Countries with high happiness levels also have high suicide rates |  |
- Countries with high happiness levels also have high suicide rates
- Acupuncture helps with side effects of prostate cancer treatment
- Purdue-led team studies Earth's recovery from prehistoric global warming
- Data miners dig for corrosion resistance
| Countries with high happiness levels also have high suicide rates Posted: 22 Apr 2011 07:15 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) The happiest countries and happiest U.S. states tend to have the highest suicide rates, according to research from the UK's University of Warwick, Hamilton College in New York and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. The new research paper titled Dark Contrasts: The Paradox of High Rates of Suicide in Happy Places has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. It uses U.S. and international data, which included first-time comparisons of a newly available random sample of 1.3 million Americans, and another on suicide decisions among an independent random sample of approximately 1 million Americans. The research confirmed a little known and seemingly puzzling fact: many happy countries have unusually high rates of suicide. This observation has been made from time to time about individual nations, especially in the case of Denmark. This new research found that a range of nations - including: Canada, the United States, Iceland, Ireland and Switzerland, display relatively high happiness levels and yet also have high suicide rates. Nevertheless the researchers note that, because of variation in cultures and suicide-reporting conventions, such cross-country scatter plots are only suggestive. To confirm the relationship between levels of happiness and rates of suicide within a geographical area, the researchers turned to two very large data sets covering a single country, the United States. The scientific advantage of comparing happiness and suicide rates across U.S. states is that cultural background, national institutions, language and religion are relatively constant across a single country. While still not absolutely perfect, as the States are not identical, comparing the different areas of the country gave a much more homogeneous population to examine rather than a global sample of nations. Comparing U.S. states in this way produced the same result. States with people who are... http://www.rxpgnews.com    |
| Acupuncture helps with side effects of prostate cancer treatment Posted: 22 Apr 2011 06:21 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Acupuncture provides long-lasting relief to hot flashes, heart palpitations and anxiety due to side effects of the hormone given to counteract testosterone, the hormone that induces prostate cancer, according to a study published in the April issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, an official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). The main treatments for men with metastatic prostate cancer are either surgery or hormone therapy to significantly reduce the level of testosterone in the body. Eliminating testosterone has been proven to keep the cancer in check by starving the cancer of hormones it needs to grow and spread. However, about half of the time, this therapy also causes very uncomfortable hot flashes similar to those women experience during menopause. The main way to combat hot flashes is to take antidepressants, but these drugs can cause side effects of their own, including nausea, dry mouth, sleeplessness, altered appetite and sexual changes. In a prospective study conducted in the department of radiation oncology and the acupuncture section of New York Methodist Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, both in New York, researchers evaluated 14 men who were experiencing hot flashes due to hormone therapy for prostate cancer. Upon enrolling in the study, the men were given a hot flash score (HFS) to evaluate their discomfort from daily hot flashes. The mean initial HFS was 28.3. Participants then received acupuncture twice a week for 30 minutes at a time for four weeks. Two weeks after receiving acupuncture, their HFS was measured again and had dropped more than half to 10.3. At six weeks post-treatment, their HFS was 7.5. After eight months, the men were evaluated again and their mean HFS was 7. "Our study shows that physicians and patients have an additional treatment for something that affects many men undergoing prostate... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Purdue-led team studies Earth's recovery from prehistoric global warming Posted: 21 Apr 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Earth may be able to recover from rising carbon dioxide emissions faster than previously thought, according to evidence from a prehistoric event analyzed by a Purdue University-led team. When faced with high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and rising temperatures 56 million years ago, the Earth increased its ability to pull carbon from the air. This led to a recovery that was quicker than anticipated by many models of the carbon cycle - though still on the order of tens of thousands of years, said Gabriel Bowen, the associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences who led the study. We found that more than half of the added carbon dioxide was pulled from the atmosphere within 30,000 to 40,000 years, which is one-third of the time span previously thought, said Bowen, who also is a member of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. We still don't know exactly where this carbon went, but the evidence suggests it was a much more dynamic response than traditional models represent. Bowen worked with James Zachos, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to study the end of the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, an approximately 170,000-year-long period of global warming that has many features in common with the world's current situation, he said. During this prehistoric event billions of tons of carbon was released into the ocean, atmosphere and biosphere, causing warming of about 5 degrees Celsius, Bowen said. This is a good analog for the carbon being released from fossil fuels today. Scientists have known of this prehistoric event for 20 years, but how the system recovered and returned to normal atmospheric levels has remained a mystery. Bowen and Zachos examined samples of marine and terrestrial sediments deposited throughout the event. The team measured the levels of two different types of carbon atoms, the isotopes carbon-12 and carbon-13.... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Data miners dig for corrosion resistance Posted: 21 Apr 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) A better understanding of corrosion resistance may be possible using a data-mining tool, according to Penn State material scientists. This tool may also aid research in other areas where massive amounts of information exist. In data mining -- a branch of computer science -- computer programs categorize large amounts of data so they become more useful. Different types of data-mining programs can find correlations between data on specific subjects, or in different areas of a single subject. Data mining finds similarities and differences among data parameters that frequently, in a complex problem, would go unnoticed because they would not normally be observed by human inspection. Kamrun Nahar, research associate, Center for Neural Engineering, along with Mirna Urquidi-Macdonald, professor of engineering science and mechanics, used data mining to find the most relevant information about the corrosion-resistant properties of Alloy 22, an alloy candidate for nuclear-waste canisters. They reported their findings in the latest issue of Corrosion Science. Data is collected when a phenomenon is poorly understood and laboratory experiments are carried out, said Nahar. Large amounts of data exist everywhere. Every area of study has terabytes of information that could be used better by using data mining techniques to extract valuable information from data. Alloy 22 is known for its corrosion-resistant properties and is most commonly used where resistance to rust and damage is crucial, such as in radioactive waste containment. Alloy 22 also is used in waste incinerators, pollution control, nuclear-fuel reprocessing and chemical manufacturing. Alloys are mixtures of metals combined for their specific traits. An alloy usually has different properties than its components and is engineered to produce a material with the desired properties. We looked at corrosion properties, said Nahar. What are the factors, what are the problems with... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
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