Culture

In a study published online by JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Annie N. Simpson, Ph.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, and colleagues compared the costs of health care for a matched group of privately insured individuals with and without a diagnosis of hearing loss.

• In assessing attractiveness, females judge men and women with higher BMI as less attractive
• Men do not judge a man with a higher weight negatively, but still see heavier women as less attractive
• First study of its kind to assess the relationship between gender, BMI and notion of 'attractiveness', providing insight into associated wage inequality

Osteochondromas are cartilage-capped benign bone tumors that form on the surface of bones near growth plates. These growths typically occur in adolescents and can result in growth impairment, pain, and fractures. In hereditary forms of the disease, 80-90% of patients have mutations in the genes exostosin 1 and 2; however, these mutations are not found in all patients.

A subset of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients is positive for the Philadelphia chromosome, which is generated by a specific translocation event that causes a fusion between the BCR and ABL1 genes. These patients unfortunately have a poorer prognosis and a more limited response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors that are used to treat other forms of ALL. In this issue of JCI Insight, Charles Mulligan of St.

Two studies published by The BMJ today evaluate treatments for patients with cardiac arrest in hospital.

The first study suggests that advice to delay giving a second heart shock, known as defibrillation, to patients with cardiac arrest in hospital is not associated with improved survival.

Guidelines previously called for "stacked" shocks with minimal time delay between defibrillation attempts. But in 2005 the guidelines were revised to recommend deferring a second attempt at defibrillation to allow time for chest compressions.

Alcohol related deaths are most likely set to increase in England as incomes outstrip rises in taxation, argue experts in The BMJ today.

Meanwhile, the number of alcohol related deaths will likely continue to decrease in Scotland if legislation on minimum unit pricing for alcoholic drinks is implemented

'Invisible impairments' can make it difficult for stroke survivors to maintain a job, according to a study from the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The findings, published today in the journal BMJ Open, suggest that more needs to be done to make survivors, their GPs and employers aware of the difficulties that they may face.

DURHAM, N.C. -- If you trace our evolutionary tree way back to its roots -- long before the shedding of gills or the development of opposable thumbs -- you will likely find a common ancestor with the amazing ability to regenerate lost body parts.

Lucky descendants of this creature, including today's salamanders or zebrafish, can still perform the feat, but humans lost much of their regenerative power over millions of years of evolution.

Teenagers who spend quality time with their parents are more likely to want to further their studies, according to research from the University of Warwick.

Researchers found that adolescents who take part in cultural activities with their mother and father were more likely to aspire to continue their studies post-16 than those who didn't. This is compared to even those who attended homework clubs or participated in extra-curricular activities.

TORONTO, April 6, 2016 - Underweight and obese women who also drank alcohol and smoked tobacco had a two-fold higher risk of being diagnosed with asthma than women with a healthy body mass index who did not drink or smoke, a St. Michael's Hospital study found.

Women with low and high body mass indexes, or BMIs, who smoked and drank were also two to three times more likely to experience wheezing.

The use of a respiratory filter mask, a common practice in China and Japan, among other countries, helps minimize the impact of pollution on people with heart failure during rush-hour traffic in cities such as São Paulo, Brazil.

For healthy people, wearing this type of anti-pollution mask can also reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

When large-scale economic struggles hit a region, a country, or even a continent, the explanations tend to be big in nature as well.

Macroeconomists -- who study large economic phenomena -- often look for sweeping explanations of what has gone wrong, such as declines in productivity, consumer demand, or investor confidence, or significant changes in monetary policy.

Well-trained cadaver dogs can be remarkably adept at discerning the smell of human remains from those of animals. Mimicking these canines' abilities in an artificial nose would be a huge help in disasters when thousands of people go missing. So scientists are trying to figure out what precise odors distinguish a human corpse from an animal one, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

Washington, DC - April 6, 2016 - Vibrio parahaemolyticus caused an outbreak of food poisoning in Maryland in 2010. The pathogen strain sequenced from patients proved to be the same strain as one of those found in raw oysters from local restaurants, strong evidence that the oysters were the source of the illness. That particular strain of V. parahaemolyticus was not local, but was traced to Asia. The research is published March 18 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Food poisoning is a stomach-churning, miserable condition that sends thousands of Americans to hospital emergency rooms every year. Now scientists report in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry a simple, paper-based test that could help detect pathogens hitchhiking on food before they reach store shelves, restaurants and, most importantly, our stomachs.