Higher rates of e-cigarette and marijuana use in U.S. states did not result in more e-cigarette or vaping-related lung injuries (known as EVALI), a new study from the Yale School of Public Health finds. Published in the journal Addiction, the study estimates the relationship between states’ total reported EVALI cases per capita as of January…

Current global pledges to tackle climate change are the equivalent of declaring a pandemic without a plan for social distancing, researchers say. In the Paris Agreement, nations agreed to limit global warming to «well below 2°C.» But University of Exeter scientists say governments are engaged in «climate hypocrisy» by publicly supporting the agreement while subsidising…

Cannabis use among older adults is growing faster than any other age group but many report barriers to getting medical marijuana, a lack of communication with their doctors and a lingering stigma attached to the drug, according to researchers. The study, the first to look at how older Americans use cannabis and the outcomes they…

Extra stress in the COVID-19 pandemic caused by income loss, and lack of ability to pay for housing and food has exacerbated the often silent epidemic of intimate partner violence, a new study suggests. Data collected in surveys of nearly 400 adults for 10 weeks beginning in April 2020 suggest that more services and communication…

Spoiler reviews have a positive and statistically significant relationship with box office revenue. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled «Do Spoilers Really Spoil? Using Topic Modeling to Measure the Effect of Spoiler Reviews on Box Office Revenue» and is authored by Jun Hyun (Joseph) Ryoo, Xin (Shane) Wang and Shijie Lu.…

A new article outlines how relaxing Covid-19 restrictions could pave the way for new vaccine-resistant virus mutations. It describes how we are in an ‘arms race’ with the virus and how rising cases could provide opportunities for it to evolve into even more transmissible variants. The researchers say that any new variants could be more…

Researchers have found that the words that scientists use to describe human populations — such as race, ancestry, and ethnicity — significantly changed from 1949 to 2018. Such changes and their timing, along with new descriptors for certain population groups, may be linked to structural racism, social trends, and how people view social constructs such…

Cricket umpires struggle to please everyone at the best of time but the different formats of the game make it even harder for them, especially when it comes to LBW decisions. Joshua M. Adie, a PhD candidate in QUT’s School of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences, has just published a new paper highlighting research conducted in…

Almost one-third of people migrating to the US via Mexico experience physical, psychological, and/or sexual violence along the way, according to a new study. In recent years, multiple studies have shown that traditional migration routes have become more dangerous around the world. As part of a research collaboration with the migrant shelter group Casas del…

When it comes to accurately flagging hate speech on social media, context matters, says a new study aimed at reducing errors that could amplify racial bias. So, perhaps it’s no surprise that social media hate speech detection algorithms, designed to stop the spread of hateful speech, can actually amplify racial bias by blocking inoffensive tweets…