Wastewater-based epidemiology is a rapidly developing scientific discipline with the potential for monitoring close to real-time, population-level trends in illicit drug use. By sampling a known source of wastewater, such as a sewage influent to a wastewater treatment plant, scientists can estimate the quantity of drugs used in a community from the measured levels of...
In the 1970s, doctors in the United States performed sterilizations on an estimated 25 to 42% of Native American women of childbearing age, some as young as 15. Even the lower estimate—one quarter of Native women—is a whopping statistic. The federal government subsidized the sterilizations, which often took place without consent or under great duress....
Robots can take just three hours to successfully learn techniques which can be used to support teachers in a classroom environment, according to new research. The study, published in Science Robotics, saw a robot being programmed to progressively learn autonomous behaviour from human demonstrations and guidance. A human teacher controlled the robot, teaching it how to...
Wineries in the mid-Atlantic region should consider recycling and encouraging their customers to bring bottles to their tasting rooms for refilling to distinguish their businesses from so many others, according to a team of wine-marketing researchers who surveyed consumers. With competition to attract visitors stiff and still growing among the hundreds of wineries in the...
The lowest-paid workers in the UK have three more years of retirement on average compared to their professional counterparts, but are more likely to suffer ill health after stopping work, a new UCL-led study suggests. The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, examined the length of time between stopping work and...
Despite the dire need for primary health care providers in California’s Central Valley, workplace discrimination and harassment can cause them to change practices or leave the region entirely. These insights are reported in a pilot study published in JAMA Network Open and led by UC Davis health policy expert Michelle Ko. Study participants’ experiences with colleagues,...
About 15% of hospitalized older adults will be readmitted within a month of discharge. However, a new University of Michigan study found that a disproportionately high number return for preexisting, or linked infections–infections presumably treated during the first hospital stay. Further, patients discharged home or to home care were more likely to return with a...
For approximately a decade, research has examined whether trauma or poverty is the most powerful influence on children’s cognitive abilities. To address this question, a new study compared adolescents in Jordan–refugees and nonrefugees–to determine what kinds of experiences affected their executive function (the higher-order cognitive skills needed for thinking abstractly, making decisions, and carrying out...
New research suggests that, under the United States’ Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), expanded Medicaid coverage has provided greater improvements in health insurance coverage for married people, especially women, than for unmarried people. Jim Stimpson of Drexel University, Pennsylvania, and colleagues present these findings in PLOS ONE. Medicaid is a U.S. government program...
People are less likely to support an organization after an ethical failure if the business is led by a woman, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association. However, organizations led by women endure less negative backlash for competence failures than those headed by men. “Our study found that consumers’ trust in, and...
