Wednesday, September 30, 2015

BPA Linked to Low Birth Weights in Baby Girls

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bpa-linked-to-low-birth-weights-in-baby-girls/?WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20150930

By Brian Bienkowski and Environmental Health News | September 25, 2015

Girls born to mothers with high levels of BPA in their system during the first trimester of pregnancy weigh less at birth than babies with lower exposure, according to a new study.

The study adds to evidence that fetal exposure to the ubiquitous chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) may contribute to fetal developmental problems. Low birth weights are linked to a host of health problems later in life, such as obesity, diabetes, infertility and heart disease.

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Bottom line: more BPA in woman’s blood meant babies weighed less. For every doubling in free, or unconjugated, BPA in the mothers’ first-term blood, babies weighed, on average, 6.5 ounces less. The research was published today in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Similarly, for every doubling of free-BPA in the woman’s blood at birth, babies weighed on average 3 ounces less.

“Having small babies at birth is a risk factor for a whole bunch of different things,” said Laura Vandenberg, an assistant professor of environmental health at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who was not involved in the study.

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Unfortunately for pregnant women, BPA—used to make polycarbonate plastic and found in some food cans and paper receipts—is found in most people.

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Antibacterial Soap Has Poor Killing Power

Another problem with antibacterial soap is that it fosters the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antibacterial-soap-has-poor-killing-power/?WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20150930

By James Urquhart and ChemistryWorld | September 24, 2015

Washing your hands with antibacterial soap containing triclosan – the most common microbe-killing ingredient used in these soaps – may be no better than ordinary plain soap, according to South Korean researchers. The work adds weight to previous studies which have reached similar conclusions and could help settle the controversy of triclosan use.

Triclosan is widely known for its antimicrobial properties, and was first introduced in hospital scrub soap in the 1970s. Currently, 0.3% triclosan is the maximum amount permitted in consumer soaps in most countries and several studies under lab conditions have shown that soaps containing this amount tend to be no more effective at killing bacteria on hands than plain soap.

Furthermore, triclosan remains controversial with reports of various adverse effects, including allergies and carcinogenic impurities. In December 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed that manufacturers of antibacterial hand soaps must demonstrate that they are safer and more effective than plain soap.

Min-Suk Rhee and colleagues at Korea University, Seoul, say they have found compelling evidence that triclosan-containing soap is no better than plain soap. They believe their study is more accurate than previous work because they only used one variable – the presence or absence of 0.3% triclosan – and fixed all of the other factors which can affect the results.

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Property taxes enforce economic segregation

And it doesn't only affect one race.

http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2015/09/29/what-gentrification-looks-like-on-georgias-coast

By Rodney Carmichael
Sept. 29, 2015

The word gentrification, loaded though it may be, is typically reserved to describe the displacement affecting longtime residents of the inner city. But the New York Times' Atlanta bureau chief Kim Severson has uncovered a similar cultural shift happening in a less predictable corner of the state.

For the Sept. 25, 2012 news feature "Taxes Threaten an Island Culture in Georgia," Severson traveled to Sapelo Island's Hog Hammock, where the remaining population of the Geechee culture hovers around 50. Of the residents she talked to, one family's property taxes on the one acre of land that houses their three-bedroom tin-roof home jumped 540 percent in one year — from $362 to $2,312.

These Creole-speaking descendants of slaves have long held their land as a touchstone, fighting the kind of development that turned Hilton Head and St. Simons Islands into vacation destinations. Now, stiff county tax increases driven by a shifting economy, bureaucratic bumbling and the unyielding desire for a house on the water have them wondering if their community will finally succumb to cultural erosion.

“The whole thing just smells,” said Jasper Watts, whose mother, Annie Watts, 73, still owns the three-room house with a tin roof that she grew up in.


It almost resembles genocide more than gentrification, but county officials blame it on years of bad management and artificially low property values finally being corrected.

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How Your Brain Is Wired Reveals the Real You

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-your-brain-is-wired-reveals-the-real-you/?WT.mc_id=SA_MB_20150930

By Sara Reardon and Nature magazine | September 28, 2015

The brain’s wiring patterns can shed light on a person’s positive and negative traits, researchers report in Nature Neuroscience. The finding, published on September 28, is the first from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), an international effort to map active connections between neurons in different parts of the brain.

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Smith and his colleagues ran a massive computer analysis to look at how these traits varied among the volunteers, and how the traits correlated with different brain connectivity patterns. The team was surprised to find a single, stark difference in the way brains were connected. People with more 'positive' variables, such as more education, better physical endurance and above-average performance on memory tests, shared the same patterns. Their brains seemed to be more strongly connected than those of people with 'negative' traits such as smoking, aggressive behaviour or a family history of alcohol abuse.

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But Raichle says that it is impossible to determine from this study how different traits relate to one another and whether the weakened brain connections are the cause or effect of negative traits. And although the patterns are clear across the large group of HCP volunteers, it might be some time before these connectivity patterns could be used to predict risks and traits in a given individual.

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Van Wedeen, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, says that the findings could help to prioritize future research. For instance, one of the negative traits that pulled a brain farthest down the negative axis was marijuana use in recent weeks. Wedeen says that the finding emphasizes the importance of projects such as one launched by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse last week, which will follow 10,000 adolescents for 10 years to determine how marijuana and other drugs affect their brains.

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Extreme Rise in Some Drug Prices Reaches a Tipping Point

Fiscal Times

By Eric Pianin
September 30, 2015

The powerful pharmaceutical industry is doing its best to hold back the tide, but mounting public outrage over excessive pricing of both old and new drugs may prompt government intervention after the 2016 election.

The controversy is already playing out on the presidential campaign trail and on Capitol Hill where House Democrats are demanding Valeant Pharmaceuticals provide documentation to justify the soaring costs of its drugs.

Meanwhile, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign purchased ads in Iowa and New Hampshire this week for Clinton to claim credit for forcing another company, Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, to partially roll back a massive increase in the cost of a long-standing drug used to treat AIDS and cancer patients. Clinton accused the company’s 32-year old CEO, Martin Shkreli, of “price gouging” on Twitter.

Billionaire Donald Trump, the GOP presidential frontrunner, also jumped into the act, calling Shkreli a “spoiled brat” for boosting the cost of the drug, Daraprim, from $13.50 to $750 a pill.

Shkreli, a hedge fund manager, has become the new symbol of industry greed and insensitivity. He recently announced he would cut back the price, without saying by how much.

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At one time critics focused much of their wrath on Gilead Sciences Inc., the California based pharmaceutical company that charged as much as $1,000 a pill for the new wonder drug Sovaldi for treating the potentially lethal Hepatitis-C virus. The cost of the drug blew a hole in the budgets of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Medicare and Medicaid and forced federal and state officials to ration the availability of the popular drug.

Nevertheless, the drug does save money in the end by avoiding costly liver transplants and associated follow-up treatment. The other newcomers to the pharmaceutical business offer no such deal. They simply have business plans that depend on exploiting existing drugs by raising costs to unsustainable levels for quick returns. If they succeed, the pharma percentage of overall health care costs could make the current 9 percent spent on drugs look like chump change.

Now industry critics have two easy targets to choose from – including Turing and Valeant, a major firm that jacked up the price of two heart medicines three to six fold the same day it acquired the rights.

In both cases, the companies weren’t marketing newly developed drugs, which may have cost tens of millions of dollars to develop but drugs that have been on the market for many decades – making it far more difficult to justify a huge increase in price. Citron Research, an online investment research company, published a damning report on Valeant’s marketing practices this week, describing them essentially as “jack up prices and cut spending.”

While most pharmaceutical companies spend an average of 17 percent of their income on research and development, Valeant spends only 3 percent, according to the report. A chart accompanying the analysis shows how prices charged by the company for roughly 30 older prescription drugs have risen over the past two and a half years, from as little as 90 percent for a nasal spray to 2,288 percent for ear drops.

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The Wall Street Journal first reported that on the same day the company acquired the drugs, it tripled the cost of a vial of Nitropress to $805.61 and increased the cost of a vial of Isuprel from $215 to $1,346.

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Legal drinking age of 18 tied to high school dropout rate

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/joso-lda092115.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Legal drinking age of 18 tied to high school dropout rate
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

Although there have been calls to lower the legal drinking age from 21, a new study raises the possibility that it could have the unintended effect of boosting the high school dropout rate.

The report, published in the September issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, looked back at high school dropout rates in the 1970s to mid-80s -- a time when many U.S. states lowered the age at which young people could legally buy alcohol.

Researchers found that when the minimum drinking age was lowered to 18, high school dropout rates rose by 4 to 13 percent, depending on the data source. Black and Hispanic students -- who were already more vulnerable to dropping out -- appeared more affected than white students.

The findings do not prove that the 18 drinking age was to blame, according to lead researcher Andrew Plunk, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School, in Norfolk. However, he said, state drinking-age policies would likely be unrelated to the personal factors that put kids at risk of drinking problems or dropping out.

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And why would the legal drinking age matter when it comes to high school dropout rates?

"The minimum legal drinking age changes how easy it is for a young person to get alcohol," Plunk said. "In places where it was lowered to 18, it's likely that more high school students were able to get alcohol from their friends."

And for certain vulnerable kids, that access might lower their chances of finishing high school. Policies that allowed 18-year-olds to buy alcohol showed a particular impact on minority students, as well as young people whose parents had drinking problems. In that latter group, the dropout rate rose by 40 percent.

In the mid-1980s, federal legislation returned the legal drinking age to 21 nationwide.

However, there is an ongoing debate about lowering it again -- largely as a way to combat clandestine binge drinking on college campuses. The argument is that college students who can legally buy alcohol at bars and restaurants will drink more responsibly.

But Plunk said that debate is missing something: What might the effects be in high schools?

"I think this study gives us some idea of what could happen if we lower the legal drinking age," Plunk said. "It suggests to me that we'd see this same dropout phenomenon again."

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Butter is not back: Limiting saturated fat still best for heart health

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/hsop-bin092315.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Butter is not back: Limiting saturated fat still best for heart health
Harvard School of Public Health

People who replace saturated fat (mainly found in meats and dairy foods) in their diets with refined carbohydrates do not lower their risk of heart disease, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. On the other hand, those who replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats (found in vegetable oils and nuts) or whole grains lower their heart disease risk.

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Workplace exposure to metalworking fluid may cause irreversible lung disease

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/elf-wet092415.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Workplace exposure to metalworking fluid may cause irreversible lung disease
European Lung Foundation

Occupational exposure to fluid commonly used in metal machining operations may be related to a rare, irreversible lung disease, according to research presented at the European Respiratory Society's (ERS) International Congress today (28 September, 2015).

Although metalworking fluid is known to be associated with lung diseases involving the immune system, such as asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis (an allergic type of pneumonia), this appears to be the first time that exposure to metalworking fluid has been associated with lymphocytic bronchiolitis. In this condition, an overgrowth of immune cells damages the smallest airways in the lung, suggesting an immune system reaction to something inhaled.

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Health hazards of occupational exposure to talc

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/elf-hho092415.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Health hazards of occupational exposure to talc
Occupational exposure to talc in the food processing industry is little recognized, but highly dangerous
European Lung Foundation

alc, a substance commonly used in a number of manufacturing processes, including many in the food processing industry, is a health hazard and exposure to it should be closely monitored, say researchers from The Netherlands.

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Dr Rooijackers and colleagues studied workers in a chocolate products factory where talc (hydrated magnesium silicate) was used regularly in the manufacturing process, and in which one worker had already been diagnosed with the pulmonary disease talcosis, where the inhalation of talc causes inflammation in the lungs. Damage is progressive with ongoing exposure and may lead to lung fibrosis and respiratory failure. In some cases, the steroidal anti-inflammatory drug prednisone may help sufferers.

"Although talcosis is a well known health effect of talc inhalation in such industries as mining, the risk was not recognised by the company, since talc is considered to be a harmless food additive and safe overall," says Dr Rooijackers. "As soon as an employee was diagnosed with talcosis caused by occupational exposure the company became concerned about the health risks to its employees posed by talc use."

The researchers analysed individual exposure in all those workers who were in regular contact with talcum dust. The 111 workers who had the highest exposure were asked to complete a questionnaire on their occupational history and respiratory symptoms. Based on their estimated cumulative exposure, 18 workers were referred for a high resolution CT scan of the thorax. At least one, and possibly two workers out of the 18, were found to have talcosis. Following the researchers' work, the company implemented effective control measures aimed at limiting workers' exposure to talc.

Many industries use talc in the manufacturing process. In food, it is minerally inert and passes through the body without being digested. It is therefore used for a carrier for food colouring and as a separating agent in, for example, sweet goods, bakery, rice, powdered dried foods, seasonings, cheese, sausage skins and table salt. Non-food uses include paper, paint, plastic, rubber and ceramics.

In addition to talc, the researchers say, inhalation of other food additives as well as flavours and enzymes may be an as yet unidentified respiratory hazard in the food industry, and it is important that this should be studied and quantified.

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New research exposes the health risks of fructose and sugary drinks

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/acoc-nre092415.php

ublic Release: 28-Sep-2015
New research exposes the health risks of fructose and sugary drinks
Researchers call for more aggressive efforts to reduce consumption of products containing added sugar
American College of Cardiology

There is compelling evidence that drinking too many sugar-sweetened beverages, which contain added sugars in the form of high fructose corn syrup or table sugar (sucrose), can lead to excess weight gain and a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to a new review paper published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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The paper, which reviewed data from recent epidemiological studies and meta-analyses of these studies, reveals that consuming one or two servings a day has been linked to:

as high as a 26 percent greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes,
a 35 percent greater risk of heart attack or fatal heart disease, and
a 16 percent increased risk of stroke

The research team also explored how fructose is metabolized in the body and its link to weight gain and the development of metabolic and cardiovascular conditions.

"Part of the problem is how fructose behaves in the body," said Hu. Glucose, another component of sugar, is readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream where it is transported through the action of insulin into the body's cells to be used as fuel. Fructose, on the other hand, is metabolized in the liver where it can be converted to fatty compounds called triglycerides, which may lead to fatty liver disease and insulin resistance, a key risk factor for developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Overconsumption of fructose can also lead to too much uric acid in the blood, which is associated with a greater risk of gout, a painful inflammatory arthritis.

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Smoking increases hospitalizations, costs of peripheral artery disease

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/acoc-sih092415.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Smoking increases hospitalizations, costs of peripheral artery disease
Researchers say clinicians should focus on smoking cessation
American College of Cardiology

An analysis of medical costs associated with atherosclerotic lower extremity peripheral artery disease, a dangerous condition in which a buildup of plaque in the arteries restricts blood flow to the legs and feet, found that health care costs in one year were $18,000 higher in smokers with the condition than non-smokers with the condition.

Within one year, 49 percent of the tobacco users with PAD in the study were hospitalized, a hospitalization rate 35 percent higher than nonusers.

The study published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found smokers are more likely to be hospitalized for leg events, heart attack and coronary heart disease related to atherosclerotic peripheral artery disease, known as PAD, than non-smokers with PAD.

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Study finds childhood stress impacts adult health

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/acoc-sfc092415.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Study finds childhood stress impacts adult health
Persistent distress, distress in childhood associated with higher risk of heart disease, diabetes
American College of Cardiology

A 45-year study of nearly 7,000 people born in a single week in Great Britain in 1958 found psychological distress in childhood -- even when conditions improved in adulthood -- was associated with higher risk for heart disease and diabetes later in life.

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The study found that people with persistent distress throughout their lives had the highest cardiometabolic risk score relative to participants who reported low levels of distress throughout childhood and adulthood. Using the same comparison group, participants with high levels of distress occurring primarily in childhood, and those with high levels of distress occurring primarily in adulthood also exhibited higher cardiometabolic risk. The estimated risk for cardiometabolic disease for people with persistent distress through to middle adulthood was higher than risk commonly observed for people who are overweight in childhood.

After adjusting for a range of factors that might affect these associations, including medication use, socioeconomic status, and health behaviors, the researchers found the risk for people who experienced high distress levels primarily in adulthood was not different compared with those with low levels of distress over their life course. But participants who experienced high distress primarily in childhood and those with persistent distress continued to have significantly higher risk scores even after considering those other factors.

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"While effects of distress in early childhood on higher cardiometabolic risk in adulthood appeared to be somewhat mitigated if distress levels were lower by adulthood, they were not eradicated," the authors said. "This highlights the potentially lasting impact of childhood distress on adult physical health."

"It is also increasingly apparent that adversity in a child's social environment increases the likelihood of developing high levels of distress. Thus, early prevention and intervention strategies focused not only on the child but also on his or her social circumstances may be an effective way to reduce the long-lasting harmful effects of distress," Winning said.

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"When considering our patients in this broader social context, telling them to lose weight, stop smoking, eat a better diet without addressing the underlying stress or distress that may be fueling unhealthy behaviors (and lab values) may be counter-productive," Holman said. "Indeed, by 'advising' or 'directing' our patients to change their behaviors, we undermine their trust in us and may exacerbate their distress, especially if they feel stuck or unable to make the recommended changes."

Holman suggests patient-centered motivational interviewing and more compassionate approaches to patient communication.

JACC Editor-in-Chief Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, said, "If stress contributes to cardiovascular disease in adults, as this study finds, it is easy to extrapolate the impact that stress may cause in earlier years of life when psychological and biological stages are at such a heightened state for young people."

Air pollution and traffic linked to deaths and organ rejection in lung transplant patients

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/elf-apa092515.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Air pollution and traffic linked to deaths and organ rejection in lung transplant patients
European Lung Foundation

Researchers have shown for the first time that lung transplant patients in Europe who live on or near busy roads with high levels of air pollution are more likely to die or to experience chronic organ rejection, than those living in less polluted areas.

Dr David Ruttens, from the University of Leuven (Belgium) told the European Respiratory Society's International Congress today (29 September, 2015) that the risk of dying increased by 10% for patients living in an area where air pollution was above World Health Organization (WHO) recommended maximum levels, compared with patients living in areas with lower levels of pollution. However, this increased risk was not seen in lung transplant patients who were taking a class of antibiotics called macrolides, which include azithromycin and clarithromycin.

WHO estimates that 3.7 million people worldwide die prematurely every year as a result of exposure to small particulate matter measuring between 2.5-10 micrometers in diameter (known as PM10). Ten micrometers is less than the width of a human hair, and PM10 particles tend to be dust particles stirred up by vehicles on roads and some grinding operations. WHO recommends PM10 particles should not exceed 20 micrograms per cubic metre in the atmosphere

Dr Ruttens said: "Short and long-term exposure to air pollution has been linked to an increase in deaths from respiratory diseases, particularly among vulnerable populations. Lung transplant patients are among the most vulnerable because they have weakened immune systems due to the immunosuppressive drugs they have to take to prevent organ rejection."

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"Our results show that both deaths and chronic rejection in lung transplant patients are associated with air pollution and exposure to traffic," said Dr Ruttens. "Lowering the levels of air pollution in Europe would significantly improve the chances of these patients' survival and lower their risk of organ rejection. For instance, if levels of air pollution were reduced to below the maximum recommended by the WHO, there would be a 9.9% reduction in deaths among lung transplant patients who were not taking macrolides, and 6.4% reduction among all patients, regardless of whether or not they were taking macrolides.

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Cancer diagnosis while pregnant should not lead to treatment delay or end of pregnancy

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/eeco-cdw092515.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Cancer diagnosis while pregnant should not lead to treatment delay or end of pregnancy
ECCO-the European CanCer Organisation

Women who are pregnant when diagnosed with cancer can start treatment for their disease immediately and do not need to terminate their pregnancy due to worries over the effects of therapy on the development of their child.

In a special session on cancer in pregnancy at the 2015 European Cancer Congress [1] on Monday, Professor Frédéric Amant said that new results from a study of 129 children, aged between one and three, born after prenatal exposure to cancer treatment, showed normal development of their mental processes and heart function when compared to a matching group of children from the general population.

"Our results show that fear of cancer treatment is no reason to terminate a pregnancy, that maternal treatment should not be delayed and that chemotherapy can be given. The study also shows that children suffer more from prematurity than from chemotherapy, so avoiding prematurity is more important than avoiding chemotherapy," said Prof Amant, who is a gynaecological oncologist at the University Hospitals Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and at Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). The study is being published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine

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However, the researchers found that the scores tended to increase by an average of 2.2 points for every week in gestational age, after controlling for age, gender, country, ethnicity and parental education level. "Delayed development of mental processes appeared to be related to premature birth," he said.

Premature birth was more frequent among children born to mothers with cancer, regardless of whether or not they received prenatal treatment, than in the general population in the countries participating in the study. They had a median gestational age of 36 weeks, ranging from 27-41 weeks; 79 (61.2%) children were born at less than 37 weeks, compared to 7-8% in the general population.

"In most cases, they were born prematurely due to a medical decision to induce preterm so as to continue cancer treatment after the delivery," said Prof Amant. "In some cases preterm delivery was spontaneous and it is possible that cancer treatment plays a role in this. But we do not know what exactly triggers preterm delivery. It could be that chemotherapy induces preterm contractions or vaginal inflammation with preterm rupture of the membranes."

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However, he warned that the results had some limitations. "Our data include many types of chemotherapy, but we cannot guarantee that all types of chemotherapy are safe.

"We need to look at larger numbers of children and larger numbers exposed to each drug in order to be able to document the potential effects of individual drugs. In addition, we cannot extrapolate to newer drugs, including targeted drugs. We need longer follow-up to see if there are any long-term toxic effects in cases where cisplatin was administered before birth. For these reasons we will continue to follow these children until the age of 18 years and we will enlarge the group. This will allow us to document longer-term effects and to draw conclusions for specific drugs. In addition we will investigate to what extent anti-cancer drugs are diluted in the body during pregnancy, and also at the psycho-emotional needs of mothers and their partners."

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Flood risk on rise for New York City and New Jersey coast, study finds

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/ru-fro092515.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Flood risk on rise for New York City and New Jersey coast, study finds
Researchers at 5 universities including Rutgers compare storm models from prehistoric to modern eras and find a dramatic increase in major storm occurrence
Rutgers University

Flood risk for New York City and the New Jersey coast has increased significantly during the last 1,000 years due to hurricanes and accompanying storm surges, according to a study by Penn State University, Rutgers University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University and Tufts University.

For the first time, climate researchers compared both sea-level rise rates and storm surge heights in prehistoric and modern eras and found that the combined increases of each have raised the likelihood of a devastating 500-year flood occurring as often as every 25 years.

"A storm that occurred once in seven generations is now occurring twice in a generation," said Benjamin Horton, a Rutgers marine and coastal sciences professor. Horton also is the principal investigator on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Science Foundation grants funding the research.

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Flooding heights increased 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) from the prehistoric era to the modern era, researchers found. "This is mainly due to the rising sea level. Sea levels have been rising in the modern era because of human activity," Horton said. "Sea-level rise between hurricanes raises the 'baseline' water level and makes flooding more likely."

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In the new study, researchers provided a continuous sea-level reconstruction since A.D 850. They showed that since the late 19th century sea level has risen at its steepest rate for more than 1,000 years. What does that mean for residents along the New York/New Jersey coast? "An extra 100,000 people flooded in the region during Hurricane Sandy who would not have flooded if sea level had not been rising," Horton said of the 2012 storm.

Climate scientists have established that two types of storms cause the most damage - big, slow-moving storms and smaller but higher-intensity storms - and this study found that both have significantly increased in the modern era. "What we do know is that as sea level rise accelerates into the future, we are going to have more frequent flooding," Horton said.

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Chemical exposure linked to rising diabetes, obesity risk

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/tes-cel092515.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Chemical exposure linked to rising diabetes, obesity risk
Endocrine Society releases scientific statement on endocrine-disrupting chemicals
The Endocrine Society

Emerging evidence ties endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure to two of the biggest public health threats facing society - diabetes and obesity, according to the executive summary of an upcoming Scientific Statement issued today by the Endocrine Society.

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The statement builds upon the Society's groundbreaking 2009 report, which examined the state of scientific evidence on endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and the risks posed to human health. In the ensuing years, additional research has found that exposure is associated with increased risk of developing diabetes and obesity. Mounting evidence also indicates EDC exposure is connected to infertility, hormone-related cancers, neurological issues and other disorders.

EDCs contribute to health problems by mimicking, blocking or otherwise interfering with the body's natural hormones. By hijacking the body's chemical messengers, EDCs can alter the way cells develop and grow.

Known EDCs include bisphenol A (BPA) found in food can linings and cash register receipts, phthalates found in plastics and cosmetics, flame retardants and pesticides. The chemicals are so common that nearly every person on Earth has been exposed to one or more. An economic analysis published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in March estimated that EDC exposure likely costs the European Union €157 billion ($209 billion) a year in actual health care expenses and lost earning potential.

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"Hundreds of studies are pointing to the same conclusion, whether they are long-term epidemiological studies in human, basic research in animals and cells, or research into groups of people with known occupational exposure to specific chemicals."

The threat is particularly great when unborn children are exposed to EDCs. Animal studies found that exposure to even tiny amounts of EDCs during the prenatal period can trigger obesity later in life. Similarly, animal studies found that some EDCs directly target beta and alpha cells in the pancreas, fat cells, and liver cells. This can lead to insulin resistance and an overabundance of the hormone insulin in the body - risk factors for Type 2 diabetes.

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The Scientific Statement also examines evidence linking EDCs to reproductive health problems, hormone-related cancers such as breast and ovarian cancer, prostate conditions, thyroid disorders and neurodevelopmental issues. Although many of these conditions were linked to EDCs by earlier research, the number of corroborating studies continues to mount.

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Early exposure to tobacco as a cause of behavioral problems in children

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/ind-eet092815.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Early exposure to tobacco as a cause of behavioral problems in children
INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale)

Researchers from Inserm and Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC), in collaboration with the university hospitals of 6 French cities, have analysed data on pre- and postnatal exposure to tobacco in the homes of 5,200 primary school children. They show that this exposure is associated with a risk of behavioural disorders in children, particularly emotional and conduct disorders. The association is stronger when exposure takes place both during pregnancy and after birth. These data show the risk associated with smoking in early life and its behavioural repercussions when the child is of school-going age.These results are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

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In greater detail, emotional disorders are associated with exposure to ETS during both the prenatal and postnatal periods, which concerns 21% of the children in the study. Conduct disorders are also associated with ETS exposure in these children. The association also exists in cases of prenatal or postnatal exposure alone, but is less pronounced.

These observations seem to confirm those carried out in animals, i.e. that the nicotine contained in tobacco smoke may have a neurotoxic effect on the brain. During pregnancy, nicotine in tobacco smoke stimulates acetylcholine receptors, and causes structural changes in the brain. In the first months of life, exposure to tobacco smoke generates a protein imbalance that leads to altered neuronal growth.

"Our data indicate that passive smoking, in addition to the well-known effects on health, should also be avoided because of the behavioural disorders it may cause in children," concludes the researcher.

Men more likely to be seen as 'creative thinkers'

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/afps-mml092815.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Men more likely to be seen as 'creative thinkers'
Association for Psychological Science

People tend to associate the ability to think creatively with stereotypical masculine qualities, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings suggest that the work and achievements of men tend to be evaluated as more creative than similar work and achievements produced by women.

"Our research shows that beliefs about what it takes to 'think creatively' overlap substantially with the unique content of male stereotypes, creating systematic bias in the way that men and women's creativity is evaluated," says lead researcher Devon Proudfoot of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Research suggests that when people think about "creative thinkers" they tend to think of characteristics typically ascribed to men but not women, including qualities like risk-taking, adventurousness, and self-reliance. Proudfoot and Duke colleagues Aaron Kay and Christy Zoval hypothesized that this could ultimately lead people to view creative thinking as an ability more common among men than women.

•••••

In a second online study, Proudfoot and colleagues randomly assigned 169 participants to read about either an architect or a fashion designer; some were told the professional was male and others were told that the professional was female. The participants viewed three images of the person's work (houses or fashion designs) and rated the work on its creativity, originality, and outside-the-box thinking.

The researchers hypothesized that the male architect would be rated as more creative than female architect, but that this gender difference would not emerge in the context of fashion design because traditional male stereotypes may be more difficult to apply in the domain of fashion.

As predicted, the male architect was judged as more creative than the female architect, despite the fact that their creations were identical. There was no evidence of a gender difference in creativity ratings for the fashion designers.

•••••

In a final study, the researchers asked 125 participants to read a passage about either a male or a female manager whose strategic plan was described as more or less risky (a stereotypical masculine trait).

As predicted, the male manager was perceived as more creative when his behavior was described as risky than when it wasn't, but there was no such effect for the female manager. And the male manager who adopted a risky strategic plan was viewed as more creative than the female manager who espoused the risky plan.

•••••

"In suggesting that women are less likely than men to have their creative thinking recognized, our research not only points to a unique reason why women may be passed over for corporate leadership positions, but also suggests why women remain largely absent from elite circles within creative industries," says Proudfoot.

Word 'breakthrough' dramatically affects perceptions of a new drug's effectiveness

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/tdif-wd092815.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Word 'breakthrough' dramatically affects perceptions of a new drug's effectiveness
The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice

When it comes to our perception of a new drug's benefits and effectiveness, "breakthrough" just may be the "magic" word. Dartmouth Institute researchers Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin and Tamar Krishnamurtia and Baruch Fischhoff from Carnegie Mellon University, took a look at how catchphrases such as "breakthrough" and "promising" affect public perception of a new drug. And, the findings of their research study, published recently in JAMA Internal Medicine, show the answer is pretty significantly.

In everyday usage, the term "breakthrough" represents a highly significant or definitive advance. However, since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Safety and Innovation Act became law in 2012, the FDA can assign the breakthrough designation to a drug that "treats a serious or life-threatening condition" and "may demonstrate a substantial improvement...over available therapies" based only on preliminary evidence. Such drugs often receive what's known as accelerated approval.

And, in fact, since the creation of the Safety and Innovation Act, all FDA press releases announcing the approval of a breakthrough-designated drugs have used the term "breakthrough" while about half use the term "promising."

"Today, patients and their families can easily find FDA press releases on the Internet, or they often hear about them in the news," Woloshin said. "But the reality is that unless patients fully understand how the FDA is using the term 'breakthrough,' they may have unwarranted confidence in the evidence supporting drug claims. So, we thought it was important to test how these terms affect the judgement of people without medical training."

•••••

"Our findings clearly indicate that words like 'breakthrough' and 'promising' increase people's beliefs in a drug's effectiveness (sometimes incorrectly)," Schwartz said. "In light of (the findings), press releases with neutral terms and that clearly explain the limited evidence supporting what breakthrough-designation and accelerated approval mean might help consumers make more accurate judgements about these drugs."

tags: influence

Goods manufactured in China not good for the environment, study finds

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uoc--gmi092815.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Goods manufactured in China not good for the environment, study finds
UCI, other researchers link products made there with higher CO2 emissions
University of California - Irvine

In a study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, scientists from three universities show that products made in China are associated with significantly higher carbon dioxide emissions than the same products made elsewhere.

"The amazing increase in Chinese manufacturing over the past 15 years has driven the world economy to new heights and supplied consumers in developed countries with tremendous quantities of lower-cost goods," said co-author Steven J. Davis, an assistant professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine. "But all of this has come at substantial cost to the environment."

The researchers, also from Harvard University and the University of Maryland, attribute China's high emissions intensity - the quantity of CO2 emitted per dollar of goods produced - to the nation's antiquated manufacturing processes and reliance on coal.

"The CO2 emissions related to China's exports are large not just because they export a lot of stuff or because they specialize in energy-demanding industries, but because their manufacturing technologies are less advanced and they rely primarily on coal for energy," said co-author Klaus Hubacek, a University of Maryland professor of geographical sciences.

•••••
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uom-awa092815.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
A walk around the office can reverse vascular dysfunction caused by hours at a computer
University of Missouri-Columbia

Across the country, many employees are seated at desks for the majority of an eight-hour workday. As technology creates an increase in sedentary lifestyles, the impact of sitting on vascular health is a rising concern. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have found that when a person sits for six straight hours, vascular function is impaired -- but by walking for just 10 minutes after a prolonged period of sitting, vascular health can be restored.

•••••

"When you have decreased blood flow, the friction of the flowing blood on the artery wall, called shear stress, is also reduced," Padilla said. "Moderate levels of shear stress are good for arterial health, whereas low levels of shear stress appear to be detrimental and reduce the ability of the artery to dilate. Dilation is a sign of vascular health. The more the artery can dilate and respond to stimuli, the healthier it is."

•••••

Breakthroughs need in-depth knowledge, not just cross-collaboration, study shows

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uotr-bni092815.php

Public Release: 28-Sep-2015
Breakthroughs need in-depth knowledge, not just cross-collaboration, study shows
University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management

Most high-impact innovation happens when knowledge and people from different fields are brought together to create something new, previous research has found.

But the latest findings from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management show that truly new, paradigm-busting ideas with long-term potential need profound knowledge in a narrow domain. Organizations that ignore that in favour of recombining what's already known will miss out on the greatest potential breakthroughs.

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Walking quieter routes to work can avoid peaks in air pollution

I am sad when I see people jogging by a busy highway, thinking they are helping their health, when they are harming it.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/elf-wqr092415.php

Public Release: 27-Sep-2015
Walking quieter routes to work can avoid peaks in air pollution
European Lung Foundation

The Netherlands: Commuting to work by walking on quieter side streets rather than main roads can help people avoid exposure to peaks in harmful air pollution, according to new research presented today at the European Respiratory Society's International Congress, 2015.

Black carbon is one of the components of air pollution, and comes from incomplete combustion by diesel vehicles. It is known to be associated with a range of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, as well as with cardiovascular diseases.

•••••

"We know that short-term exposure to black carbon is associated with increased hospital admissions due to respiratory symptoms, and that long-term exposure is associated with exacerbations and increased prevalence of asthma.

•••••

Post-diagnosis aspirin improves survival in all gastrointestinal cancers

Note that aspirin depresses the immune system, so it might not go well with chemo.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/eeco-pda092515.php

Public Release: 27-Sep-2015
Post-diagnosis aspirin improves survival in all gastrointestinal cancers
ECCO-the European CanCer Organisation

Aspirin improves survival in patients with tumours situated throughout the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, results from a large study in The Netherlands show. This is the first time that survival data from patients with tumours in different GI locations have been analysed at the same time; previously, only one type of cancer, usually colorectal, was studied. The results of the study, involving nearly 14,000 patients, may lead to new insights regarding the use of aspirin in GI cancer say the researchers.

•••••

In total, 30.5% of patients used aspirin pre-diagnosis, 8.3% were solely post-diagnosis users, and 61.1% had not taken aspirin at all. The commonest sites for tumours were colon (42.8% of patients), rectum (25.4%), and oesophagus (10.2%). Median follow-up time for all patients was 48.6 months, with 28% of patients surviving for at least five years. Patients using aspirin after their diagnosis had a chance of survival twice as high than that of those who did not use it in the same circumstances. The beneficial effect of aspirin use on survival was seen in patients with GI tumours after adjusting for potential confounding factors such as sex, age, stage of cancer, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and other medical conditions or disorders.

•••••

The scientists believe that the beneficial effect of aspirin in cancer is due to its antiplatelet effect. Platelets are a blood component whose function is to stop bleeding by clumping and clogging blood vessel injuries. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are thought to hide themselves from the immune system with the help of the clothing of platelets that surround them. Aspirin inhibits platelet function and therefore allows the immune system to recognise CTCs and eliminate them.

•••••

Impact of hearing loss and treatment options at various ages

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/aaoo-ioh092615.php

Public Release: 26-Sep-2015
Impact of hearing loss and treatment options at various ages
New research releases during ENT's annual meeting
American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery

Hearing loss, estimated to affect upwards of 48 million people in the United States, will be a hot topic among new research presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO? of the American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) in Dallas. The Annual Meeting, which runs Sunday through noon on Wednesday, features new research findings from across all areas of the otolaryngology specialty.

•••••

Depression after Hearing Loss Treatment: Results from the SMART Study
Hearing loss in older adults is associated with depressive symptoms. Do hearing aids and cochlear implants help?
Abstract: http://oto.sagepub.com/content/153/1_suppl/P91.full#sec-19

•••••

Hearing Problems and Grade Repetition amongst U.S. Children
A study of 73.6 million children finds that hearing problems are associated with needing to repeat a grade in school.
Abstract: http://oto.sagepub.com/content/153/1_suppl/P45.full#sec-16

The Assessment of Intellectual Development with CI in Children
Decreased verbal ability affects children's intellectual development, especially cognition and social-emotional responses. So what's the intellectual progression for children with cochlear implants?
Abstract: http://oto.sagepub.com/content/153/1_suppl/P116.full#sec-2

•••••

Why You Still Should Register A "Copyrighted" Work

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/09/why-you-still-should-register-a-copyrighted-work.html

Justin M. Jacobson, The Jacobson Firm, P.C
Sept. 28, 2015

While many creatives in the entertainment industry believe (and are partly correct) that a work is copyrighted as soon as it is fixed in a tangible medium it still pays, often literally, to formally register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office, particularly where legal issues are concerned.

A common misconception in the entertainment industry is that an author has a “copyright registration” in the work upon completion and the publication of the created work. However, this is not true. Although the Berne Convention, which the United States is a signatory to, creates a “universal copyright” or copyright upon creation and publication of a work, the work is not “registered” until it has, in fact, been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Truth be told, all of the benefits of copyright ownership are not available in America until the Copyright has been registered.

Registering a copyright is as easy as preparing and submitting an application to the United States Copyright Office with the appropriate filing fee and a copy of the copyrighted material. Once the work is registered and the certification is issued, the benefits of the registration begin immediately and are retroactive to the original filing date of these elements.

While it is established that a copyright is automatically created in a work upon the completion of the original work of authorship, when it is fixed in a tangible medium of expression; a formal registration of the creative materials with the U.S. Copyright Office within three months of public release provides additional, valuable benefits to the creator of the work. Some of these benefits include that the work now becomes a matter of public record and is available for search within the U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress. This makes it easy to search and verify the ownership and extent of an existing, copyrighted work. This permits an individual to quickly find and contact the creator in the event that the individual desires to use or license the copyrighted material.

Additionally, in order to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit when an author believes that one of their copyrighted works has been infringed upon, the work must be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office prior to instituting a lawsuit. A valid registration certificate constitutes prima facie evidence of valid copyright ownership in the work after five years. Also, if the owner has filed for registration prior to the infringement or within three months of publication of the work, the author may be entitled to recover actual damages incurred, statutory damages as well as attorney’s fees. These fees can exceed the actual damages incurred by the copyright owner.

A valid registration also defeats a defendant’s defense of being an “innocent infringer” and provides increased statutory damages for infringements found to be “willful.” It also allows for the owner to easily license and catalog the various rights in the works.

•••••

Monday, September 28, 2015

House Votes To Keep EPA From Considering Costs Of Climate Disruption

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/27/3705860/social-cost-of-carbon-must-remain-uncalculated/

by Samantha Page Sep 27, 2015

Climate change costs an incredible amount of money. Whether it is deaths during heat waves, reconstruction after a superstorm, or even lost revenues at ski slopes, rising temperatures and increased extreme weather events are costing the economy. In fact, Citibank reported earlier this year that it will cost $44 trillion worldwide by 2060 to mitigate the costs of climate change under the business as usual scenario.

But efforts to include those costs in permitting projects just took another hit, when the House voted to pass the RAPID Act, a bill intended to streamline permitting processes. Tucked into the bill is language that will prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from considered the social cost of carbon during permitting.

The bill, which passed largely down party lines Friday afternoon, specifically prohibits federal agencies from following draft guidance from the White House Council on Environmental Quality for “consideration of greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of climate change” in environmental reviews. Further, under the RAPID Act, any permit request that is not addressed by the agency deadline will be automatically approved.

•••••

In the final tally, no Republicans voted against the bill. Democrats Brad Ashford (NE), Dixon Bishop (GA), Jim Costa (CA), Henry Cuellar (TX), Ruben Hinojosa (TX), Collin Peterson (MN), and Kurt Schrader (OR) voted for the bill.

The White House has said the president will veto the RAPID Act.

“Everyone knows that climate change is urgent,” Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-CA) told ThinkProgress in an email. “The Pope knows, our young people know, even China knows, but this House is unfortunately one of the last bastions of irresponsible inaction. The clock is ticking and too many in the majority don’t get it.”

Breaking the anxiety cycle between generations

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uoc-bta092115.php

Public Release: 25-Sep-2015
Breaking the anxiety cycle
Family intervention can help anxious parents raise calm kids
University of Connecticut

A woman who won't drive long distances because she has panic attacks in the car. A man who has contamination fears so intense he cannot bring himself to use public bathrooms. A woman who can't go to church because she fears enclosed spaces. All of these people have two things in common: they have an anxiety disorder. They're also parents.

Each of these parents sought help because they struggle with anxiety, and want to prevent their children from suffering the same way. Children of anxious parents are at increased risk for developing the disorder. Yet that does not need to be the case, according to new research by UConn Health psychiatrist Golda Ginsburg.

Ginsburg and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University tested a one-year family therapy intervention as part of a study of 136 families with at least one parent with anxiety and at least one child between the ages of 6 and 13.

The study, published online September 25 in The American Journal of Psychiatry, found family-based intervention works. Only 9 percent of children who participated in a therapist-directed family intervention developed anxiety after one year, compared to 21 percent in a group that received written instruction, and 31 percent in the group that did not receive any therapy or written instruction.

•••••

Both inborn temperament and life experiences play a role, she says. The more negative experiences a person has growing up, the greater the likelihood he or she will struggle with anxiety as an adult. But there is also a component of anxiety that is learned, taught inadvertently by parents who model the behavior. It's these learned behaviors and thought patterns that interventions can help change.

•••••

Most of the adults who participated in the study struggled in school and didn't tell anyone. They didn't raise their hands, or they got sick before exams. They might not have had any friends. As adults, their anxiety still limits their activities and sometimes those of their family members, and they are very motivated to help their children avoid the same.

In the study, some of the families participated in eight, hour-long sessions with a trained therapist over a period of two months. Others were just given a pamphlet that contained general information about anxiety disorders and treatments. Still others received nothing at all.

The families who participated in therapy were taught to identify the signs of anxiety and how to reduce it. They practiced problem-solving skills, and exercised safe exposures to whatever made their child anxious.

One of the ways to reduce anxiety is the reality check - learning to recognize when a fear is healthy and worth paying attention to (a growling dog) or unhealthy (a suspicion that the birthday cake is poisoned).

"We taught the kids how to identify scary thoughts, and how to change them," Ginsburg says. For example, if a child is afraid of cats and encounters one in the street, the child can first identify the scary thought: "That cat is going to hurt me." Then the child can test that thought - is it likely that the cat will hurt me? No, the cat doesn't look angry. It isn't baring its teeth or hissing, it's just sitting there. OK, I can walk past that cat and it won't do anything.

In general, children who participated in the intervention had lower anxiety overall than children who did not participate in the intervention with their families.

•••••

I've got your back -- fishes really do look after their mates!

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/acoe-igy092315.php

Public Release: 25-Sep-2015
I've got your back -- fishes really do look after their mates!
ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies

When it comes to helping each other out, it turns out that some fish are better at it than previously thought.

New research from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University has found that pairs of rabbitfishes will cooperate and support each other while feeding.

While such behaviour has been documented for highly social birds and mammals, it has previously been believed to be impossible for fishes.

"We found that rabbitfish pairs coordinate their vigilance activity quite strictly, thereby providing safety for their foraging partner," says Dr Simon Brandl from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

"In other words, one partner stays 'on guard' while the other feeds - these fishes literally watch each others' back," Dr Brandl says.

"This behaviour is so far unique among fishes and appears to be based on reciprocal cooperation between pair members."

Reciprocal cooperation, which requires an investment in a partner, which is later reciprocated, is assumed to require complex cognitive and social skills. Skills that fishes have been deemed not to have.

•••••

"Our findings should further ignite efforts to understand fishes as highly developed organisms with complex social behaviours," he says.

"This may also require a shift in how we study and ethically treat fishes."

Study: Companies like Volkswagen often apologize, silence stakeholders, forget the scandal

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/au-scl092515.php

Public Release: 25-Sep-2015
Study: Companies like Volkswagen often apologize, silence stakeholders, forget the scandal
Aalto University

Researchers have found that large corporations often try to get over their corporate irresponsibility by first asking for forgiveness and then silencing their stakeholders. They also remove traces that may act as a reminder of the scandal. If Volkswagen does what many other corporations have previously done in similar cases, it may not learn to avoid its mistakes - and it may repeat the same mistake later on.

According to researchers at Aalto University in Finland and Cass Business School in the UK, corporations often succeed in playing down large instances of corporate irresponsibilities quickly by using several methods. Companies downplay the harm that an event has caused, shift the blame onto someone else and shift attention away from the scandal to another issue. According to the researchers, at the moment, Volkswagen as a company is looking to heap the blame for a collective failure onto the shoulders of a few individuals - such as a CEO that already resigned.

Companies also seem to put lots of effort into forgetting the scandal in the longer term. The researchers found companies get rid of people who might remember what went wrong, by gagging them, pushing them out of the company or sidelining them. Companies also tried to remove traces of the scandal by stamping out stories of the scandal and getting rid of records or technologies which may serve as reminders of the scandal.

The researchers consider the forgetting of corporate scandals to be a double edged sword. On the one hand, putting past mistakes behind you helps a company keep a positive image of itself and move on. But there is a very real danger that when companies forget a past scandal, they end up repeating it again.

According to the researchers, Volkswagen has already taken a sensible step with an apology. The speed with which a firm assumes full responsibility for an event and asks for forgiveness from stakeholders is likely to facilitate collective forgetting.

•••••

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Cornering the Market on Essential Drugs

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/09/generic_drug_price_gouging_how_shkreli_and_other_monopolists_cornered_the.html

By Jeremy A. Greene
Sept. 23, 2015

•••••

Though pinworms can be found in middle-class suburbs, the parasite is common in settings of urban poverty, including the low-rise public housing complexes across the street from my East Baltimore clinic, where far too many people struggle to survive on less than $2 a day.



The diagnosis itself was relatively easy to make, and though my patient had no insurance, I sent her to the pharmacy confident that the right drug for her disease, albendazole, should only cost a few dollars to fill. After all, the drug had been introduced in 1971, and by the 1980s its cost was so low and its use so broadly validated that it was added to the essential drugs list of the World Health Organization: a powerful medicine widely available for pennies a pill. When she returned an hour later saying that she could not afford the medication, I pressed for more detail. Sometimes even a few dollars can be too much for patients scraping to make rent or buy food for their families, and our staff has a limited ability to offer vouchers to help cover drug costs in times of need. Yet I was not prepared for the figure she showed me: The two pills of albendazole I had prescribed would cost her an untenable $330. As I soon discovered, the U.S. market for the once-generic drug albendazole had been cornered by a small pharmaceutical company called Amedra and retrofitted into a newly exclusive brand, Albenza, at more than $150 a pill.

This week’s revelation that another small pharmaceutical company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, acquired the sole U.S. distribution rights to another antiparasitic drug on the WHO essential drugs list and boosted its price by more than 5,000 percent,

•••••

Shkreli is a new sort of villain in the passion play of the pharmaceutical industry. He is not playing the well-rehearsed role of the Big Pharma executive, excoriated for charging exorbitant prices for blockbuster drugs that are barely superior to existing generic forms. Nor is he playing the recently developed role of the biotech executive who justifies pricing truly innovative medicines so stratospherically high that they threaten to bankrupt state Medicaid systems. No, Shkreli and his less visible counterparts at Amedra Pharmaceuticals come from a new tier of smaller pharma firms that employ retro-monopolistic strategies to corner the market on old cheap drugs that no other companies are producing and remake them as old expensive drugs. They represent a new mutation of the “little pharma” generics firms that—until very recently—were assumed to be a sort of moral underdog, producing cheap versions of old medicines and helping once-innovative medicines become more widely accessible.

This phenomenon is not limited to antiparasitic drugs. Other, equally distressing examples can be found in reverse monopolies for old and essential treatments for asthma, diabetes, gout, heart disease, cancer, and even the supply chain for interventions as basic as bags of intravenous saline. These commodities represent a vital infrastructure of our health care system that is eroding from shortage to shortage and price hike to price hike, as once-competitive generic markets give way to new oligopolies and monopolies of medical interventions.

•••••

Turing’s decision to raise prices is only the logical extension of a pharmaceutical marketplace that allows firms with monopolies the absolute right to set their own prices with no constraints. Unlike many other countries, including Canada, France, Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the United States has resolutely refused to give our government the ability to negotiate drug prices. Instead, we continue to pay what firms ask and hope that the invisible hand of the market will match supply and demand—and eventually bring prices down. We trust that generic firms remain an efficient private sector solution to the public health problem of drug access. In return, we are confronted with market failures, drug shortages, and price increases.

tags: price gouging

Company says will cut price of drug after accused gouging

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150923/us--turing_pharmaceuticals-drug_price-015070ed19.html

Sep 22, 8:56 PM (ET)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The company that sparked an angry backlash after it raised the price of a drug for treating a deadly parasitic infection by more than 5,000 percent says it will roll back some of the increase.

Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli told ABC News on Tuesday that the new price would make Daraprim more accessible, although he did not say what the new price for the drug would be. A spokesman for Turing did not immediately respond to a request for details.

"We've agreed to lower the price of Daraprim to a point that is more affordable and is able to allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit," Shkreli told ABC.

The company obtained rights to sell the drug, the only U.S.-approved treatment for toxoplasmosis, in August. It hiked the price overnight from $13.50 per pill to $750.

•••••

tags: price gouging

Singapore shuts schools, distributes free masks for haze

Republicans will be happy that companies burning the forests are not being held back by pesky regulations, for the unimportant sake of people's health. [sarcasm]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150925/as--singapore-haze-9ac0ab1e74.html

Sep 24, 11:32 PM (ET)
By ANNABELLE LIANG

Singapore shut schools Friday and began distributing free anti-pollution masks to the elderly and other vulnerable people as a thick smoky haze cast covered the island-nation with pollution reaching its worst level this year.

The haze — a pall of grayness that resembles wintry fog and virtually obliterates the skyline while even seeping inside homes — is an annual problem for the region, resulting from forests being burned in neighboring Indonesia to clear the land for farming and plantations.

Repeated efforts to bring the offending companies to book have not helped. Meanwhile, people in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia suffer from the smoke, a serious health hazard, especially for the elderly, children and those with breathing problems.

•••••

The haze is also causing tensions between Singapore and Indonesia, apparently after Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla commented recently that neighboring countries "already enjoy 11 months of clean fresh air from Indonesia." He suggested that it is not a big deal if they suffer from the haze for one month, when forests are usually burned.

Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam, in a Facebook post, responded by saying his government "takes the matter seriously" and Singapore is "ready to assist Indonesia in combatting the fires."

"Yet, at the same time, we are hearing some shocking statements made, at senior levels, from Indonesia, with a complete disregard for our people, and their own -- PSI levels in parts of Indonesia are at almost 2,000 PSI."

"How is it possible for senior people in government to issue such statements, without any regard for their people, or ours, and without any embarrassment, or sense of responsibility?" he wrote.

•••••

On Tuesday, Indonesia's environment and forestry ministry said the licenses of four Indonesian plantation companies were suspended or revoked for clearing land illegally and sparking forest fires.

Some 27 companies are being investigated in connection with the forest fires, Indonesian authorities said, while 140 individuals are being questioned. A Singapore-listed company is among those under investigation.

American doctor cured of Ebola continues his work in Liberia

He is a true hero.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150925/us--ebola_doctor-72ab0268c8.html

Sep 25, 1:27 AM (ET)
PHILIP MARCELO

This time last year, Dr. Rick Sacra was given a second chance at life.

On Sept. 25, 2014, the 52-year-old Massachusetts physician had just been discharged from an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital after being treated and cured of Ebola.

Sacra had contracted the deadly virus while delivering babies in a Christian mission hospital in Liberia. Rushed back to the U.S., he spent three weeks suffering through fevers, vomiting, diarrhea and aches.

•••••

Other than an eye problem that nagged him until late January, Sacra says he's now fully recovered.

"I'm doing fine, 100 percent," he says before deftly pivoting to acknowledge that many West African Ebola survivors still deal with serious health complications, the anguish of losing loved ones, and stigmatization and fear upon returning to their battered communities.

Sacra says he doesn't regret a thing. "Some risks are worth taking," he says. "Even if I had died due to Ebola last year, I would not have changed what I did."

He's wasted little time resuming the medical mission work that he's done for the greater part of his adult life.

Effectively rendered immune to Ebola, the University of Massachusetts Medical School assistant professor has returned to Liberia three times so far this year. Notably, he was the first of America's handful of Ebola survivors to return to West Africa last January.

He also went back in April and July for additional stints at the mission hospital just outside the Liberian capital of Monrovia where he's worked, off and on, for about two decades.

Sacra, who plans to return again in November, says the need for able health care workers is just as great now as it was during the throes of the epidemic last year, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says has claimed more than 11,000 lives.

Many Liberians who stayed away from hospitals at the peak of the epidemic are just starting to return with serious chronic ailments such as heart disease and AIDS, he says, pushing already strained health care facilities beyond capacity.

Just weeks ago, Liberia was declared "Ebola-free" for the second time this year. Neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea, however, continue to see a small trickle of new Ebola cases each week, signs that the virus has been controlled but not completely eradicated.

Sacra continues to speak at churches and colleges about his experience and has no plans to stop his quarterly trips back to Liberia.

"When Liberia is on its feet again and it doesn't need help anymore, I'll probably move on to someplace else," he said. "But as long as the needs are there and I can make a difference, I think I ought to keep doing it."

Wheels of justice slow at overloaded federal courts

Republicans have been blocking President Obama's appointments. I have observed that judges appointed by Republican presidents tend to favor big business over the rest of us.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150927/us--federal_case-backlog-bef10cf796.html

Sep 27, 3:47 PM (ET)
By SUDHIN THANAWALA

Attorney Martha Gomez has been waiting more than three years to hear from a federal court whether a group of farm workers in California's Central Valley can proceed with their lawsuit alleging wage theft.

The case in California's Eastern District could result in payouts for thousands of migrant workers, but each passing day raises the possibility that they will have moved on and be impossible to track down, Gomez said.

"Everybody is in limbo, and it's hard to explain that," she said.

Across the country, federal district courts have seen a rise in recent years in the time it takes to get civil cases to trial and resolve felony criminal cases as judges' workloads have increased, according to statistics from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The problem is particularly acute in some federal courts such as California's and Texas's Eastern Districts. Judges there have workloads about twice the national average and say they are struggling to keep up.

The result, the judges and attorneys say, is longer wait times in prison for defendants awaiting trial, higher costs for civil lawsuits and delays that can render those suits moot.

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Legal scholars say Congress needs to fill judicial vacancies more quickly but also increase the number of judges in some districts — both issues that get bogged down in partisan political fights over judicial nominees.

California's Eastern District, which covers a large swath of the state that includes Sacramento and Fresno, has had an unfilled judicial vacancy for nearly three years, and it has the same number of judicial positions — six — it had in 1978, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The Judicial Conference of the United States, the national policy-making body for the federal courts, has recommended Congress double the number of judicial positions in the district.

In the late 1990s, the median time for civil cases to go to trial in the district averaged 2 years and four months. From 2009 to 2014, that number jumped by more than a year. The median time to resolve criminal cases nearly doubled to an average of 13 months.

"You're never out from under it," said Morrison England, the court's chief judge. "You're constantly trying to do what you can to get these cases resolved, and we just can't do it."

The weighted caseload per judge has climbed from an average of nearly 600 in the late 1990s to over a 1,000.

The Eastern District of Texas has seen similar increases.

"The way one older judge put it to me: 'If you have too many cases, you start to lose the time to think about them,'" said Ron Clark, the court's chief judge.

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Modern parenting may hinder brain development, research suggests

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130107110538.htm

Date: January 7, 2013
Source:University of Notre Dame
Summary:
Social practices and cultural beliefs of modern life are preventing healthy brain and emotional development in children, according to an interdisciplinary body of research.

Social practices and cultural beliefs of modern life are preventing healthy brain and emotional development in children, according to an interdisciplinary body of research presented recently at a symposium at the University of Notre Dame.

"Life outcomes for American youth are worsening, especially in comparison to 50 years ago," says Darcia Narvaez, Notre Dame professor of psychology who specializes in moral development in children and how early life experiences can influence brain development.

"Ill-advised practices and beliefs have become commonplace in our culture, such as the use of infant formula, the isolation of infants in their own rooms or the belief that responding too quickly to a fussing baby will 'spoil' it," Narvaez says.

This new research links certain early, nurturing parenting practices -- the kind common in foraging hunter-gatherer societies -- to specific, healthy emotional outcomes in adulthood, and has many experts rethinking some of our modern, cultural child-rearing "norms."

"Breast-feeding infants, responsiveness to crying, almost constant touch and having multiple adult caregivers are some of the nurturing ancestral parenting practices that are shown to positively impact the developing brain, which not only shapes personality, but also helps physical health and moral development," says Narvaez.

Studies show that responding to a baby's needs (not letting a baby "cry it out") has been shown to influence the development of conscience; positive touch affects stress reactivity, impulse control and empathy; free play in nature influences social capacities and aggression; and a set of supportive caregivers (beyond the mother alone) predicts IQ and ego resilience as well as empathy.

The United States has been on a downward trajectory on all of these care characteristics, according to Narvaez. Instead of being held, infants spend much more time in carriers, car seats and strollers than they did in the past. Only about 15 percent of mothers are breast-feeding at all by 12 months, extended families are broken up and free play allowed by parents has decreased dramatically since 1970.

Whether the corollary to these modern practices or the result of other forces, an epidemic of anxiety and depression among all age groups, including young children; rising rates of aggressive behavior and delinquency in young children; and decreasing empathy, the backbone of compassionate, moral behavior, among college students, are shown in research.

According to Narvaez, however, other relatives and teachers also can have a beneficial impact when a child feels safe in their presence. Also, early deficits can be made up later, she says.

"The right brain, which governs much of our self-regulation, creativity and empathy, can grow throughout life. The right brain grows though full-body experience like rough-and-tumble play, dancing or freelance artistic creation. So at any point, a parent can take up a creative activity with a child and they can grow together."

Further information: http://ccf.nd.edu/symposium/2012-symposium-presentations/

Flower declines shrink bee tongues

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/aaft-fds092115.php

Public Release: 24-Sep-2015
Flower declines shrink bee tongues
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Climate-related changes in flower diversity have resulted in a decrease in the length of alpine bumble bees' tongues, a new study reports, leaving these insects poorly suited to feed from and pollinate the deep flowers they were adapted to previously. The results highlight how certain mutually beneficial ecological partnerships can be lost due to shifts in climate. Many co-evolved species have precisely matched traits; for example, long-tongued bumble bees are well adapted for obtaining nectar from deep flowers with long corolla tubes. Recent studies suggest long-tongued bumble bees are declining in number.

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Using bumble bee specimens from 1966 through 1980, and from 2012 through 2014, the researchers measured changes in tongue length, noticing a significant shortening. Next, using archived bee specimens and field surveys of bumble bees and host plants, they examined possible mechanisms for this change. It was not a result of decreasing body size, competition from invaders, or co-evolution with flowers in the area, they report. Instead, it is a result of warming summers, which reduced numbers of the deep flowers these species preferred, forcing the insects to be general foragers capable of feeding across remaining flowers, including many shallow flowers.

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Weight loss, exercise improve fertility in women with PCOS

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/tes-wle092115.php

Public Release: 24-Sep-2015
Weight loss, exercise improve fertility in women with PCOS
Clinical trial compares preconception treatments for common cause of infertility
The Endocrine Society

Weight loss and exercise improve ovulation in women who have polycystic ovary syndrome, a common hormone disorder that often causes infertility, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common cause of female infertility. The condition occurs when a woman's body produces slightly higher than normal amounts of testosterone and other androgens, sex hormones associated with male traits. The resulting hormone imbalance can cause irregular or absent menstrual periods, weight gain, acne, excess hair on the face and body, or thinning hair on the scalp. As many as 5 million women nationwide have PCOS, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Women's Health.

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Studies find that delayed umbilical cord clamping may benefit some high-risk newborns

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/nch-sft092215.php

Public Release: 24-Sep-2015
Studies find that delayed umbilical cord clamping may benefit some high-risk newborns
Nationwide Children's Hospital

Clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord happens within 10 seconds after birth in most cases, in part so members of a medical team can more quickly begin caring for a newborn. But research from Nationwide Children's Hospital shows that waiting 30 to 45 seconds to clamp could have advantages for extremely preterm infants.

The study, published online today in the Journal of Perinatology, found that the preterm infants with delayed cord clamping had higher blood pressure readings in the first 24 hours of life and needed fewer red blood cell transfusions in their first 28 days than infants whose umbilical cords were immediately clamped. In addition, the short delay made no difference in the safety of the infant immediately after delivery.

•••••

Dr. Backes also led a study, published in July in the Journal of Perinatology, which found delayed cord clamping may be beneficial for newborns with critical congenital heart disease. In that study, infants whose umbilical cords were clamped approximately two minutes after birth needed fewer red blood cell transfusions than infants whose cords were clamped within 10 seconds.

The delay allows for an increased blood volume in the baby, which likely improves pulmonary blood flow and other circulatory measures, stabilizing blood pressure. This may be particularly important for infants with critical congenital heart disease, according to Dr. Backes, who is also an assistant professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

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Telecommuting works best in moderation, science shows

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/afps-twb092215.php

Public Release: 24-Sep-2015
Telecommuting works best in moderation, science shows
Association for Psychological Science

Organizations are increasingly offering employees a variety of work-from-home options despite sometimes conflicting evidence about the effectiveness of telecommuting. A comprehensive new report reveals that telecommuting can boost employee job satisfaction and productivity, but only when it's carefully implemented with specific individual and organizational factors in mind.

A key factor in determining the success of a telework plan, for example, is the proportion of time that an employee works remotely versus in the office.

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Kids with asthma that are exposed to secondhand smoke have twice as many hospitalizations

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/mc-kwa092215.php

Public Release: 24-Sep-2015
Kids with asthma that are exposed to secondhand smoke have twice as many hospitalizations
Mayo Clinic

The risk for hospitalization doubles for kids with asthma who are exposed to secondhand smoke, according to a study led by Mayo Clinic Children's Research Center. "The results of this review serve as a reminder to parents of just how dangerous it is to expose their children to secondhand smoke," says Avni Joshi, M.D., senior author and pediatric allergist and immunologist at Mayo Clinic Children's Center. "We knew that kids should not be exposed to tobacco, but how bad their asthma is likely to be with tobacco exposure was not clear. This study helped us quantify that risk, and so it informs as well as empowers us with the risk assessment. A child is twice as likely to end up in the hospital with an asthma flare if family members continue to smoke."

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"The study also illustrates the increased burden of disease on the health care system with increased rates of hospitalization," says Dr. Joshi. "The children are missing school if they are hospitalized, and the parents miss work. It is a big financial burden for the family, as well as for society. A child being hospitalized has a high risk of hospital-acquired infection, so I think this is fairly serious."

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Dr. Joshi's team understands how hard it is to quit smoking, so her team worked with the Nicotine Dependence Center and the Center for Innovation at Mayo to develop a program that helps families kick-start their effort to tobacco control. The program provides nicotine counseling and nicotine replacement supplies free of cost to family members with children who have asthma during the child's clinic appointment in the children's center. This family-based program puts the child at the center for the change. Many times people won't change for themselves, but they do more so for their children, adds Dr. Joshi.

Number of young female anesthesiologists increases, but wages lower than male colleagues

They spend a lot of time giving info about correlations of marital status, experience, & hours worked. They finally note that even allowing for all this, male anesthesiologists make significantly more per hour than females.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/rc-noy092315.php

Public Release: 24-Sep-2015
Number of young female anesthesiologists increases, but wages lower than male colleagues
RAND Corporation

An increasing number of young female physicians are becoming anesthesiologists, but the pay of those women lags behind their male peers, even after accounting for differences such as hours worked and experience, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Marital status played a more important role than children in driving gender differences in hours, as married female anesthesiologists worked significantly fewer hours than their male colleagues regardless of whether the anesthesiologist had children, according to findings published in the online first edition of Anesthesiology, the official journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists®.

Research in the field shows there is a wage gap between men and women across all medical specialties, not only anesthesiology. Additional research may need to be done to understand how and why women are choosing certain types of work environments.

•••••

Despite an increasing number of women in the medical specialty, the study found that male anesthesiologists earned 29 percent more than female anesthesiologists, with a reported average annual income of $403,616 for men compared to $313,074 for women. The national average wage gap between men and women across all occupations is 23 percent.

Accounting for experience, employer type and hours worked reduces the wage gap from 29 percent to 7 percent, which explains most, but not all, of the gender differences in earnings for male and female anesthesiologists.

Female anesthesiologists worked approximately six fewer total hours and four fewer clinical hours per week compared to male anesthesiologists. In addition, female anesthesiologists were nearly three times as likely to work part time, defined as less than 35 hours a week.

When researchers adjust the pay estimates based only on hours worked, the male anesthesiologists earned more than their female peers -- $151 per hour compared to $131 per hour -- a wage gap of 13 percent.


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Blacklists protect the rainforest

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uob-bpt092415.php

Public Release: 24-Sep-2015
Blacklists protect the rainforest
University of Bonn: Brazil names and shames municipalities to prevent further deforestation
University of Bonn

Brazil's public authorities regularly publish "blacklists" of municipalities with high illegal deforestation rates. This environmental policy tool is working: scientists at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR) at the University of Bonn have found that the public shaming strategy reduced Amazon forest loss in the blacklisted districts by 26% per year. Their findings have now been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has declined recently. While in 2004, trees were still being felled on more than 27,000 square kilometers of land, the area was reduced to fewer than 10,000 square kilometers starting in 2009. "There is a whole range of factors causing this," says Elías Cisneros, Junior Researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and an employee of the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR) at the University of Bonn. For instance, demand for internationally traded agrarian and forestry products also dropped in response to the financial crisis in 2008. However, Brazil's environmental policy has played a key role in protecting the rainforest, as Cisneros has shown in his work with Sophie Lian Zhou (ILR) and Junior Professor Dr. Jan Börner (ZEF).

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