Links

Maybe it's their way of fighting global warming - reduce the population by mass poisoning. The fewer the people, the less pollution. Bet you didn't know how brilliant these people are.
https://apnews.com/6a573b6b020e453c90ecd5e84aa23f57
Oct. 2, 2018
The EPA is pursuing rule changes that experts say would weaken the way radiation exposure is regulated, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you — like a little bit of sunlight.
The government’s current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer risk. And critics say the proposed change could lead to higher levels of exposure for workers at nuclear installations and oil and gas drilling sites, medical workers doing X-rays and CT scans, people living next to Superfund sites and any members of the public who one day might find themselves exposed to a radiation release.
The Trump administration already has targeted a range of other regulations on toxins and pollutants, including coal power plant emissions and car exhaust, that it sees as costly and burdensome for businesses.
The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements reaffirmed that principle this year after a review of 29 public health studies on cancer rates among people exposed to low-dose radiation, via the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan in World War II, leak-prone Soviet nuclear installations, medical treatments and other sources.
Twenty of the 29 studies directly support the principle that even low-dose exposures cause a significant increase in cancer rates, said Roy Shore, chief of research at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, a joint project of the United States and Japan. Scientists found most of the other studies were inconclusive and decided one was flawed.
None supported the theory there is some safe threshold for radiation, said Shore, who chaired the review.
If there were a threshold that it’s safe to go below, “those who profess that would have to come up with some data,” Shore said in an interview.
“Certainly the evidence did not point that way,” he said.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toysrus-bankruptcy/toys-r-us-lenders-cancel-auction-plan-to-revive-brand-idUSKCN1MC2MJ
Oct. 2, 2018
The top lenders of Toys ‘R’ Us have decided to cancel the bankruptcy auction of its brand name and other intellectual property assets and instead plan to revive the Toys ‘R’ Us and Babies ‘R’ Us brand names, a court filing on Monday showed.


https://www.businessinsider.com/star-wars-the-last-jedi-criticism-linked-to-russian-trolls-and-bots-new-study-finds-2018-10
Oct. 2, 2018
Much of the "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" backlash came from Russian trolls — not fans — according to a new study.
Researcher Morten Bay wrote in a paper that there was "evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments."
Bay said much of the hatred for the film was politically motivated, a result of the Trump era.



https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/02/trump-unpopular-worldwide-views-u-s-historic-lows-poll-shows/1492940002/
Oct. 2, 2018
President Donald Trump is deeply unpopular across the globe, holding the most negative rating among five world leaders, according to a new poll conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
A median of 70 percent of respondents across 25 countries said they do not have confidence in Trump to do the right thing – a significantly higher disapproval rating than the leaders of Germany, France and China. Only Russian President Vladimir Putin came close, with 62 percent of the poll’s respondents saying they did not trust the former KGB agent.
It's not just Trump. Attitudes toward America are at historic lows around the world – from from Sweden to South Africa – with a median of 50 percent holding a favorable opinion of the U.S., compared to 43 percent who see the U.S. unfavorably. More people also say their own country’s diplomatic relationship with the U.S. has grown worse over the past year.


https://phys.org/news/2018-10-high-co2-thicken-worsen-climate.html#jCp
Oct. 1, 2018
Plant scientists have observed that when levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rise, most plants do something unusual: They thicken their leaves.
And since human activity is raising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, thick-leafed plants appear to be in our future.
But the consequences of this physiological response go far beyond heftier leaves on many plants. Two University of Washington scientists have discovered that plants with thicker leaves may exacerbate the effects of climate change because they would be less efficient in sequestering atmospheric carbon, a fact that climate change models to date have not taken into account.
In a paper published Oct. 1 in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, the researchers report that, when they incorporated this information into global climate models under the high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels expected later this century, the global "carbon sink" contributed by plants was less productive—leaving about 5.8 extra petagrams, or 6.39 million tons, of carbon in the atmosphere per year. Those levels are similar to the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere each year due to human-generated fossil fuel emissions—8 petagrams, or 8.8 million tons.


https://mashable.com/article/trump-scary-time-for-men-america-reactions/#sG077xnReZqx
https:// mashable. com/article/trump-scary-time-for-men-america-reactions/#sG077xnReZqx
Oct. 2, 2018
A number of people also responded by calling attention to the Central Park Five, a group of five black and Latino teenagers wrongfully convicted of raping a woman in 1989. After they'd spent years in prison, someone else confessed to the crime and they were exonerated. Trump had initially advocated for their execution and refused to back down later, despite DNA evidence proving their innocence. Earlier this year he tweeted a remark about the importance of "due process," which was condemned by the exonerees.


https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/201802/dogs-and-guilt-we-simply-dont-know
Feb.9, 2018
Returning to dogs and guilt, to make the case that dogs don't feel guilt, Mr. Brennan cites the work of Dr. Alexandra Horowitz. He writes, "... according to Alexandra Horowitz, a dog-cognition expert at Barnard College, what we perceive as a dog’s guilty look is no sign of guilt at all." However, it may or may not be. As others and I have pointed out, there are persistent misrepresentations of a study she performed, the results of which were published in an essay titled "Disambiguating the 'guilty look': salient prompts to a familiar dog behaviour." In her research Horowitz focused on whether or not humans are capable of detecting guilt in dogs, not whether dogs actually feel guilt. She discovered that we are not very good at reading guilt, but this does not mean they can't or don't feel guilt.


https://www.artba.org/2018/01/29/54000-american-bridges-structurally-deficient-analysis-new-federal-data-shows/
American Road and Transportation Builders Association
2018 Deficient Bridge Report
54,259 of the nation’s 612,677 bridges are rated “structurally deficient.”
Americans cross these deficient bridges 174 million times daily.
Average age of a structurally deficient bridge is 67 years, compared to 40 years for non-deficient bridges.
One in three (226,837) U.S. bridges have identified repair needs.
One in three (17,726) Interstate highway bridges have identified repair needs.


https://www.livescience.com/63348-insecticide-may-increase-autism-risk.html
Aug. 16, 2018
Pregnant women who have high levels of a byproduct from the banned insecticide DDT in their bodies may be more likely to have a child with autism, a new study finds.
Researchers looked at nearly 800 mothers from Finland who had children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and found that these women had higher levels of DDE, a byproduct of DDT, than did mothers whose children did not have ASD.
"Very likely, you need other predisposing factors [for autism] in addition to [DDE]," Brown told Live Science.

[The opt-out system would be immoral in the U.S. because poor people who couldn't afford an organ transplant if they needed one would be unlikely to opt-out.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2176819-an-opt-out-organ-donor-system-might-actually-lead-to-fewer-transplants/
Aug. 16, 2018
The impending “opt-out” system for organ donation in England may fail to boost transplant rates and could even lead to a fall in such life-saving operations.
Under the new rules, set to be introduced in 2020, everyone will be assumed to consent to donating their organs after death, unless they have proactively signed a register to say they object.
People were more certain that their injured relative really wanted to donate their organs if they had signed up under the opt-in system, than if they had been presumed to consent under the opt-out system. “People don’t think their relative wants to donate unless they’ve actively chosen to sign up,” says Osman.
In Wales, an opt-out system was introduced in 2015. There were slightly fewer cases of organ donation the following year, dropping from 64 to 61.
At the moment about 100 families in the UK a year veto organ donation taking place despite their relative having signed up to the organ donation register, about 7 per cent of those who are asked.


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/jn-sdi092718.php
Public Release: 2-Oct-2018
Southern diet is top factor associated with higher risk of high blood pressure among black adults
JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/tuhs-tms092718.php
Public Release: 2-Oct-2018
To make SNAP healthier and save costs: Offer food incentives and disincentives
Policy interventions to make SNAP healthier in the next Farm Bill could save from $6.8 to $41.9 billion and reduce disease burdens
Tufts University, Health Sciences Campus


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/d-dia093018.php
Public Release: 2-Oct-2018
Diabetes is associated with an increased risk of cancer and reduces post-cancer survival
Diabetologia
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/d-sfp093018.php


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/cuot-swt100118.php
Public Release: 2-Oct-2018
Studded winter tires cost more lives than they save
Chalmers University of Technology
The biggest negative impact is generated during usage, from the emissions caused by road damage. Even taking only this into account, the negative health impacts already clearly outweigh the advantages. Once you measure the other factors in as well, the result only becomes clearer, the researchers explain.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/msu-sru100218.phphttps://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/msu-sru100218.php
Public Release: 2-Oct-2018
Sleep research uncovers dire consequences to deprivation
Largest sleep study of its kind shows how sleep hinders memory
Michigan State University
"If you look at mistakes and accidents in surgery, public transportation and even operating nuclear power plants, lack of sleep is one of the primary reasons for human error," said Kimberly Fenn, associate professor of psychology and director of the MSU Sleep and Learning Lab. "There are many people in critical professions who are sleep-deprived. Research has found that nearly one-quarter of the people with procedure-heavy jobs have fallen asleep on the job."
Some basic errors, such as adding salt twice to a recipe, might not be so serious. However, some of the world's greatest human-caused catastrophes - like Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Challenger explosion - along with daily train and car accidents have sleep deprivation at least partially to blame, she said.
[I myself fell asleep MANY times while commuting.]


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/w-aop100218.php
Public Release: 2-Oct-2018
Analysis of published studies links processed meat consumption to breast cancer risk
Wiley


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uab-epc100218.php
Public Release: 2-Oct-2018
Editorial praises childhood obesity study that finds 'genes are not destiny'
They noted the study found that healthier homes can help offset the genetic risk for obesity
University at Buffalo


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uosc-omy100218.php
Public Release: 2-Oct-2018
One more year of high school may shape waistlines later in life
How a change in mandatory high school attendance can tip the scales
University of Southern California
In 1972, England, Scotland and Wales raised the mandatory school attendance age from 15 to 16. Through a large-scale genetic study, USC Dornsife researchers have found that decades later, the change had a health benefit for those students affected by the reform, especially those who were at greatest risk of becoming obese.
The extra year of education contributed to weight loss, despite their genetic risk, the research team found.


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uom-tcu100118.php
Public Release: 3-Oct-2018
Teen cannabis use is not without risk to cognitive development
University of Montreal
A new study by researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine and Université de Montréal, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, shows that beyond the role of cognition in vulnerability to substance use, the concurrent and lasting effects of adolescent cannabis use can be observed on important cognitive functions and appear to be more pronounced than those observed for alcohol.
tags: drug use, drug abuse


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/tnam-sha100118.php
Public Release: 3-Oct-2018
Sexual harassment and assault take long-term toll on women's health
New study sheds light on prevalence of sexual harassment and assault and negative implications for women's mental and physical health
The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)
Looking at potential health consequences, the study found that sexual harassment was associated with higher blood pressure and greater likelihood of hypertension, greater triglycerides, and clinically poorer sleep quality. Sexual assault was associated with levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and sleep quality in the ranges consistent with clinical disorders.


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uobc-ers100218.php
Public Release: 3-Oct-2018
Exercise reduces stress, improves cellular health in family caregivers
University of British Columbia


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/w-dfs100218.php
Public Release: 3-Oct-2018
Demand for sexual services in Britain: does sex education matter?
Wiley
By analysing survey data from 1999-2001 and 2010-2012, researchers have estimated the demand for commercial sex among British men.
The Scottish Journal of Political Economy study found that men traveling abroad, men living in London, drug users, religious men, and men with middle-class income are more often together with prostitutes than other men.
The most notable finding from a policy point of view was that learning about sex in school had a significant and sizeable negative effect on the expected number of times with a prostitute. The authors noted that requiring sex education in all schools could therefore help in reducing prostitution in Britain.


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/w-lvd100218.php
Public Release: 3-Oct-2018
Low vitamin D linked to earlier death in Thai men
Wiley
Previous studies on the association between blood levels of vitamin D and survival have come from high-income countries. A new Geriatrics & Gerontology International study has now found that vitamin D insufficiency is linked with earlier death in community-dwelling Thai older men.