Culture

Bans on smoking reduce smoking. No surprise there - but in a college environment, where students are being taught skepticism and independent thinking, is cultural fundamentalism a good thing?

According to an Indiana University study, the end result is worth the implication.

Elevated blood cholesterol levels are regarded as a risk factor for heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases. However, this does not necessarily mean that every cholesterol-lowering drug can also prevent heart attacks. For example, the benefit of the cholesterol-lowering drug ezetimibe is unclear. In particular, proof is lacking that patients have a greater benefit if they take ezetimibe in addition to statins for the prevention of heart attacks.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem in several African countries. One of the main problems is the very uneven quality of medicine, which makes it difficult for health professionals to prescribe correct doses of medication. To tackle this challenge, a Ghanaian PhD student at the University of Copenhagen has developed a new chemical analysis technique that provides fast and reliable determination of the exact contents of a drug.

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time used several imaging techniques to prove the efficacy of a promising new treatment for atherosclerosis—the build-up of plaque in artery walls that can lead to a heart attack. Using positron-emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the research team showed that dalcetrapib, a novel treatment for atherosclerosis, prevented the progression of disease and reduced vascular inflammation over 24 months. The data are published in the September 12 issue of The Lancet.

The nuclear family is making a comeback after being cast into the wilderness around 1996. It doesn't take a village to raise a child after all, according to University of Michigan research.

(Washington) – Recommendations to reduce federal health care spending in a socially and fiscally responsible manner while maintaining quality have been made in a letter to the Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction from the American College of Physicians (ACP).

CHICAGO – Many U.S. adults believe that only extremely effective drugs without serious adverse effects are approved, but providing explanations to patients highlighting uncertainties about drug benefits may affect their choices, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The article is part of the journal's Less Is More series.

CHICAGO – Lifestyle modifications and pharmaceutical treatment of risk factors for cardiovascular disease are associated with improvement in sexual function among men with erectile dysfunction (ED), according to a meta-analysis posted Online First today in Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Among the many ways that participation in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) helps its members stay sober, two appear to be most important – spending more time with individuals who support efforts towards sobriety and increased confidence in the ability to maintain abstinence in social situations. In a paper that will appear in the journal Addiction and has been released online, researchers report the first study to examine the relative importance to successful recovery of the behavior changes associated with participation in AA.

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- When countries try to work together to limit the effects of climate change, the fear of being the only nation reducing greenhouse gas emissions – while the others enjoy the benefits with no sacrifice – can bring cooperation to a grinding halt.

Approximately one in five Canadians has metabolic Canadians syndrome — a combination of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease — according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/site/embargo/cmaj110070.pdf.

Scientific research may be in decline across the globe because of growing pressures to report only positive results, new analysis suggests.

A study by the University of Edinburgh examined more than 4,600 scientific research papers published between 1990 and 2007 and found a steady decline in studies in which the findings contradicted scientific hypotheses.

Papers reporting null or negative findings are in principle as useful as positive ones, but they attract fewer readers and citations, so scientific journals tend to reject them.

According to a study published this week in American Journal of Health Promotion, people with consistently high health care costs experienced a 28 percent cumulative decrease in physician fees after an average of five years practicing the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique compared with their baseline. Both between and within group comparisons were statistically significant. This study has major policy implications.

Bochum's physicists led by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Zabel have demonstrated the spin pumping effect in magnetic layers for the first time experimentally. The behaviour of the spin pumping had previously only been predicted theoretically. The research team at the RUB has now succeeded in measuring the effect using ultrafast X-ray scattering with picosecond resolution. Through their rotation of the magnetic moments, the so-called magnetic precession, single electrons can mutually influence each other's rotation (spin) through a non-magnetic intermediate layer.

Within hours this summer, 30 American troops died in a strike in Afghanistan and millions of American investors watched the Dow Jones Average shed an astonishing 634 points in one day.

While it might be difficult to find similarities in the two events, social psychologists can detect a common theme: in each case investments (money and human lives) were made, and those resources were painfully lost.