Culture
Smokers who do not want to quit right now, but are prepared to try to reduce their smoking are twice as likely to stop smoking in the long-term if they use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to help them cut down gradually, according to research published on bmj.com today.
The research is the first of its kind to focus on sustained smoking abstinence using NRT for smokers who have no immediate plans to stop smoking.
Smoking is one of the greatest causes of illness and premature death in the world. Half of UK smokers try to stop every year but only 2-3% of them succeed. One of the reasons for…
April 3, 2009 – Signal Hill, CA – Tom Bowman, president of Bowman Global Change, a firm that helps organizations make sustainable transformations, has co-authored a letter to the scientific community outlining three steps to improve the information exchange between climate scientists and policy makers. Bowman, et al. urge scientists to establish a single frame of reference for atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and rising global temperatures. Standardized measurement will provide the public with consistent reporting on these critical parameters, reduce confusion, and help decision…
The wolves on Isle Royale are suffering from genetically deformed bones. Scientists from Michigan Technological University blame the extreme inbreeding of the small, isolated wolf population at the island National Park in northern Lake Superior.
Researchers have collected the first scientific evidence that inbreeding has caused genetic deterioration of the bones of the wolves of Isle Royale. Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich of Michigan Tech and their colleagues, Jannikke Raikkonen of the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Michael P. Nelson at Michigan State University, report on the…
RENO, Nev. – It huffed and puffed, but the 82-ton-force, earthquake-simulation shake table could not knock down the straw house designed and built by University of Nevada, Reno alumna and civil engineer Darcey Donovan.
The full-scale, 14-by-14-foot straw house, complete with gravel foundation and clay plaster walls, the way she builds them in Pakistan, was subjected to 200 percent more acceleration/shaking than was recorded at the 1994 Northridge, Calif. earthquake, the largest measured ground acceleration in the world. After a series of seven increasingly forceful tests, in the final…
Europe's borders have been breached by thousands of plants and animal species from other parts of the world: from the American mink to the New Zealand flatworm. The invaders feed on, hybridise with, parasitise and out-compete native species. They also introduce diseases, alter the balance within ecosystems, modify landscapes and impact upon agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Preliminary estimates indicate that the monetary cost of these invasive alien species in Europe amounts to at least €10 billion per year, yet for 90% of species almost nothing is known of their impacts.
Recent…
April 3, 2009 – While sipping on sports drinks all day may provide an energy boost, this popular practice is also exposing people to levels of acid that can cause tooth erosion and hypersensitivity, NYU dental researchers have found.
In a recent study, the researchers found that prolonged consumption of sports drinks may be linked to a condition known as erosive tooth wear, in which acids eat away the tooth's smooth hard enamel coating and trickle into the bonelike material underneath, causing the tooth to soften and weaken. The condition affects one in 15 Americans and can result in severe…
Investigators from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Puerto Rico evaluated the association between different measures of obesity and risk of periodontal disease. They analyzed data from 36,903 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study who were free of reported periodontal disease at the start of follow-up, and followed them for up to 16 years (1986-2002).
Height was assessed at the start of follow-up, and weight and self-reported periodontal disease data were collected at baseline and on follow-up questionnaires mailed every two years. Measures of…
Risky behaviors such as not using condoms or having sex with multiple people put young adults at risk for contracting sexually transmitted diseases, but perhaps not as much as the characteristics of their sexual partners, University of Florida researchers say.
The findings, which UF and University of Pittsburgh researchers report in the April issue of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, could help health-care providers better screen patients for STD risks, said Stephanie A. S. Staras, Ph.D., a UF assistant professor of epidemiology and health policy research in the UF College of Medicine.
"If you…
It has so far not been proven that long-acting insulin analogues (LAIAs) have an advantage over conventional human insulin in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes. Even though the results of a 5-year study are available for one of the two LAIAs assessed (insulin glargine), the potential long-term benefits and harms of this drug class have still not been sufficiently investigated. This is the conclusion of a report by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), Cologne, which was published in March 2009 and for which an English-language summary is now…
McGill University researchers have successfully amplified light with so-called "colloidal quantum dots," a technology that had been written off by many as a dead-end.
Over the last 15 years, repeated quantum dot research efforts failed to deliver on expected improvements in amplification, and many researchers started to believe that an unknown but insurmountable law of physics was blocking their path. Essentially, they said, quantum dots would simply never work well for one of their primary applications.
However, after extensive research, Professor Patanjali (Pat) Kambhampati and…