Culture

The woman was laid on a bed of specially selected materials, including gazelle horn cores, fragments of chalk, fresh clay, limestone blocks and sediment. Tortoise shells were placed under and around her body, 86 in total. Sea shells, an eagle's wing, a leopard's pelvis, a forearm of a wild boar and even a human foot were placed on the body of the mysterious 1.5 meter-tall woman. Atop her body, a large stone was laid to seal the burial space.

TORONTO, July 5, 2016 - Most Ontario adults support government-controlled options for producing and selling cannabis, according to new survey results from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). While public opinion continues to swing toward liberalizing recreational cannabis use control, Ontarians favour keeping cannabis production in the hands of either government agencies or regulated private businesses, and having regulated outlets for the sale of cannabis.

A recent study in rats suggests that acoustic shock waves could speed up a muscle's healing process. This technique could help injured athletes to return to training and be able to compete more quickly than just with traditional methods.

Children covered by Medicaid and equally sick children not covered by Medicaid received essentially similar asthma treatment in a given pediatric hospital, according to a new study. In a national sample, researchers analyzed hospital practice patterns by comparing inpatient costs, lengths of stay and use of the intensive care unit (ICU).

Standard methods for estimating obesity may grossly underestimate the burden of overweight worldwide -- on the scale of hundreds of millions -- according to a paper published in Obesity Reviews. Associate professors Daniel Hruschka of Arizona State University's School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Craig Hadley of Emory University's Department of Anthropology are developing more accurate tools by taking a closer look at the different ways that people's bodies are built in different places around the world.

Helsinki, July 4, 2016: The number of children born to single women is increasing, partly as a result of social and legislative changes (in most jurisdictions) in the rights to parenthood. While technology has been readily able to meet this rising demand through donor insemination and even IVF, little is known about how children think, feel and fare growing up in the families formed by single women.

A simple nine-question tool could help emergency physicians uncover the dangerous hidden conditions that make some people faint, according to a study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Fainting is fairly common - 35 to 40 percent of people faint at least once in their lives. But for about ten percent of people who visit the emergency room for fainting it can be a symptom of a potentially life-threatening condition like arrhythmia, or heart rhythm disturbance.

A simple nine-question tool could help emergency physicians uncover the sometimes dangerous hidden conditions that cause some people to faint, according to a study published today in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Syncope, or fainting, accounts for between 1% and 3% of all emergency department visits. In most cases, it is benign, but it can sometimes be caused by serious health conditions. About 10% of patients who visit emergency departments for fainting experience a serious adverse event within 1 week to a month after their visit.

July 1, 2016 - Do you really need to get your eyes checked--even if you haven't noticed any vision problems or eye-related symptoms?

A letter from leading international tobacco researchers published today by Addiction calls for the UK government to stop subsidising films that they claim promote smoking and spend more on media campaigns that promote quitting.

Anti-tobacco media campaigns can help smokers quit and discourage children and young adults from taking up smoking. Spending on such media campaigns in England has dropped in the past five years from just under £25 million in 2009-10 to £5.3 million in 2015. Further cuts are expected this year.

At least 351 companies across the United States are marketing unapproved stem cell procedures at 570 individual clinics. Such businesses advertise "stem cell" interventions for orthopedic injuries, neurological disorders, cardiac diseases, immunological conditions, pulmonary disorders, injured spinal cords, and cosmetic indications.

In a large study of 15,000 adults undergoing elective surgery, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that falling up to six months before an operation is common and often causes serious injuries -- not only in elderly patients but across all age groups. Surprisingly, the frequency of falls among middle-aged patients was slightly higher than those who were age 65 or older.

BARCELONA-LUGANO, 30 June 2016 - Oral multikinase inhibitor regorafenib achieves significantly improved survival rates compared to placebo in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, according to data from the phase III RESORCE trial (1), presented at the ESMO 18th World Congress of Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona, Spain.

High energy radiation affects biological tissues, leading to short-term reactions. These generate, as a secondary product, electrons with low energy, referred to as LEEs, which are ultimately involved in radiation damage. In a new study, scientists study the effect of LEEs on a material called trifluoroacetamide (TFAA). This material was selected because it is suitable for electron scavenging using a process known as dissociative electron attachment (DEA).

DALLAS, June 29, 2016 -- A picture may be worth a thousand words. Patients with advanced heart failure who watched a short video depicting different levels of end-of-life care were more likely to choose comfort care over invasive care that could prolong their life, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.