How well do you know yourself? It's a question many of us struggle with, as we try to figure out how close we are to who we actually want to be. In a new report in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologist Timothy D. Wilson from the University of Virginia describes theories behind self-knowledge (that is, how people form beliefs about themselves), cites challenges psychologists encounter while studying it, and offers ways we can get to know ourselves a little better.
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The use of tools by hominins - the primate group which includes humans (Homo) and chimpanzees and bonobos (Pan) - has been extensively researched by archaeologists and primatologists, both of who manifest the relevance of tool-use in understanding technology and the origins of human behaviour.
The latest rise in the indirect taxation on tobacco and alcohol took place in June. The most popular brand of cigarettes went up in price from 3.10 euros to 3.30 euros per packet. Are these taxes a form of dissuasion or a way of compensating the rest of society for the harm generated by those who smoke? A study by the Polytechnic University of Cartagena has looked into the most significant questions concerning the tobacco economy.
Cystic fibrosis medicines that help to break down mucus in the lungs may carry an unexpected long-term benefit, a study suggests.
The treatments not only help breathing in the short term - they may also make lung infections develop to be less harmful in the long run, research from the University of Edinburgh shows.
Expectant mothers who are obese are much more likely to suffer from minor complications such as heart burn and chest infections during pregnancy, a study suggests.
Research by the University of Edinburgh found that obese mothers-to-be were nearly 10 times more likely to suffer from chest infections, and more than twice as likely to suffer from headaches and heartburn, compared with pregnant women of a healthy weight.
Prognosis of pancreatic cancer is poor. Recently, it has been clarified that the grade of tumor angiogenesis is a useful prognostic marker in human cancer, including pancreatic cancer. To establish the grade of tumor angiogenesis by non-invasive imaging may be important clinically. However, there are only a few such reports on pancreatic cancer.
Based on serum bank material, BA profiling was applied in IBD patients and healthy controls which showed that most but not all BA species were decreased to a different extent in CD and UC. BA decreases were highly pronounced in CD patients with surgical interventions in the gut. On the other hand, UC patients with additional liver and gallbladder diseases showed clearly increased levels of those BAs that are synthesized directly in the liver (primary BAs), or subsequently modified by intestinal bacteria (secondary BAs).
Clarithromycin is currently one of the antibiotics used for eradication of Helicobacter pylori. However, reports of H. pylori resistance to this antibiotic are increasing worldwide. Clarithromycin resistance has been attributed to the presence of mutations in the 23S rRNA gene, a component of the ribosome that is the protein manufacturing machinery of all living cells. There is little information on the prevalence and characteristics of clarithromycin resistance in H. pylori strains isolated from Malaysian patients.
FD, a common non-organic disease in the world, greatly affects the patient's quality of life. However, treatment of FD is still controversial and no single therapy is uniformly effective, due, in part, to absence of a reliable evaluation instrument. The Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI), measuring both symptom scores and impairment of the dyspepsia-specific health-related quality of life in FD patients, has been designed to diagnose FD and translated into several languages. Moreover, its utility has been proved to be validated by researches in western countries.
Gene therapy has emerged as a novel approach to combat HCV infection in the last few years. However, one of the most important obstacles to overcome is "targeting": the appropriate genes must be delivered and expressed in HCV infected hepatocytes without harming normal tissues.
Given equivalent results with regards to survival, the impact of anastomotic methods on QOL becomes even more important. There is still no consensus on how to choose a reconstruction method for proximal gastrectomy in patients with upper third gastric cancer.
Waste from the textiles industry could with the assistance of earthworms and some animal manure become a rich compost for agriculture, according to a report in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center are testing a novel regimen of hip-muscle exercises to decrease the load on the knee joints in patients with osteoarthritis. The goal is not only to relieve pain but also, possibly, to halt progression of the disease.
Internationally renowned palaeontologist and Monash University Honorary Research Associate, Dr Anthony Martin has found evidence of a dinosaur burrow along the coast of Victoria, which helps to explain how dinosaurs protected themselves from climate extremes during the Cretaceous period – the final era for dinosaurs before their extinction.
Dr Martin made the discovery of the 2 metre-long burrow in 2006 while researching dinosaur tracks at Knowledge Creek, west of Melbourne, and has had the findings published this week.
To suggest a feasible economic strategy for second primary colorectal cancer screening of cancer survivors in Korea, A research group constructed a decision-analytic model, compared cost-effectiveness results of cancer screening in male cancer survivors. All non-dominant strategies were those using colonoscopy in both cancer survivors and the general population, and more strict and frequent recommendation of colonoscopy, colonoscopy every 5 years and every 3 years, could be considered as economic strategies for male cancer survivors.