Even relatively mild stress can lead to long term disability and an inability to work, reveals a large population based study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. It is well known that mental health problems are associated with long term disability, but the impact of milder forms of psychological stress is likely to have been underestimated, say the authors. Between 2002 and 2007, the authors tracked the health of more than 17,000 working adults up to the age of 64, who had been randomly selected from the population in the Stockholm ...

International piracy costs the shipping industry billions of dollars a year and leads to high-profile murders that make global headlines. Longstanding concerns over piracy have led to numerous international laws and conventions designed to keep pirates in check – but research from North Carolina State University shows that the tangled network of laws may actually be helping pirates escape justice. "We wanted to know why the international community is not working together and taking advantage of existing laws to address piracy, even as piracy is on the rise in places like ...

Methadone has been used to treat heroin addicts for nearly 50 years. Yet we have surprisingly incomplete knowledge about possible harmful effects from prolonged use. New research from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health shows that methadone affects the brain and impairs the attention of experimental animals. In general, opioids such as heroin and morphine are known to weaken intellectual functions such as learning, memory and attention. "It is therefore tempting to assume that methadone has similar effects," says researcher Jannike M. Andersen at the NIPH's Division ...

Applications on modern wireless devices make demands on data rate and connectivity far beyond anything experienced in the past. One way to meet these stringent requirements is to give the device multiple antennas or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The problem of physically accommodating these additional antennas in the latest consumer products is investigated in new research from the University of Bristol. The study by academics in the field of antennas and propagation in the University's Centre for Communications Research (CCR) is published in the journal ...

Men with high-risk prostate cancer who take statin drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol while receiving radiation therapy are less likely to have their cancer return than patients who do not take these medications, according to a study published in the March issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, an official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). In the study, 1,681 men with high-risk, localized prostate cancer were treated with radiation therapy between 1995 and 2007. Of them, 382 (23 percent) were taking ...

It is not clear whether disease management programs (DMPs), which are expensive and involve a great deal of documentation, improve medical outcomes for participants. Roland Linder's working group present their results in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108[10]: 155󈞪). In 2009, DMPs in Germany cost around 1.1 billion euros; the larger part of this related to the DMP for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The authors investigated whether the T2DM DMP resulted in medical benefit for patients. To do this, they analyzed ...

With 300 days of sunshine a year, it is no surprise that bicycling is a popular pastime in the State of Colorado. Whether for transportation or recreation, thousands of Coloradans take to the streets and trails all year long. Considering the sheer volume of cyclists in the state, some bike accidents will inevitably happen. Yet, many of those hurt while cycling fail to consider a possible cause of their injuries: bicycle defects. Bike product recalls are a common occurrence. A bicycle design or manufacturing defect can cause severe injury to the rider. Unfortunately, ...

Having sex for the first time can improve or degrade your self-image depending on whether you are male or female, according to Penn State researchers. On average, college-age males become more satisfied with their appearance after first intercourse, whereas college-age females become slightly less satisfied. "We're not talking about 12-year-old girls having sex, so it's striking that even among these young women -- who are 17 or older when they first had sex -- their images of themselves went down," said Eva S. Lefkowitz, associate professor of human development and family ...

This press release is available in Spanish. Using commercially available parts, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and colleagues have developed a new automated system for detecting insects based on the peculiar sounds the insects make while moving. According to entomologist Richard Mankin of USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), one likely application will be to automate routine monitoring of industrial-scale traps, especially those placed in hard-to-reach areas like crawl spaces or near food processing equipment. Automated insect monitoring ...

Next week, Sarah Wollaston MP will put forward a private member's bill urging the government to adopt a new approach to protect UK children from alcohol advertising. In an editorial published on bmj.com today, Professor Gerard Hastings and Dr Nick Sheron set out why we urgently need to tackle the excessive drinking of our young people and their massive exposure to alcohol advertising. The bill will call on the government to adapt French legislation that allows alcohol advertising in media aimed at adults but not children, and ensures that promotional messages are factual ...

Americans who have not disclosed large sums of money in foreign offshore accounts have a second chance at tax amnesty. The Internal Revenue Service is giving taxpayers with foreign bank accounts until August 31 to voluntarily report the accounts and income and avoid tax evasion charges. In exchange, these taxpayers would pay penalties that are lower than what the IRS would usually charge. Although these penalties are higher than those offered during a previous tax amnesty in 2009, the avoidance of prosecution remains a major incentive for a taxpayer to take the deal. The ...

LOS ANGELES (EMBARGOED UNTIL 4 PM EST, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2011) – A new study of coronary artery calcium scanning – a simple, noninvasive test that gives patients baseline information about plaque in their coronary arteries—has shown that the scan helps them make heart-healthy lifestyle changes and lower their heart disease risk factors. The study, the EISNER trial (Early Identification of Subclinical Atherosclerosis by Noninvasive Imaging Research), was headed by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and Cedars-Sinai's S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Department ...

Genes make up only a tiny percentage of the human genome. The rest, which has remained measurable but mysterious, may hold vital clues about the genetic origins of disease. Using a new mapping strategy, a collaborative team led by researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and MIT has begun to assign meaning to the regions beyond our genes and has revealed how minute changes in these regions might be connected to common diseases. The researchers' findings appear in the March 23 advance online issue of Nature. The results ...

A typical city: row upon row of houses built almost on top of each other, with asphalted roads between them and with very few green areas to be found. Urban areas built on this pattern warm up more strongly than their rural surroundings, creating islands of warmth. The waste heat emitted by vehicles and machinery (such as air conditioning equipment) causes yet more heating, and even during the night the city hardly cools down to any noticeable extent. Megacities such as Mexico City and urban conurbations such as Athens are more and more frequently covered by a visible dome ...

Raleigh criminal defense lawyer Patrick Roberts at the Roberts Law Group PLLC used the facts he learned about his client's criminal arrest to negotiate a potential 70 to 80 month prison sentence down to 10 to 12 months. Criminal attorney Patrick Roberts used information that he gleaned in truly getting to know his client in discussions with the Wake County District Attorney's Office. The facts of the case were as follows: Mr. Roberts' client was facing two counts of drug trafficking after police recovered two large quantities of cocaine from a house where his client ...

After many years of gradual increase followed by a three-year levelling off period, sales of addictive anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs decreased by just under two per cent in 2010. This comes from the new report "Drug Consumption in Norway 2006-2010". The statistics include all sales of prescription and OTC drugs in Norway from wholesalers to pharmacies, hospitals / nursing homes and grocery stores. The report also shows that total sales of OTC medicines measured in DDDs declined by six per cent in 2010. This is mainly due to lower sales of OTC packets of paracetamol ...

Lung transplant patients have double the risk of organ rejection and death within five years of the procedure if they live near a main road, indicates research published online in Thorax. The Belgian researchers tracked the health of 281 patients who had undergone a lung transplant or retransplant at the same hospital between 1997 and 2008 until 2009. They took into account how far these patients lived from a main road and therefore a source of airborne road traffic pollution to see if this had any impact on their survival rates, as pollutants are known to trigger inflammation. Around ...

As Iran's nuclear plant attack and Chinese-based hackers attacking Morgan Stanley demonstrate how the Internet can wreak havoc on business and governments, a new paper by a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy hypothesizes what an all-out cyberwar between the U.S. and China might look like. To date, the cyberattacks in East Asia have been relatively benign, said Christopher Bronk, author of "Blown to Bits: China's War in Cyberspace, August–September 2020," published this month in the U.S. Air Force journal Strategic Studies Quarterly. Bronk is ...

The critical care expertise available before a severely injured person can be admitted to hospital is "incomplete, unpredictable, and inconsistent," shows research published online in Emergency Medicine Journal. Ambulance services are often reliant on volunteer doctors with variable levels of expertise and the availability of specialist doctors is patchy, particularly over evenings or weekends, the study shows. This implies something of a postcode lottery of provision across the UK, and raises questions about the UK's ability to deal effectively with a critical incident ...

Insomnia is common in Spain, and affects one person in every five. This is the conclusion of a study carried out by the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona and the Stanford University School of Medicine (USA), which shows that 40% of survey respondents aged over 65 report interrupted sleep at night being the prime cause of this problem. "Good sleep hygiene is necessary in order to avoid primary insomnia, as well as being aware that the number of hours of sleep needed falls with age, adopting regular times for going to bed and getting up, and stopping having ...

The Tint Guy, a premier Atlanta tinting company, was recently awarded the 2010 Dealer of the Year award for the state of Georgia by 3M Southern Films Distribution (SFD), a regional distributor of 3M Window Films. The Tint Guy has specialized in commercial, residential and automobile Atlanta window tinting since 1986. The Tint Guy is the only full-service 3M window film dealer in Georgia, carrying the complete line of 3M window film products. The Dealer of the Year is a state-wide award that is given each year to 3M dealers who display excellence in sales and customer ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- A recently patented adhesive made by Kansas State University researchers could become a staple in every astronaut's toolbox. The patent, "pH dependent adhesive peptides," was issued to the Kansas State University Research Foundation, a nonprofit corporation responsible for managing technology transfer activities of K-State. The patent covers an adhesive made from peptides -- a compound containing two or more amino acids that link together -- that increases in strength as moisture is removed. It was created by John Tomich, professor of biochemistry, ...

Northern Rock plc has launched a new interactive savings website to make it easier for customers to find a Northern Rock savings product from the competitive range available. The new savings website follows the introduction of Northern Rock's award-winning Mortgages website, which was launched in April 2010. The new site offers helpful advice and practical information, as well as full details on Northern Rock's savings products. For those customers thinking about investing their savings, at-a-glance guides are available to help them choose which savings product, ...

This press release is available in French. The human brain loses 5 to 10% of its weight between the ages of 20 and 90 years old. While some cells are lost, the brain is equipped with two compensatory mechanisms: plasticity and redundancy. Based on the results of her most recent clinical study published today in the online version of Brain: A Journal of Neurology, Dr. Sylvie Belleville, PhD in neuropsychology, the principal author of this study and Director of Research at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM), which is affiliated with the Université ...

A new research report published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.faseb.org) suggests that pregnant mothers who eat high sugar and high fat diets have babies who are likely to become junk food junkies themselves. According to the report, which used rats, this happens because the high fat and high sugar diet leads to changes in the fetal brain's reward pathway, altering food preferences. Not only does this offer insight into the ever-increasing rate of human obesity, but it may also explain why some people easily resist fatty and sugary foods, while others seem hopelessly ...