the agency's highest honor. "This program develops and teaches pest-control methods that are cost-effective and pose minimal risks to human health and the environment," said Walter E. Mugdan, the regional counsel for the EPA, upon presenting the award in New York City on April 30. "Due in large part to the program's efforts, nearly 90 percent of New York farmers now use some form of integrated pest management," he said. (May 3, 2002)
A new understanding of how large biological molecules behave in tiny spaces could lead to a method for separating DNA strands by length. It also could throw light on the way molecules move in living cells. Using a forest of nanofabricated pillars so small that DNA molecules can only slip through lengthwise, Cornell University researchers have demonstrated the existence of an entropic recoil force that causes the molecules to move from a tight space into a more open one. (May 2, 2002)