Culture
COLUMBUS, Ohio - People may cheer the demise of evil villains in fiction, but the deaths we most remember are the meaningful and sad endings of the characters we loved, research suggests.
In a new study, researchers found that when people were asked to recall the death of a fictional character, they were more likely to mention deaths perceived as "meaningful" than those seen as "pleasurable."
The world is changing in dramatic ways, especially in the High Arctic. Climate change has meant that spring arrives earlier, but winters have become far more treacherous for Arctic animals that overwinter there, with more rain and ice.
So what about birds that don't overwinter in the Arctic, but nest and raise young there? Researchers have spent nearly three decades collecting data on a group of barnacle geese that migrate to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard to see how the geese respond to environmental changes overall.
Multiple studies have evaluated the incidence of back pain among patients who undergo catheter-based heart procedures while conscious. But the impact of back pain on patients who undergo similar procedures for the brain has not been previously examined. These minimally invasive brain procedures are also typically performed while the patient is awake and require an even longer immobilization period.
Climate change mitigation requires curbing emissions from all sectors, including shipping. The European Union has set ambitious targets to achieve this goal. The European regulation number 757 on Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification of CO2 emissions (EU-MRV) contributes to it by collecting CO2 emission data from all vessels above 5,000 GT calling at ports within the European Economic Area.
Research has shown that gut microbes can influence several aspects of the host's life, including aging. Given the complexity and heterogeneity of the human gut environment, elucidating how a specific microbial species contributes to longevity has been challenging. To explore the influence of bacterial products on the aging process, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University developed a method that uses light to directly control gene expression and metabolite production from bacteria residing in the gut of the laboratory worm Caenorhabditis elegans.
Cancer treatment isn't just a matter of shrinking or removing a tumor. It also involves preserving or improving the patient's quality of life. Rehabilitation services--such as behavioral therapies to alleviate pain and exercise to reduce fatigue--are a valuable way to do that. But they often aren't included in cancer patients' plans of care.
"Rehabilitation has been an underdog in cancer treatment," said Nicole Stout, a research assistant professor with the West Virginia University School of Public Health and WVU Cancer Institute. "It hasn't been top of mind."
Female COVID-19 patients face less severe disease complications and a lower risk of dying than male patients thanks to hormones and chromosomes that contribute to a stronger immune response, according to new research from a University of Alberta-led team.
The ASH Research Collaborative (ASH RC) and the International Society of Haemostasis and Thrombosis (ISTH), two organizations with multidisciplinary expertise in blood clotting and bleeding disorders, have developed a toolkit to help clinical researchers from across medical disciplines design clinical trials that further the understanding of blood clotting events associated with COVID-19.
Countries worldwide face challenges meeting the growing needs for long-term care services because of high costs. A study led by researchers from McGill University and Université du Québec en Outaouais shows that introducing nurse practitioners can significantly reduce costs and improve patient safety.
A pattern in how the brain breaks down tryptophan, a common amino acid consumed through food, was discovered by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The finding, which could help physicians more accurately diagnose and treat several major mental health disorders, was recently published in Molecular Psychiatry.
The economic challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic have grown worse since the spring for many American families, with an increasing number reporting that they have trouble paying bills, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Surveyed several times over the course of the pandemic, nearly 45% of study participants report that they had difficulty paying bills at some point since February and 13% reported it had been been very difficult to pay bills at some point during the period.
While many cities and eight states have banned single-use plastics, bags and other polyethylene packaging still clog landfills and pollute rivers and oceans.
One major problem with recycling polyethylene, which makes up one-third of all plastic production worldwide, is economic: Recycled bags end up in low-value products, such as decks and construction material, providing little incentive to reuse the waste.
Since antiquity, cultures around the world have been extracting vegetable oil from plants to use as food and fuel. Some vegetable oils have important health benefits, including lowering cholesterol levels and decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Irvine, Calif., Dec. 17, 2020 --University of California, Irvine health sciences researchers have created a machine-learning model to predict the probability that a COVID-19 patient will need a ventilator or ICU care. The tool is free and available online for any healthcare organization to use.
Research-grade air quality sensors are costly--around $40,000. For cities trying to monitor their greenhouse gas emissions, the cost may limit the number of sensors they can install and the data they can collect.
Unless. . .