After decades of public safety campaigns focused on drinking and driving, it may be time to focus on the seventh leading cause of injury-related death, according to Bureau of Occupational Health and Injury Prevention at New York State Department of Health and Columbia University scholars looking at New York State.
A team of researchers has identified the genetic mutation responsible for glycogen storage disease type IIIa in Inuit in northern Quebec, Canada, in a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). The paper identifies a mutation in the gene encoding the glycogen debranching enzyme (AGL), which had previously been undetected in a decade of investigation by the same authors.
Wildfires send hot flames and smoke high into the air, including black carbon emissions associated with climate change and risk to human health. Unless the United States adapts sensible forest management policies, which means fewer instances of the Department of the Interior and environmental lobbyists conspiring to manipulate science reports, carbon emissions from wildfires in the contiguous U.S. could increase by 50 percent by 2050 and double by 2100.
Some media, such as the New York Daily News and NBC, have reported that the Asian H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza has now entered the United States. This is incorrect and they were told it was not the same strain by the United States Geological Survey and then suggested it was anyway.There was avian flu that was recently found, in a green-winged teal in Washington state, but it is a different strain and is not known to harm humans nor has it been found in domestic poultry.
Product bundling is a common marketing strategy but retailers need to draw attention to the value of a package deal since consumers prefer products that are packaged individually.
"The advantages of bundling products may not be as straightforward as previously thought. Consumers may not always be aware of a bundle's added value over a single item and this could undermine the entire purpose of the bundling strategy. Without drawing attention to a product bundle's added value, a bundle may not be perceived as more attractive than the respective single product without the add-on," write authors Tobias Krüger, André Mata, and Max Ihmels (all University of Heidelberg).
Too much sitting has been shown to increase the risk of chronic diseases, particularly diabetes, heart disease, and some types of cancer. Current guidelines suggest adults do 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week, but more than a third (35.6%) of adults worldwide are sufficiently inactive.
Furthermore, the proportion of time spent being inactive rises with age: from 55% (7.7 hours) at 20-29 years, to 67% (9.6 hours) in those aged 70-79 years.
Two articles published in The BMJ this week argue that the 150 minute target is beyond the reach of some, especially older people, and say we should be promoting the benefits of small increases in daily physical activity rather than focusing on meeting current recommendations.
Teenagers with brothers and sisters who exhibit severe antisocial behavior share a similar impairment with their siblings in recognizing emotions, according to a new study from the University of Southampton.
The findings suggest that difficulties in recognizing emotions could be a factor that increases a child's risk of developing conduct disorder - a condition characterized by pathological aggression and antisocial behavior.
A team of scientists have shown that meltwater from the surface of an ice cap in northeastern Greenland can make its way beneath the ice and become trapped, refilling a subglacial lake. This meltwater provides heat to the bottom of the ice sheet.
The findings provide new information about atmospheric warming and its affect on the critical zone at the base of the ice. The warmth provided by the water could make the ice sheet move faster and alter how it responds to the changing climate.
Two new drug compounds - one of which has already proven useful in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis - appear to be effective in treating endometriosis, a disorder that, like MS, is driven by estrogen and inflammation, scientists report in Science Translational Medicine.
The researchers hope to eventually use the new compounds and others like them to treat a variety of disorders linked to estrogen signaling and inflammation: endometriosis, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory breast cancer, liver fibrosis, and cardiovascular and metabolic problems associated with obesity, for example.
People are more successful in taking up healthy habits if their partner makes positive changes too, according to research* published in JAMA Internal Medicine today (Monday).
Scientists at UCL funded by Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, and the National Institute on Aging looked at how likely people were to quit smoking, start being active, or lose weight in relation to what their partner did.**
They found that people were more successful in swapping bad habits for good ones if their partner made a change as well.
Racial disparities in tip size can't be explained by discriminatory service. Shutterstock
By Michael Lynn, Burton M. Sack '61 Professor in Food and Beverage Management at , Cornell University and Zachary Brewster, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Wayne State University
Carbon sequestration promises to address greenhouse-gas emissions by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and injecting it deep below the Earth's surface, where it would permanently solidify into rock. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that current carbon-sequestration technologies may eliminate up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.
While such technologies may successfully remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, researchers in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT have found that once injected into the ground, less carbon dioxide is converted to rock than previously imagined.
Consumers usually look for the lowest price when shopping for a product. But can prices sometimes just feel right? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers are drawn to prices with rounded numbers when a purchase is motivated by feelings.
"A rounded price ($100.00) encourages consumers to rely on feelings when evaluating products, while a non-rounded price ($98.76) encourages consumers to rely on reason. When a purchase is driven by feelings, rounded prices lead to a subjective experience of feeling right," write authors Monica Wadhwa (INSEAD, Singapore) and Kuangjie Zhang (Nanyang Technological University).
