Friday Roundup

Here is a listing of of articles of interest published within the last 7-10 days:

Health
1. New vaccine a game changer for polio, BBC, October 26, 2010
Brief Intro: Dr. Bruce Aylward, the Director of World Health Organization's Polio Eradication Initiative, tells the BBC World News Service that a new vaccine is changing the fight against polio.

2. Health insurance companies drop NM policies for individuals, small groups, The New Mexico Independent, October 26, 2010
Brief Intro: Four health insurance companies (National Health, Aetna, John Alden, and Principal), have notified the New Mexico Division of Insurance that they will no longer write individual of small group plans in New Mexico. Some companies discontinuing coverage may or may not renew their customers' existing policies.

3. 1 in 3 Americans could have Diabetes by 2050, RTT News, October 26, 2010
Brief Intro: A new report from the CDC suggests that the national diabetes rate could skyrocket by the year 2050 if the obesity rate continues to rise.

Education
1. Making things hard to read 'can boost learning', BBC, October 22, 2010
Brief Intro: According to an article published in the international journal Cognition, researchers at Princeton University recruited 28 volunteers for a study to determine if difficult to read font can improve learning and information retention. Researchers found that those given a more difficult to read font actually recalled 14% more of what they had read.

The research team then decided to tested their results on 222 Chesterland, Ohio students that were between 15-18 years old. They found that students given the harder-to-read materials actually scored higher on classroom assignments than their control group counterparts.

2. Year-round school gains ground around U.S., MSNBC, October 27, 2010
Brief Intro: The Indianapolis School Board are soon scheduled to make a decision about whether or not they should adopt year-round classes. If the measure is approved, pupils would go to school in cycles of eight to ten weeks, with three to five weeks off after each, throughout the year. According to Indianapolis Superintendent Eugene White, the new plan would add 20 class days to the school year and provide more frequent, shorter breaks that would allow the students to come back refreshed but retain more of what they have been taught.