Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Fracking industry wells associated with increased risk of asthma attacks

Fracking industry wells associated with increased risk of asthma attacks

Public Release: 18-Jul-2016
Study: Fracking industry wells associated with increased risk of asthma attacks
Evidence growing of health problems linked to active unconventional natural gas wells
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

People with asthma who live near bigger or larger numbers of active unconventional natural gas wells operated by the fracking industry in Pennsylvania are 1.5 to four times likelier to have asthma attacks than those who live farther away, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

The findings, published July 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine, add to a growing body of evidence tying the fracking industry to health concerns. Health officials have been concerned about the effect of this type of drilling on air and water quality, as well as the stress of living near a well where just developing the site of the well can require more than 1,000 truck trips on once-quiet roads. The fracking industry has developed more than 9,000 wells in Pennsylvania in just the past decade.

•••••

Those who lived closer to a large number or bigger active natural gas wells were significantly more likely - 1.5 to four times more likely - to suffer asthma attacks. And while these asthma attacks were likely to occur more frequently around wells throughout the four phases of the development process, the researchers found that the increased risk was greater during the production phase, which can last many years. The findings held up even when accounting for other factors that can exacerbate asthma, including proximity to major roads, family history, smoking, socioeconomics and more.

•••••

Previous research has linked the fracking industry, for example, to an increase in such adverse reproductive outcomes as preterm births and lower birth weights, and also to a variety of symptoms such as those involving the skin or upper respiratory tract. The researchers say that drilling and production of wells has become safer and cleaner in the past years, something that would not be captured in this study.

•••••

Study finds quality of care in VA health care system compares well to other settings

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/s-sfq071816.php

Public Release: 18-Jul-2016
Study finds quality of care in VA health care system compares well to other settings
Systematic review sheds light on medical and surgical services provided to veterans
Springer

The quality of health care provided to US military veterans in Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities compares favorably with the treatment and services delivered outside the VA, according to a new study. In fact, VA facilities perform better in some cases when it comes to the safety and effectiveness of the treatment provided. Those findings are from a systematic review of 69 studies which weigh up the quality of health care provided in VA facilities compared to other settings. The review¹ was led by Dr. Courtney Gidengil of the RAND Corporation in the US, and appears in the Journal of General Internal Medicine², published by Springer.

•••••

Study reveals new link between periodontal and cerebrovascular diseases

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/w-srn071816.php

Public Release: 18-Jul-2016
Study reveals new link between periodontal and cerebrovascular diseases
Wiley

A new study has revealed a relationship between chronic periodontitis and lacunar infarct, two common diseases in the elderly. Chronic periodontitis is an inflammatory disease of the gums, whereas lacunar infarct is a type of cerebral small vessel disease that can lead to a stroke.

Additional research is needed to understand this link. It is hypothesized that periodontitis leads to systemic inflammation and, as a result, the health of the blood vessels could be affected. On the other hand, chronic periodontitis and lacunar infarct may share common vascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

"We observed that people diagnosed with periodontal disease had about a 4-fold increased risk of developing lacunar stroke compared with those without periodontitis.

•••••

Stroke is largely preventable, with hypertension confirmed as biggest risk factor, according to global study

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/tl-tls071416.php

Public Release: 15-Jul-2016
The Lancet: Stroke is largely preventable, with hypertension confirmed as biggest risk factor, according to global study
10 potentially modifiable risk factors account for 90 percent of strokes worldwide, but regional variation should be considered, says study
The Lancet

Hypertension (high blood pressure) remains the single most important modifiable risk factor for stroke, and the impact of hypertension and nine other risk factors together account for 90% of all strokes, according to an analysis of nearly 27000 people from every continent in the world (INTERSTROKE), published in The Lancet.

Although the same ten risk factors were important, and together accounted for 90% of stroke risk in all regions, the relative role of some individual risk factors varied by region, which the authors say should influence the development of strategies for reducing stroke risk.

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. The two major types of stroke include ischaemic stroke (caused by blood clots), which accounts for 85% of strokes, and haemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain), which accounts for 15% of strokes. Prevention of stroke is a major public health priority, but needs to be based on a clear understanding of the key preventable causes of stroke.

•••••

To estimate the proportion of strokes caused by specific risk factors, the investigators calculated the population attributable risk for each factor (PAR; an estimate of the overall disease burden that could be reduced if an individual risk factor were eliminated [4]). The PAR was 47.9% for hypertension, 35.8% for physical inactivity, 23.2% for poor diet, 18.6% for obesity, 12.4% for smoking, 9.1% for cardiac (heart) causes, 3.9% for diabetes, 5.8% for alcohol intake, 5.8% for stress, and 26.8% for lipids (the study used apolipoproteins, which was found to be a better predictor of stroke than total cholesterol). Many of these risk factors are known to also be associated with each other (e.g. obesity and diabetes), and when combined together, the total PAR for all ten risk factors was 90.7%, which was similar in all regions, age groups and in men and women.

Interestingly, the importance of some risk factors appeared to vary by region. For example, the PAR for hypertension ranged from 38.8% in western Europe, North America, and Australia to 59.6% in Southeast Asia, the PAR for alcohol intake was lowest in western Europe, North America, Australia and highest in Africa (10.4%) and south Asia (10.7%), while the PAR for physical inactivity was highest in China. Atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm) was significantly associated with ischaemic stroke (PAR ranging from 3.1% in south Asia to 17.1% in western Europe, North America, and Australia), as was a high apolipoprotein [ApoB]/A1 ratio (PAR ranging from 24.8% in western Europe, North America, and Australia to 67.6% in southeast Asia).

•••••

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Mass imprisonment of drug users driving global epidemics of HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/tl-tlm071216.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
The Lancet: Mass imprisonment of drug users driving global epidemics of HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis
The Lancet

  • Up to half of all new HIV infections over next 15 years in eastern Europe will stem from inmates who inject drugs
  • Scaling up opioid substitution therapy in prisons and after release could prevent over a quarter of new HIV infections among injecting drug users over 5 years

The War on Drugs, mass incarceration of drug users, and the failure to provide proven harm reduction and treatment strategies has led to high levels of HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B and C infection among prisoners--far higher than in the general population. With an estimated 30 million people passing in and out of prisons every year, prisoners will be key to controlling HIV and tuberculosis epidemics worldwide, according to a major six-part Series on HIV and related infections in prisoners, published in The Lancet and being presented at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.

"Prisons can act as incubators of tuberculosis, hepatitis C, and HIV and the high level of mobility between prison and the community means that the health of prisoners should be a major public-health concern. Yet, screening and treatment for infectious diseases are rarely made available to inmates, and only around 10% of people who use drugs worldwide are being reached by treatment programmes", says lead author of the Series and President of the International AIDS Society Professor Chris Beyrer, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA. "The most effective way of controlling infection in prisoners and the wider community is to reduce mass imprisonment of injecting drug users."

•••••

Early preschool bedtimes cut risk of obesity later on

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/m-epb071316.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
Early preschool bedtimes cut risk of obesity later on
Kids in bed by 8 p.m. have half the risk of those who turn in late
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Preschoolers who are regularly tucked into bed by 8 p.m. are far less likely to become obese teenagers than young children who go to sleep later in the evening, new research has found.

Bedtimes after 9 p.m. appeared to double the likelihood of obesity later in life, according to a study from The Ohio State University College of Public Health.

•••••

The researchers linked preschoolers' bedtimes to obesity when the kids were teens, at an average age of 15.

They found a striking difference: Only 1 in 10 of the children with the earliest bedtimes were obese teens, compared to 16 percent of children with mid­-range bedtimes and 23 percent of those who went to bed latest. Half the kids in the study fell into the middle category. A quarter had early bedtimes and another quarter went to bed late.

Because the emotional climate at home can influence routines such as bedtime, Anderson and her colleagues also examined interactions between mothers and their children during a videotaped playtime. Scientists call the measurement "maternal sensitivity" and it factors in maternal support, respect for the child's autonomy and lack of hostility.

Regardless of the quality of the maternal­-child relationship, there was a strong link between bedtimes and obesity, the researchers found. But the children who went to bed latest and whose moms had the lowest sensitivity scores faced the highest obesity risk.

The researchers also found that later bedtimes were more common in children who were not white, whose moms had less education and who lived in lower-­income households.

Previous research has established a relationship between short sleep duration and obesity. And one study found a correlation between late bedtimes and obesity risk five years later. This new bedtime study is the first to use data on obesity collected about a decade after the children were in preschool, Anderson said.

•••••

The researchers linked preschoolers' bedtimes to obesity when the kids were teens, at an average age of 15.

They found a striking difference: Only 1 in 10 of the children with the earliest bedtimes were obese teens, compared to 16 percent of children with mid­-range bedtimes and 23 percent of those who went to bed latest. Half the kids in the study fell into the middle category. A quarter had early bedtimes and another quarter went to bed late.

Because the emotional climate at home can influence routines such as bedtime, Anderson and her colleagues also examined interactions between mothers and their children during a videotaped playtime. Scientists call the measurement "maternal sensitivity" and it factors in maternal support, respect for the child's autonomy and lack of hostility.

Regardless of the quality of the maternal­-child relationship, there was a strong link between bedtimes and obesity, the researchers found. But the children who went to bed latest and whose moms had the lowest sensitivity scores faced the highest obesity risk.

The researchers also found that later bedtimes were more common in children who were not white, whose moms had less education and who lived in lower-­income households.

Previous research has established a relationship between short sleep duration and obesity. And one study found a correlation between late bedtimes and obesity risk five years later. This new bedtime study is the first to use data on obesity collected about a decade after the children were in preschool, Anderson said.

•••••

Red meat consumption linked with increased risk of developing kidney failure

Having had many cat companions, this is no surprise.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/ason-rmc070816.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
Red meat consumption linked with increased risk of developing kidney failure
Choosing other protein sources may help preserve kidney health
American Society of Nephrology

A new study indicates that red meat intake may increase the risk of kidney failure in the general population, and substituting red meat with alternative sources of protein from time to time may significantly reduce this risk. The findings appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

Increasing numbers of individuals are developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), and many progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD), which requires dialysis or a kidney transplant. Current guidelines recommend restricting dietary protein intake to help manage CKD and slow progression to ESRD; however, there is limited evidence that overall dietary protein restriction or limiting specific food sources of protein intake may slow kidney function decline in the general population.

•••••

After an average follow-up of 15.5 years, the researchers found that red meat intake was strongly associated with an increased risk of ESRD in a dose-dependent manner. People consuming the highest amounts (top 25%) of red meat had a 40% increased risk of developing ESRD compared with people consuming the lowest amounts (lowest 25%) No association was found with intakes of poultry, fish, eggs, or dairy products, while soy and legumes appeared to be slightly protective. Substituting one serving of red meat with other sources of protein reduced the risk of ESRD by up to 62%.

•••••

Dads play key role in child development

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/msu-dpk071416.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
Dads play key role in child development
Michigan State University

Fathers play a surprisingly large role in their children's development, from language and cognitive growth in toddlerhood to social skills in fifth grade, according to new findings from Michigan State University scholars.

The research provides some of the most conclusive evidence to date of fathers' importance to children's outcomes and reinforces the idea that early childhood programs such as Head Start should focus on the whole family, including mother and father alike. The findings are published online in two academic journals, Early Childhood Research Quarterly and Infant and Child Development.

•••••

Using data from about 730 families that participated in a survey of Early Head Start programs at 17 sites across the nation, the researchers investigated the effects of parents' stress and mental health problems such as depression on their children. Parental stress and mental health issues affect how parents interact with their children and, subsequently, childhood development.

The study found that fathers' parenting-related stress had a harmful effect on their children's cognitive and language development when the children were 2 to 3 years old, even when the mothers' influences were taken into account. This impact varied by gender; fathers' influence, for example, had a larger effect on boys' language than girls' language.

Another key finding: Fathers' and mothers' mental health had a similarly significant effect on behavior problems among toddlers. Further, fathers' mental health had a long-term impact, leading to differences in children's social skills (such as self-control and cooperation) when the children reached fifth grade. In fact, fathers' depression symptoms when children were toddlers were more influential on children's later social skills than were mothers' symptoms.

•••••

Cougars could save lives by lowering vehicle collisions with deer

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/uow-ccs071416.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
Cougars could save lives by lowering vehicle collisions with deer
University of Washington

•••••

ach year deer cause 1.2 million vehicle collisions in the U.S., triggering more than 200 deaths, some 29,000 injuries and $1.66 billion in costs associated with vehicle damage, medical bills and road cleanup.

These staggering figures are in part because deer's natural predators -- large carnivores such as wolves and cougars -- have declined in population, leaving large ungulates like deer to reproduce mostly unchecked.

•••••

The researchers were able to compare their modeled results with an actual example in South Dakota, where a viable cougar population lives in the Black Hills. The data clearly showed that after cougars repopulated the region in the 1990s, deer-vehicle collision rates markedly dropped. This real-life test case was strong evidence of a trend that could happen elsewhere, Prugh said.

The authors acknowledge that re-establishing cougars across the U.S. has its costs. Attacks on humans, pets and livestock could become more common, though their estimates show that cougars would actually save five times the number of people they would kill by way of preventing deer-vehicle collisions.

How to Find Out If Someone is Stealing Your Wi-Fi

http://www.cheatsheet.com/gear-style/find-someone-stealing-wi-fi.html/?ref=YF

Jess Bolluyt
August 27, 2016

•••••

The best way to resolve the question is to use one of a few simple tools to take a look at what’s going on with your network, and to check whether the devices that are connected to it are ones you recognize, or ones that look suspicious and can’t be accounted for when you take stock of the Wi-Fi-connected gadgets in your home. Depending on your level of interest and your technical ability, there are some easy ways to find out. The New York Times’ J.D. Biersdorfer notes that there are a couple of easy ways to determine who’s using your Wi-Fi.
Check your router’s administrative page

One way to see what devices are connected to your Wi-Fi network (and to check whether you recognize all of them) is to log on to your router’s administrative page and check its DHCP Client Table, DHCP Client List, or the list of Attached Devices. From there, you’ll be able to see all of the computers, smartphones, tablets, and any other devices connected to your wireless router.

•••••

Use an app to scan the network
Wi-Fi router

Source: Linksys.com

If you don’t want to bother with logging in to your router’s administrative page, you can download an app that will do the dirty work for you. There are a number of apps that will scan your network for connected devices. In fact, your router’s manufacturer may have its own app,

•••••

U.S. Maternal Death Rate Is Rising

I found out about this study in my favorite magazine "New Scientist".

https://consumer.healthday.com/pregnancy-information-29/pregnancy-risks-news-546/u-s-maternal-death-rate-is-rising-713685.html

By Amy Norton
Aug. 8, 2016

The number of U.S. women who die during or soon after pregnancy may be higher than previously thought -- and it's on the rise, according to a new study.

Between 2000 and 2014, the nation's maternal death rate rose by almost 27 percent, researchers found. However, over that time, reporting methods changed, the study authors noted.

For every 100,000 live births, nearly 24 women died during, or within 42 days after pregnancy in 2014. That was up from nearly 19 per 100,000 in 2000.

The numbers, published online Aug. 8 in Obstetrics & Gynecology, are worse than previous estimates. Federal health officials have already reported a spike in the nation's maternal mortality figures, but they estimated a rate of 16 per 100,000 as recently as 2010.

The new findings give a clearer picture of where the United States really stands, according to lead researcher Marian MacDorman, of the University of Maryland.

And it's not a good place, her team said: With the 2014 numbers, the United States would rank 30th on a list of 31 countries reporting data to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- beating out only Mexico.

A large share of the national increase does have to do with better reporting, MacDorman said. Since 2003, U.S. states have been slowly adopting a revised standard death certificate that includes several pregnancy "check boxes."

But, she said, about 20 percent of the increase reflected a "real" rise in women's deaths.

•••••

There was a bright spot in the study findings, however: In contrast to other states, California showed a decrease in maternal deaths, reaching an estimated 15 per 100,000 in 2014.

•••••

http://kut.org/post/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-doubled-two-years-researchers-don-t-know-why

By Ashley Lopez • Aug 11, 2016

According to a study published in the September issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, “after 2010, the reported maternal mortality rate for Texas doubled within a 2-year period to levels not seen in other U.S. states.”

In 2011, the state Legislature cut Texas’ family planning and women’s health program, which provide care and routine screenings for low-income women. Lawmakers slashed its budget by two-thirds—and kicked out women’s health providers that also provide abortions.

•••••

Monday, August 29, 2016

Black bear links real objects to computer images

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/s-bbl071416.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
Black bear links real objects to computer images
Study forms part of research into the welfare of bears in captivity
Springer

American black bears may be able to recognize things they know in real life, such as pieces of food or humans, when looking at a photograph of the same thing. This is one of the findings of a study led by Zoe Johnson-Ulrich and Jennifer Vonk of Oakland University in the US, which involved a black bear called Migwan and a computer screen. The findings are published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition.

The study forms part of a broader research project into the welfare of bears in captivity. It aims to find out how the animals themselves rate the environment in which they are held, and the facilities, food and features provided to them. The goal is to assess this by presenting bears with photographs of objects. To do so, the research team first had to assess whether bears are in fact able to recognize 2-D images of objects and people familiar to them when these are presented to them on a touch screen.

With this in mind, the researchers tested the responses of an American black bear named Migwan. The bear was born in the wild, but was rescued at a very young age and rehabilitated due to injuries

•••••

It was found that Migwan was able to recognize, on a photograph, the visual features of objects or natural stimuli she already knew. It is an ability that bears share with hens, rhesus monkeys, pigeons, tortoises and horses.

"Bears can transfer learning with real objects to photographs of those objects presented on computer screens," says Johnson-Ulrich.

•••••

Losing weight lowered levels of proteins associated with tumor growth

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/fhcr-erl071116.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
Losing weight lowered levels of proteins associated with tumor growth
In Fred Hutch study, obese women who lost weight significantly lowered levels of proteins in the blood that help certain tumors grow
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Overweight or obese women who lost weight through diet or a combination of diet and exercise also significantly lowered levels of proteins in the blood that help certain tumors grow, according to a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study published July 14 in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.••••

•••••

The authors said that it is known that being overweight and having a sedentary lifestyle are associated with increased risk for developing certain cancers, but the reasons for this relationship are not clear.

This study shows that weight loss may be a safe and effective way to improve the "angiogenic profile" of healthy individuals, meaning they would have lower blood levels of cancer-promoting proteins. Although the researchers cannot say for certain that this would impact the growth of tumors, they believe there could be an association between reduced protein levels and a less favorable environment for tumor growth.

Corneal transplants, men and women don't see eye to eye

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/uol-ctm071316.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
Corneal transplants, men and women don't see eye to eye
University of Liverpool

A new study of patients undergoing corneal transplants indicates that subtle differences between men and women may lead to poorer outcomes for a woman who has received a cornea from a male donor.

The research, published today (Thursday, 14 July) in the American Journal of Transplantation, suggest that gender matching may be beneficial to potentially reduce the risk of failure and rejection in patients undergoing corneal transplantation.

•••••

More than 18,000 patients were identified in the UK who had undergone a first corneal transplant. While over 80 per cent of all patients included still had a functioning graft at five years, a higher proportion of male to female transplants failed or were rejected during this time, when compared to gender-matched transplants.

For every 1,000 people transplanted with a gender-matched cornea, on average 180 will fail, compared to 220 for male-to-female mismatched grafts.

The effect of gender matching was especially evident in patients with Fuchs endothelial dystrophy which affects a thin layer of cells that line the back of the cornea, called corneal endothelial cells. These cells regulate the amount of fluid inside the cornea. An appropriate fluid balance in the cornea is necessary for clear vision

•••••

Professor Kaye, said: "These findings are most likely a result of H-Y antigen incompatibility associated with the male Y chromosome. Females do not have a Y chromosome so there is no H-Y incompatibility from female donors to male patients.

"This effect, however, is not reciprocated when the roles are reversed - that is, when male donors are transplanted to female recipients."

•••••

Professor Kaye added: "If confirmed, this would be relatively straightforward to put into place without delay in donor tissue allocation to patients or any significant added cost. The long-term impact this could have on patient care may be substantial."

Make way for ducklings; they're smarter than you thought

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/aaft-mwf071116.php

Public Release: 14-Jul-2016
Make way for ducklings; they're smarter than you thought
American Association for the Advancement of Science

While the brain's ability to deal with abstract properties - including patterns of "same" and "different" - has been demonstrated in animals with advanced intelligence after extensive training, researchers now show that newly hatched ducklings can distinguish same and different, too, without any training at all. The ability to identify logical relationships between objects, retain this understanding, and apply it to novel objects is known as relational concept learning. To date, such learning - often mistakenly considered uniquely human - has only been demonstrated in a few animal species, and only after extensive reinforcement training. Here, working with ducklings, Antone Martinho III and Alex Kacelnik created a behavioral test involving the familiar social learning phenomenon of imprinting, one of the first things a naive brain learns to do (often in order to identify a parent). In the test, the first sight to which the newly hatched mallards were exposed was a pair of objects that were either the same or different in shape or color; later, when shown new pairs of objects, these ducklings preferred to follow pairs exhibiting the same relation on which they had originally imprinted. Thus, even imprinting, a most basic form of learning, appears to be shaped by higher level cognitive reasoning, the researchers say. In the wild, a young duckling being competent in relational thinking increases the likelihood that he will identify his mother and siblings, despite all variables the environment presents, the authors say.

•••••

Report Shows Whopping $8.8 Trillion Climate Tab Being Left for Next Generation

http://www.skepticalscience.com/9-trillion-climate-tab.html

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/22/report-shows-whopping-88-trillion-climate-tab-being-left-next-generation

by Lauren McCauley
Aug. 22, 2016

"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children," is an oft-quoted proverb, frequently used to explain the importance of environmental preservation. Unsaid, however, is how much it will impact the next generation if the Earth is bequeathed in a lesser state.

Environmental campaigners NextGen Climate and public policy group Demos published a new study that attempts to quantify the true cost of not addressing climate change to the millennial generation and their children.

The Price Tag of Being Young: Climate Change and Millennials' Economic Future (pdf) compares some of the high costs millennials will face in the "new inequality economy"—such as student debt, child care costs, stagnant wages, as well as financial and job insecurity—against the fiscal impacts of unmitigated global warming.

"The fact is," the report states, "unchecked climate change will impose heavy costs on millennials and subsequent generations, both directly in the form of reduced incomes and wealth, and indirectly through likely higher tax bills as extreme weather, rising sea levels, drought, heat-related health problems, and many other climate change-related problems take their toll on our society."

The impacts from climate costs alone, the report finds, are "comparable to Great Depression-era losses."

•••••

The "no climate action" scenario found that by 2100 global per capita GDP will shrink by 23 percent relative to a scenario without climate change. The U.S. is estimated to take a 5 percent hit by 2050 that jumps to 36 percent by 2100 should no climate action occur.

This adds up to a loss of nearly $8.8 trillion in lifetime income for millennials and tens of trillions for their children.

•••••

According to Demos calculations, for a median- earning college graduate with median student debt, the lifetime wealth loss due to student debt is approximately $113,000, which is 40 percent less than the $187,000 lifetime wealth loss of a college- educated, median-earning 21-year-old if we fail to act on climate change.

But when these myriad forces are stacked together, they add up to a staggering burden. The report further highlights how climate inaction only exacerbates preexisting inequality:

Communities of color and low-income communities will be hit the hardest, as these communities have fewer resources to deal with the impacts of climate change [...]. Further, these same communities have always had the highest exposure to coal-burning power plants and other sources of fossil fuel pollution, with sharply negative health impacts [...]

•••••

ara Jordan, policy manager at NextGen Climate agreed, writing, "Millennials have the numbers to elect climate champions this fall, but we have to show up to vote. Our future depends on it."

The American 'Fur Ball' Being Threatened by a Warming Climate

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29082016/American-pika-disappearing-climate-change-west-mountains

By Nicholas Kusnetz
Aug 29, 2016

Scientists have warned for years that a warming climate will threaten many of the world's species. But for one diminutive alpine creature, the threat has already arrived.

The American pika is disappearing from much of its mountain habitat across the western United States, with rising temperatures a driving factor, a new study says. The findings, said lead author Erik A. Beever, a research ecologist with the United States Geological Survey, also point to a much larger problem.

•••••

Beever and 14 colleagues surveyed more than 900 locations across three Western regions—in northern California, the Great Basin and southern Utah—where pikas had been known to live. Their searches, carried out in 2014 and 2015, found that the creature had vanished from locations across each region. In California, pikas had disappeared from 38 percent of the sites. In the Great Basin, which lies between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada mountains, 44 percent of locations were pika-free. They were unable to find a single one in Zion National Park, in southern Utah, where the animals had been recorded as recently as 2011.

Beever and other researchers have been warning about and chronicling the pika's decline for more than a decade,

•••••

The pika has been labeled one of the cutest creatures alive. It rubs its cheeks on rocks to mark its territory. It is not, however, well suited for a warming world.

"It has this characteristic of essentially being a big fur ball, which is a really great strategy if you live on the top of a snowy cold mountain and want to stay active in those temperatures," said Mark C. Urban, who studies the effects of climate change on animals at the University of Connecticut. Urban, who was not involved in the pika research, compared its condition to wearing a fur coat on a hot summer day. "Humans can take off that fur coat, but the American pika can't."

Their mountain habitats are like islands in the sky, surrounded by warm, often uncrossable valleys, so they have trouble shifting to new territory. And as climate change pushes warm temperatures farther up mountain slopes, these "sky islands" are becoming smaller and scarcer.

•••••

The scientists warn that the loss of pikas could have a profound impact on their mountain habitats. Despite their small stature, the animals play an outsized role in the ecosystem, spreading seeds and redistributing nutrients. And, Beever said, in the areas with the greatest body of research, the data indicate a near-certain decline.

"At our sites in the Great Basin, we're really not seeing any of those patches they're lost from being recolonized," he said. "It's kind of a one-way trip."

Hungry parents may feed their kids more, UF study finds

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/uof-hpm071316.php

Public Release: 13-Jul-2016
Hungry parents may feed their kids more, UF study finds
University of Florida

The hungrier parents are at mealtimes, a new study shows, the more they may feed their young children, which could have implications for childhood obesity.

In a small pilot study of 29 children ages 3 to 6 and their mothers, University of Florida researchers asked the mothers to rate their hunger as well as their child's hunger prior to a meal. Among women who were overweight or obese, those who rated their own hunger higher also perceived their child's hunger as higher, and in turn, served their child larger portions of food. The findings appeared in the June issue of the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.

"Because young children have difficulty recognizing when they are full, the more food they are presented at mealtime, the more they are likely to eat," said lead investigator Sarah Stromberg, a clinical psychology doctoral student in the department of clinical and health psychology in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, part of UF Health.

The study was designed to determine what factors might impact how much food parents are serving their young children.

"If we can start to identify those factors we might be able intervene to help parents develop more appropriate portion sizes for younger kids, which hopefully can lead to a longer life of healthy eating habits," said senior author David Janicke, Ph.D., a professor of clinical and health psychology.

Stromberg and Janicke said that because of the small sample size, their study findings are preliminary.

•••••

Internists say cost sharing, particularly deductibles, may cause patients to forgo or delay care

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/acop-isc071316.php

Public Release: 13-Jul-2016
Internists say cost sharing, particularly deductibles, may cause patients to forgo or delay care
New ACP Position paper offers 5 recommendations
American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians (ACP) today said that cost sharing, particularly deductibles, may cause patients to forgo or delay care, including medically necessary services. "The effects are particularly pronounced among those with low incomes and the very sick," said Nitin S. Damle, MD, MS, FACP, president of ACP.

•••••

"Underinsurance is emerging as a serious problem that may be more difficult to tackle than un-insurance," Dr. Damle said. "Evidence shows that when cost sharing is imposed, consumers may respond by reducing their use of both necessary and unnecessary care."

•••••

The five recommendations in the paper address ways cost sharing can be made more equitable in the private market by reducing overall health care spending, designing insurance plans that allow access to high-value services, enhancing financial subsidies for marketplace-based insurance plans, improving outreach and health insurance literacy and education, and advocating for updated research on the effects of patient cost sharing.

•••••

Obesity linked to premature death, with greatest effect in men

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/tl-tlo071216.php

Public Release: 13-Jul-2016
The Lancet: Obesity linked to premature death, with greatest effect in men
The Lancet

A study of 3.9 million adults published today in The Lancet finds that being overweight or obese is associated with an increased risk of premature death. The risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer are all increased. Overall, the excess risk of premature death (before age 70) among those who are overweight or obese is about three times as great in men as in women.

WHO estimates that 1.3 billion adults worldwide are overweight, and that a further 600 million are obese. The prevalence of adult obesity is 20% in Europe and 31% in North America. WHO uses body-mass index (BMI, in kg/m2), which relates weight to height, and defines BMI 18.5-25 as normal, 25-30 as overweight, 30-35 as moderately obese, and over 40 as severely obese.

For example, for height 1.6m (5'3") overweight is about 60-80 kg (140-170 lb; 10-12 stone), and for height 1.8m (5'11") overweight is about 80-100 kg (180-210 pounds; 13-15 stone). Normal BMI spans a range of similar length below this; moderate obesity spans a range of similar length above.

"On average, overweight people lose about one year of life expectancy, and moderately obese people lose about three years of life expectancy" says Dr. Emanuele Di Angelantonio from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, the lead author. "We also found that men who were obese were at much higher risk of premature death than obese women. This is consistent with previous observations that obese men have greater insulin resistance, liver fat levels, and diabetes risk than women." [1]

The study found an increased risk of premature death for people who were underweight, as well as for people classed as overweight. The risk increased steadily and steeply as BMI increased. A similar trend was seen in many parts of the world (figure 1) and for all four main causes of death (figure 4).

Where the risk of death before age 70 would be 19% and 11% for men and women with a normal BMI [2], the study found that it would be 29.5% and 14.6% for moderately obese men and women (BMI 30-35). This corresponds to an absolute increase of 10.5% for men, and 3.6% for women - three times as big (Appendix p. 45). The authors defined premature deaths as those at ages 35-69 years.

•••••

"Obesity is second only to smoking as a cause of premature death in Europe and North America," says co-author Professor Sir Richard Peto, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. "Smoking causes about a quarter of all premature deaths in Europe and in North America, and smokers can halve their risk of premature death by stopping. But, overweight and obesity now cause about 1 in 7 of all premature deaths in Europe and 1 in 5 of all premature deaths in North America." [1]

•••••

The authors note that one important limitation is that their only measure of obesity was BMI, which does not assess fat distribution in different parts of the body, muscle mass, or obesity-related metabolic factors such as blood sugar or cholesterol.

•••••

Your best diet might depend on your genetics

I don't post articles about health research on animals very often, but this one is surely applicable to humans.
Eg., whether or not milk is a good part of an adult's diet depends on whether their ancestors come from countries that have drunk milk for generations.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/gsoa-ybd071116.php

Public Release: 13-Jul-2016
Your best diet might depend on your genetics
Mouse study shows the need for an individualized approach to nutrition
Genetics Society of America

If you've ever seen a friend have good results from a diet but then not been able to match those results yourself, you may not be surprised by new findings in mice that show that diet response is highly individualized.

"There is an overgeneralization of health benefits or risks tied to certain diets," said William Barrington, Ph.D., a researcher from North Carolina State University who conducted this work in the laboratory of David Threadgill, Ph.D., at Texas A&M University. "Our study showed that the impact of the diet is likely dependent on the genetic composition of the individual eating the diet, meaning that different individuals have different optimal diets."

•••••

Two Big Reasons Prescription Drug Prices Are So Much Higher in the US

https://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/08/25/Two-Big-Reasons-Prescription-Drug-Prices-Are-So-Much-Higher-US

By Eric Pianin
August 25, 2016

It’s no secret that Americans have long spent far more on prescription drugs, on average, than consumers in most other industrialized countries.

Per capita prescription drug spending in the United States, particularly for costly brand names, was $858 in 2013, compared with an average of just $400 for 19 other industrialized nations, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). And list prices for the 20 highest grossing drugs were on average three times higher in the U.S. than in Great Britain, even with rebates and other discounts provided American consumers.

•••••

Despite the growing call for a more sane and reasonable prescription drug pricing policies, a new study by three Harvard academics and medical doctors concludes that a leveling of U.S. prescription drug spending will remain very much out of reach under current government policies, which in some cases were dictated by the influential pharmaceutical industry.

The lengthy study by Aaron S. Kesselheim, Jerry Avorn and Ameet Sarpatwari, published Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, was based on peer-reviewed medical and health policy literature between 2005 and July 2016. Their study cites two big reasons why the U.S. is trapped in a cycle of ever-escalating prescription drug costs, with no end in sight:

The most important factor is the drug industry’s built-in monopoly in the marketing of drugs, especially the latest generation of wonder drugs that can often mean the difference between the life and death of a patient. Major drug companies are able to set often ridiculously high drug prices because of the market exclusivity granted them by the Food and Drug Administration and long-term patents and trademarks that thwart potential competitors.

•••••

The primary counterweight to excessive drug prices is hard-boiled bargaining by government payers and private health insurance groups that represent huge numbers of beneficiaries and consumers. While many private prescription drug providers and insurers regularly cut deals with pharmaceutical companies for discounts and other breaks, that’s not always the case with the federal government.

Medicare, the health program for seniors, covers about 40 million adults for outpatient and inpatient drug costs and it accounts for 29 percent of the nation’s prescription drug expenditures. Yet “federal law prevents it from leveraging its considerable purchasing power to secure lower drug prices while requiring it to provide broad coverage, including all products in some therapeutic categories, such as oncology,” the study states.

Congress handcuffed the government in 2003 by including a provision in the Medicare Part D drug program explicitly prohibiting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from interfering with negotiations between individual Part D vendors and drug companies. That measure — sought and obtained by pharmaceutical industry lobbyists from former Republican President George W. Bush — effectively prevents CMS from negotiating or setting prices, like national health care programs do in many other countries.

•••••

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Drug-use may hamper moral judgment

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/s-dmh071316.php

Public Release: 13-Jul-2016
Drug-use may hamper moral judgment
First study to suggest why cocaine, meth users might struggle to discern right from wrong
Springer

Regular cocaine and methamphetamine users can have difficulty choosing between right and wrong, perhaps because the specific parts of their brains used for moral processing and evaluating emotions are damaged by their prolonged drug habits. This is according to a study among prison inmates by Samantha Fede and Dr. Kent Kiehl's laboratory at the University of New Mexico and the nonprofit Mind Research Network. The findings [1] of the study, which was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, are published in Springer's journal Psychopharmacology.

Research has shown that stimulant users often find it difficult to identify other people's emotions, particularly fear, and to show empathy. These aspects play an important role in moral decision making. Other studies have pointed to structural and functional abnormalities in especially the frontal regions of their brains among stimulant users. These areas are engaged when moral judgments have to be made.

There is strong link between drug use and criminal behavior, and up to 75 percent of inmates in the US have substance abuse problems. It is not known whether the criminal behavior is in part a result of the drugs' effects on brain function.

Kiehl's team is the first to examine how the neural networks and brain functioning of chronic cocaine and methamphetamine users in US jails relate to their ability to evaluate and decide about moral situations or scenarios. Poor judgment about moral situations can lead to poor decision making and subsequent antisocial behavior.

•••••

The research team acknowledges that people who are prone to regular stimulant use might already struggle with moral processing even before they begin to use drugs such as cocaine. The effects found related to use over time in the anterior cingulate cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, another region implicated in moral decision making, however, indicate that methamphetamine and cocaine may have a serious impact on the brain.

tags: drug use, drub abuse

Friday, August 26, 2016

Senators probing EpiPen price hike received donations from Mylan PAC

I notice the author of this article mention Democratic members of the committee two paragraphs before they mention the donation to the committee's chairman, a Republican.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/26/senators-probing-epipen-price-hike-received-donations-from-mylan-pac.html

Jacob Pramuk
Aug. 26, 2016

A political committee for Mylan has donated to most of the Senate committee that has asked the drugmaker to explain price increases for allergy treatment EpiPen and could grill executives in a hearing on the matter.

The Mylan Inc. PAC has given $13,500 to four current members of the Senate Judiciary Committee since 2014, including $5,000 to ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and $5,000 to the Senate's likely next Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Since 1999, the PAC has donated more than $60,000 to 11 current members of the 20-person judiciary committee. Most of those donations came after 2008.

This illustrates the reach of Mylan's political effort, which extended to candidates and political action committees in 22 states between December, 2014, to the end of 2015. The Mylan PAC had $95,500 in political contributions for that period, while incurring $319,000 in indirect lobbying expenses as part of trade association membership.

The judiciary committee's chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, this week requested more information from Mylan about EpiPen pricing amid furor over the its 400 percent cost increase in recent years. Grassley's campaign committee received a $5,000 donation from the Mylan PAC in 2006, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

In all, the campaigns of Leahy and Schumer have received $15,000 and $9,500 from the PAC, respectively.

Mylan CEO Heather Bresch also personally gave $2,700 to Schumer's campaign committee in June. She previously contributed $2,400 and $1,000 to Leahy and Grassley's committees in 2009 and 2006, respectively.

The $60,000 the Mylan PAC gave those senators' campaigns makes up only about 7 percent of the roughly $900,000 in contributions it has given to committees since 1998. It is only a meager sum in the high-spending American political process. In addition, nothing points to those senators doing Mylan favors because of the donations.

Still, it raises questions about Mylan's links to the committee ahead of its possible wider scrutiny of the company's pricing.

A spokeswoman for Grassley said he takes legal contributions that come with no strings attached and do not affect his Senate work.

•••••

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., judiciary committee members who did not get contributions from the Mylan PAC, received donations from the generic pharmaceutical association PAC. Blumenthal has received $3,000 since 2014, while Flake got $2,500 in 2014.

•••••

The real EpiPen scandal we should be talking about

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/25/the-fda-and-congress-share-the-blame-for-outrageous-epipen-prices-commentary.html

David Martin, founder of M-Cam
Aug. 25, 2016
Commentary by David Martin, the founder of M-Cam, a global firm that advises companies and investors on corporate finance, asset allocation and valuing intellectual property.

Mylan Pharmaceuticals deserves the attention it is getting. Heather Bresch, Mylan's CEO has every reason in the world to have the smug press photos. After all, she's used the mortality of millions who suffer from sudden and acute allergic reactions and heart problems to line her own pockets and those of her investors (while squirreling cash outside the U.S. for tax evasion-like purposes).

Mylan Pharmaceuticals deserves the attention it is getting. Heather Bresch, Mylan's CEO has every reason in the world to have the smug press photos. After all, she's used the mortality of millions who suffer from sudden and acute allergic reactions and heart problems to line her own pockets and those of her investors (while squirreling cash outside the U.S. for tax evasion-like purposes).

Together with Wendy Cameron (Cam Land LLC and Trustee at The Washington Hospital from 2009-2011), The Honorable (retired judge) Robert J. Cindrich (Cindrich Consulting), Robert J. Coury, JoEllen Lyons Dillon (the Chief Legal Officer for the 3-D printing ExOne Company), Neil Dimick (retired EVP at AmerisourceBergen), Melina Higgins (former partner of Goldman Sachs), Douglas J. Leech (Founding Principal of DLJ Advisors), Rajiv Malik, Dr. Joseph C. Maroon (Neurosurgeon at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), Mark W. Parrish (CEO of Trident USA Health Services), Rodney L. Piatt (Horizon Properties Group LLC), and Randall L. Vanderveen, PhD, R.Ph. (University of Southern California's School of Pharmacy) – Mylan's esteemed board of real estate developers, bankers, lawyers, medical educators, and corporate executives – her leadership has steered the company into the maelstrom of public controversy around the insanely expensive EpiPen®.

•••••

Does she really want the public to believe that she's frustrated that the Food & Drug Administration has been propping up her company's monopoly on a technology and drug that's been in the public domain since the 1950s? Does she love to know that her firm is pocketing $1 billion for a technology that was acquired from Merck in 2007? Does the public know that the FDA and Congress have willfully succumbed to the pressure of corporate America by ignoring their own rights to the technology?!

•••••

When George Calkins and Stanley Sarnoff invented the EpiPen forbearer in 1973, they acknowledged that their ideas were improvements upon work commissioned for the U.S. and U.K. military emergency medicine needs in the 1960s! That the U.S. Patent Office granted their patent in 1973 was, at the time, a bit of a stretch as it was more about a mechanical design improvement – not a real invention. This technology, used in the military and in EMS kits around the world was the basis for their company.

•••••

The U.S. government's EpiPens don't cost $608 per unit. Meridian Medical Technologies – the Department of Defense's supplier of the actual EpiPen (owned by Pfizer) – sell the same technology dispensing numerous anaphylaxis drugs to the U.S. government for under $50 a unit.

•••••

Epinephrine, the drug in the EpiPen has been off patent for decades. It's the dispenser — the actual injection pen — that's covered by a patent (U.S. Patent 7,794,432) that Meridian received and then licensed to Mylan (and others).

And let's face it, Congress knows about this. The FDA knows this. And the reason why Mylan gets away with this – just like they get away with incorporating out of the U.S. using the dubious inversion strategy for tax efficiency – is because powers that be love to provide liquidity to their benefactors!

•••••

If we don't want our kids to die from a bee-sting or a peanut, we should demand accountability where it's really due – the Patent Office that granted an unjustified and unpatentable monopoly, the FDA which props up the illusion, and a board of directors at Mylan who don't take the time to inform themselves of their own company's misdeeds.

Is helping those in need corruption?


I think it is warped that if someone you don't like donates to a charity, it means the charity is bad, when there is no evidence the donor influenced the charity or it's founders. This whole thing about donations to the Clintons charity is helping the Clintons personally, who give their own money to the foundation to help others in need, is crazy & warped. If Republican governors donate to the Red Cross, which in turn provides help to their states, among others, is this a sign of corruption?

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Why we like the music we do

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/miot-wwl071216.php

Public Release: 13-Jul-2016
Why we like the music we do
New study suggests that musical tastes are cultural in origin, not hardwired in the brain
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In Western styles of music, from classical to pop, some combinations of notes are generally considered more pleasant than others. To most of our ears, a chord of C and G, for example, sounds much more agreeable than the grating combination of C and F# (which has historically been known as the "devil in music").

For decades, neuroscientists have pondered whether this preference is somehow hardwired into our brains. A new study from MIT and Brandeis University suggests that the answer is no.

In a study of more than 100 people belonging to a remote Amazonian tribe with little or no exposure to Western music, the researchers found that dissonant chords such as the combination of C and F# were rated just as likeable as "consonant" chords, which feature simple integer ratios between the acoustical frequencies of the two notes.

•••••

In 2010, Godoy, an anthropologist who has been studying an Amazonian tribe known as the Tsimane for many years, asked McDermott to collaborate on a study of how the Tsimane respond to music. Most of the Tsimane, a farming and foraging society of about 12,000 people, have very limited exposure to Western music.

"They vary a lot in how close they live to towns and urban centers," Godoy says. "Among the folks who live very far, several days away, they don't have too much contact with Western music."

The Tsimane's own music features both singing and instrumental performance, but usually by only one person at a time.

•••••

The researchers also performed experiments to make sure that the participants could tell the difference between dissonant and consonant sounds, and found that they could.

The team performed the same tests with a group of Spanish-speaking Bolivians who live in a small town near the Tsimane, and residents of the Bolivian capital, La Paz. They also tested groups of American musicians and nonmusicians.

"What we found is the preference for consonance over dissonance varies dramatically across those five groups," McDermott says. "In the Tsimane it's undetectable, and in the two groups in Bolivia, there's a statistically significant but small preference. In the American groups it's quite a bit larger, and it's bigger in the musicians than in the nonmusicians."

When asked to rate nonmusical sounds such as laughter and gasps, the Tsimane showed similar responses to the other groups. They also showed the same dislike for a musical quality known as acoustic roughness.

Reducing racial bias possible in older children, finds UBC study

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/uobc-rrb071316.php

Public Release: 13-Jul-2016
Reducing racial bias possible in older children, finds UBC study
University of British Columbia

Research has shown children have racial biases from an early age, but a new University of British Columbia study has found that it is possible to combat prejudice in older kids.

The study-- the first of its kind to examine developmental differences in the capacity to reduce racial prejudice in children-- found that telling stories that depict black individuals contributing positively to the community successfully reduced implicit, or automatic, race bias in children between the ages of nine and 12.

"Institutional and systematic forms of racism continue to be a pressing social issue, especially with the recent high-profile police shootings of African-Americans," said Antonya Gonzalez, the study's lead author and a graduate student at UBC's department of psychology. "This study suggests that if we want to start having a conversation about reducing implicit racial bias in adults, we need to intervene in the minds of children when prejudice first starts to take root."

Implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that unconsciously affect our understanding, actions and decisions. Previous research has shown that implicit racial bias exists in children as young as five.

•••••

The researchers found that implicit racial bias was not reduced in younger children aged five to eight. As a group, younger children continued to make quicker associations between positive words and white people, as well as negative words and black people.

Older children who heard stories with white characters also showed an implicit bias favouring white people over black people. However, older children who heard positive stories depicting black individuals did not exhibit implicit racial bias, and did not have an automatic preference for either racial group.

The findings suggest that it is possible to reduce implicit racial bias in older children by exposing them to stories that positively depict people from historically disadvantaged groups, and that Grades 4 to 6 might be an ideal time for parents and teachers to intervene.

•••••

Students grasp abstract math concepts after they demonstrate them with arm motions

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/smu-sga071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Students grasp abstract math concepts after they demonstrate them with arm motions
Video game that directs students to make arm movements fosters understanding for proving complex geometry theorems
Southern Methodist University

Students who make relevant arm movements while learning can improve their knowledge and retention of math, research has shown.

Now researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a model using geometry proofs that shows potential for wide adoption -- a video game in which students make movements with their arms to learn abstract math concepts.

The research is the first to use widely available technology combined with relevant body gestures and apply it to the learning of complex reasoning in a highly conceptual, pre-college math domain -- geometric proof production.

"When they're doing geometry, students and teachers gesture all the time to show shapes, lines, and relationships, and the research suggests this is very beneficial," said teaching expert Candace Walkington, assistant professor of teaching and learning in SMU's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development.

"Our goal is to create an environment that supports students in making motions that help them understand the math better, Walkington said."

•••••

Emerging research is investigating the theory that our body actions can actually influence our thoughts, in addition to our thoughts driving our actions. Body movement can induce new activity in our neural systems. This activity can create and influence our learning, thinking and mental organization. This mind-body partnership, dubbed "embodied cognition," is driving new approaches to learning subjects such as math.

•••••

Today's teenagers could become prematurely hearing-impaired, study warns

In my neighborhood, it is the immigrant parents who subject their children to continuous VERY LOUD music in their homes & cars.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/fda-ttc071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Today's teenagers could become prematurely hearing-impaired, study warns
Tinnitus, often a symptom of hearing loss, can result from constant use of earphones and frequenting very noisy places
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Teenagers are increasingly experiencing tinnitus, often a symptom of hearing loss, as a result of using ear buds to listen to music for long periods every day, as well as frequenting very noisy places like nightclubs, discos and rock concerts, according to a study performed in Brazil.

Tinnitus is the medical term for perception of sound that has no external source. Many sufferers describe it as a ringing in the ears, others as whistling, buzzing, chirping or hissing. A paper describing the study has just been published in Scientific Reports, an online journal published by Springer Nature.

"We found a very high prevalence of tinnitus among adolescents, and this should be seen as an early warning that these youngsters run a serious risk of hearing loss. If this teen generation continue to expose themselves to very high noise levels, they'll probably suffer from hearing loss by the time they're 30 or 40," said Tanit Ganz Sanchez, associate professor of otolaryngology at the University of São Paulo's Medical School (FM-USP) and principal investigator for the study.

•••••

"This level of prevalence is alarming," Sanchez said. "There was a notion that tinnitus was a problem of older people, but we're seeing it becoming more prevalent in younger groups, including children and teenagers, because of their increasing exposure to high levels of noise, among other factors."

•••••

"We found that adolescents perceive tinnitus very often but unlike adults don't worry about it and don't complain to parents or teachers, for example. As a result, they aren't seen by a doctor or hearing specialist, and the problem can become chronic," Sanchez said.

The researchers also observed that most of the teenagers who took part in the study reported risky listening habits, such as continuous use of ear buds and exposure to very noisy environments; even so, those who reported experiencing tinnitus displayed less tolerance of loud sounds.

•••••

Tinnitus is caused by temporary or permanent damage to cochlear hair cells. Located in the inner ear (cochlea), these cells stretch and contract repeatedly in response to sound-induced vibrations.

When they are stimulated by very loud noise, such as explosions, fireworks, live pop music, or music listened to through ear buds with the sound turned up, the cochlear hair cells are overloaded and can be temporarily or permanently damaged.

Neighboring regions of the inner ear must work harder and faster to compensate for the loss of function in damaged or dead hair cells, giving rise to tinnitus, Sanchez explained.

The results of recent animal experiments conducted by neuroscientists suggest that tinnitus can also be due to impairment of hair cell synapses (neural pathways) to the cochlear nerve, resulting in reduced neural output from the ear to the brain.

Damage to these synapses due to exposure to high levels of noise can cause not only hearing loss but also neural alterations in auditory pathways that reduce a teenager's sound level tolerance.

•••••

If these teenagers continue to use ear buds frequently and are exposed to very noisy environments until age 20 or 25, for example, the damage to their cochlear hair cell synapses will progress and they may become deaf while still relatively young, according to Sanchez.

As body mass index increases, so does spread of multiple myeloma

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/au-abm071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
As body mass index increases, so does spread of multiple myeloma
American University

In a new study published in Cancer Letters, American University researchers show how, as body mass index increases, so does the growth and spread of the blood cancer multiple myeloma, which accounts for about 10 percent of all blood cancers in patients.

"Once a person with cancer is out of the normal weight category, their BMI is contributing to multiple myeloma growth and progression," said Katie DeCicco-Skinner, associate professor of biology at American University and lead study author.

•••••

Characteristcs leading to academic success



Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Genetics play role in character traits related to academic success, study says
University of Texas at Austin

Character traits, such as grit or desire to learn, have a heavy hand in academic success and are partially rooted in genetics, according to a psychology study at The University of Texas at Austin.

Though academic achievement is dependent on cognitive abilities, such as logic and reasoning, researchers believe certain personality and character traits can motivate and drive learning.

In a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, UT Austin psychology associate professor Elliot Tucker-Drob found that genetic differences among people account for about half of the differences in their character, and that the remaining variation in character was influenced by environmental factors occurring outside of the home and school environments.
[I really doubt that home and school environments have to influence.]
•••••

By comparing siblings, researchers learned that outside of what could be genetically explained, variance in a child's character could be attributed to unshared environmental effects, ruling out experiences shared by siblings such as parenting and attending the same school.
[Siblings do not have the same experiences at home & school.]
•••••

In the study, genetics accounted for 69 percent of a person's general character, with 31 percent of variance accounted for by environmental influences. Furthermore, each character measure was heavily correlated with openness and conscientiousness, which were 48 and 57 percent heritable respectively.

Character measures promoting intellectual curiosity, such as intellectual self-concept, were linked more heavily to openness, which showed sizable associations with academic achievement; those representing work ethic, such as grit, associated more with conscientiousness, which was modestly correlated with academic achievement.

"This may indicate that aspects of character that are associated with interest and desire to learn may be stronger drivers of academic achievement than aspects of character associated with diligence and hard work," said Tucker-Drob, noting that one way genes influence academic achievement is by influencing aspects of character that are relevant for learning.

•••••

New resistance gene found in 'high risk' multidrug-resistant pathogen

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/asfm-nrg071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
New resistance gene found in 'high risk' multidrug-resistant pathogen
American Society for Microbiology

A team of Italian investigators has discovered a new variant of an emerging antibiotic resistance mechanism. The new variant, dubbed mcr-1.2, confers resistance to colistin, a last-resort antibiotic against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. The research is published July 11, in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

"This is a particularly worrisome development for the future of antimicrobial therapy," said corresponding author Gian Maria Rossolini, M.D., Director of the Clinical Microbiology and Virology Unit, Florence Careggi University Hospital, Florence. More worrying is that the new resistance mechanism was discovered on a multidrug-resistant strain of the pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae, she added. That bacterium was isolated from a rectal swab of a child hospitalized with leukemia.

•••••

Bicycling may help prevent type 2 diabetes



Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Bicycling may help prevent type 2 diabetes
PLOS

Habitual cycling, whether as transportation to work or as a recreational activity, is associated with lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D), according to a study published this week in PLOS Medicine. This cohort study, conducted by Martin Rasmussen of the University of Southern Denmark, and colleagues, included 24,623 men and 27,890 women from Denmark, recruited between the ages of 50 and 65, and compared the association between self-reported recreational and commuter cycling habits with T2D incidence measured in the Danish National Diabetes Registry. The authors found that participants who engaged in habitual cycling were less likely to develop T2D, and risk of developing T2D appeared to decrease with longer time spent cycling per week. Five years after they were initially recruited, participants were contacted for follow-up and their cycling habits were re-assessed. People who took up habitual cycling during this period were at 20% lower risk for T2D than non-cyclists.

•••••

While the authors adjusted for potential confounding variables such as diet, alcohol and smoking habits, and physical activity outside of cycling, and also analysed for confounding by waist circumference and body-mass index, there is a chance these results may have been affected by unmeasured confounding, or bias due to patients with missing data, or as a result of self-reported cycling behavior.

•••••

"We find it especially interesting that those who started cycling had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, given that the study population were men and women of middle and old age. This emphasizes that even when entering elderly age, it is not too late to take up cycling to lower one's risk of chronic disease."

•••••

Study identifies 'book deserts' -- poor neighborhoods lacking children's books -- across country

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/nyu-si071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Study identifies 'book deserts' -- poor neighborhoods lacking children's books -- across country
New York University

A study led by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development finds a startling scarcity of children's books in low-income neighborhoods in Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

The lack of children's books was even more pronounced in areas with higher concentrations of poverty, according to the findings published online in the journal Urban Education.

"Children's books are hard to come by in high-poverty neighborhoods. These 'book deserts' may seriously constrain young children's opportunities to come to school ready to learn," said Susan B. Neuman, professor of childhood and literacy education at NYU Steinhardt and the study's lead author.

Residential segregation has dramatically increased in recent years, with both high- and low-income families becoming increasingly isolated. In their study, the researchers looked at the influence of income segregation on access to children's books, a resource vital to young children's development.

Access to print resources--board books, stories, and informational books--early on has both immediate and long-term effects on children's vocabulary, background knowledge, and comprehension skills. And while public libraries are critically important in giving families access to books, research has shown that the presence of books in the home is related to children's reading achievement.

However, a 2001 study by Neuman found a sharp contrast between low- and middle-income neighborhoods when it came to being able to buy children's books. In a middle-income community, thanks to plentiful bookstores, 13 books for each child were available. In contrast, there was only one age-appropriate book for every 300 children in a community of concentrated poverty.

•••••

Workplace climate, not women's 'nature,' responsible for gender-based job stress

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/iu-wcn071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Workplace climate, not women's 'nature,' responsible for gender-based job stress
Indiana University

Social scientists have long known that women working in numerically male-dominated occupations like physics and firefighting report experiencing workplace stress, but men who work in numerically female-dominated occupations like nursing and child care do not.

But why? Is it something about women or something about the workplace? A study by an Indiana University sociologist suggests it's the latter.

Cate Taylor, assistant professor of sociology and gender studies at IU Bloomington, designed and carried out an experiment that subjected both men and women to the negative social conditions that many women report experiencing in male-dominated occupations. The result: Men showed the same physiological stress response to the conditions as did women.

"Women are not especially sensitive to negative workplace social conditions," Taylor said. "Rather, both women and men exhibit similar responses to the same types of stressful workplace conditions."

•••••

The results suggest that conditions associated with male-dominated professions are what cause token women to report experiencing high levels of stress in the workplace, Taylor said. The answer isn't to "fix" the women by teaching them to be less sensitive, because when women and men are exposed to the exact same social conditions, they actually have the same stress response. A better answer might be to address the workplace social exclusion faced by minorities in their occupations.

And the findings matter, Taylor said. For one thing, exposure to chronic physiological stress response, indicated by cortisol response, has been found to be associated with negative health effects, including heart disease, digestive problems, weight gain and depression.

For another, both stress and exclusion from important workplace social networks and mentorship may be significant factors in preventing women from getting or keeping jobs in male-dominated occupations. Male-dominated occupations, on average, have higher pay and prestige and better working conditions than mixed-sex or female-dominated occupations. Taylor said the under-representation of women in male-dominated occupations is a significant factor behind the gender wage gap. On average, women earn only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men.

"If the workplace climate were less unfriendly, we might see more women in these male-dominated occupations, and we might see more parity in pay," she said. "That would be good for women and good for families."

Facebook Is Making You Spend More Money Than You Should

I don't think my Facebook friends fit in this category. Except maybe they spend more on going to music events because of what other people post!

https://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/08/24/Facebook-Making-You-Spend-More-Money-You-Should

By Beth Braverman
August 24, 2016

Financial planners have always warned that the “lifestyle creep” that comes with the desire to keep up with friends and neighbors can hurt consumers’ ability to meet their long-term financial goals.

As we’ve have expanded our social circles, however, thanks to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, we’re now trying to keep up with even more people. Nearly 40 percent of American adults with social media accounts say that seeing other people’s purchases and vacations on social media have prompted them to look into similar purchases or vacations, and more than 11 percent spent money after seeing someone else’s post, according to a new poll by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

•••••

Small rise in booze duty could cut British violence-related emergency visits by 6,000 a year

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/cu-sri071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Small rise in booze duty could cut violence-related emergency visits by 6,000 a year
Tax system reforms in England and Wales could be better than minimum unit pricing
Cardiff University

A small rise of 1% in alcohol prices could significantly reduce violence-related injuries in England and Wales, consequently reducing their burden on hard-pressed emergency departments, concludes a study by Cardiff University.

Published in the journal Injury Prevention, the study finds that violence-related emergency department (ED) attendance is greater when alcohol prices are lower and estimates that over 6,000 fewer violence-related ED attendances per year would result from a 1% rise above inflation on alcohol sold through drinking establishments and shops.

•••••

tags: drug abuse, drug use

Stupidity paradox -- why smart people don't think too much at work

One problem is that some bosses feel threatened by intelligent employees.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/lu-sp-070816.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Stupidity paradox -- why smart people don't think too much at work
Lund University

Intelligent people don't often think critically at work, as this is often uncomfortable. When a culture of "functional stupidity" prevails, it leads to a huge waste of resources, says Professor of Business Administration Mats Alvesson at Lund University, Sweden, who has written a book on the phenomenon of functional stupidity.

•••••

"Organisations suffer from a reflection deficit. Questions that are critical are seen as uncomfortable and therefore we assume flexible positions, making an effort to ensure that nobody can criticise us. We then end up in a situation where everyone does the right thing, everyone is positive, and all things seem to be in order when in fact they are not", says Mats Alvesson.

Together with André Spicer from Cass Business School in London, Mats Alvesson shows a variety of examples of what happens when symbolic activities and what we display become more important than what we actually do - and the room for individual thought and responsibility is decreased.

•••••

Scavenger crows provide public service, research shows

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/uoe-scp071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Scavenger crows provide public service, research shows
University of Exeter

Crows are performing a useful function and keeping our environment free from rotting carcasses, research carried out at the University of Exeter in Cornwall has discovered.

•••••

The researchers found that most of the carcass removal ecosystem service - which has been well studied in more natural and exotic habitats, such as vultures in Africa - is being carried out by crows, with a little help from foxes, magpies, badgers and herring gulls.

Dr Richard Inger, a researcher attached to the Environmental and Sustainability Institute at Penryn Campus, said: "If you consider all the wildlife that lives in the habitats in our towns and countryside, it might seem odd that we rarely see dead animals, apart from roadkill. This is because other animals act as scavengers and eat them.

"It's a bit grizzly but crows and other scavengers, which are often perceived as pests and generally fairly unloved species, are performing a very valuable service. Without these scavengers dead animals would be scattered around our environment rotting and causing a hygiene hazard."

The researchers observed and filmed 17 vertebrate species eating rat carcasses which they placed at 12 study sites between May and September 2015. Seven species including the Carrion Crow, the Common Buzzard, European Magpie, Herring Gull, Fox and Badger were recorded eating the carcasses, with 98 per cent of the activity carried out by the Crows.

Dr Inger highlighted the importance of the scavenger role and added: "We know what can happen when natural scavengers are removed as this was the case with the vulture populations of India, which plummeted massively in the 1990s. Vultures were fatally poisoned by a veterinary drug given to cattle, meaning that carcasses were not eaten by vultures but instead by feral dogs, which grew in numbers and caused a huge increase in cases of rabies."

•••••

Lighter weights just as effective as heavier weights to gain muscle, build strength

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/mu-lwj071216.php

Public Release: 12-Jul-2016
Lighter weights just as effective as heavier weights to gain muscle, build strength
McMaster University

New research from McMaster University is challenging traditional workout wisdom, suggesting that lifting lighter weights many times is as efficient as lifting heavy weights for fewer repetitions.

It is the latest in a series of studies that started in 2010, contradicting the decades-old message that the best way to build muscle is to lift heavy weights.

"Fatigue is the great equalizer here," says Stuart Phillips, senior author on the study and professor in the Department of Kinesiology. "Lift to the point of exhaustion and it doesn't matter whether the weights are heavy or light."

•••••

Monkeys in Brazil 'have used stone tools for hundreds of years at least'

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/uoo-mib070116.php

Public Release: 11-Jul-2016
Monkeys in Brazil 'have used stone tools for hundreds of years at least'
Was early human behavior influenced by their observations of monkeys using stone tools?
University of Oxford

New archaeological evidence suggests that Brazilian capuchins have been using stone tools to crack open cashew nuts for at least 700 years. Researchers say, to date, they have found the earliest archaeological examples of monkey tool use outside of Africa. In their paper, published in Current Biology, they suggest it raises questions about the origins and spread of tool use in New World monkeys and, controversially perhaps, prompts us to look at whether early human behaviour was influenced by their observations of monkeys using stones as tools. The research was led by Dr Michael Haslam of the University of Oxford, who in previous papers presents archaeological evidence showing that wild macaques in coastal Thailand used stone tools for decades at least to open shellfish and nuts.

•••••

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Female physicians at public medical schools paid an average of 8 percent less than males

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/mgh-fpa070716.php

Public Release: 11-Jul-2016
Female physicians at public medical schools paid an average of 8 percent less than males
Largest study of gender-based salary disparities uses publicly available databases
Massachusetts General Hospital

In what is probably the largest study of salary differences between male and female medical school faculty members, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) find that - even after adjusting for factors likely to influence income - women physicians earn an average of $20,000 per year less than men. Their study, which analyzed data for physicians employed at 24 public medical schools, is being published online in JAMA Internal Medicine.

"More than raising attention to salary sex differences in medicine, our findings highlight the fact that these differences persist even when we account for detailed factors that influence income and reflect academic productivity,"

•••••

Adjusted salary disparities were greatest for orthopedic surgery, obstetrics/gynecology (one of the specialties female physicians were most likely to enter), other surgical subspecialties and cardiology. They were least in family medicine and emergency medicine; and adjusted average salaries for women in radiology were slightly higher than for men. Disparities also varied among medical schools, with adjusted average salaries for male physicians being significantly higher at nine schools - the greatest disparities occurring at schools in the western U.S. - and higher adjusted salaries for female physicians at two schools.

•••••

When kids learn to conserve energy, their behavior also spreads to parents

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/osu-wkl070716.php

Public Release: 11-Jul-2016
When kids learn to conserve energy, their behavior also spreads to parents
Oregon State University

Girl Scouts and their parents reported increases in energy-saving behaviors, such as turning off power strips at night and washing clothes in cold water, after the children participated in an intervention program, according to a study published today in the journal Nature Energy.

The new energy conservation program was developed by researchers from Oregon State University and Stanford University, who designed and tested the program's effectiveness with 30 Girl Scout troops in northern California.

The researchers found that the increased energy-saving behavior, as self-reported by the children, continued for more than seven months after the trial program ended. They also found that the intervention had an effect on parents' energy-saving behavior for more than eight months. The findings suggests that these kinds of educational programs could have a significant and lasting impact on family energy consumption, said Hilary Boudet, an assistant professor of climate change and energy at Oregon State University and lead author of the paper.

•••••

Link found between traumatic brain injury and Parkinson's, but not Alzheimer's

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/tmsh-lfb062716.php

Public Release: 11-Jul-2016
Link found between traumatic brain injury and Parkinson's, but not Alzheimer's
The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) with a loss of consciousness (LOC) may be associated with later development of Parkinson's disease but not Alzheimer's disease or incident dementia, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the University of Washington School of Medicine.

•••••

Paying More for College? Blame Government Cuts

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/05/31/Paying-More-College-Blame-Government-Cuts?utm_campaign=548f5168cb03a93709042da0&utm_source=boomtrain&utm_medium=email&bt_alias=eyJ1c2VySWQiOiIyOWU2MDRjZS1jNmY3LTQzNTYtOTFhOC1mMjU5ZjNmMjAzOWUifQ%3D%3D

By Eric Pianin
May 31, 2016

Amid mounting complaints from parents and students about rising college tuition, staggering student debt and declining quality of education, a new study blames much of the problem on the sharp reduction in state government support for higher education since the 2008 financial crisis and recession.

Nearly eight years of cuts in state funding for public colleges and universities “have driven up tuition and harmed students’ educational experiences by forcing faculty reductions, fewer course offers, and campus closings,” according to a report by the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

These budgetary policy choices have made college far less affordable — and less accessible — for millions of students who need undergraduate and graduate degrees to make it in today’s highly competitive economy, according to the report written by the center’s Michael Mitchell, Michael Leachman and Kathleen Masterson.

State funding for public two- and four-year colleges and universities is now $8.7 billion below pre-recession levels, after adjusting for inflation, according to the new analysis. Of the 45 states that enacted full higher education budgets for the 2015-2016 academic year, all but four — Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming — are spending less money per student than before the recession began, according to the study.

Average state spending per student is $1,525 for the current year, or 17 percent less than the per-student spending before the onset of the Great Recession. The most glaring examples of declining support for public colleges and universities can be found in Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Funding per student in those states is down by more than 30 percent since the start of the recession.

These cuts have had a ripple effect on public colleges and universities. They have forced those schools to substantially raise tuition and cut back on the size of the faculty, course offerings and extra-curricular activities.

•••••

There are many factors that have contributed to this situation. The economic recovery has been uneven throughout the country, and many states had little choice but to cut spending on higher education while addressing shortcomings in state revenues, soaring deficits in state budgets, underfunded public employee pension funds and increased demands for social services and unemployment insurance.

In some cases, however, states opted for major tax cuts for middle and upper-income people to try to stimulate the economy. Those generous tax cuts for the rich had to be offset by reductions in spending on higher education and other important public programs. Those states that cut taxes include Wisconsin, Louisiana, Kansas and Arizona.

•••••