Social Sciences

Ten percent of young adolescent boys -- or one in 10 -- exhibit a symptom of conduct disorder as well as a symptom of risky or problem gambling, according to new research findings from the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA).

A film by Emmy-award winning artist and filmmaker Elliot Caplan, "15 Days of Dance: The Making of 'Ghost Light,'" produced and developed at the University at Buffalo, will receive its premiere screening this month at Lincoln Center.

Dead zones in critical waterways, accelerated loss of arable land and massive famines. They're all caused by the 24 billion tons of soil that are lost every year to erosion, a phenomenon that costs the world as much as $40 billion annually. But predicting where erosion occurs, and thus how to prevent it, is a serious challenge. That's why University at Buffalo geographer Sean Bennett has constructed various systems to model it.

Thursday night's acknowledgement by "Late Show" host David Letterman that he has had sexual relations with members of his staff was more than a "little story" he had to share with his audience. It was an offensive and tacky write off of his sexual dalliances, says a nationally known media critic and expert on women's issues at the University at Buffalo.

A nation-wide cancer information program targeting African-Americans, called the Witness Project, is partnering with a University at Buffalo genetic epidemiologist to conduct the first national study of genes that increase breast cancer susceptibility in African-American families.

For the several local governments attempting to trim costs by cutting the size of its boards or legislators, the actual savings is likely to be negligible while loss in representation and responsiveness can be extreme, according to the latest research of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute.

Excessive drinking or smoking by a husband or wife can strain a marriage. However, is it substance use specifically that causes problems within a relationship, or is it the difference in the amount of drinking and smoking between a husband and wife that loosens the ties that bind? That question is the crux of a report by Gregory G. Homish, Ph.D., assistant professor of health behavior, and colleagues in University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions and UB's Research Institute on Addictions.

Against the backdrop of last week's Congressional hearing into the future of forensic science, researchers from the University at Buffalo's Laboratory for Forensic Odontology Research in the School of Dental Medicine, have published a landmark paper on the controversial topic of bitemark analysis.

J. David Smith, Ph.D., a comparative psychologist at the University at Buffalo who has conducted extensive studies in animal cognition, says there is growing evidence that animals share functional parallels with human conscious metacognition -- that is, they may share humans' ability to reflect upon, monitor or regulate their states of mind.

People who live through an extreme traumatic experience such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks or an airplane crash often have the capacity to bounce back or even grow to a higher level of functioning and personal strength, according to a University at Buffalo researcher and expert in the effects of horrifying trauma.