Culture

A major new national report into the use of antiviral drugs (neuraminidase inhibitors) to treat and prevent influenza has drawn heavily on two pieces of research undertaken at The University of Nottingham.

The landmark report, published today by the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Wellcome Trust, concludes that anti-viral drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs) were successful in reducing deaths in hospitalised patients. And that prophylactic use of the same drugs in households prevents flu infection.

A new study reveals viewers of "Law and Order" have a better grasp of sexual consent than viewers of other crime dramas such as "CSI" or "NCIS," suggesting that individuals who watch programs in which sexual predators are punished may avoid sexual predatory behavior in real life.

Published in the recent issue of the Journal of Health Communication, the study by The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University shows a connection between how sexual violence is portrayed and how people view sexual consent.

Osteoporosis, a disease of progressive bone loss, affects 70 percent of the U.S. population older than age 50: one in two women--and one in five men. These individuals are at risk for fragility fractures, a break that results from a fall, or occurs in the absence of obvious trauma, and most commonly seen in the wrist, the upper arm, the hip, and the spine.

If your partner has sex with someone else, it is considered infidelity - even if no emotions are involved. But it is also considered infidelity when your significant other develops a close personal relationship with someone else, even if there is no sex or physical intimacy involved.

A recent Norwegian study shows that men and women react differently to various types of infidelity. Whereas men are most jealous of sexual infidelity, so-called emotional infidelity is what makes women the most jealous. Evolutionary psychology may help explain why this may be.

ALEXANDRIA, VA.--October 8, 2015--An overwhelming majority of Americans (87%) say it is important that candidates for President and Congress have a basic understanding of the science informing public policy issues, including majorities across the political spectrum (92% of Democrats, 90% of Republicans and 79% of Independents).

The bird that's experienced the steepest population declines in North America in recent decades is also one that few people have heard of: the Rusty Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) populations have decreased by about 95% in the last fifty years, but the reasons are not well understood; it doesn't help that their preferred breeding habitat, stunted conifers deep in the wetlands of the boreal forest, makes finding and studying them difficult.

The Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease crisis in Europe was a turning point for the diet of the Galician wolf in Spain, which until the year 2000 had primarily fed on the carrion of domestic animals. A new study shows that, after European health regulations made it illegal to abandon dead livestock, wolves started to consume more wild boars, roe deer and wild ponies, but also began to attack more cattle ranches when faced with food shortages in certain areas.

Biologists and psychologists are fascinated by the bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) of northeastern Brazil, which exhibit behavior that is extremely rare in the animal kingdom: they use stone tools to crack open the hard casings of palm nuts, to eat the meat inside.

More than one in four Americans has taken prescription painkillers in the past year, even as a majority say that abuse of these medications is a very serious public health concern, according to new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research.

Roughly seven in 10 Americans have been prescribed the medications in their lifetime and 17 percent say they have taken painkillers prescribed for someone else, the researchers found in what they believe is the first national public opinion study on this topic.

A new study by a UCLA-led team of scholars and law enforcement officials suggests the answer is yes. A mathematical model they devised to guide where the Los Angeles Police Department should deploy officers, led to substantially lower crime rates during a recent 21-month period.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Researchers from the Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development at National Taiwan University have new insights into who buys fresh flowers as gifts, and why consumers purchase floral gifts. Their study in HortScience reveals some interesting factors that they say can inform retail floral marketing. Fresh flower purchases, say the researchers, are based on a set of "gift values", and depend on the relationship between the giver and receiver.

The factors that determine the level of patient satisfaction with pediatric care vary significantly depending on which departmental setting patients receive treatment within a healthcare system, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Medical Quality. Researchers from Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware said the findings could greatly aid improvements in patient experience in primary, specialty outpatient specialty, emergency, and inpatient care settings.

A Johns Hopkins surgeon and prominent patient safety researcher is calling on hospitals to reform emergency room, surgical and other medical protocols that sicken up to half of already seriously ill patients -- in some cases severely -- with preventable and potentially dangerous bouts of food and sleep deprivation.

Researchers have found that when surgical trainees train beyond competence using a simulator, they retain information longer and master surgical skills better than those who stop practicing when they achieve an initial level of proficiency. Their study findings were presented today at the 2015 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons during a Posters of Exceptional Merit presentation.

Children's self-esteem is linked to the behaviour of who is considered the most powerful parent within the household, new University of Sussex research suggests.

The study of English and Indian families living in Britain is the first to assess the impact on a child's wellbeing of the household power structures that exist within different cultures.

Psychologists interviewed 125 English and Indian families living in West London.