US research published on Thursday 10 June in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1] suggests that a single act of unprotected intercourse is more likely to lead to an unwanted pregnancy than was previously believed.

In a study on women who had either been sterilised or were using an intrauterine device (IUD) the frequency of intercourse increased during the six most fertile days of the menstrual cycle and peaked at ovulation ¨C despite the fact that these

Stalin’s leadership style undermined the USSR by setting unrealistic targets and placing penalties on subordinates telling the truth, according to Leeds University historian James Harris, who has been looking at newly-opened archives of the Soviet leader’s correspondence.

In his leadership of five-year plans Stalin ignored data which cast doubt on the possibility of achieving targets and put disincentives in the way of telling the truth – removal or execution – that massively distorted infor

Results of a study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight how improved treatment and management of risk factors have reduced the incidence of stroke by 40% in a region of the UK over the past 20 years.

Stroke is the second largest cause of death worldwide, the largest cause of long-term neurological disability, and the single most costly condition for the UK National Health Service and social services. The rise in the elderly population would be expected to increase the incidence of a

It’s readily apparent that handling two things at once is much harder than handling one thing at a time. Spend too much time trying to juggle more than one objective and you’ll end up wanting to get rid of all your goals besides sleeping. The question is, though, what makes it so hard to process two things at once?

Two theories try to explain this phenomenon: “passive queuing” and “active monitoring.” The former says that information has to line up for a chance at being processed

Adolescents from five different countries had similar frequencies of violence-related behaviors, including fighting and weapon carrying, according to an article in the June issue of The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

According to information in the article, aggressive and violent behavior is a significant public health problem worldwide. The authors write: “In the United States, physical assault is the sixth leading cause of nonfatal injury

Reduction is significant enough that it might lead to a reduction in the risk of heart disease caused by testosterone suppression

A small adhesive estrogen patch worn by men being treated for advanced prostate cancer lowers cholesterol, according to a new study conducted by Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers.

This is important because men who have advanced prostate cancer are often treated with hormone deprivation therapy, which turns off testos

Tactile input has a greater impact on visual perception than we thought

When vision alone can’t tell you what’s going on in your environment, touch can lend a helping hand. A recent study from Vanderbilt University looked at the way this works by forcing people to feel out a visually ambiguous situation.

Researchers Randolph Blake, Kenith V. Sobel and Thomas W. James created such a scenario by asking subjects to describe the rotation of a virtual sphere with an ind

Findings may explain mood and behavior changes in women

Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), a synthetic form of the naturally occurring steroid hormone progesterone widely used in contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), increases aggression and anxiety and reduces sexual activity in female monkeys, according to a study published in the June edition of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The investigators, from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center

When it comes to outdoor recreation, men and women differ not just in the activities they choose, but also in the way they perceive questions about how they spend their free time, according to Penn State researchers.

“We know there are differences in the way men and women respond to questions about outdoor activities,” says Laurlyn K. Harmon, graduate student in leisure studies. “But do they also differ in the way they are interpreting the questions? A simple question could result in systema

Survival, toxicity greater in Japanese patients, “common arm” analysis shows

A chemotherapy regimen commonly used to treat non-small cell lung cancer is both more effective and more toxic in Japanese patients than in American patients, researchers reported Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists. The first of its kind, this analysis underscores the importance of genetic variations in medicine and points to a need for increased international colla

One of the most common challenges facing oncologists today is determining the best course of treatment for their patients – one that would be effective and have the fewest possible side effects. In a study presented today at the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have identified genetic markers in the blood that can help predict a patient’s response to and side effects from irinotecan, a common chemotherapy drug fo

The ability to recognize persons encountered during highly threatening and stressful events is poor in the majority of individuals, according to a Yale researcher.

“Contrary to the popular conception that most people would never forget the face of a clearly seen individual who had physically confronted them and threatened them for more than 30 minutes, a large number of subjects in this study were unable to correctly identify their perpetrator,” said Charles Morgan III, M.D., associate prof

Why do political theories so often fail the test of common sense? And why do individual political studies often seem to stop short of providing general guidance about political matters?

James Granato and Frank Scioli, National Science Foundation (NSF), managers of the political science program, write in the newly published June issue of Perspectives on Politics that the separation of theory and real-world tests often sharply limit the usefulness of each. They identify three methods commonly

New packaging designs have been developed that could save lives and make ’childproof’ containers more user-friendly for adults.

A collaboration involving psychologists, engineers and designers has led to the development of radical but practical new child-resistant closure (CRC) designs.

Because they are easier for adults to open, the containers will discourage the decanting of medicines into unsafe packaging – a practice which currently causes an estimated 10,000 cases/y

Few parent-adolescent discussions elicit as strong a reaction from both parties as the discussion about sexual activity. Yet research has shown this to be a critical discussion among parents and children. New research from the University of Missouri-Columbia suggests that when it comes to “the talk,” older siblings can play a vital role in helping adolescents make safer sexual choices.

Amanda Kolburn, assistant professor of human development and family studies at MU, examined the role that

The September 11 terrorist attacks demonstrated, for many people, that the world is not fair. This was especially distressing for people who had previously believed in a just world. Psychologists from Michigan Statue University and the University of California, Santa Barbara suggest that it’s this challenge to the view that the world is just that produced not only people’s distress after September 11, but also their desire for revenge.

In a study to be published in the July issue o