Culture

Trout and salmon are among the world's most familiar freshwater fishes, but numbers have fallen over recent decades – in some areas, dramatically.

Pollution, habitat loss and over-fishing have all been blamed in the past, but new evidence from Cardiff University shows that climate change could be a major factor, putting both species at risk.

"While a move can represent a positive change, all moves involve some degree of loss," say Carol Podgorski from the University of Rochester in New York and colleagues in an article published this week in PLoS Medicine, and this can lead to heightened risk for suicidal behavior.

Boston, MA – Over three-quarters of youths under age 15 who die in firearm accidents are shot by another person, usually another youth, according to new research from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is the first multi-state, in-depth study of who fires the shot in unintentional firearm fatalities. The study appears online and will be published in the July, 2010 print issue of the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., May 18, 2010 -- Scientists at the Nuclear Science and Technology Division of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are merging decades of nuclear energy and safety expertise with high-performance computing to effectively address a range of nuclear energy- and security-related challenges

Lake Tanganyika's surface waters are currently warmer than at any time in the previous 1,500 years, a University of Arizona researcher and his colleagues report online in Nature Geoscience.

The rise in temperature during the 20th century is driving a decline in the productivity of the lake, which hosts the second-largest inland fishery in Africa.

The first clinical trials have started on a new investigational drug, discovered by researchers at Cardiff University, which is being developed to treat infections caused by Hepatitis C virus.

When a company drafts a single celebrity to represent a brand, it can backfire—in the way Tiger Woods' indiscretions affected Accenture. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research examines different ways to secure brand loyalty.

An intervention in primary care settings that allowed a choice of cognitive behavior therapy, medication, or both, along with computer-assisted treatment support for patients with common anxiety disorders, resulted in greater improvement in anxiety symptoms and functional disability compared to usual care, according to a study in the May 19 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on mental health.

Peter Roy-Byrne, M.D., of the Uni­versity of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing on mental health.

An international team of scientists have discovered that climate change played a major role in causing mass extinction of mammals in the late quaternary era, 50,000 years ago. Their study, published in Evolution, takes a new approach to this hotly debated topic by using global data modelling to build continental 'climate footprints.'

Vaccinia immunization, as given to prevent the spread of smallpox, produces a five-fold reduction in HIV replication in the laboratory. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Immunology suggest that the end of smallpox vaccination in the mid-20th century may have caused a loss of protection that contributed to the rapid contemporary spread of HIV.

Two common operations for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) help women achieve similar levels of dryness, according to a team of urologists and urogynecologists who compared the treatments in a large U.S. trial supported by the National Institutes of Health. The study is being released online May 17, 2010, by the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with a presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Results will appear in the June 3 print edition.

ATS 2010, NEW ORLEANS— ICU-acquired infection rates are not an indication of patients' mortality risk, according to researchers the University of Pennsylvania, undermining a central tenet of many pay-for-performance initiatives.

Public reporting of quality data is increasingly common in health care. These "report cards" are designed to improve the quality of care by helping patients choose the best hospitals. Yet, they only work if they successfully identify high performers, and may be misleading if they steer patients toward poor performers.

Authors of a new article in Annals of Internal Medicine, offer a solution to the ongoing problem of conflict of interest in the development of clinical guidelines.

Clinical guidelines influence medical practice. While most guidelines are evidence-based, composition of the panel reviewing the data may influence how evidence is interpreted. For this reason, panelists' conflicts of interest are an area of concern. Professional organizations have developed more rigorous regulation regarding conflict of interest, but issues still remain.

Individuals treated for acne, psoriasis or another skin condition with vitamin A analogues (retinoids) do not appear to be at increased risk of fracture, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.