Research Updates

The University at Buffalo's Transportation Systems Laboratory is only a year old, but already its researchers are helping enhance the mobility of travelers in Western New York and southern Ontario.

A police officer who works the night shift, typically from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., already is at a disadvantage when it comes to getting a good "night's" sleep. Add frequent overtime to that schedule, and an officer may be climbing into bed as the sun comes up, setting the stage for short and unrestful slumber.

Magnetic resonance images (MRI) of patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in childhood show that pediatric onset multiple sclerosis is more aggressive, and causes more brain lesions, than MS diagnosed in adulthood, researchers at the University at Buffalo have reported.

Supermarkets could increase their sales of related items, such as chips and soft drinks, by moving the items closer to each other in their stores, according to research by Ram Bezawada, assistant professor of marketing in the University at Buffalo School of Management.

Clyde (Kipp) Herreid, Distinguished Teaching Professor in the University at Buffalo's Department of Biological Sciences and co-director of UB's National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, has received a $500,000 grant to explore innovative and improved methods of teaching science using "clickers," electronic response devices that allow professors to gain immediate student feedback in large classes.

When managers issue a forecast of their firm's earnings, they do not always take into account prior forecasting errors, according to research in the current issue of the Journal of Business Finance & Accounting.

While detailed contracts can foster trust between parties, there needs to be flexibility in negotiating potential changes, according to research recently published in <i>MIS Quarterly</i>.

For women just diagnosed with breast cancer, one of the important decisions confronting them is whether to have a lumpectomy or mastectomy. Most studies investigating how women make this choice have surveyed women months and sometimes even years after their decision was made. Recently, however, the publication of a new University at Buffalo study, one of the few to focus on the time period between women's breast cancer diagnosis and surgery, provides insight into what women are thinking when faced with this decision.

Scenario: A group of friends are drinking at the local pub, when one gets a cell phone call. He takes it in a quiet corner; nothing unusual. But this isn't a "What's Up" call from a friend: It's a "What-are-you-doing-right-now?" call from an automated voice system programmed to collect data in real time, via cell phone, from participants enrolled in research studies on alcohol, marijuana and the situational factors that surround their use.

New funding for an innovative University at Buffalo program that trains Zimbabwe's clinician scientists and translational pharmacologists will bring additional health care professionals and researchers to Buffalo to be trained to fight the war on AIDS in Zimbabwe.