Page 65 - Lead Author News Today

Image: Shutterstock Changing the lifestyles of the UK’s wealthiest people, the so-called ‘polluter elite’, could hold the key to the country’s net zero journey. Following a review of existing evidence, a new report by the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change suggests the wealthiest citizens must make the most dramatic changes to their behaviours to keep the 1.5°C target in sight. The authors of the report estimated that the richest 1% of the global populatio...

Microplastics Spiral the Globe in the Atmosphere Image Credit: Shutterstock.com / Pcess609 The problem of plastic pollution may have gone airborne carried by the wind resulting in the ‘plastification’ of our planet. Microplastics have become an increasing source of concern for researchers and environmentalists. Traces of these tiny plastics can be found in every corner of the globe, throughout the food chain, and in drinking water, primarily due to water contamination. Marine ecosystems ma...

MagSpace / Shutterstock.com A newly discovered bacteria could help offset methane produced by trees and assist in a strategy that could ultimately combat climate change. Its common knowledge that trees are vital to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Reducing carbon dioxide levels is key in greenhouse gas cutting measures that could mitigate climate change. What is much less well-known is that trees also emit methane  —  a greenhouse gas that on a one-to-one basis can make a gre...

Analysis highlights the need for a more nuanced approach to COVID-19 vaccine prioritization Its time for a more nuanced approach to vaccine prioritization, as more contagious COVID-19 variants become prevalent and a third wave of infections threatens to overwhelm hospitals in some provinces, according to an analysis published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Its time to move the debate away from age and medical risk factors. The third wave is showing us that the most vulnerab...

Stress incontinence surgery does not increased risk of pelvic cancers Women undergoing surgery to treat stress urinary incontinence (SUI) are not at increased risk of developing pelvic cancers, according to a large-scale, population-based study in The Journal of Urology ®, Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. In a very large population with extended follow-up, we found no increase in the risk of ...

Frontline health workers experienced unprecedented levels of stress during the pandemic During the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency department doctors, nurses and other frontline staff experienced unprecedented levels of stress and emotional exhaustion that included nightmares or insomnia, according to a UC San Francisco-led study of emergency departments across the country. The study, among the first to assess mental health effects of the pandemic at a geographically diverse sam...

Study links chronic sinus inflammation with alterations in brain activity The millions of people who have chronic sinusitis deal not only with stuffy noses and headaches, they also commonly struggle to focus, and experience depression and other symptoms that implicate the brains involvement in their illness. New research links sinus inflammation with alterations in brain activity, specifically with the neural networks that modulate cognition, introspection and response to external stimuli. The ...

UW Study: Vaccine hesitancy high among people who are incarcerated By Becca Savransky, SeattlePI © Vincenzo Izzo/LightRocket Via Getty Images CASERTA, ITALY - 2021/04/01: Penitentiary police officer while receiving his dose of vaccine, inside the barracks of the Bersaglieri Garibaldi Brigade in Caserta. (Photo by Vincenzo Izzo/LightRocket via Getty Images) State and local officials in Washington have been urging everyone who is eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as t...

Signal detection theory can be used to better understand cognitive fatigue A team of New Jersey researchers has shown that changes in perceptual certainty and response bias, two central metrics of signal detection theory (SDT), correlate with changes in cognitive fatigue. They also show that SDT measures change as a function of changes in brain activation. This finding was reported in Frontiers in Psychology on January 15, 2021, in the open access article "Using Signal Detection Theory to Bett...

Study finds vaccine distrust among majority of incarcerated people Fewer than half of inmates in jails and prisons surveyed in a study by the CDC and University of Washington said they would accept a COVID-19 vaccine, while the majority either said they wanted to wait before getting the vaccine or would refuse one. This is a population already at risk for COVID-19, and outbreaks among incarcerated people can worsen inequities in COVID-19 outcomes as well as contribute to spread in the surroundi...