Tapio Videman says back disorders in the working population are among the most costly illnesses in developed countries around the world. Disc degeneration is the main suspected origin of severe back symptoms and the main target in spine surgery. But Videman, a researcher in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, wants to dispute the common perception that disc degeneration is caused by physical loading, the pressure put on the spine that comes with, for example, frequent lifting.
Culture
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Math teachers in the United States need better training if the nation's K-12 students are going to compete globally, according to international research released today by a Michigan State University scholar.
William Schmidt, University Distinguished Professor of education, found that prospective U.S. elementary and middle-school math teachers are not as prepared as those from other countries. And this, combined with a weak U.S. math curriculum, produces similarly weak student achievement, he said.
Kansas State University researchers are discovering the challenges aging creates for drivers.
To help improve traffic safety, K-State engineers identified the characteristics of older drivers in Kansas and the types of crashes they are involved in. Their research found most car accidents involving older drivers occur during the daytime and are more severe, often ending in injury or fatality, than those for younger populations.
ATHENS, Ohio (April 15, 2010) – A new study suggests that early Native Americans left a bigger carbon footprint than previously thought, providing more evidence that humans impacted global climate long before the modern industrial era.
Chemical analysis of a stalagmite found in the mountainous Buckeye Creek basin of West Virginia suggests that native people contributed a significant level of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through land use practices, such as burning trees to actively manage the forests and yield the nuts and fruit that were a large part of their diets.
The election campaign may be under way but new research from The University of Nottingham shows that the parties are in danger of immediately writing off at least four million young working class female voters.
The lead author of the report: 'Lambrini Lady — the forgotten political generation' — is Professor Steven Fielding, Director of the University of Nottingham's Centre for British Politics.
Eradicating smallpox was one of the greatest human accomplishments of the 20th century, but new research shows initiatives of this kind are not as good a use of health dollars as people might think. McGill University Biologist Dr. Jonathan Davies explains that reducing the prevalence of diseases in areas most affected by them is a far more effective and efficient strategy than trying to eradicate them altogether, which is extremely difficult and costs billions of dollars.
U.S. church attendance rates have held relatively steady over the past three and a half decades, a new study shows. But the makeup of the nation's congregations has undergone significant changes during that same stretch.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist Philip Schwadel applied a new multi-level estimation method to uncover several original findings about how often Americans – and certain groups of Americans – worship.
Dr James White from Cardiff University's School of Medicine undertook a three-year-study, involving some 3,500 11 to 15 year-olds, as part of the British Youth Panel Survey – a self report survey of children in the British Household Panel survey.
Results indicated that one of the strongest protective factors for reducing the risk of experimenting with smoking in early adolescence was how often fathers talked with their children, both boys and girls, about 'things that mattered'.
Far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet and improved sanitation, according to UN experts who published today a 9-point prescription for achieving the world's Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation by 2015.
They also urge the world community to set a new target beyond the MDG (which calls for a 50 percent improvement in access to adequate sanitation by 2015) to the achievement of 100 percent coverage by 2025.
Restrictions should be placed on the use of Ginkgo biloba (G. biloba) — a top-selling herbal remedy — because of growing scientific evidence that Ginkgo may increase the risk of seizures in people with epilepsy and could reduce the effectiveness of anti-seizure drugs, a new report concludes. The article appears in ACS' monthly Journal of Natural Products. It also suggests that Ginkgo may have harmful effects in other people after eating raw or roasted Ginkgo seed or drinking tea prepared from Ginkgo leaves.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — They were illiterate farmers, builders and servants, but Maya commoners found a way to record their own history – by burying it within their homes. A new study of the objects embedded in the floors of homes occupied more than 1,000 years ago in central Belize begins to decode their story.
The study, from University of Illinois anthropology professor Lisa J. Lucero, appears in the Journal of Social Archaeology.
Despite national guidelines aimed at improving sexual health services for teenagers, most sexually active boys — even those who report high-risk sexual behaviors — still get too little counseling about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during their visits to the doctor, according to a study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
This releases is available in German.
Finding a particular song or video is often no easy matter. Manually assigned metadata may be incorrect, and the unpacking of compressed data can slow up the search. DIVAS, a multimedia search engine, uses digital fingerprints to reliably locate what you are looking for.
A single dose of 900-1000 mg aspirin can substantially reduce migraine headache pain within two hours, for more than half of people who take it. It also reduces any associated nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light or sound (photophobia or phonophobia). Formulations of aspirin 900 mg together with 10 mg of the antiemetic metoclopramide are better than placebo at reducing symptoms of nausea and vomiting. These were the findings of a Cochrane Systematic Review using data from 13 studies with 4,222 participants.
TORONTO – A new study finds that reports of a neurologic disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) have been low after 2009 H1N1 vaccination, according to a research study that will be presented as part of the late-breaking science program at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto, April 10 – 17, 2010. The study is one of the first national reports of the occurrence of GBS after 2009 H1N1 vaccination.