Humanities & Society

A fluroescent-tagged antibody bearing silver and gold particles reveals I and L bradykinin receptors lit in a ghostly green glow on the surfact of cultured human cellsPreliminary research suggests it may someday be possible to diagnose and forecast risk for Alzheimer’s disease using skin cells, thanks to a small protein, or peptide, that few previously associated with the disease. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that skin cells from people with inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease respond to the peptide by triggering Alzheimer’s-like changes, but skin cells from healthy individuals do not. They say the findings need to be explored further in cases of non-inherited Alzheimer’s disease, but the results could eventually lead to a way of determining an individual’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s before clinical symptoms arise.

A psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis says that people who suffer from social anxiety disorders can receive help through cognitive behavior therapy.Citing statistics that show that many people fear public speaking more than death, comedian Jerry Seinfeld once joked that if you’re at a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. But for people who suffer from social anxiety disorders, one of which is public speaking, it’s no laughing matter. These people’s personal lives and careers can be sidelined by fear of certain social situations, such as speaking with a boss or authority figure, making telephone calls or attending parties. The good news is that these disorders are highly treatable through cognitive behavior therapy, in particular, group therapy, according to a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Heavy drinking is associated with a number of problems, but one surprisingly common problem involves not remembering large chunks of time. Called alcohol-induced blackouts, these memory losses were reported by more than 39 percent of women and more than 50 percent of men studied by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Queensland Institute on Medical Research in Australia. The researchers also found that genetic factors play a big role in whether or not a person blacks out after heavy drinking. Studying more than 2,300 pairs of Australian twins, the research team was able to determine that more than 50 percent of the risk of blacking out seems to be controlled by genetic factors, and the role of genes is even greater in people who report blacking out multiple times.

Photo courtesy U.S. ArmyA U.S. Army brigadier general congratulates the graduates of the new police academy in Sin’Jar.Americans anxious to handover power to a sovereign Iraqi government by June 30 should remember it took 10 years for Allied Forces to return similar powers to Germany following World War II, says WUSTL political expert Victor Le Vine. Iraq, like post-war Germany, is now considered debellatio — its government no longer exists under international law. And, like it or not, the United States is stuck in Iraq until a new government is formed, a process that hinges on some very contentious constitution making. As part of an international conference on post-conflict constitutional reconstruction, Le Vine spent two years examining some 20 cases of constitution making in countries torn by war, revolution, rebellion and internal collapse. His analysis suggests that Iraqi nation-building will be both “painful and agonizingly difficult.”

“The Tenth Circuit’s decision upholding the constitutionality of the ‘Do Not Call’ registry is a straightforward application of the Supreme Court’s commercial speech jurisprudence, but this may not be the end of the ‘Do Not Call’ list cases,” says Neil M. Richards, an expert in the fields of privacy law and constitutional law and an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s likely that the telemarketers will petition the Supreme Court to take the case, and I think there’s at least some chance that the Supreme Court might hear it,” he says. “Supreme Court commercial speech doctrine is confusing, and this would be an opportunity to clear up some of the confusion.”

As the spotlight focusing on same-sex marriage in the United States continues to brighten, the issue is affecting more than the gay and lesbian couples desiring to obtain marriage licenses. “The rapid progress we are seeing on this issue is changing how some gay and lesbian youth are envisioning their own futures,” says Diane Elze, Ph.D., an assistant professor of social work at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. “They are beginning to see marriage as an option for themselves — not just traveling to Vermont for a civil union, or having a commitment ceremony, or acquiring domestic partnership benefits from their employer, but some of them can now imagine themselves as future married persons.”

Photo by David Kilper / WUSTL PhotoRecent Washington University graduate Glenn K. Davis reads to children at Ford Elementary School in St. Louis.As President Bush’s struggling No Child Left Behind Act heats up as a presidential campaign issue, the achievement gap in American schools continues to widen. Can we ever hope to close the racial, ethnic and economic gaps in schools? An education researcher at Washington University in St. Louis thinks it is possible — we just need to think of the achievement gap in different terms.

March Culture & Living Tip Sheet

Business, Law & Economics March Tip Sheet

James W. Ellis, the National Law Journal‘s 2002 Lawyer of the Year, will deliver the keynote address during the School of Law’s fourth annual Access to Equal Justice conference, “Mental Health and the Law,” March 19 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.