Culture

Canadians have always seen themselves as separate and distinct from their American neighbours to the south, and now they have geological proof.

New research published in April's edition of Geology shows that rock formations roughly along the same political boundary as the two North American countries formed as early as 120 million years ago.

CHICAGO, Ill. (March 28, 2011)—Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT: it's more than just a one-time complication from taking a long plane ride. The Society of Interventional Radiology wants individuals to know the risk factors for this very serious condition, which can lead to post-thrombotic syndrome, pulmonary embolism, permanent damage to the leg and even death.

A new study has found that certain types of women with early stage breast cancer are vulnerable to excessive worrying about cancer recurrence. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study also indicates that worrying about cancer recurrence can compromise patients' medical care and quality of life.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Most women face only a small risk of breast cancer coming back after they complete their treatment. Yet a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center finds that nearly half of Latinas who speak little English expressed a great deal of worry about recurrence.

Philadelphia, PA, March 25, 2011 – A new study published in the April 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association indicates that inadequate nutrition is linked to a greater risk of anemia in postmenopausal women.

A newly published report reveals that children with epilepsy are more likely to have psychiatric symptoms, with gender a determining factor in their development. Findings showed that girls had more emotional problems, while boys had more hyperactivity/inattention problems and issues regarding peer relationships. Details of this study in Norwegian children are now available online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.

Researchers in Texas have discovered thousands of human artifacts in a layer of earth that lies directly beneath an assemblage of Clovis relics, expanding evidence that other cultures preceded the Clovis culture in North America. This pre-Clovis toolkit appears to be between 13,200 and 15,500 years old and it includes biface and blade technology that may have later been adapted—and improved upon—by the Clovis culture.

Researchers excavating a creek bed in central Texas have found evidence suggesting humans settled in North America some two thousand years earlier than previously estimated.

The findings are reported in the March 25 issue of Science.

Earth scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago determined the age using an optical dating technique. They linked sediment and mineral samples to human artifacts and tools found in a single stratigraphic layer located below younger, previously dated Paleo-Indian Clovis-culture artifacts.

COLLEGE STATION, March 24, 2011— New discoveries at a Central Texas archaeological site by a Texas A&M University-led research team prove that people lived in the region far earlier – as much as 2,500 years earlier – than previously believed, rewriting what anthropologists know about when the first inhabitants arrived in North America. That pushes the arrival date back to about 15,500 years ago.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A gap in reading and math scores still exists in lower grades, with boys continuing to outpace girls in math, and girls ahead of boys in reading, two University of Illinois education professors say.

Using national longitudinal data to perform their analysis, Joseph P. Robinson and Sarah Lubienski investigated male and female achievement in math and reading, looking for when gender gaps first appeared and where in the distribution the gaps were most prevalent.

Researchers from the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in Southampton, UK, have presented a new study that shows how the inclusion of falls history, in addition to clinical risk factors (CRFs) and bone mineral density (BMD) values, would greatly improve the accuracy of fracture prediction models. The research findings were presented today at the European Congress on Osteoporosis & Osteoarthritis in Valencia, Spain.

EU farmers hold their own well in competition with the rest of the world, despite the comparatively high demands the EU places on agricultural production.

"We have investigated the connection between animal welfare regulation in the EU and competitiveness. We have seen that the impact on competitiveness and on trade is very minor, if it exists at all", says Anna Andersson, researcher at the AgriFood Economics Centre.

The researchers believe that it is the sequence of the third and fourth quarters that is important in demonstrating the peak in MRSA infections rather than just the warmest quarter of the year. Mermel says, "We reviewed meteorological data for Rhode Island during the decade of our study period and found that the second quarter was warmer, on average, than the fourth quarter. We believe that an increased incidence of infection in autumn, the fourth quarter, may reflect a lag between Staphylococcal colonization and subsequent infection."

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.