Unsafe levels of toxic chemicals found in drinking water of 33 states

And they are not the only chemicals in our drinking water. The effects of combinations of chemicals can be far greater than the sum of the parts.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/08/unsafe-levels-of-toxic-chemicals-found-in-drinking-water-of-33-states/

Harvard Gazette
By Karen Feldscher, Harvard Chan School Communications
Aug. 9, 2016

Levels of a widely used class of industrial chemicals linked with cancer and other health problems — polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) — exceed federally recommended safety levels in public drinking-water supplies for 6 million people in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

“For many years, chemicals with unknown toxicities, such as PFASs, were allowed to be used and released to the environment, and we now have to face the severe consequences,” said lead author Xindi Hu, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School, Environmental Science and Engineering at SEAS, and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “In addition, the actual number of people exposed may be even higher than our study found, because government data for levels of these compounds in drinking water is lacking for almost a third of the U.S. population — about 100 million people.”

PFASs have been used over the past 60 years in industrial and commercial products ranging from food wrappers to clothing to pots and pans. They have been linked with cancer, hormone disruption, high cholesterol, and obesity. Although several major manufacturers have discontinued the use of some PFASs, the chemicals continue to persist in people and wildlife. Drinking water is one of the main routes through which people can be exposed.

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The study found that PFASs were detectable at the minimum reporting levels required by the EPA in 194 out of 4,864 water supplies in 33 states across the United States. Drinking water from 13 states accounted for 75 percent of the detections: California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Illinois, in order of frequency of detection.

Sixty-six of the public water supplies examined, serving 6 million people, had at least one water sample that measured at or above the EPA safety limit of 70 parts per trillion (ng/L) for two types of PFASs, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Concentrations ranged as high as 349 ng/L for PFOA (Warminster, Pa.) and 1,800 ng/L for PFOS (Newark, Del.). The highest levels of PFASs were detected in watersheds near industrial sites, military bases, and wastewater-treatment plants.

“These compounds are potent immunotoxicants in children and recent work suggests drinking-water safety levels should be much lower than the provisional guidelines established by EPA,” said Elsie Sunderland, senior author of the study and associate professor at both the Harvard Chan School and SEAS.

Another Harvard Chan School study, led by Grandjean, an adjunct professor of environmental health, published in Environmental Health Perspectives and released at 8 a.m. today, also suggested negative health impacts of PFAS exposure. That study looked at a group of about 600 adolescents from the Faroe Islands, an island country off the coast of Denmark. Those exposed to PFASs at a young age had lower-than-expected levels of antibodies against diphtheria and tetanus, for which they had been immunized. The findings suggested that PFASs, which are known to interfere with immune function, may be involved in reducing the effectiveness of vaccines in children.

Modern mussel shells much thinner than 50 years ago

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uocm-mms061416.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
Modern mussel shells much thinner than 50 years ago
Shells from the Pacific Northwest are nearly a third thinner now than specimens collected in the 1970s
University of Chicago Medical Center

Shells of California mussels collected from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington in the 1970s are on average 32 percent thicker than modern specimens, according to a new study published by University of Chicago biologists.

Shells collected by Native Americans 1,000 to 1,300 years ago were also 27 percent thicker than modern shells, on average. The decreasing thickness over time, in particular the last few decades, is likely due to ocean acidification as a result of increased carbon in the atmosphere.

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As humans burn fossils fuels, the oceans absorb a large portion of the additional carbon released into the atmosphere. This in turn causes pH levels of ocean water to drop, making it more acidic. Mussels, oysters, and certain species of algae have difficulty producing their calcium carbonate shells and skeletons in such an environment, and can provide an early indicator of how increasing ocean acidification affects marine life.

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The researchers also point out that their findings raise concerns about the California mussel's ability to retain its role as a foundational species in these waters. Decreased shell thickness makes them increasingly vulnerable to predators and environmental disturbances. This in turn could affect interactions with hundreds of other species of organisms that live near mussel beds in tidal waters.

"The California mussel is a common species along the entire west coast of the United States, and their fate will be linked to that of a rich diversity of predators, including sea stars and sea otters, as well as myriad species that are part of the mussel bed habitat," Pfister said. "It is imperative that we understand more about how these species will change as ocean conditions change."

How citizen journalism can lead to cyber bullying

With people so gullible about things posted on Facebook, I see this otherwise intelligent people falling for the things described here over & over.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/lu-hcj061416.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
How citizen journalism can lead to cyber bullying
Lund University

Citizen journalism is often seen as a more democratic form of journalism, where the public contributes to the reporting, analysis and dissemination of news. Sociologist and criminologist Agneta Mallén at Lund University in Sweden has studied the phenomenon and shown some of its downsides, including how it sometimes leads to outright cyber bullying.

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In recent years, citizen journalism has become a widely known phenomenon. It involves ordinary citizens witnessing events, documenting them on their mobile phones and sharing them on social media. It has become an increasingly important news source that often sets the tone of how an event is perceived by the world. "Common within this type of citizen journalism is that it is perceived as truth to at least the same extent as ordinary journalism", says Agneta Mallén.

She argues that the credibility is enhanced by the often poor film quality and shaky image, giving the viewer a high sense of presence, allowing them to become less critical of the source.

"Another problem with citizen journalism is that it opens the door to cyber bullying", says Agneta Mallén.

In a recently published study, she has analysed a video clip that circulated a few years ago under the name "Crazy Granny", which shows an elderly woman who looks as if she is trying to sneak away without paying for her taxi fare. The clip has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and in hundreds of comments the woman is defamed and ridiculed.

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Agneta Mallén read the taxi driver's police report against the woman and got a completely different story than the one told in the video clip. It turned out that the woman was not at all trying to avoid paying for her taxi fare, but rather the conflict was about her accidentally spilling on the seat of the taxi, and the fact that the driver wanted her to pay damages before letting her leave. The police classified it as an accident and immediately closed the preliminary investigation.

"But the damage was already done. The woman had already been humiliated in a massive cyber bullying campaign, and never received any redress. The woman was subjected to a virtual punishment for something she did not do. The behaviour is very similar to the medieval pillory where the sentence entailed being mocked in public", says Agneta Mallén, who thinks it is important to discuss the downsides to citizen journalism.

"Video clips filmed with a mobile phone can help police solve crimes and are increasingly used as evidence in trials. However, it is important to realise that these videos only show part of the truth and that the person being filmed does not have any say on the material before it is published online", says Mallén.

Antibiotics against severe salmonella infections in Africa increasingly ineffective

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/gcfi-aas061416.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
Antibiotics against severe salmonella infections in Africa increasingly ineffective
German Center for Infection Research

"The affected countries will have a major problem if we do not manage to control salmonella bloodstream infections with new antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin," cautions Prof Jürgen May. He has conducted numerous studies on salmonella infections in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Kumasi in Ghana, where the Bernhard Nocht Institute and the DZIF are in close partnership with researchers from the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine.

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Since the early 1990ies, multidrug-resistant salmonella strains that are insensitive to commonly used antibiotics like ampicillin and chloramphenicol have been emerging more and more frequently. Consequently, the WHO recommended using third generation antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin from the fluoroquinolone group. In a study in Ghana, May and his team investigated whether this new antibiotic now also triggers the development of resistance. From 2007 to 2012, over 300 isolates of invasive salmonella were collected from blood cultures, i.e. those that cause bloodstream infections.

The results from the study are a first warning sign: reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin was found in some salmonella serotypes; in one serotype, even half of the isolates were affected. Isolates of Salmonella Typhi, the pathogen that causes typhoid fever, did not show reduced susceptibility. However, in a multicountry analysis, Salmonella Typhi has already been found to have reduced sensitivity to ciprofloxacin; this being particularly high in Kenya. "This is worrying because ciprofloxacin is going to be used more frequently with decreasing costs," explains May.

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Healthy plant-based diet linked with substantially lower type 2 diabetes risk

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/htcs-hpd061316.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
Healthy plant-based diet linked with substantially lower type 2 diabetes risk
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Consuming a plant-based diet--especially one rich in high-quality plant foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes--is linked with substantially lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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California 'street tree' benefits valued at $1 billion

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/ufs--ct061416.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
California 'street tree' benefits valued at $1 billion
USDA Forest Service - Pacific Southwest Research Station

Streets lined with gold? Not exactly, but a new report from the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station estimates trees lining Californian streets and boulevards provide benefits to municipalities and residents worth $1 billion.

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"Sometimes it's easy to think of trees along city streets as mere aesthetics, or worse, a nuisance with falling leaves and limbs or uprooting sidewalks," said research forester and lead author Greg McPherson. "But what our study shows is that these trees have a real monetary benefit to the municipalities and residents who care for them."

From carbon storage ($10.32 million) and removal of air pollutants ($18.15 million) to interception of rainfall ($41.5 million) and energy savings from both heating and cooling ($101.15 million), California's street trees are paying big dividends. They even bolster property values and home sale prices to the tune of $838.94 million.

"We've calculated for every $1 spent on planting or maintaining a street tree, that tree returns, on average, $5.82 in benefits," McPherson said. "These trees are benefiting their communities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."

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Opioids increase risk of death when compared to other pain treatments

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/vumc-oir061316.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
Opioids increase risk of death when compared to other pain treatments
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Long-acting opioids are associated with a significantly increased risk of death when compared with alternative medications for moderate-to-severe chronic pain, according to a Vanderbilt study released today in JAMA.

Not only did long-acting opioids increase the risk of unintentional overdose deaths, but they were also shown to increase mortality from cardiorespiratory events and other causes.

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We found that the opioid patients had a 64 percent increased risk of death for any reason and a 65 percent increased risk of cardiovascular death," said Ray, professor of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

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Adolescent alcohol and marijuana use predicts poor academic performance & health problems

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/rc-aaa061316.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
Adolescent alcohol and marijuana use predicts poor academic performance & health problems
RAND Corporation

Adolescents who use both marijuana and alcohol during middle school and high school are more likely to have poor academic performance and mental health during high school, according to a new study by the nonprofit RAND Corporation that followed a group of students over a seven-year period.

However, the study found marijuana use was predictive of poorer functioning across more areas, including lower academic functioning, being less prepared for school, more delinquent behavior and poorer mental health. The results are published online in the journal Addiction.

Findings also show that when youth are using alcohol and marijuana at the same level, nonwhite youth tend to experience poorer functioning than white youth. For example, Asian and multiethnic youth reported more physical health problems than white youth.

Among those using alcohol and marijuana at the same level, Asian, black and Hispanic youth reported being less prepared academically than white youth and Hispanic and multiethnic youth reported lower academic performance than white youth.

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"Many youth tend to think that alcohol use has more consequences than marijuana use and therefore view marijuana use as safer than drinking," D'Amico said. "However, youth need to better understand the harms of marijuana use, such as the potential effect on their developing brain and how it can affect performance in both adolescence and adulthood."

Although white youth appear to experience less negative effects from alcohol and marijuana use, the survey responses indicate that white youth are at a higher risk for alcohol and marijuana use during middle school and high school.

Researchers note there are other preexisting factors that are not included in the current study that could have potentially contributed to either alcohol or marijuana use or the level of functioning during the period studied. Those factors include racial discrimination, parental involvement or neighborhood quality.

Childhood abuse, parental death and divorce are linked to adult insomnia symptoms

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/aaos-cap061416.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
Childhood abuse, parental death and divorce are linked to adult insomnia symptoms
Experiences during childhood are associated with poor sleep as adults
American Academy of Sleep Medicine

According to a new study, child adversities, which are known to play an important role in mental and physical health, are also associated with poor sleep.

Child abuse, parental divorce and parental death, where shown to be associated with higher rates of adult insomnia. Mild insomnia was uniquely predicted by childhood abuse and divorce, and moderate-severe insomnia was uniquely predicated by childhood abuse and parental death.

"Good quality sleep is an important part of health. People who don't sleep well are more likely to have worse physical and mental health. In particular, insomnia can lead to decreased quality of life, increased rates of depression, and even increased risk of heart disease," said senior author, Michael Grandner, PhD MTR, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Medicine, and Director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona. Karla Granados, the undergraduate student who is the lead author, notes, "The fact that events that happen during childhood can have an impact on sleep many years later can help use better understand how sleep is related to health and better target our efforts addressing sleep problems in the real world."

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tags: child abuse

Sunflower pollen protects bees from parasites

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uocp-spp061416.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
Sunflower pollen protects bees from parasites
Why eat nasty things? Because your enemy finds it even nastier
University of Chicago Press Journals

Plant pollens vary in quality as food sources for bees, and pollen from the sunflower family (the family that includes dandelions, daisies, and thistles) is known to have some unpleasant qualities. Bees fed exclusively sunflower pollen often develop poorly, slowly, or not at all. Yet many bee species collect pollen exclusively from this family; in fact, specialization on sunflower pollen has evolved multiple times in bees. Research by Dakota Spear and colleagues suggests that parasites could be part of the explanation.

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Sarah Silverman, ... noticed that bee species specializing on sunflower pollen were not attacked by a common brood-parasitic wasp, Sapyga. The wasp frequently lays eggs in the nests of other mason bee species, where its larvae kill bee eggs and eat their pollen provisions. Silverman and Forrest hypothesized that the wasp might be unable to develop on the pollen provisions of sunflower specialists.

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To test the hypothesis, she forced wasp larvae to feed on different types of pollen provisions, including those of sunflower specialists, and monitored their development and survival. As suspected, wasp survival was much lower on the sunflower provisions.

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15 minutes daily exercise may be reasonable target in older adults

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/esoc-1md060916.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
15 minutes daily exercise may be reasonable target in older adults
Just 15 minutes of physical activity a day was associated with a 22 percent lower risk of death
European Society of Cardiology

Fifteen minutes of daily exercise is associated with a 22% lower risk of death and may be a reasonable target for older adults, reveals research presented today at the EuroPRevent 2016 meeting by Dr David Hupin, a physician in the Department of Clinical and Exercise Physiology, University Hospital of Saint-Etienne in Saint-Etienne, France.1

"Age is not an excuse to do no exercise," said Dr Hupin. "It is well established that regular physical activity has a better overall effect on health than any medical treatment. But less than half of older adults achieve the recommended minimum of 150 minutes moderate intensity or 75 minutes vigorous intensity exercise each week."

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Dr Hupin said: "These two studies show that the more physical activity older adults do, the greater the health benefit. The biggest jump in benefit was achieved at the low level of exercise, with the medium and high levels bringing smaller increments of benefit."

"We found that the low level of activity, which is half the recommended amount, was associated with a 22% reduced risk of death in older adults compared with those who were inactive," said Dr Hupin. "This level of activity equates to a 15 minute brisk walk each day."

He concluded: "We think that older adults should progressively increase physical activity in their daily lives rather than dramatically changing their habits to meet recommendations. Fifteen minutes a day could be a reasonable target for older adults. Small increases in physical activity may enable some older adults to incorporate more moderate activity and get closer to the recommended 150 minutes per week."

Study confirms that breast is best for premature babies' hearts

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uoo-sct061016.php

Public Release: 14-Jun-2016
Study confirms that breast is best for premature babies' hearts
For the first time, breastfeeding linked to better cardiac structure and function in adulthood
University of Oxford

Breastfeeding premature babies improves long-term heart structure and function, an Oxford University study has found.

The hearts of babies born early often develop abnormally. Dr Adam Lewandowski and colleagues at the Oxford Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility, directed by Professor Paul Leeson, have previously shown that, in adult life, the hearts of people who were born very preterm have smaller chambers, thicker walls and reduced function.

The changes in the heart are thought to emerge in the first few months after birth and therefore the team wanted to explore whether the way the baby was fed during this time might be able to alter how the heart develops.

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The study published in Pediatrics showed that while those who had been born early had reduced heart volumes and function compared to those born at term, the reduction was considerably less in people who had been exclusively fed on breastmilk compared to those fed only on formula milk. Furthermore, in those fed a combination of breastmilk and formula, the more breastmilk consumed in the diet as babies the better their heart structure and function as adults.

After analysing the results to take into account other factors that might have affected heart volume and function, breastfeeding and the amount of breastmilk in the diet was still clearly associated with better heart volume and function when compared to formula feeding.

Dr Lewandowski said: 'Even the best baby formula lacks some of the growth factors, enzymes and antibodies that breastmilk provides to developing babies. These results show that even in people whose premature birth has inevitably affected their development, breastfeeding may be able to improve heart development.'

Future summers could be hotter than any on record

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/nsf-fsc061316.php

Public Release: 13-Jun-2016
Future summers could be hotter than any on record
Reducing carbon emissions could cut risk of record-breaking summertime heat in half
National Science Foundation

In 50 years, summers across most of the globe could be hotter than any summer experienced by people to date, according to a study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.

If climate change continues on its current trajectory, the probability that summers between 2061 and 2080 [45 to 64 years from now] will be warmer than the hottest on record stands at 80 percent across the world's land areas, excluding Antarctica, which was not studied. [So they will affect many people living today, and certainly their children and grandchildren.]

If greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, however, that probability drops to 41 percent.

"Extremely hot summers always pose a challenge to society," said NCAR scientist Flavio Lehner, lead author of the study. "They can increase the risk for health issues, and can also damage crops and deepen droughts. Such summers are a true test of our adaptability to rising temperatures."

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"Instead of just comparing the future to 95 summers from the past, the models give us the opportunity to create more than 1,400 possible past summers," Lehner said. "The result is a more comprehensive look at what should be considered natural variability and what can be attributed to climate change."

Emissions cuts could yield big benefits

The results show that between 2061 and 2080, summers in large parts of North and South America, central Europe, Asia, and Africa have a greater than 90 percent chance of being warmer than any summer in the historic record if emissions continue unabated.

That means virtually every summer would be as warm as the hottest to date.

In some regions, the likelihood of summers being warmer than any in the historical record remained less than 50 percent, but in those places -- including Alaska, the central U.S., Scandinavia, Siberia and continental Australia -- summer temperatures naturally vary greatly, making it more difficult to detect effects of climate change.

Reducing emissions would lower the global probability of future summers that are hotter than any in the past, but would not result in uniformly spread benefits. In some regions, including the U.S. East Coast and large parts of the tropics, the probability would remain above 90 percent, even if emissions were reduced.

But reduced emissions would result in a sizable boon for other regions of the world.

Parts of Brazil, central Europe, and eastern China would see a reduction of more than 50 percent in the chance that future summers would be hotter than the historic range. Since these areas are densely inhabited, a large part of the global population would benefit significantly from climate change mitigation.

"It's often overlooked that the majority of the world's population lives in regions that will see a comparably fast rise in temperatures," Lehner said.




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Ounce for ounce birds have significantly more neurons in their brains than mammals or primates

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/vu-sgn060916.php

Public Release: 13-Jun-2016
Study gives new meaning to the term 'bird brain'
Ounce for ounce birds have significantly more neurons in their brains than mammals or primates
Vanderbilt University

The macaw has a brain the size of an unshelled walnut, while the macaque monkey has a brain about the size of a lemon. Nevertheless, the macaw has more neurons in its forebrain - the portion of the brain associated with intelligent behavior - than the macaque.

That is one of the surprising results of the first study to systematically measure the number of neurons in the brains of more than two dozen species of birds ranging in size from the tiny zebra finch to the six-foot-tall emu, which found that they consistently have more neurons packed into their small brains than are stuffed into mammalian or even primate brains of the same mass.

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The study provides a straightforward answer to a puzzle that comparative neuroanatomists have been wrestling with for more than a decade: how can birds with their small brains perform complicated cognitive behaviors?

The conundrum was created by a series of studies beginning in the previous decade that directly compared the cognitive abilities of parrots and crows with those of primates. The studies found that the birds could manufacture and use tools, use insight to solve problems, make inferences about cause-effect relationships, recognize themselves in a mirror and plan for future needs, among other cognitive skills previously considered the exclusive domain of primates.

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"We found that birds, especially songbirds and parrots, have surprisingly large numbers of neurons in their pallium: the part of the brain that corresponds to the cerebral cortex, which supports higher cognition functions such as planning for the future or finding patterns. That explains why they exhibit levels of cognition at least as complex as primates," said Herculano-Houzel, who recently joined the Vanderbilt psychology department.

That is possible because the neurons in avian brains are much smaller and more densely packed than those in mammalian brains, the study found. Parrot and songbird brains, for example, contain about twice as many neurons as primate brains of the same mass and two to four times as many neurons as equivalent rodent brains.

Not only are neurons packed into the brains of parrots and crows at a much higher density than in primate brains, but the proportion of neurons in the forebrain is also significantly higher, the study found.

"In designing brains, nature has two parameters it can play with: the size and number of neurons and the distribution of neurons across different brain centers," said Herculano-Houzel, "and in birds we find that nature has used both of them."

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Household air pollution linked to higher risk of heart attacks, death

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/aha-hap060916.php

Public Release: 13-Jun-2016
Household air pollution linked to higher risk of heart attacks, death
American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report
American Heart Association

Long-term exposure to household air pollution from lighting, cooking or heating with fuels, such as kerosene or diesel, may increase the risk of heart attacks and death, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.

Burning cleaner fuels, such as natural gas, was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular deaths.

According to the World Health Organization, one-half of the world's population lives in poverty and burns fuels for lighting, cooking and heating purposes.

"We know that smoking tobacco products and outside air pollution are linked to heart disease death," said Sumeet Mitter, M.D., lead researcher and cardiovascular disease fellow at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. "Our study, using exposure history and time, is the first to find a significant and independent increased risk for all-cause, total cardiovascular disease and heart attack deaths due to increasing lifetime exposures to household air pollution from kerosene or diesel burning."

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Eating more whole grains linked with lower mortality rates

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/htcs-emw060916.php

Public Release: 13-Jun-2016
Eating more whole grains linked with lower mortality rates
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Eating more whole grains may reduce the risk of premature death, according to a new meta-analysis by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study found that people who ate the most whole grains (70 grams/day, about 4 servings), compared with those who ate little or no whole grains, had a lower risk of dying during the study period.

"These findings further support current dietary guidelines that recommend at least 3 daily servings (or 48 grams) of whole grains to improve long-term health and prevent premature death," said Qi Sun, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and senior author of the study.

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The results showed that people who ate 70 grams/day of whole grains, compared with those who ate little or no whole grains, had a 22% lower risk of total mortality, a 23% lower risk of CVD mortality, and a 20% lower risk of cancer mortality.

Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a particular population for a specific period of time.

The researchers note that multiple bioactive compounds in whole grains could contribute to their health benefits, and that high fiber content may lower cholesterol production and glucose response and increase satiety.

The researchers recommend that people choose foods that are high in whole grain ingredients--such as bran, oatmeal, and quinoa--that have at least 16 grams per serving, while reducing consumption of unhealthy refined carbohydrates.

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In MS, can better sleep improve cognition?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uomh-imc061316.php

Public Release: 13-Jun-2016
In MS, can better sleep improve cognition?
University of Michigan Health System

Multiple sclerosis looks different from person to person. In many individuals, though, the difficulty in maintaining a sense of self and in keeping up intellectually can be the disease's most devastating manifestations.

With this in mind, University of Michigan researchers are exploring a new way to improve cognitive issues, such as memory, attention and mental processing in MS patients: by examining sleep.

People with MS face an elevated risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a disorder in which the throat collapses during sleep, causing the patient to repeatedly stop breathing for periods of 10 seconds or longer throughout the night. OSA can lead to a decline in mental functioning.

A U-M pilot study published in Sleep is the first to find an association between sleep apnea severity and cognitive dysfunction in patients with MS.

"Since obstructive sleep apnea is a treatable condition that is also commonly seen in MS, we wondered, 'What if some of the thinking and processing difficulties that MS patients experience do not stem directly from the MS itself, but from the effects of sleep apnea or other sleep problems?'" says Tiffany Braley, M.D., M.S., the principal investigator and co-first author of the study, and an assistant professor of neurology at U-M.

MS affects nearly half a million Americans and is the leading non-traumatic cause of neurological disability among young adults.

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"Multiple measures of sleep apnea severity directly correlated with poorer performance on several cognitive tests," said co-first author Anna Kratz, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation. "In particular, problems with attention and multiple aspects of memory, including memory for words and images, and working memory, which plays a role in problem solving and decision making, were all associated with poorer sleep."

Apnea severity measures accounted for between 11 and 23 percent of the variance in cognitive test performance. The investigators also observed relationships between other sleep quality measures and poor cognitive performance.

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"Given the high prevalence of treatable sleep problems in MS patients, and the fact that many patients with MS rate fatigue as one of their most bothersome symptoms, physicians should have a low threshold to refer MS patients who report sleep disturbances to sleep specialists," says last author Ronald Chervin, M.D., M.S., professor of neurology and director of U-M Sleep Disorders Center.

Physical activity builds stronger bones, even in children with genetic risk

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/chop-pab061316.php

Public Release: 13-Jun-2016
Physical activity builds stronger bones, even in children with genetic risk
CHOP researchers: High-impact activity can benefit children and adolescents genetically predisposed to bone fragility
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Exercise, particularly high-impact activity, builds stronger bones in children, even for those who carry genetic variants that predispose them to bone weakness, according to new research. The scientists say their findings underscore that genetics does not necessarily equate to destiny, and reinforce the importance of physical activity as a key factor to improve the bone health of children in the present and into later life.

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The researchers found that across the board, children had higher bone density scores if they had higher levels of physical activity. This even applied to those with a higher genetic risk for bone fragility. Importantly, the benefits of activity were driven entirely by high-impact, weight-bearing activity, such as gymnastics and soccer, which involve sprinting, turning or jumping actions.

The researchers note that replication studies by other groups are going to be needed to follow up their study, and that other groups should investigate similar questions in populations other than the children of European ancestry covered in this analysis.

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Chronic sleep restriction negatively affects athletic performance

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/aaos-csr061316.php

Public Release: 13-Jun-2016
Chronic sleep restriction negatively affects athletic performance
Findings suggest sleep loss results in decreased peak power and endurance performance, as well as decreased response speed
American Academy of Sleep Medicine

A new study found that chronic sleep restriction negatively affects athletic performance.

Results show that following sleep restriction, energy expenditure during submaximal exercise decreased 3.9 percent; maximal aerobic power decreased 2.9 percent and time to exhaustion decreased by 10.7 percent (37 seconds). Submaximal heart rate decreased after sleep restriction, as well as peak heart rate and Psychomotor Vigilance Test response speed.

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Caffeine has little to no benefit after 3 nights of sleep restriction

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/aaos-chl061316.php

Public Release: 13-Jun-2016
Caffeine has little to no benefit after 3 nights of sleep restriction
New study shows caffeine is not sufficient to prevent performance decline long term
American Academy of Sleep Medicine

A new study found that after restricting sleep to 5 hours per night, caffeine use no longer improved alertness or performance after three nights.

Results show that relative to placebo, caffeine significantly improved Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) performance during the first 2 days, but not the last 3 days of sleep restriction.

"We were particularly surprised that the performance advantage conferred by two daily 200 mg doses of caffeine was lost after three nights of sleep restriction," said lead author Tracy Jill Doty, PhD, research scientist at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. "These results are important, because caffeine is a stimulant widely used to counteract performance decline following periods of restricted sleep. The data from this study suggests that the same effective daily dose of caffeine is not sufficient to prevent performance decline over multiple days of restricted sleep."

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Copper essential for burning fat, researchers find

Too much copper is toxic, too.

Public Release: 10-Jun-2016
Copper essential for burning fat, researchers find
Copper puts a brake on a brake of fat burning, suggesting a possible role in obesity, diabetes
University of California - Berkeley

Is copper deficiency contributing to the obesity epidemic?

Though small amounts of copper are essential to health - oysters, liver, beans and nuts are good sources - copper's role in metabolism has been unclear: Some studies found that it boosted fat burning, others that it depressed it.

University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have now clarified the critical role that copper plays in nutrition: It helps move fat out of fat cells - called adipocytes - and into the blood stream for use as energy.

Without enough copper, fat builds up in fat cells without being utilized, said Christopher Chang, the Class of 1942 Chair and a professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley.

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Chang cautions against ingesting copper supplements as a result of these studies, however. Too much copper can lead to imbalances in other essential minerals, including zinc.

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2016 Third Warmest for U.S. Through July

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/2016-third-warmest-for-us-through-july-20590

By Andrea Thompson
Aug. 8, 2016

In the midst of the dog days of summer, the U.S. is still having its third-hottest year on record through July. The month also saw two states — New Mexico and Florida — clinch their hottest July, while Alaska continued to stay on track for its warmest year in the books.

For the contiguous U.S., the year-to-date temperature was 54.3°F (12.4°C), or 3.0°F (1.7°C) above the 20th century average, according to data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Every state was warmer than average for the same period.

“The January-July period was the third warmest by a fairly wide margin,” NOAA climatologist Jake Crouch said in an email.

The U.S. has been just one hotspot on the planet, which is having its warmest year on record by a good margin. The globally hot year is largely the result of the excess heat trapped by ever increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

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tags: extreme weather

Prolonged repetitive physical workload increases risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/elar-prp061016.php

Public Release: 10-Jun-2016
Prolonged repetitive physical workload increases risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis
New insights into which patients are genetically more susceptible
European League Against Rheumatism

The results of a study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2016) showed that prolonged repetitive physical workload increases the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Although work-related physical activity over many years is known to cause many cases of osteoarthritis (OA) in selected joints, this is the first study to show a link between physical workload and RA.

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"We found that some types of physical workload increased the odds of developing RA more than others," said Miss Pingling Zeng of the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. "There also appeared to be a significant interaction between genetic makeup, in terms of HLA-DRB1 genes, and the risk of ACPA-positive RA from specific types of physical workload."

The estimated odds ratio of developing RA in exposed vs. unexposed subjects was greater than or equal to 1.5, with several repetitive types of manual work that would be common, for example, in the building trade: exposure to repeated vibration (1.5), carrying or lifting weights greater than 10kg (1.5), bending/turning (1.6), and working with hands either below knee level (1.7), or above shoulder level (1.8).

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Implantable device cuts obstructive sleep apnea symptoms

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uops-idc061016.php

Public Release: 10-Jun-2016
Implantable device cuts obstructive sleep apnea symptoms
Offers promise for patients unable to tolerate CPAP, Penn study says
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Since the 1980s, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) - in which positive pressure is pushed through the nasal airways to help users breathe while sleeping - has been by far the most widely used treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). With more than 18 million people experiencing OSA, a number expected to rise, new results from a Penn case study of a new device implanted in the chest called hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HGNS) offers promise for patients with moderate to severe OSA who cannot tolerate CPAP. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will present data (abstract 0378) on their outcomes with hypoglossal nerve stimulation for the treatment of patients with sleep apnea at SLEEP 2016, the 30th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

The device is a pacemaker with a tiny generator and a sensing lead, but instead of using electrical pulses to control abnormal heart rate, the device uses two wires to stimulate the tongue. Patients use a remote control to turn on the device before going to sleep and turn it off upon waking up. A delay allows the user to fall asleep before the pulse generator begins stimulation. After detecting the user's breathing pattern, the machine stimulates the hypoglossal nerve (the nerve that controls tongue motion) which enlarges the upper airway.

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otal apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) - which measures severity of sleep apnea by counting the number of pauses in breathing during sleep - for all patients significantly decreased an average of 35 events per hour after the device was planted, which corresponds to an average reduction of 84 percent. Additionally, the lowest oxygen level measured in the blood during the night significantly increased by 11 percent, from 79 percent to 90 percent.

In the previous STAR clinical trial, NCT01161420, which led to the device's FDA approval in April 2014 for patients unable to tolerate CPAP, patients implanted with the Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation device showed a 78 percent reduction in AHI and 80 percent fewer oxygen desaturation events (number of times the oxygen levels in the blood were low). These results were sustained three years after the device was implanted.

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Considering that sleep apnea can lead to high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, and other serious health problems, it is critically important that we study devices that may serve as another option instead of CPAP to treat patients with sleep apnea," said lead author Richard Schwab, MD, co-medical director of the Penn Sleep Center. "There is no perfect treatment option for obstructive sleep apnea, but our preliminary data suggest that hypoglossal nerve stimulation can effectively treat patients with sleep apnea who are unable to tolerate CPAP."

Supporting pollinators could have big payoff for Texas cotton farmers

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uota-spc061016.php

Public Release: 10-Jun-2016
Supporting pollinators could have big payoff for Texas cotton farmers
University of Texas at Austin

According to a new study by The University of Texas at Austin, increasing the diversity of pollinator species, including bees, flies and butterflies, can dramatically increase cotton production. The researchers estimate that in South Texas, the region they studied, increasing the diversity of pollinators could boost cotton production by up to 18 percent, yielding an increase in annual revenue of more than $1.1 million.

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Milky Way now hidden from one-third of humanity

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uoca-mwn060316.php

Public Release: 10-Jun-2016
Milky Way now hidden from one-third of humanity
University of Colorado at Boulder

The Milky Way, the brilliant river of stars that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial, is but a faded memory to one third of humanity and 80 percent of Americans, according to a new global atlas of light pollution produced by Italian and American scientists.

Light pollution is one of the most pervasive forms of environmental alteration. In most developed countries, the ubiquitous presence of artificial lights creates a luminous fog that swamps the stars and constellations of the night sky.

"We've got whole generations of people in the United States who have never seen the Milky Way," said Chris Elvidge, a scientist with NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information in Boulder, Colorado. "It's a big part of our connection to the cosmos -- and it's been lost."

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Light pollution is most extensive in countries like Singapore, Italy and South Korea, while Canada and Australia retain the most dark sky. In western Europe, only small areas of night sky remain relatively undiminished, mainly in Scotland, Sweden and Norway. Despite the vast open spaces of the American west, almost half of the U.S. experiences light-polluted nights.

"In the U.S., some of our national parks are just about the last refuge of darkness - places like Yellowstone and the desert southwest," said co-author Dan Duriscoe of the National Park Service. "We're lucky to have a lot of public land that provides a buffer from large cities."

Light pollution does more than rob humans of the opportunity to ponder the night sky. Unnatural light can confuse or expose wildlife like insects, birds and sea turtles, with often fatal consequences.

Fortunately, light pollution can be controlled by shielding lights to limit shine to the immediate area, reducing lighting to the minimum amount needed -- or by simply turning them off.

Lupus confirmed as risk factor for cervical cancer

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/elar-lca060916.php

Public Release: 9-Jun-2016
Lupus confirmed as risk factor for cervical cancer
Women with lupus treated with immunosuppressives need regular cervical screening
European League Against Rheumatism

The results of a study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2016) found a doubled risk of pre-malignant cervical changes, and potentially also an increased risk of cervical cancer, among women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) compared to the general female population. The highest risks were found in women with SLE who were treated with immunosuppressant drugs. These findings highlight the importance of regular cervical screening in all women with SLE, regardless of whether the increased risk is due to disease severity or treatment.

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SLE is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect any organ and system, but mainly involves the joints, kidneys and skin. SLE predominately affects women, occurring 10 times more often than in men, and often starting when they are in their 20s and 30s.

Between 2006 and 2012, the rate of cervical dysplasia or invasive cervical cancer among a cohort of women with SLE was twice the rate in a matched general population (adjusted for age, sex, education level, healthcare utilisation, number of children, marital status, family history of cervical cancer, and prior cervical screening). The rate was higher among those women treated with a systemic immunosuppressive drug, compared to those treated with only an antimalarial without additional immunosuppressive treatment.

Results were similar for the risk of cervical dysplasia at different stages of severity, however, this comparison was less significant due to limited numbers of events and follow-up time.

Midlife fitness is linked to lower stroke risks later in life

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/aha-mfi060616.php

Public Release: 9-Jun-2016
Midlife fitness is linked to lower stroke risks later in life
American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report
American Heart Association

The more fit you are in your midlife, the less likely you are to have a stroke after age 65, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.

"We all hear that exercise is good for you, but many people still don't do it. Our hope is that this objective data on preventing a fatal disease such as stroke, will help motivate people to get moving and get fit," said Ambarish Pandey, M.D., the first author of the study and a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

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The study found that those with the highest level of fitness had a 37 percent lower risk of stroke after age 65, compared to their counterparts with the lowest level of fitness. This inverse relationship between fitness and stroke risks existed even after researchers considered stroke risk factors: high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and atrial fibrillation.

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Stroke is the No. 5 cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious long-term disability. The information on the effects of fitness on stroke risk, independent of other factors, is limited, researchers noted.

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Air pollution exposure may worsen lupus in children

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/elar-ape060916.php

Public Release: 9-Jun-2016
Air pollution exposure may worsen lupus in children
Not just a respiratory and cardiovascular issue
European League Against Rheumatism

The results of a study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2016) show for the first time that an individual's exposure to air pollution may have a direct role in triggering disease activity as well as airway inflammation in children and adolescents with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). This study, conducted in Brazil, has confirmed a direct link between an individual's personal exposure to fine pollution particles and their lupus disease activity.

Previous studies have shown that exposure of a population to outdoor pollutants was associated with an increase in hospital admissions due to paediatric rheumatic diseases, as well as a higher risk of disease activity in those patients attending a hospital with childhood-onset SLE.

Air pollution is a major health issue in Brazil, killing around 49,000 Brazilians every year as a result of its direct link to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Deaths from both outdoor and indoor air pollution represent one in every 26 deaths from all causes in Brazil, making it the ninth largest mortality risk in the country. The WHO has estimated that one in eight of total deaths globally are the result of air pollution exposure, confirming air pollution as the world's largest single environmental health risk. Air pollution is estimated to cause nearly half a million premature deaths each year in the European Union. In busy cities, where air quality is usually at its worst, the average life expectancy of people is reduced by over two years.

"Our findings have shown that air pollution doesn't just increase the incidence and prevalence of chronic lung disease and acute respiratory infections, lung cancer, heart disease and strokes, it is also an important contributory factor in childhood rheumatic diseases, such as lupus," said Dr Maria Fernanda Goulart from the Department of Paediatric Rheumatology, University of São Paulo, Brazil. "With air pollution increasing in many major cities, paediatric rheumatologists can expect to see a resultant impact on the disease activity of their lupus patients," she added.

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Environmental and health impacts of US health-care system

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/yu-eah060916.php

Public Release: 9-Jun-2016
Environmental and health impacts of US health-care system
Yale University

f the U.S. healthcare system were a country, it would rank 13th in the world for greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research. The study, published June 9 in PLOS ONE, quantified previously unreported environmental and public health impacts of the nation's healthcare sector.

The U.S. healthcare system, the most expensive in the world, uses vast amounts of energy in the form of heating, electricity, and energy-intensive goods and services. It has been estimated that the healthcare sector contributes 8% of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. Yet emissions of other pollutants from the healthcare sector, and their impact on the public health, have not been reported.

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Among their findings, the researchers estimated that greenhouse gas emissions from the healthcare sector grew 30% over the past decade, accounting for 9.8% of the national total in 2013. Were it a country, the sector would rank "ahead of the entire United Kingdom" in emissions, said Sherman.

The research team also reported significant national percentages of non-greenhouse gas effects attributable to the healthcare sector, including acidification (12%), smog formation (10%), and respiratory disease from particulate matter (9%).

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In addition, the researchers calculated the public health impact of healthcare emissions. For the year 2013, they estimated health damages from the pollutants at 470,000 "disability adjusted life years" (DALYs) -- a measure of years lost due to ill health, disability, or early death.

That health burden, the researchers said, is comparable to lives lost each year to preventable medical errors first reported by the Institute of Medicine in 1999, sparking national attention on patient safety. "It's on the same order of magnitude, and we ought to pay attention to it," Sherman noted.

Also detailed in the study are recent efforts to "green" the healthcare system, such as the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. These initiatives, designed to make the healthcare sector more sustainable and reduce pollution, can also improve public health and patient safety, the researchers said.

"While some pollution is currently inevitable in our efforts to safely care for patients, there is a tremendous amount of waste in our healthcare system," said Sherman. "People are trying to reduce waste from a cost perspective. But there is a public health perspective as well that is important. Protecting public health is also an issue of patient safety."

Metal exposure -- a factor in bat population decline

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uoy-me-060916.php

Public Release: 9-Jun-2016
Metal exposure -- a factor in bat population decline
Scientists at the University of York have led the first full-scale national assessment of metal contamination in bats, showing that many bats in the UK contain levels of metals high enough to cause toxic effects
University of York

Scientists at the University of York have led the first full-scale national assessment of metal contamination in bats, showing that many bats in the UK contain levels of metals high enough to cause toxic effects.

With bat species across the world in decline, exposure to chemicals is one of many potential threats to the species, along with urbanisation, loss of habitats, decline in food and water, agricultural intensification and climate change.

Metals are present in a wide range of habitats, with a large number of land sites in the UK remaining contaminated since the industrial revolution. Records show areas that were once extensively mined, such as the Pennines, still contain high concentrations of metal deposits.

Soil-associated metals are accumulated by invertebrates and plants which then move along the food chain into the bat species. However, the potential risks of metal in bats has, until now, been poorly understood.

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Bat organs and tissues were analysed for a range of metals and the results compared to levels known to cause toxic effects in mammals.

Approximately 21 percent of bats sampled contained residues of at least one metal at concentrations high enough to elicit toxic effects, such as kidney damage. Lead was found to pose the greatest risk, as seven to 11 percent of bats sampled had levels of lead above the toxic threshold for this metal in small mammals.

Copper, zinc and cadmium was also prevalent in bat tissue, with levels often above the upper levels measured in other mammal species.

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Link found between witnessing parental domestic violence during childhood and attempted suicide

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uot-lfb060916.php

Public Release: 9-Jun-2016
Link found between witnessing parental domestic violence during childhood and attempted suicide
One in six adults who were exposed to chronic parental domestic violence during their childhood has attempted suicide
University of Toronto

A new study by the University of Toronto (U of T), found the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts among adults who had been exposed to chronic parental domestic violence during childhood was 17.3% compared to 2.3% among those without this childhood adversity.

"We had expected that the association between chronic parental domestic violence and later suicide attempts would be explained by childhood sexual or physical abuse, or by mental illness and substance abuse. However, even when we took these factors into account, those exposed to chronic parental domestic violence still had more than twice the odds of having attempted suicide" reported lead author Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Institute for Life Course and Aging.

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Persistent economic disadvantage and education inequality in the United States

http://equitablegrowth.org/equitablog/economic-disadvantage-education-inequality/

by Nick Bunker | August 3, 2016

The intersection of income inequality and education is one of the more troubling features of the U.S. economy. Research by Stanford University economist Sean Reardon shows a rising educational achievement gap between students from high-income backgrounds and those whose parents are lower-income earners.

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Simply using current eligibility or non-eligibility for subsidized lunches, however, might not be the best way to look at the effects of income inequality on educational achievement. A new paper by economists Katherine Michelmore of Syracuse University and Susan Dynarski of the University of Michigan shows why.

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What they find is that there’s a difference—a significant one—in test scores in the 8th grade between students who are occasionally eligible for subsidized lunches and those who have been eligible every single year since kindergarten. The two economists consider students who have been eligible every year (14 percent of Michigan students) to be persistently disadvantaged. And they find that these students score a full standard deviation below kids who have never been on subsidized lunches (40 percent of students) and just under a quarter below students who are occasionally eligible for subsidized lunches (roughly 45 percent of students). (A standard deviation being further away from something than a quarter standard deviation.)

Why is there such a difference between students who are occasionally eligible for subsidized lunches and those who are persistently eligible? One possibility is that exposure year after year to low-income living adds up over time, pushing down test scores in the process. But Michelmore and Dynarski find that the vast majority of the gap between persistently eligible students is present early on in their schooling—3rd grade, to be precise—so the differences in exposure alone can’t explain the gap. Instead, the two researchers argue that the difference between persistently-eligible students and occasionally-eligible students is a sign that the former are from much lower-income backgrounds. It’s a story of income inequality, not income volatility.

These results, as the authors note, have important implications for the design and evaluation of education programs. Eligibility for subsidized lunches is an important metric in many datasets used by researchers and policymakers to compare students across income levels. The difference between students who are occasionally eligible for school lunches and those who persistently may have significant effects. Many federal, state and local education programs use the percent of students in a school eligible for subsidized lunches as a way of targeting school spending.

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A similar dynamic potentially holds for so-called value-added models for evaluating teachers. Often these measures will use the share of subsided lunch eligible students in a classroom as a control for the economic disadvantage of students in classrooms in order to not give lower scores to teachers who have low-income students. But if persistently eligible students are concentrated in some classrooms but not in others, then it could bias these measures of teacher performance.

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Trauma in childhood linked to drug use in adolescence

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/cums-tic060816.php

Public Release: 8-Jun-2016
Trauma in childhood linked to drug use in adolescence
National sample of 10,000 teens showed exposure to abuse and domestic violence in particular increased chances of drug use
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

Latest research from a national sample of almost 10,000 U.S. adolescents found psychological trauma, especially abuse and domestic violence before age 11, can increase the likelihood of experimentation with drugs in adolescence, independent of a history of mental illness. Results of the study conducted at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health are published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

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The research, led by Mailman School of Public Health postdoctoral fellow Hannah Carliner and Associate Professor Silvia S. Martins, MD, PhD, found that childhood trauma experiences before age 11 increased the chances that teens would try marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs used without a medical reason, other drugs, and multiple drugs. They also showed that a greater number of traumatic experiences were associated with an increase in risk for use of marijuana and other drugs.

"Abuse and domestic violence were particularly harmful to children, increasing the chances of all types of drug use in the adolescent years", says Dr. Carliner. "We also found that trauma such as car accidents, natural disasters, and major illness in childhood increased the chances that teens would use marijuana, cocaine, and prescription drugs."

Adolescents with a parent who misused alcohol or drugs were more likely to use marijuana and other drugs following exposure to some forms of childhood trauma. "Parent substance misuse may increase access to drugs in the home, indicate a biological predisposition towards drug use, serve as a model for coping with stress, or indicate lack of parental involvement or neglect," noted Dr. Martins. "Future research should identify which mechanisms may increase this risk in order to target interventions."

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Danger from extreme storms and high seas to rise-

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uons-dfe060816.php

Public Release: 8-Jun-2016
Danger from extreme storms and high seas to rise
Storms that battered Australia's east coast are a harbinger of things to come
University of New South Wales

Storms that battered Australia's east coast are a harbinger of things to come and a stark reminder of the need for a national effort to monitor the growing threat from climate change, UNSW coastal researchers warn.

"The damage we've seen is a harbinger of what's to come," said Ian Turner, Director of the Water Research Laboratory at the University of New South Wales. "Climate change is not only raising the oceans and threatening foreshores, but making our coastlines much more vulnerable to storm damage. What are king high tides today will be the norm within decades."

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tags: extreme weather, severe weather

A conservative environment makes conservatives happier

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uoc-ace060816.php

Public Release: 8-Jun-2016
A conservative environment makes conservatives happier
Life satisfaction depends on time and country
University of Cologne

Past studies have found that conservatives are happier than liberals. Dr. Olga Stavrova from the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology (ISS) and Junior Professor Maike Luhmann from the Psychology Department at the University of Cologne were able to show in two studies that the positive effect of a conservative ideology on people also depends on the ideological orientation of their social surroundings.
If the dominant ideology in society is rather conservative, adherents of a conservative ideology tend to be happier than liberals. With decreasing social conservatism, the conservatives tended to forfeit their "satisfaction advantage."

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is mostly conservatives who are influenced by their environment. No such correlation was discernible in for people with a liberal attitude. In this context, the researchers noted that all the characteristics facilitating life satisfaction, for example religiosity or personality, help an individual attain popularity and respect in society." In this regard, conservatives feel better. They have better relationships with others, feel understood and validated in their views."

Scientists call this the "person-culture fit" -- the individual "fits" into his or her environment. "We believe this to be at the heart of our results. It is nothing intrinsic to the conservative ideology," Stavrova argues. "For conservatives, social belonging seems to matter a great deal. Liberals are more autonomous."

Air pollution affects young people's psychiatric health

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uu-apa060816.php

Public Release: 8-Jun-2016
Air pollution affects young people's psychiatric health
Umea University

New research from Umeå University in Sweden indicates that dispensed medication for psychiatric diagnosis can be related to air pollution concentrations. The study covers a large part of the Swedish population and has been published in the journal BMJ Open.

More and more studies show that the brain and human cognitive development are affected by pollution.

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he results show that air pollution increased the risk of having dispensed medication for at least one psychiatric diagnosis for children and adolescents, the risk increased with 9% with a 10 microgram per cubic meter increased concentration of nitrogen dioxide even after socioeconomic and demographic factors were taken into account.

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Energy-saving devices work -- if you use them correctly

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/msu-edw060816.php

Public Release: 8-Jun-2016
Energy-saving devices work -- if you use them correctly
Michigan State University

A well-insulated home with a high-efficiency air conditioner and programmable thermostat are only as effective as the person using it.

A new study led by Michigan State University and published in the current issue of Procedia Engineering shows that people living in green dwellings who don't maximize their technology can lose half of the energy savings available to them.

"Technological advances in building and equipment account for only 43 percent of energy consumption," said Dong Zhao, assistant professor in MSU's School of Planning, Design and Construction. "That means that you could buy the greenest house on the market, yet your personal habits could waste more than 50 percent of your energy savings."

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Teenage boys who show empathy attract 1.8 more girlfriends than boys who don't

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/acu-tbw060816.php

Public Release: 8-Jun-2016
Teenage boys who show empathy attract 1.8 more girlfriends than boys who don't
Landmark study shows the extent that teen males and females select empathic classmates as friends
Australian Catholic University

Boys high in cognitive empathy attracted an average of 1.8 more girl friendships than low empathy counterparts, as revealed by a landmark study - When Empathy Matters: The Role of Sex and Empathy in Close Friendships.

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It is the first study to examine the extent that adolescent males and females select empathic classmates as friends. And the conclusion based on a study of 1,970 Year 10 students in Queensland and New South Wales (average age of 15.7 years) is that girls are more likely to nominate empathic boys as friends.

In contrast, empathetic girls didn't rate quite so highly with the opposite sex. In fact, the study found girls with empathetic qualities "did not attract a greater number of opposite sex friends" at all.

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The researchers defined cognitive empathy as the capacity to comprehend the emotions of another person.

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Stress exposure during pregnancy observed in mothers of children with autism

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uom-sed060716.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Stress exposure during pregnancy observed in mothers of children with autism
More research needed to understand gene-stress interaction
University of Missouri-Columbia

Stress during pregnancy has been linked to several conditions, including some instances of autism spectrum disorder. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine have observed a variant of a stress-sensitive gene and exposure to stress during pregnancy among two groups of mothers of children with autism. The researchers believe the finding could be a step toward helping identify women who have greater risks for having children with autism when exposed to stressors during a specific time window during pregnancy.

"Autism was thought to be largely a genetic disorder, but previous research has shown that environmental influences such as stress can play an important role in the development of the condition," said David Beversdorf, M.D., associate professor in the departments of radiology, neurology and psychological sciences at the University of Missouri and the MU Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and senior author of the study. "We know that some mothers who experience significant levels of stress don't have children with autism, but others do. To help understand why, we studied a gene that is known to affect stress and found a link between it and the development of autism with exposure to stress."

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Coral reefs fall victim to overfishing, pollution aggravated by ocean warming

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/osu-crf060216.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Coral reefs fall victim to overfishing, pollution aggravated by ocean warming
Oregon State University

Coral reefs are declining around the world because a combination of factors -- overfishing, nutrient pollution, and pathogenic disease -- ultimately become deadly in the face of higher ocean temperatures, researchers have concluded.

A study published today in Nature Communications, based on one of the largest and longest field experiments done on this topic, suggests that the widespread coral deaths observed in recent decades are being caused by this combination of multiple local stressors and global warming.

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Moving during childhood can be hazardous to your health and wellbeing

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/ehs-mcb060116.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Moving can be hazardous to your health and wellbeing
Adverse effects for adults linked to residence changes during childhood, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Elsevier Health Sciences

An extensive, long-term study of Danish children followed into adulthood shows that moving to a new home during childhood increases the likelihood of multiple adverse outcomes later in life. This unique residential mobility study of 1.4 million people tracked from their 15th birthdays until their early forties appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Data were collected on all people born in Denmark from 1971 to 1997 documenting every residential childhood move from birth to 14 years. Each move was associated with the age of the child so that the impact of early-in-life moves could be contrasted with moves during the early teenage years. With a number of comprehensive national registries at their disposal, the team of researchers was able to measure and correlate subsequent negative events in adulthood, including attempted suicide, violent criminality, psychiatric illness, substance misuse, and natural and unnatural deaths.

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The risk of adverse outcomes due to residential mobility during childhood was classified into three categories: self-directed and interpersonal violence: (attempted suicide, violent criminality), mental illness and substance misuse (any psychiatric diagnosis, substance misuse), and premature mortality (natural and unnatural deaths).

Thirty-seven percent of people studied relocated across a municipal boundary at least once before reaching their 15th birthdays, with multiple relocations occurring most frequently during infancy. Across all adverse outcomes studied, the highest risks were among individuals who moved frequently during early adolescence.

Statistical analysis was particularly robust. "Dose-response" relationships were evident for every outcome category and each additional move was associated with an incremental risk increase. For example, data analysis showed that risk increased with multiple moves at any age versus a single move, and that an even sharper spike in risk for violent offending was observed with multiple relocations within a single year. The attempted suicide risk increased steadily with rising age at the time of the move, and was markedly raised if multiple annual relocations occurred during early adolescence (12-14 years of age).

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Interestingly the initial hypothesis that adverse outcomes might be more prevalent in households with lower SES [Socioeconomic status] was not borne out by this study, where markedly elevated risk due to residential moves during early/mid adolescence applied to all SES levels.

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Autism with intellectual disability linked to mother's immune dysfunction during pregnancy

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uoc--awi060716.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Autism with intellectual disability linked to mother's immune dysfunction during pregnancy
University of California - Davis Health System

Pregnant women with higher levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, proteins that control communication between cells of the immune system, may be at significantly greater risk of having a child with autism combined with intellectual disability, researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute have found.

The research also suggests a potential immune profile for the differentiation of autism combined with intellectual disability, as distinct from either autism or developmental disability alone.

"Inflammation during the second trimester in the mothers of children with autism who also have intellectual disability was significantly greater than in mothers of children autism without intellectual disability in our study," said Judy Van de Water, professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology and a researcher affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute.

"However, equally significant was that profiles of mothers whose children go on to be diagnosed with autism and intellectual disability differed markedly from those whose children have intellectual disability without autism, as well as from the typically developing general population," said Van de Water, director of the UC Davis Center for Children's Environmental Health and the study's senior author.

"Their profiles are distinct from all of the other groups that we studied, based on their cytokine and chemokine profiles," Van de Water continued. "This finding suggests an avenue that we will explore to potentially identify possible markers to separate sub-phenotypes in the autism population."

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Fish can recognize human faces, new research shows

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uoo-fcr060616.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Fish can recognize human faces, new research shows
University of Oxford

A species of tropical fish has been shown to be able to distinguish between human faces. It is the first time fish have demonstrated this ability.

The research, carried out by a team of scientists from the University of Oxford (UK) and the University of Queensland (Australia), found that archerfish were able to learn and recognize faces with a high degree of accuracy -- an impressive feat, given this task requires sophisticated visual recognition capabilities.

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Marriage could improve heart attack survival and reduce hospital stay

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uoea-mci060616.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Marriage could improve heart attack survival and reduce hospital stay
Large study of hospital data suggests marital support improves survival and could save money
University of East Anglia

Being married could improve your likelihood of surviving a heart attack and is associated with reduced length of hospital stay - according to research presented at the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Conference in Manchester today.

The team - a collaboration between researchers at institutions including Aston Medical School and the University of East Anglia - found that married people were 14 per cent less likely to die after a heart attack than single people.

Married people were also, on average, likely to spend two fewer days in hospital than single people.

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Think talking on your hands-free is safe? Think again, says Uni of Sussex research

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uos-tto060616.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Think talking on your hands-free is safe? Think again, says Uni of Sussex research
Driving while talking on a hands-free phone can be just as distracting as talking on a hand-held mobile phone, psychologists at the University of Sussex have found
University of Sussex

Driving while talking on a hands-free phone can be just as distracting as talking on a hand-held mobile phone, psychologists at the University of Sussex have found.

The study, published in the Transportation Research journal, found that drivers having conversations which sparked their visual imagination detected fewer road hazards than those who didn't. They also focused on a smaller area of the road ahead of them and failed to see hazards, even when they looked directly at them. This shows the risks of even hands-free phone conversations.

The researchers found that conversations may use more of the brain's visual processing resources than previously understood. Having a conversation which requires the driver to use their visual imagination creates competition for the brain's processing capacity, which results in drivers missing road hazards that they might otherwise have spotted.

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Preschool academic skills improve only when instruction is good to excellent

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/fpgc-pa060716.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Preschool academic skills improve only when instruction is good to excellent
Study also finds that children show larger gains in academic skills with more time in Head Start
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute

New research combining eight large child care studies reveals that preschools prepare children to succeed academically when teachers provide higher quality instruction.

Margaret Burchinal, senior scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, led a research team whose findings have groundbreaking implications for publicly-funded early care and education. They found as the overall quality of instruction in preschool classrooms increases, children experience better outcomes across a range of skills, but the needle only moves on language and reading skills when instructional quality is at or above a threshold.

"Preschoolers in center-based care showed larger gains in reading and language when their teachers spent more time supporting their learning -- but only if the quality of instruction was in the moderate to high range," Burchinal said.

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This Is Why Vladimir Putin Wants Trump in the Oval Office

https://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/07/27/Why-Vladimir-Putin-Wants-Trump-Oval-Office

By Rob Garver
July 27, 2016

The body of evidence suggesting that Russian government-backed hackers were responsible for penetrating the email servers of the Democratic National Committee and arranging the transfer of nearly 20,000 internal emails to WikiLeaks has been built up to the point where few people outside the Kremlin challenge it anymore.

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There is a clear case to be made that Vladimir Putin’s interests would be better served by having Donald Trump as president than Hillary Clinton,” said Susan Hennessey, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and the managing editor of its Lawfare blog.

Trump’s suggestion that the US might reduce its commitment to NATO, and his warning that he might ignore the mutual defense agreement that is the alliance’s cornerstone if he felt other countries hadn’t contributed enough money, said Hennessey, is “pro-Russian in a way that is not only unprecedented but was inconceivable” before Trump came on the scene.

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Another reason why Putin might prefer to see Trump in the White House is that he and his inner circle in the Kremlin are quite familiar with the alternative.

“They really, really hate Hillary Clinton,” said Hennessey. “Certainly in their minds, he is the lesser evil.”

That’s because, during her time as secretary of state, Clinton developed a reputation for pushing back hard against Russian provocations and has so far given every indication that she would be a more aggressive opponent of Russian adventurism in Syria and elsewhere than the Obama administration has been.

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What happens when parents comment on their daughter's weight?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/cfb-whw060616.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
What happens when parents comment on their daughter's weight?
Even slim women are more likely to have poor body image if their parents commented on their weight in youth
Cornell Food & Brand Lab

The less you comment on your daughter's weight, the less likely she is to be dissatisfied with her weight as an adult according to a new study from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

The findings published in Eating & Weight Disorders show that women who recall their parents commenting on their weight are more prone to being overweight and are less satisfied with their weight as adults. "Commenting on a woman's weight is never a good idea, even when they are young girls," says lead author Brian Wansink, PhD, and author of Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life.

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These findings suggest that commenting about girls' weight can have a negative impact later in life. "If you're worried about your child's weight, avoid criticizing them or restricting food. Instead, nudge healthy choices and behaviors by giving them freedom to choose for themselves and by making the healthier choices more appealing and convenient," recommends lead author Brian Wansink "After all, it's the choices that children make for themselves that will lead to lifelong habits."

Flash Flood Devastates Ellicott City, MD

https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3371

By: Bob Henson , 2:00 PM GMT on August 01, 2016

Two killed as historic Maryland city ravaged by flash flooding
High water poured through the streets of historic Ellicott City, Maryland, on Saturday night in a dramatic flash flood (see YouTube embedded video at bottom) that killed at least two people and left a trail of damage and debris through the historic downtown area. Destruction in the city was reported to be severe, on par with the damage reported in the floods of 1868 and 1972 (the latter associated with Hurricane Agnes).

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Based on data from NOAA’s Atlas 14, which estimates recurrence intervals for heavy rains, the rainfall amounts within this two-hour interval have a less than one-in-a-thousand chance of occurring in any given year. Across many parts of the nation and globe, the heaviest precipitation events have become increasingly intense in recent years, with more water vapor available in an atmosphere warmed by increasing greenhouse gases paving the way for the potential for heavier rains when conditions are otherwise favorable. A Climate Central analysis shows that the Baltimore area has seen a particularly sharp increase in the heaviest downpours since the 1990s.

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Two in five formerly depressed adults are happy and flourishing

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/uot-tif060716.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Two in five formerly depressed adults are happy and flourishing
University of Toronto

A new study reports that approximately two in five adults (39%) who have experienced major depression are able to achieve complete mental health. Researchers consider complete mental health as occurring when people achieve almost daily happiness or life satisfaction, positive social and psychological well-being, and are also free of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and substance abuse for at least one full year.

"This research provides a hopeful message to patients struggling with depression, their families and health professionals. A large number of formerly depressed individuals recover and go on to reach optimal well-being" said Esme Fuller-Thomson, lead author of the study and Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and the Institute for Life Course and Aging.

Social support was a major factor associated with complete mental health. "Formerly depressed adults who had emotionally supportive and close relationships were four times more likely to report complete mental health than those without such relationships. Having at least one trusted friend was critical to cultivating complete mental health," said co-author Mercedes Bern-Klug, Associate Professor and Director of the Aging Studies Program at the University of Iowa.

The study's authors were surprised to learn that the length of the depressive episode had no bearing on an individual's ability to attain complete mental health. Those whose longest depressive episode lasted more than two years were just as likely to be in complete mental health as those who had had the disorder for only one month. "In other words, there is no need for individuals and families to lose hope that a full recovery is beyond reach" reported co-author Senyo Agbeyaka, a Masters in Social Work student at the University of Toronto.

The researchers also found that poorer physical health, functional limitations and insomnia were impediments to flourishing in the sample.

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Mayo clinic first to implant device to solve fecal incontinence

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/mc-mcf060716.php

Public Release: 7-Jun-2016
Mayo clinic first to implant device to solve fecal incontinence
Mayo Clinic

A clinical team on Mayo Clinic's Florida campus is the first to offer four patients with long-term fecal incontinence a new and potentially long-lasting treatment -- a small band of interlinked magnetic titanium beads on a titanium string that successfully mimics the function of the anal sphincter.

At this point, Mayo Clinic is the only medical center that has surgically implanted this device, known as the Fenix Continence Restoration System. In December 2015, the system received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval under a humanitarian device exemption, which requires approval for patient use by a hospital's Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB at Mayo Clinic is the first and, as yet, the only center to approve use of the device.

The issue of fecal incontinence, or accidental bowel leakage, is not unusual. It can affect more than 20 percent of women over 45, says Paul Pettit, M.D., a female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery specialist at Mayo Clinic. "The condition can be debilitating due to social isolation, depression, loss of self-esteem and self-confidence.

"If a patient does not improve through use of less invasive techniques, our only option has been a colostomy," says Dr. Pettit, who performed the four surgeries. "This device now offers a new option that restores function, and we are happy to be able to offer it."

The operation itself lasts about 45 minutes and requires an overnight hospital stay.

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Muslims go to Masses in Europe to show solidarity

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/07/31/muslims-catholic-masses-europe-show-solidarity/otPLObCMGLjL62lcUkBRaJ/story.html

By Milos Krivokapic and Raphael Satter Associated Press August 01, 2016

ROUEN, France — In a gesture of solidarity after the gruesome killing of a French priest, hundreds of Muslims on Sunday attended Catholic Masses in churches and cathedrals across France and Italy.

More than 100 Muslims gathered at the towering Gothic cathedral in Rouen, near Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, where the 85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel had his throat slit by two teenage Muslim fanatics Tuesday.

‘We are very moved by the presence of our Muslim friends and I believe it is a courageous act that they did by coming to us,’’ Dominique Lebrun, the archbishop of Rouen, said after the service.

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Outside the church, a group of Muslims were applauded when they unfurled a banner: ‘‘Love for all. Hate for none.’’

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At Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Mosque of Paris, said repeatedly that Muslims want to live in peace.

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In Italy, the secretary general of the country’s Islamic Confederation, Abdullah Cozzolino, spoke from the altar in the Treasure of St. Gennaro chapel next to the Duomo cathedral in Naples. Three imams also attended Mass at the St. Maria Church in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood, donning their traditional dress as they entered the sanctuary and sat down in the front row.

Mohammed ben Mohammed, a member of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, said he called on the faithful in his sermon Friday ‘‘to report anyone who may be intent on damaging society. I am sure that there are those among the faithful who are ready to speak up.’’

Ahmed El Balazi, the imam of the Vobarno mosque in the Lombard province of Brescia, said he did not fear repercussions for speaking out.

‘‘I am not afraid. . . . These people are tainting our religion and it is terrible to know that many people consider all Muslim terrorists. That is not the case,’’ El Balazi said. ‘‘Religion is one thing. Another is the behavior of Muslims who don’t represent us.’’

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