Culture

In times of unexpected uncertainty, such as the sudden appearance of a global pandemic, people may be more prone to paranoia, Yale University researchers suggest in a new study published in the journal eLife.

The way we measure economic health is flawed, according to new research from the Stanford-based Natural Capital Project. When we talk about a country's economic prosperity, we're almost always referring to gross domestic product, or GDP, a calculated value based on the goods and services that flow through an economy. But GDP doesn't account for many of the benefits that people and economies receive from nature, like clean water and climate security.

Becoming a dad and preparing for fatherhood can be daunting and for those who have had a baby born very prematurely, there can be extra pressures and responsibilities to navigate. A recent collaborative study, involving the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University, takes a look at the mental health of fathers of babies born very prematurely and the impact on their early parenting behaviours.

Some landscapes can hold their own against climate change better than others.A studyfrom the University of California, Davis, maps these places, called “climate refugia,” where existing vegetation is most likely to buffer the impacts of climate change through the end of the century.

The National Climate Center (NCC) of China has just completed a report in which it provides an authoritative assessment of China's climate in 2019 based on the NCC's operational system. More specifically, it gives a summary of China's climate along with all major weather and climate events throughout the year.

OAK BROOK, Ill. - A minimally invasive procedure that destroys cancer cells by freezing them is as effective as surgery for treating early-stage kidney cancer, offering similar 10-year survival rates with a lower rate of complications, according to a study published in the journal Radiology.

An international study that has been carried out on nearly 3000 people in Norway, Germany, and Iceland, shows that our kidney function deteriorates with age, even if we do not have any other diseases. The results from the study have recently been published in the reputable journal for kidney diseases, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). In the study, the researchers have examined the kidney function of a group of people between the ages of 50 and 70, and two groups of people between the ages of 70 to 95, to discover how the kidney function develops.

A new research letter reveals fewer people have been admitted to stroke centers in Michigan and northwest Ohio since the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, and significantly fewer patients received a mechanical thrombectomy for their ischemic stroke.

The authors call COVID-19's influence on other critical illnesses like stroke a bystander effect. That's because time is of the essence for patients with stroke, but not everyone is getting to a comprehensive stroke center for needed care right now.

Physician-scientists specializing in heart failure wanted to know: if their heart transplant patients contract COVID-19, would they have a different experience than the general public or others who are also immunosuppressed?

A team of Michigan Medicine Frankel Cardiovascular Center researchers, led by Matthew Konerman, M.D., identified 13 patients who had a previous heart transplant and were admitted to one of two hospitals in southeast Michigan in March or April for COVID-19 symptoms. All were black males.

Scientists have discovered new evidence for active volcanism next door to some of the most densely populated areas of Europe. The study 'crowd-sourced' GPS monitoring data from antennae across western Europe to track subtle movements in the Earth's surface, thought to be caused by a rising subsurface mantle plume. The work is published in Geophysical Journal International.

The Eifel region lies roughly between the cities of Aachen, Trier, and Koblenz, in west-central Germany. It is home to many ancient volcanic features, including the circular lakes known as 'maars'.

Information about the new COVID-19 infection is constantly evolving based on what clinicians see firsthand. One constant, so far, is that the older population tends to fare worse than younger folks with this disease.

A team led by Daniel Goldstein, M.D., already studies aging and the influenza viral infection, and took this spring away from their lab to figure out if any of their other research, and other research they regularly read, could be helpful in the fight against COVID-19.

The effects of human presence on the social relationships of wild animals have rarely been studied. Even if the animals are not hunted or killed, increasing contact with humans could have profound indirect impacts. This is because proximity to humans could disturb the animals' ability to perform at tasks that are important for survival - such as feeding together or rearing young.

Alcohol use disorders are associated with high social welfare and health care costs - but what causes them? A new Finnish study looks at the magnitude and reasons behind the economic burden alcohol use disorders have on society.

Earlier studies have shown that alcohol use disorders lead to various health and social problems, which cause an increase in the need and use of various services. However, the magnitude and distribution of the related costs have not been studied before.

Resistance to antibiotics has become a serious public health problem. Hospital infections, prostheses or surgical implants that become infected and do not respond to treatment are a real challenge to the research community, which has been seeking alternatives for effectively eliminating these bacteria for years. In 2012 the researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Vladimir Baulin and Sergey Pogodin, opened a line of research to develop antibacterial models that were inspired by insects.

When humans get infected by pathogenic bacteria, the body's immune system tries to eliminate the intruders. One way of doing this is by launching an inflammatory response - a cascade of events that includes the expression of protective proteins, the activation of immune cells, and a process of controlled cell death when infected cells can't be saved.