Tag: studies
Too Many Studies on Teen Social Media Use Only Look at White Kids
Most research on teen social media use has been conducted on white teens and college students. As a result, it is unclear to what extent overlooked populations such as racial and ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities and other vulnerable adolescent populations may be using social media in different ways.
On the Use of ‘UAP’ … and Speaking of Which: The First-in-a-while Academic Conference on the Subject of UAP Studies – …
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TransUnion studies warning signals for serious credit card delinquencies
How Do Fireflies Flash In Sync? Studies Suggest A New Answer. – Quanta Magazine
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Ultraprocessed Foods Linked to Cancer and Early Death, Studies Find
Eating a lot of ultraprocessed foods significantly increases men’s risk of colorectal cancer and can lead to heart disease and early death in both men and women, according to two new, large-scale studies of people in the United States and Italy published Wednesday in British medical journal The BMJ. Ultraprocessed foods include prepackaged soups, sauces, frozen pizza, ready-to-eat meals and pleasure foods such as hot dogs, sausages, french fries, sodas, store-bought cookies, cakes, candies, doughnuts, ice cream and many more….
The US-based study examined the diets of over 200,000 men and women for up to 28 years and found a link between ultraprocessed foods and colorectal cancer — the third most diagnosed cancer in the US — in men, but not women. Processed and ultraprocessed meats, such as ham, bacon, salami, hotdogs, beef jerkey and corned beef, have long been associated with a higher risk of bowel cancer in both men and women, according to the World Health Organization, American Cancer Society and the American Institute for Cancer Research. The new study, however, found that all types of ultraprocessed foods played a role to some degree.
“We found that men in the highest quintile of ultraprocessed food consumption, compared those in the lowest quintile, had a 29% higher risk of developing colorectal cancer,” said co-senior author Fang Fang Zhang, a cancer epidemiologist and chair of the division of nutrition epidemiology and data science at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston. That association remained even after researchers took into account a person’s body mass index or dietary quality….
The study did find that eating a “higher consumption of ultraprocessed dairy foods — such as yogurt — was associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer in women,” Zhang said. “Some ultraprocessed foods are healthier, such as whole-grain foods that contain little or no added sugars, and yogurt and dairy foods….”
[O]verly processed foods are often high in added sugars and salt, low in dietary fiber, and full of chemical additives, such as artificial colors, flavors or stabilizers.
CNN ultimately got this advice from Dr. Robin Mendelsohn, a gastroenterologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City (who was not involved in the study).
“While some ultraprocessed foods may be considered healthier than others, in general, we would recommend staying away from ultra-processed foods completely and focus on healthy unprocessed foods — fruits, vegetables, legumes.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Securing identities in the cloud: 2 new studies give us the state of play
Federally funded studies must be freely accessible to the public, White House says
The White House has updated its policy on federally funded research. Going forward, the results of studies funded by the government must be made public right away. Until now, researchers who receive federal funding have been allowed to publish their findings in academic journals exclusively for one year, effectively adding a paywall to their work. Agencies will need to update their policies accordingly by December 31st, 2025.
The Biden administration hopes that the move will afford more equitable access to research. “All members of the American public should be able to take part in every part of the scientific enterprise—leading, participating in, accessing and benefitting from taxpayer-funded scientific research. That is, all communities should be able to take part in America’s scientific possibilities,” senior policy advisor Dr. Ryan Donohue and assistant director for open science and data policy Dr. Christopher Steven Marcum wrote in the White House’s announcement.
They note that several discriminatory factors have prevented many Americans from accessing research, not least because of the paywall. The lack of adequate funding at “minority-serving colleges and institutions” and people’s socio-economic statuses “have historically and systemically excluded some Americans from accessing the full benefits of scientific research,” the announcement reads.
Under the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) latest guidance, the administration is eliminating the option to put federally funded peer-reviewed research articles exclusively behind a paywall for 12 months. The refreshed policy builds on a 2013 memo on bolstering access to federally funded research results with a requirement to make “data published in peer-reviewed research articles immediately available upon publication.” Other research data will be made available “within a reasonable timeframe.”
Publicly publishing such data as soon as possible could accelerate the pace of scientific research. It may be easier for others to replicate and build on the results of studies. Still, the policy clarifies that it’s important for researchers and agencies to share data responsibly to ensure privacy and security standards are upheld.
Among other things, the guidance affords researchers the ability to include the costs of publishing and sharing data in their research budget proposals. OSTP is also working with several agencies to combat funding inequities. Several agencies have programs through which they provide grants to researchers in the early stages of their careers, and bolster the “racial and gender diversity of award applicants and the scientific workforce.”
More than 20 agencies were subject to the 2013 memo, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Transportation and NASA. All of the agencies have established policies to release scientific data swiftly, which they may now need to update.
Adam Driver plays a Hitler studies professor surviving the apocalypse in Noah Baumbach’s White Noise
The adaptation of Don DeLillo’s iconic dark comedy will stream on Netflix later this year