Culture

Smokeless tobacco and, more recently, e-cigarettes have been promoted as a harm reduction strategy for smokers who are "unable or unwilling to quit." The strategy, embraced by both industry and some public health advocates, is based on the assumption that as smoking declines overall, only those who cannot quit will remain. A new study by researchers at UC San Francisco has found just the opposite.

Moving closer to the possibility of "materials that compute" and wearing your computer on your sleeve, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering have designed a responsive hybrid material that is fueled by an oscillatory chemical reaction and can perform computations based on changes in the environment or movement, and potentially even respond to human vital signs. The material system is sufficiently small and flexible that it could ultimately be integrated into a fabric or introduced as an inset into a shoe.

Be careful when choosing your next passport photo or profile image as a new study suggests we are so poor a picking good likenesses of our face that strangers make better selections.

This is one of the findings of a study by Dr. David White and colleagues from the UNSW, Australia published today, Wednesday 24 June 2015, in the British Journal of Psychology. The study was supported by an Australian Research Council grants and funding from the Australian Passport Office.

A group of Dutch investigators headed by professor Paul Emmelkamp reports on the long-term outcome of a psychotherapy study in diabetes. The reason is because depressive symptoms are very common in patients with diabetes, and this comorbidity negatively influences the patients' medical outcomes and mortality. The burden of depression is intensified by its chronic course trajectory, as a substantial number of patients show a relapse of their symptoms after having recovered.

Just because more men pursue careers in science and engineering does not mean they are actually better at math than women are. The difference is that men think they are much better at math than they really are. Women, on the other hand, tend to accurately estimate their arithmetic prowess, says Shane Bench of Washington State University in the U.S., leader of a study in Springer's journal Sex Roles.

Teenagers are very familiar with the risks of smoking cigarettes, but are much less sure whether marijuana or e-cigarettes are harmful, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

While adolescents get clear messages from their families, teachers, peers and the media about the harms of smoking cigarettes, they receive conflicting or sparse information about the harms of marijuana and e-cigarettes, the study showed.

The findings will be published online June 23 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Twenty-one states have opted not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), arguing that the expansion would be too expensive. But according to new research, the cost to hospitals from uncompensated care in those states roughly equals the cost of Medicaid expansion.

The study, “Hospitals as Insurers of Last Resort,” by economists at Northwestern University and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health is released online today as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper.

Safety-net agencies, such as food banks and nonprofits offering health care, serve vulnerable individuals who are uninsured or underinsured and help them connect with services, such as health care, legal aid and housing.

The "Black Lives Matter" hashtag evolved as a call for social change aimed at recognizing racial inequality. Images of a young white sociopath being led to the police station after shooting up a black church side by side with video of police killing a black man who sold illegal cigarettes have made the issue clear - but there is more to making a difference than young white liberals retweeting each other and feeling like they have done their part. Social change is more dependent on nonverbal communication, according to a new paper.

Can babies use iPads?

If you've ever viewed YouTube videos of infants and toddlers using iPads, then you know the answer is a resounding "Yes."

But how are they using them?

To answer that question and others, a team of University of Iowa researchers set out to study more than 200 YouTube videos. Their paper is published in the proceedings of the CHI 2015 conference, the most prestigious in the field of human-computer interaction.

Toddlers have a reputation for being stubborn, selfish, and incapable of sharing. But researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 18 have found that children as young as three actually will show a surprising level of concern for others and an intuitive sense of restorative justice.

The South Korean government has required that teenagers install a spy app on their smartphones. Having the app is compulsory for teens – their phones won’t work unless it is installed. When installed, it provides parents with a means to see what sites are being accessed, block sites and send warning notifications.

Children who benefit from a good memory are much better at covering up lies, researchers from the University of Sheffield have discovered.

Experts found a link between verbal memory and covering up lies following a study which investigated the role of working memory in verbal deception amongst children.

The study saw six to seven year old children presented with the opportunity to do something they were instructed not to -peek at the final answers on the back of a card during a trivia game.

Free-to-Air (FTA) television is in trouble. But the reasons are not as simple as you might think.

The trouble is clear. Ten Network Holdings share price has tanked from around $1.50 in late 2010 to about 22 cents today. It is hoping that Foxtel will be the white knight that saves it – at 15 cents per share and subject to ACCC approval!

Cigarette prices and images on cigarette packets have an impact on women in terms of continuing to smoke or quitting. In fact, less educated women are more responsive to pictorial labels on cigarette packets, as revealed by a study that has analyzed, for the first time, the generation differences among female smokers, a group which, despite policy measures, has not stopped growing.