Gossip is pervasive in our society, and our penchant for gossip can be found in most of our everyday conversations. Why are individuals interested in hearing gossip about others' achievements and failures? Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands studied the effect positive and negative gossip has on how the recipient evaluates him or herself. The study is published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. In spite of some positive consequences, gossip is typically seen as destructive and negative. However, hearing gossip may help individuals ...

New data shows that healthcare and personal costs to support survivors of stroke remains high 10 years on. The Monash University research, published today in the journal Stroke, is the first to look at the long-term costs for the two main causes of stroke; ischemic where the blood supply stops due to a blood clot, and hemorrhagic, which occurs when a weakened blood vessel supplying the brain bursts. Previous studies based on estimating the lifetime costs using patient data up to 5 years after a stroke, suggested that costs peaked in the first year and then declined ...

Metamaterials, a hot area of research today, are artificial materials engineered with resonant elements to display properties that are not found in natural materials. By organizing materials in a specific way, scientists can build materials with a negative refractivity, for example, which refract light at a reverse angle from normal materials. However, metamaterials up to now have harbored a significant downside. Unlike natural materials, they are two-dimensional and inherently anisotropic, meaning that they are designed to act in a certain direction. By contrast, three-dimensional ...

An unprecedented boom in hydropower dam construction is underway, primarily in developing countries and emerging economies. While this is expected to double the global electricity production from hydropower, it could reduce the number of our last remaining large free-flowing rivers by about 20% and pose a serious threat to freshwater biodiversity. A new database has been developed to support decision making on sustainable modes of electricity production. It is presented today at the international congress Global Challenges: Achieving Sustainability hosted by the University ...

October 24, 2014 – For patients with a severe type of stroke called subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), treatment at a hospital that treats a high volume of SAH cases is associated with a lower risk of death, reports a study in the November issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. After adjustment for other factors, the mortality rate after SAH is about one-fifth lower at high-volume hospitals, according to the report by Dr. Shyam Prabhakaran ...

The Roman-British population from c. 200-400 AD appears to have had far less gum disease than we have today, according to a study of skulls at the Natural History Museum led by a King's College London periodontist. The surprise findings provide further evidence that modern habits like smoking can be damaging to oral health. Gum disease, also known as periodontitis, is the result of a chronic inflammatory response to the build-up of dental plaque. Whilst much of the population lives with mild gum disease, factors such as tobacco smoking or medical conditions like diabetes ...

These so called 'swingers' need to be offered more tailored interventions by sexual health services to help encourage safer sexual practices and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Swingers are described as heterosexuals who, as a couple, practise mate swapping or group sex, and/or visit sex clubs for couples. Recreational drug use is associated with high-risk sexual behaviour or sexually transmitted infections and previous studies on the association between drug use and STI focused on women and on men who have sex with men, but there is little ...

Clinical trials carried out in the former East Germany in the second half of the 20th century were not always with the full knowledge or understanding of participants with some questionable practices taking place, according to a paper published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Moreover, the country agreed to the trials due to impending bankruptcy there and Western pharmaceutical companies took advantage of the situation, said researchers who have studied documents from the time. The German Democratic Republic (GDR), known as East Germany, was a state within ...

As many as 4 million Europeans and 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness every year, and the numbers are rising. Homeless people 'are the sickest in our society,' but just treating ill health might not be enough to help get people off the streets, according to a new two-part series on homelessness in high-income countries, published in The Lancet. The Series highlights that being homeless is not only bad for your physical and mental health but also has dramatic effects on life expectancy [Paper 1]. Rates of tuberculosis infection, for example, are at least 20 ...

New modeling research, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, has found that the number of Ebola treatment center beds and other measures needed to control the epidemic in Montserrado County, Liberia substantially exceeds the total pledged by the international community to date. The research shows that, without expanded control efforts, up to 170996 total reported and unreported Ebola cases, and 90122 deaths are projected in Montserrado by 15 December, 2014. The study estimates that of these, 42669 cases and 27175 deaths will have been reported by that time. However, ...

The Ebola virus disease epidemic already devastating swaths of West Africa will likely get far worse in the coming weeks and months unless international commitments are significantly and immediately increased, new research led by Yale researchers predicts. The findings are published online first in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. A team of seven scientists from Yale's Schools of Public Health and Medicine and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Liberia developed a mathematical transmission model of the viral disease and applied it to Liberia's most populous ...

TORONTO, Oct. 24, 2014—Health care providers should recognize that any effective strategy to address homelessness needs to include both interventions to improve the health of homeless individuals as well as larger-scale policy changes, according to a paper published today. "It is essential to recognize that homelessness is equally the result of structural factors within a society, such as systematic inequities in educational and employment opportunities, a shortage of affordable housing, and social policies that are targeted against marginalized populations," said ...

Washington, DC (October 23, 2014) — People who develop kidney stones may be at increased risk of experiencing bone fractures, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The findings suggest that preventive efforts may be needed to help protect stone formers' bone health. People who form stones in the kidneys and urinary tract—a condition called urolithiasis—may have reduced bone mineral density and an increased risk of bone fractures. To assess the link between urolithiasis ...

Costs to treat strokes caused by bleeding in the brain may increase significantly 10 years later, according to a study in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. The Australian study is the first to include 10 years of follow-up data on stroke cost estimates, which may also apply to the United States, researchers said. Generally, expenses associated with a stroke peak within the first year and decline over time. Previous estimates of lifetime costs in Australia were based on a five-year average and may have underestimated costs, specifically for hemorrhagic (bleeding) ...

Having age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in one eye was associated with an increased incidence of AMD and accelerated progression of the debilitating disease in the other eye, writes author Ronald E. Gangnon, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, and colleagues. AMD is thought to be a symmetric disease, although one eye may precede the other in progression. The authors examined the effect of severity of AMD in one eye on the incidence, progression and regression in the other eye. Data from 4,379 participants in the ...

Two new studies suggest that while individuals enrolling in the armed forces do not share the exact psychological profile as socio-demographically comparable civilians, they are more similar than previously thought. The first study found that new soldiers and matched civilians are equally likely to have experienced at least one major episode of mental illness in their lifetime (38.7 percent of new soldiers; 36.5 percent of civilians) but that some mental disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and conduct disorder) are more common among ...

NASA's Hurricane Severe Storms Sentinel or HS3 mission flew the unmanned Global Hawk aircraft on two missions between Sept. 11 and 15 into Hurricane Edouard and scored a bullseye by gathering information in the eye of the strengthening storm. Scientists saw how upper-level wind shear was affecting Edouard on the HS3's Global Hawk flight of the 2014 campaign over Sept. 11 and 12, and saw the hurricane strengthen during the sixth flight on Sept. 15 and 16. NASA's HS3 mission returned to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, in Wallops Island Virginia for the third year to investigate ...

Toronto – Countries with higher levels of compassion and openness score better when it comes to environmental sustainability, says research from the University of Toronto. A new study by Jacob Hirsh, an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour & Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto Mississauga's Institute for Management & Innovation, who is cross-appointed to UofT's Rotman School of Management, demonstrates that a country's personality profile can predict its environmental sustainability records. While Prof. Hirsh's previous work has ...

Exposure to moderate amounts of sunshine may slow the development of obesity and diabetes, a study suggests. Scientists who looked at the effect of sunlight on mice say further research will be needed to confirm whether it has the same effect on people. The researchers showed that shining UV light at overfed mice slowed their weight gain. The mice displayed fewer of the warning signs linked to diabetes, such as abnormal glucose levels and resistance to insulin. The beneficial effects of UV treatment were linked to a compound called nitric oxide, which is released ...

OAKLAND, Calif., October 23, 2014 – Women who developed gestational diabetes and were overweight before pregnancy were at a higher risk of having daughters who were obese later in childhood, according to new research published today in Diabetes Care. Based on long-term research that included a multi-ethnic cohort of 421 girls and their mothers (all members of Kaiser Permanente Northern California), the study is among the first to directly link maternal hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) to offspring being overweight later. "Glucose levels during pregnancy, particularly ...

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. – October 23, 2014 – An international multicenter study reports that over-the-scope clip (OTSC) placement is a safe and effective therapy for the closure of gastrointestinal (GI) defects, which includes anastomotic leaks, fistulae and perforations. Clinical success was best achieved in patients undergoing closure of perforations or leaks when OTSC placement was used for primary or rescue therapy. The overall clinical success for the closure of perforations and leaks ranged between 90 percent and 73 percent; however, successful closure of ...

An ocean's oxygen levels may play a role in the impact of marine predators on bodies when they are immersed in the sea, according to Simon Fraser University researchers in a new study published this week in the journal PLoS One. SFU criminologist Gail Anderson led the study, based on the deployment of a trio of pig carcasses into Saanich Inlet at a depth of 100 metres and studied over the past three years. Anderson assessed scavenger activity while co-author and SFU criminologist Lynne Bell continues her investigation of what happens to submerged bones. The work is ...

Subjective screening questions do not reliably identify teenagers who are at risk for hearing loss, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine. The results suggest that objective hearing tests should be refined for this age group to replace screening questions. The American Academy of Pediatrics, in partnership with the Bright Futures children's health organization, sets standards for pediatric preventive care. The AAP recommends screening adolescents with subjective questions and then following up with objective hearing tests for those found to be at ...

Just like those of humans, insect guts are full of microbes, and the microbiota can influence the insect's ability to transmit diseases. A study published on October 23rd in PLOS Pathogens reports that a bacterium isolated from the gut of an Aedes mosquito can reduce infection of mosquitoes by malaria parasites and dengue virus. The bacterium can also directly inhibit these pathogens in the test tube, and shorten the life span of the mosquitoes that transmit both diseases. George Dimopoulos and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University, USA, had previously isolated Csp_P, ...

Orono, Maine — In the southern Peruvian Andes, an archaeological team led by researchers at the University of Maine has documented the highest altitude ice age human occupation anywhere in the world — nearly 4,500 meters above sea level (masl). Their discoveries date high-altitude human habitation nearly a millennium earlier than previously documented. Despite cold temperatures, high solar radiation and low oxygen conditions at that altitude, hunter-gatherers colonized the remote, treeless landscapes about 12,000 years ago during the terminal Pleistocene ...