ScienceDaily: Science & Society News

Change in Medicare fee linked to rise of vascular treatment Posted: 04 Mar 2015 11:14 AM PST Federal efforts to curb Medicare costs for unclogging blood vessels in the limbs slowed the growing use of the treatments, but also coincided with a marked increase in doctors using a more expensive approach, according to a recent analysis.

Think twice about investing in own company Posted: 04 Mar 2015 10:09 AM PST Employees whose retirement plan is invested in stock of the company where they work do not pull out money as the firms approach financial distress, new research has found. This lack of action creates significant financial losses for employees, such as was the case with Enron and WorldCom, authors say.

Mental health soon after war-zone concussions predicts disability Posted: 04 Mar 2015 10:08 AM PST Evaluating military personnel with blast-related mild traumatic brain injuries, researchers have found that early symptoms of post-traumatic stress, such as anxiety, emotional numbness, flashbacks and irritability, are the strongest predictors of later disability. The results were surprising because mental health more closely correlated with disability than assessments typically made after concussions, such as tests of memory, thinking, balance, coordination and severity of headaches and dizziness, according to the study.

Scientists question rush to build Nicaragua canal Posted: 04 Mar 2015 09:41 AM PST A consortium of environmental scientists has expressed strong concern about the impact of a controversial Central American canal across Nicaragua. The path of the Nicaragua Interoceanic Grand Canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans will cut through Lake Cocibolca (aka Lake Nicaragua), Central America's main freshwater reservoir and the largest tropical freshwater lake of the Americas; this plan will force the relocation of indigenous populations and impact a fragile ecosystem, including species at risk of extinction, they warn.

Taking madness out of March Madness Posted: 04 Mar 2015 09:40 AM PST A business professor takes the madness out of the month with his "Dance Card" Method for determining NCAA March Madness brackets, also known as "bracketology."

New models yield clearer picture of emissions' true costs Posted: 04 Mar 2015 08:04 AM PST New models calculate and compare the true costs of various fuels to health, climate and the environment. Viewed this way, a gallon of gas costs $3.80 more than the pump price. The social cost of a gallon of diesel is about $4.80 more than the pump price; the price of natural gas more than doubles; and coal-fired electricity more than quadruples. Solar and wind power, on the other hand, become cheaper than they initially seem.

Politics of inequality and the inequality of politics Posted: 04 Mar 2015 07:45 AM PST Economic inequality is at historic highs. The wealthiest one percent own 40 percent of the nation's wealth. This staggering inequality raises the question, what are the psychological causes and effects of inequality?

How big data can be used to understand major events Posted: 04 Mar 2015 07:43 AM PST With the most unpredictable UK general election looming in modern times, how can big data be used to understand how elections are covered by the media? New research has for the first time analyzed over 130,000 online news articles to find out how the 2012 US presidential election played out in the media.

Where you live could mean 'greener' alternatives do more harm than good Posted: 04 Mar 2015 07:43 AM PST Engineers propose a new 600-ton threshold that could indicate when switching to 'low carbon' alternatives may actually increase emissions. Although regions may welcome "green" technology like electric vehicles, high-speed rail and geothermal heating, they aren't green if the electricity to power them creates even more carbon emissions than their oil-driven counterparts, researchers say.

Simulating the potential spread of measles Posted: 04 Mar 2015 07:41 AM PST To help the public better understand how measles can spread, a team of infectious disease computer modelers has launched a free, mobile-friendly tool that lets users simulate measles outbreaks in cities across the country.

Men tend to be more narcissistic than women, study finds Posted: 04 Mar 2015 07:40 AM PST With three decades of data from more than 475,000 participants, a new study on narcissism reveals that men, on average, are more narcissistic than women.

Twitter chatter predicts health insurance marketplace enrollment Posted: 04 Mar 2015 07:40 AM PST An increase in Twitter sentiment (the positivity or negativity of tweets) is associated with an increase in state-level enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance marketplaces — a phenomenon that points to use of the social media platform as a real-time gauge of public opinion and provides a way for marketplaces to quickly identify enrollment changes and emerging issues.

'No take zones' in English Channel would benefit marine wildlife, fishing industry Posted: 04 Mar 2015 04:54 AM PST Marine conservationists are increasingly pinning their hopes on marine protected areas (MPAs) to save threatened species and reduce over-fishing. However, while most people agree that stopping some types of fishing in MPAs would benefit wildlife and fisheries, working out which fishing activities should be banned is often complicated and controversial.

Agreement on best estimates of breast cancer overdiagnosis urgently needed to inform women Posted: 04 Mar 2015 04:54 AM PST More than any other debate about overdiagnosis, the discussion of breast cancer has spilt from the pages of the specialist medical press into the public domain, argues a public health expert, stating that changing screening policy "should be based on demonstrated ability to achieve equivalent benefit to harm ratios and not on the assumption that increased detection will achieve a net benefit."

How much overdetection is acceptable in cancer screening? Posted: 04 Mar 2015 04:54 AM PST People have highly variable views on how much overdetection is acceptable in cancer screening, finds a UK survey.

Genetic study revives debate on origin and expansion of Indo-European languages in Europe Posted: 04 Mar 2015 04:53 AM PST Researchers have identified a massive migration of Kurgan populations (Yamna culture) which went from the Russian steppes to the center of Europe some 4,500 years ago, favoring the expansion of Indo-European languages throughout the continent.

New approach to analysis of unresolved controversy over nuclear power Posted: 04 Mar 2015 04:52 AM PST A new article investigates why nuclear energy is still deployed in spite of the negative feedbacks and experiences. The researchers argue that one possible explanation for this controversy is that the scientific information and models used for the governance of this technology seem to be irresponsive to the systemic problems and accidents that arise from experience.

Cities have a memory and interact with their neighbors Posted: 04 Mar 2015 04:52 AM PST Demographic changes in large cities depend on millions of individual decisions, but the population evolves depending on two factors: what 'reminds' them of their recent past and the existence of other urban areas around them. This is the proposal developed by a group of researchers through algorithms, which show how American cities have a 25-year-old memory and interact with others 200 km away while in the case of the Spain these values are 15 years and 80 km.

U.S. public sees ill health as resulting from a broad range of causes, poll suggests Posted: 02 Mar 2015 10:07 AM PST More than six in 10 people living in the US are concerned about their future health, a new poll suggests. Additionally, nearly four in 10 said that they had one or more negative childhood experiences that they believe had a harmful impact on their adult health.