Culture
CORVALLIS, Ore. - How a person responds to a difficult life event such as a death or divorce helps shape the development of their wisdom over time, a new study from Oregon State University suggests.
TORONTO, February 20, 2018 - Alcohol use disorders are the most important preventable risk factors for the onset of all types of dementia, especially early-onset dementia. This according to a nationwide observational study, published in The Lancet Public Health journal, of over one million adults diagnosed with dementia in France.
This study looked specifically at the effect of alcohol use disorders, and included people who had been diagnosed with mental and behavioural disorders or chronic diseases that were attributable to chronic harmful use of alcohol.
Modern humans have brains that are more than three times larger than our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos. Scientists don't agree on when and how this dramatic increase took place, but new analysis of 94 hominin fossils shows that average brain size increased gradually and consistently over the past three million years.
A team of American Museum of Natural History researchers has created a computational model capable of predicting whether or not organisms have the ability to "eat" other cells through a process known as phagocytosis. The model may be a useful tool for large-scale microbe surveys and provides valuable insight into the evolution of complex life on Earth, challenging ideas put forward in recent studies. The model and researchers' findings are featured in a paper published today in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Porpoises communicate with each other using sounds. Therefore, they are highly sensitive to noise, such as ship noise. And the Danish belts and sounds are some of the most heavily trafficked waters in the world.
Researchers at the Higher School of Economics (HSE University) have revealed that Russian companies need to invest in the development of intellectual resources in order to maximize the benefits from partners in developed countries. Results of the study have been published in the journal, Knowledge Management Research & Practice .
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2018 -- Nobody really likes bargain hot cocoa powder. It's lumpy, it's too thin and it leaves scummy residue behind. But premium hot cocoa mix is too expensive for some imbibers. Fortunately, Reactions is here with some easy kitchen chemistry hacks to turn cheap cocoa mix into a satisfying cold weather pick-me-up: https://youtu.be/7M105LuTJvo.
PHILADELPHIA--African Americans with atrial fibrillation (AF) - a quivering or irregular heartbeat that can lead to a host of dangerous complications - have a significantly higher risk of stroke than Caucasians with the condition, according to new research published today in Heart Rhythm by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The new findings build on previous studies examining the impact of race on the risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF), which is linked to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other complications.
Although socio-economic status is known to influence health, strong evidence of the association between economic vulnerability in childhood and the health of older adults was still missing. As part of the "National centre of Competence in Research - NCCR LIVES" funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) examined data from more than 24,000 people aged 50 to 96 living in 14 European countries.
Thousands of appointments cancelled; effects greatest when emergency care withdrawn
The 2016 junior doctors strikes in England had a 'significant' impact on the provision of healthcare, with thousands of appointments cancelled, and significantly fewer admissions and A&E attendances than expected, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open.
The effects were greatest during the last of the periods of industrial action, when junior doctors withdrew emergency care. But there was no obvious change in the death rate during any of the strikes.
A new online game puts players in the shoes of an aspiring propagandist to give the public a taste of the techniques and motivations behind the spread of disinformation - potentially "inoculating" them against the influence of so-called fake news in the process.
Punishing a wrongdoer may be more rewarding to the brain than supporting a victim. That is one suggestion of new research published in JNeurosci, which measured the brain activity of young men while they played a "justice game."
DALLAS, Feb. 19, 2018 -- Mental stress was more likely to cause chest pain in young women who have had a heart attack compared to a comparable group of men, according to a study published in a special issue of Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association that also includes an additional 10 original studies and research letters about the unique role gender plays in heart health.
A thousand-year-old tooth has provided genetic evidence that the so-called "Taíno", the first indigenous Americans to feel the full impact of European colonisation after Columbus arrived in the New World, still have living descendants in the Caribbean today.
Researchers were able to use the tooth of a woman found in a cave on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas to sequence the first complete ancient human genome from the Caribbean. The woman lived at some point between the 8th and 10th centuries, at least 500 years before Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas.
BOSTON -- (Feb. 19, 2018) -- Every cell in your body responds to the hormone insulin, and if that process starts to fail, you get diabetes. In an unexpected finding, scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified four viruses that can produce insulin-like hormones that are active on human cells. The discovery brings new possibilities for revealing biological mechanisms that may cause diabetes or cancer.