Circumcision is performed for various reasons, including those that are based on religion, aesthetics, or health. New research indicates that the procedure may help prevent prostate cancer in some men. The findings, which are published in BJU International, add to a growing list of advantages to circumcision. Besides advanced age, African ancestry, and family history of prostate cancer, no other risk factors for prostate cancer have been definitively established. This has fuelled the search for modifiable risk factors. Marie-Élise Parent, PhD and Andrea Spence, PhD, ...

There is substantial geographic variation in access to kidney transplantation among the more than 4000 US dialysis facilities that treat patients with kidney failure, with a disproportionate lack of access to those in the Southeast. Certain factors, which are described in several papers published in the American Journal of Transplantation, seem to explain these differences, and they underscore the need for political, financial, and health systems changes to reduce transplant inequities across the country. Researchers have noticed variability in transplant rates between ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- An increasing number of cities around the world now include preparations for climate change in their basic urban planning — but only a small portion of them have been able to make such plans part of their economic development priorities, according to a unique global survey of cities released today. The Urban Climate Change Governance Survey (UCGS), based on responses from 350 cities worldwide, underscores the extent to which city leaders recognize climate change as a major challenge — even as they are trying to figure out how their responses can create ...

(NEW YORK, NY, May 29, 2014) – As a profession, nurse anesthesia is at a tipping point. While recent federal legislation and changes to the U.S. Medicare program have expanded opportunities for certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) to provide care to more patients and receive reimbursement for their services, many states still restrict their scope of practice and limit their pay. A special section in the current issue of Clinical Scholars Review, the journal of advanced practice nursing published by Columbia Nursing, explores how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ...

SEATTLE—Today, 2.1 billion people—nearly 30% of the world's population—are either obese or overweight, according to a new, first-of-its kind analysis of trend data from 188 countries. The rise in global obesity rates over the last three decades has been substantial and widespread, presenting a major public health epidemic in both the developed and the developing world. The study, "Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013," conducted by ...

A trip down to the local DVD store has slowly become a thing of the past thanks to the rise of video streaming services, which allow viewers to indulge in back-to-back episodes of hit TV series like House of Cards and Breaking Bad at the click of a button. Now, a new study has shown that streaming can be much better for the environment, requiring less energy and emitting less carbon dioxide (CO2), than some traditional methods of DVD renting, buying and viewing. The researchers, who have published their study today, 29 May, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental ...

Female insects have one goal in life: to find the best place to lay their eggs. For fig wasps, that is the developing fruit of the luscious fig plant. However, when one particular parasitic fig wasp (Apocryta westwoodi grandi) descends onto a recently fertilised fruit, she has to bore her way through the tough unripe fig to find the larvae of other insects that are already developing within, which she will then parasitize to give her own eggs the best start. Fortunately, the insect's immensely long (7–8mm) and slender (~15 μm) ovipositor – which injects eggs into the ...

Worldwide, there has been a startling increase in rates of obesity and overweight in both adults (28% increase) and children (up by 47%) in the past 33 years, with the number of overweight and obese people rising from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013, according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, published in The Lancet. However, the rates vary widely throughout the world with more than half of the world's 671 million obese individuals living in just ten countries—the USA (more than 13%), China and India (15% combined), Russia, ...

The lunar cycle may synchronize with feeding activity, luring large muskies to take angler bait, according to results published May 28, 2014, in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Mark Vinson from U.S. Geological Survey and Ted Angradi from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Previous studies have suggested a relationship between the moon and fish behavior. To investigate this further, scientists analyzed angler catch records for evidence of an effect due to the lunar cycle and explored sources of its variation on fishermen's catch. They analyzed angling catch records ...

Threatened female bark scorpions sting quicker than males, likely to compensate for reduced ability to flee the threat, according to results published May 28, 2014, in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Bradley Carlson from Pennsylvania State University and colleagues. Differences between male and female scorpion bodies and behavior may result from sexual or environmental pressures. For example, female bark scorpions are pregnant 80% of the year, and as a result, may deal with threats differently than males. To investigate this further, scientists tested the effects ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Most physicians would choose a do-not-resuscitate or "no code" status for themselves when they are terminally ill, yet they tend to pursue aggressive, life-prolonging treatment for patients facing the same prognosis, according to a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine to be published May 28 in PLOS ONE. It's a disconnect that needs to be better understood, said VJ Periyakoil, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine and lead author of the study. "Why do we physicians choose to pursue such aggressive treatment for our patients ...

A form of speech known as vocal fry that is low in pitch and creaky sounding is increasingly common among young American women. Although previous research has suggested that this manner of speaking is associated with education and upward mobility, a new study indicates that vocal fry is actually perceived negatively, particularly in a labor market context. The study, published online in the open-access journal PLOS ONE (The Public Library of Science ONE), indicates that women who speak in vocal fry are perceived as less attractive, less competent, less educated, less ...

A multi-institutional team of researchers has pinpointed exactly what goes wrong when chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients develop resistance to ibrutinib, a highly effective, precisely targeted anti-cancer drug. In a correspondence published online May 28 in the New England Journal of Medicine, they show how the mutation triggers resistance. Their finding could guide development of new agents to treat drug-resistant disease. Ibrutinib received accelerated approval from the Food and Drug Administration for use in chronic lymphocytic leukemia in February. It has ...

MINNEAPOLIS – People with high levels of cynical distrust may be more likely to develop dementia, according to a study published in the May 28, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Cynical distrust, which is defined as the belief that others are mainly motivated by selfish concerns, has been associated with other health problems, such as heart disease. This is the first study to look at the relationship between cynicism and dementia. "These results add to the evidence that people's view on life and personality ...

Screening for lung cancer leads to early detection and treatment, but can it also make people stop smoking before they get cancer? The answer is that it depends on the seriousness of the results, according to a study published May 28 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. To determine if there is an association between type of screening result and smoking cessation, Martin C. Tammemagi of the Department of Health Sciences, Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues used data from the Lung Screening Study component of the US ...

People sometimes use indoor tanning in the belief that this will prevent burns when they tan outdoors. However, indoor tanning raises the risk of developing melanoma even if a person has never had burns from either indoor or outdoor tanning, according to a study published May 29 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. To test the hypothesis that indoor tanning without burns prevents sunburn and subsequent skin cancer, researchers at the Masonic Cancer Center, Department of Dermatology, and Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of ...

If you've just received a coronary artery stent to prop open a blood vessel, your life may depend on filling your prescription and taking an anti-clotting drug within days of leaving the hospital, according to a large study in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The risk of heart attack and death is highest within the first 30 days for those who delay taking their medication than during long-term follow-up out to two years. Taking the drug clopidogrel plus aspirin is advised for a month in people who have a bare metal stent implanted, and six to 12 months ...

In a finding that runs counter to most health disparities research, Johns Hopkins researchers say that while younger black trauma patients are significantly more likely than whites to die from their injuries, black trauma patients over the age of 65 are 20 percent less likely to do so. A report on the research appears online May 28 in JAMA Surgery. "We have long found it vexing that minority patients consistently do worse, even in treatment for trauma that seems to leave little room for bias," says study leader Adil Haider, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of surgery ...

Bottom Line: Heroin users nowadays are predominantly white men and women in their late 20s living outside large urban areas who were first introduced to opioids through prescription drugs compared to the 1960s when heroin users tended to be young urban men whose opioid abuse started with heroin. Authors: Theodore J. Cicero, Ph.D., of Washington University, St. Louis, and colleagues. Background: Few studies on the demographics of present day heroin users have compared them to heroin users 40 to 50 years ago who were primarily young men from minority groups living ...

Bottom Line: Other than aging, risk factors for sagging eyelids include being a man, having lighter skin color and having a higher body mass index (BMI). Author: Leonie C. Jacobs, M.D., Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues. Background: Sagging eyelids because of excess skin (dermatochalasis) is typically seen in middle-age or older adults. Typically a cosmetic concern, sagging eyelids also can cause visual field loss, irritation and headaches because patients force themselves to elevate their brow in order to see better. How ...

Bottom Line: Race and age affect trauma outcomes in older and younger patients. Author: Caitlin W. Hicks, M.D., M.S., of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore. Background: Disparities in survival after traumatic injury among minority and uninsured patients has been well described for younger patients. But information is lacking on the effect of race on trauma outcomes for older patients. How the Study Was Conducted: The authors examined in-hospital mortality after trauma for black and white patients between the ages of 16 and 64 years and 65 ...

A nationwide survey indicates that heroin users are attracted to the drug not only for the "high" but because it is less expensive and easier to get than prescription painkillers. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published the survey's results May 28 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. "In the past, heroin was a drug that introduced people to narcotics," said principal investigator Theodore J. Cicero, PhD. "But what we're seeing now is that most people using heroin begin with prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet or Vicodin, ...

The brains of children with gender dysphoria react to androstadienone, a musky-smelling steroid produced by men, in a way typical of their biological sex, but after puberty according to their experienced gender, finds a study for the first time in the open-access journal Frontiers in Endocrinology. Around puberty, the testes of men start to produce androstadienone, a breakdown product of testosterone. Men release it in their sweat, especially from the armpits. Its only known function is to work like a pheromone: when women smell androstadienone, their mood tends to improve, ...

(NEW YORK – May 28) Accurate clinical course descriptions (phenotypes) of multiple sclerosis (MS) are important for communication, prognostication, design and recruitment for clinical trials, and treatment decision-making. Researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, part of the International Committee on Clinical Trials of MS, collaborated to re-examine the standardized MS clinical course descriptions originally published in 1996 and recommend refined phenotype descriptions that include improved clinical descriptive terminology, MRI and other imaging techniques, ...

Researchers with NASA's Operation IceBridge have completed another successful Arctic field campaign. On May 23, NASA's P-3 research aircraft left Thule Air Base, Greenland, and returned to Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia marking the end of 11 weeks of polar research. During this campaign, researchers collected data on Arctic sea and land ice – both repeating measurements on rapidly changing areas and expanding coverage into new, unsurveyed regions. The mission also released two sea ice data products and provided a professional development opportunity for three science ...