Culture

According a new study of over 3,000 adults aged 70-79, the apparent association between light-to-moderate alcohol consumption and reduced risk of functional decline over time did not hold up after adjustments were made for characteristics related to lifestyle, in particular physical activity, body weight, education, and income.

More than half of sudden unexplained infant deaths occur while the infant is sharing a bed or a sofa with a parent (co-sleeping) and may be related to parents drinking alcohol or taking drugs, suggests a study published on bmj.com today.

Although the rate of cot death in the UK has fallen dramatically since the early 1990s, specific advice to avoid dangerous co-sleeping arrangements is needed to help reduce these deaths even further, say the researchers.

The nineteenth tropical cyclone of the Eastern Pacific formed over this past weekend, and strengthened into Tropical Storm Patricia. The GOES-11 satellite captured Patricia from her "birth" several hundred miles south of Baja California, to her track there today, Tuesday, October 13.

ST LOUIS, MO—October 13, 2009—A new study published in Economic Inquiry explores the seminal question: "If we can make a deal, why fight?" The authors conclude that a combination of common knowledge and a common rate of time preference allow a potential loser to use small concessions to successfully appease an expected winner. Given the right conditions, small negotiated concessions can work, but in situations where clear and specific inequities exist, appeasement can be a dangerous thing.

A new study recently published online by the American Heart Journal shows that more than half of all randomized clinical trials, or RCTs, for cardiovascular disease are not reporting vital information about the study populations race or ethnicity. NYU School of Medicine researchers found that out of the 156 cardiovascular disease RCTs analyzed, only 35% of trials reported any information on race or ethnicity between 1970 and 2006. From 2000 to 2006, 46% of trials included that information.

Five giant non-native snake species would pose high risks to the health of ecosystems in the United States should they become established here, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report released today.

With there being a concern that mastectomy is excessively used as a treatment for breast cancer, a survey of nearly 2,000 women indicates that breast-conserving surgery was attempted as the initial therapy for about 75 percent of those surveyed, according to a study in the October 14 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on surgical care.

Monica Morrow, M.D., of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing in Chicago.

Attending surgeons and obstetricians/gynecologists who worked nighttime hours did not have a significantly greater rate of complications for procedures performed the next day, but having less than six hours of opportunity for sleep between procedures was associated with an increased rate of surgical complications, according to a study in the October 14 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on surgical care.

Jeffrey M. Rothschild, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing in Chicago.

OTTAWA, OCTOBER 13, 2009 – Early action, especially rapid rollout of vaccines, is extremely effective in reducing the attack rate of the H1N1 influenza virus, according to a simulation model of a pandemic outbreak reported in a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca.

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown link between a mother's diet in pregnancy and a severe form of liver disease in her child.

In a study, published in the journal Hepatology today, researchers at the University of Southampton found that a high fat diet during a woman's pregnancy makes her offspring more likely to develop a severe form of fatty liver disease when they reach adulthood. The findings are another piece in the jigsaw for scientists who believe diets containing too high levels of saturated fat may have an adverse effect on our health.

Houses on stilts, small scale energy generation and recycling our dishwater are just some of the measures that are being proposed to prepare our cities for the effects of global warming.

A three-year project led by Newcastle University for the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research has outlined how our major cities must respond if they are to continue to grow in the face of climate change.

WASHINGTON – Retirees who transition from full-time work into a temporary or part-time job experience fewer major diseases and are able to function better day-to-day than people who stop working altogether, according to a national study. And the findings were significant even after controlling for people's physical and mental health before retirement.

Spain is the second country in the world where divorce is better accepted socially, only exceeded by Brazil. Likewise, 79 per cent of the Spanish people think that, when a couple is not able to solve their marital problems, divorce is the best solution, which places our country far ahead of the countries of the north of Europe, traditionally considered to be more liberal in the social acceptation of divorce.

Cells could be orientated in a controlled way on a micro-patterned surface based upon a delicate material technique, and the orientation could be semi-quantitatively described by some statistical parameters, as suggested by the group of DING from Fudan University, Shanghai, CHINA. The study is reported in Issue 18, Volume 54 (September 2009) of the Chinese Science Bulletin as one of the papers in a special issue about Biomedical Materials in this journal.

New findings reveal a large gap between US and UK researchers in terms of policy, attitudes, practices and experiences in relation to including ethnic minorities in asthma research. The study, published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, shows that US researchers were more positive than their UK counterparts about the importance and logistics of including ethnic minorities in health research.