Candomblé, a religion practiced primarily in South America and inspired by older African beliefs, makes much use of animal sacrifice. Researchers writing in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine carried out interviews with priests, priestesses and adherents of the religion, documenting the role sacrifice plays in their beliefs. Nivaldo Léo Neto, from the Universidade Estadual...

As temperatures soar, scientists have been collecting data amid the ancient ruins that symbolise the birthplace of western culture. These data, combined with measurements from aircraft and satellites, promise to improve `urban heat island` forecasts to make life in modern-day Athens easier during heat waves. Heat waves strike with relative frequency in the summer months across southern Europe but ...

Research has shown that swimming aids asthma symptoms in children. The activity has been proven to be an effective non-pharmacological intervention for children and adolescents, according to a study in Respirology, published by Wiley-Blackwell. Researchers divided children between the ages of seven to twelve into two groups. One group underwent a six-week swimming program in addition to their regu...

Two independent studies have determined how changes in the density of different ion channels in the surface membrane of heart muscle cells can lead to life-threatening abnormal heartbeats, according to research to be published in the August 24 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. As Gail Robertson, at the University of Wisconsin — Madison, discusses in an accompanying commentary, ...

Persistent job insecurity poses a major threat to worker health, according to a new study published in the September issue of the peer-reviewed journal Social Science and Medicine. The study used long-term data from two nationally representative sample surveys of the U.S. population to assess the impact of chronic job insecurity apart from actual job loss. "Dramatic changes in the U.S. labor ...

It takes just seconds for tall buildings to collapse during powerful earthquakes. Knowing precisely what`s happening in those seconds can help engineers design buildings that are less prone to sustaining that kind of damage. But the nature of collapse is not well understood. It hasn`t been well-studied experimentally because testing full-scale buildings on shake tables is a massive, expensive and ...

Healthy middle-aged women with feelings of hopelessness appear to experience thickening of the neck arteries, which can be a precursor to stroke, according to new research out of the University of Minnesota Medical School. The study, published online August 27 in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, found that hopelessness — negative thinking and feelings of uselessness —...

The blood thinner warfarin can prevent strokes in most individuals with abnormal heart rhythms, but the drug may have the opposite effect in kidney disease patients on dialysis, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that warfarin should be prescribed with caution in patients with kidney failure. People with...

When the eyes move, objects in the line of sight suddenly jump to a different place on the retina, but the mind perceives the scene as stable and continuous. A new study reports that the brain predicts the consequences of eye movement even before the eyes take in a new scene. The study, "Looking ahead: The perceived direction of gaze shifts before the eyes move," published in the Associa...

With the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States, there is concern that overweight and obese children need to be screened for chronic medical conditions, including high cholesterol levels. However, body fat is not an effective indicator of high cholesterol in children, according to new University of Michigan research. Those are the findings of a U-M study led by U-M pediatricians Joyce ...