A tool used to restore forest ecosystems could also be key to the battle against tick-borne disease, researchers say. Forest managers and land owners use prescribed fire to combat invasive species, improve wildlife habitat and restore ecosystem health. A recent study suggests it could also reduce tick populations and transmission of diseases that have proliferated since the early 1900s when fire suppression created forest habitats that favored survival and spread of ticks. “Before the arrival of Europeans, Eastern forests were ‘fire-dependent,’ characterized by fire-tolerant species such as pine, oak and chestnut,” said lead study author Michael Gallagher, a research ecologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service in New Lisbon, N.J. “Frequent low-to-moderate intensity fires would have fostered dry conditions, thinned the understory and diminished layers of leaf litter, which in turn would have created microclimates with lower humidity and higher temperatures,” Gallagher explained. These conditions were likely to limit ticks’ population activity and interaction with hosts, he said. But fire suppression after deforestation enabled species that thrive in moister conditions to become dominate. The result is called mesophication, and it has been widely seen throughout the eastern United States. “In the absence of fire, these mesic habitats moderate forest temperatures and humidity, promote denser understory growth, and cause greater moisture retention in forest litter,” Gallagher said. “This creates microclimates within the ideal range…  read on >  read on >

Despite the presence of gorilla trekkers in their habitat, endangered gorillas in the region surrounding East Africa’s Virunga Volcanoes do not have human herpesvirus, researchers say. The Gorilla Doctors team was able to assess the region’s mountain gorillas in a noninvasive way, simply watching the animals as they walked through the forest. As the gorillas chomped on vegetation such as wild celery and tossed away the stalks, researchers would retrieve the discarded plant and record the name of the gorilla in this conservation area, where they know each one. The plant leavings would be drenched with enough saliva to analyze. Scientists from the University of California, Davis tested the gorilla saliva for orally shed pathogens to rule out the presence of human herpesviruses among these primates. “We were able to do this study entirely using chewed plants,” said study lead author Dr. Tierra Smiley Evans, an epidemiologist and wildlife veterinarian at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. “That allowed us to collect specimens from every known, habituated mountain gorilla in Uganda and Rwanda. This shows we can monitor gorillas — and potentially other primate species — over time, noninvasively, at the individual level and help answer questions regarding their conservation,” Evans said in a university news release. It’s an important mission. While herpesvirus may cause minor symptoms in humans, it could be more dangerous…  read on >  read on >

If your children are well-behaved, do they stand a greater chance of having healthy, happy lives as adults?

A new study says yes.  read on >

It’s no surprise that many Americans are working overtime. Conservative estimates say that 19 percent of adults put in 48 hours or more a week and 7 percent log in 60 or more. But what you might not realize is that, after a certain point, extra hours could be hurting both your health and your productivity. In addition to a variety of medical issues and unhealthy lifestyle choices associated with long hours, a British study used cognitive tests to show that working 55 hours a week was associated with lower scores in vocabulary and reasoning, and can lead to cognitive problems as you get older. Adding insult to injury, research done at Stanford University found that, besides the personal toll that overtime takes, you probably aren’t working effectively. Productivity starts to fall considerably after the 50th work hour of the week and gets worse with every additional hour. So, if you put in 70 hours a week, you’re not likely to accomplish anything worthwhile during those last 15. One reason for this is that you might be too stressed or tired to function at peak level since working overtime usually results in your getting less sleep — and that in turn leads to making mistakes that can set you back at work. Take action to improve the balance between your personal life and your work…  read on >

A smokeless method of vaporizing and then inhaling pot packs a much more powerful punch than simply smoking weed, researchers say. That could raise safety concerns for users — driving, for example. Marijuana vaporizers heat pot to a temperature just below combustion, allowing people to inhale the intoxicating chemical THC from the plant material without breathing in any smoke. This method produced much more intoxication in a small group of test participants than smoking the same amount of marijuana through a typical pot pipe, according to the report published online Nov. 30 in JAMA Network Open. The study participants also had more adverse effects associated with their pot use when they used vaporizers, and had more pronounced impairment of their ability to think and control their movements, the researchers said. “It’s often a fine line between someone getting the drug effect they desire and having a drug effect that’s too strong, and maybe produces paranoia and adverse effects that are uncomfortable for the person,” said lead researcher Tory Spindle. “That sort of thing might be more likely with vaporizers,” he added. Spindle is a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore. These vaporizers aren’t to be confused with “vaping” — a term used to describe electronic cigarettes. Survey data has shown that vaporizing is becoming a more popular method of…  read on >

In a finding that might come as a surprise, a new study suggests that people may stay in unfulfilling relationships because they feel they’re doing their partner a favor. People trying to decide whether to end a relationship consider not only themselves but also how important the relationship is to their partner, according to the researchers. “The more dependent people believed their partner was on the relationship, the less likely they were to initiate a breakup,” lead author Samantha Joel said in a University of Utah news release. Joel was an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Utah when the study was conducted and is now an assistant professor at Western University in Ontario, Canada. This the first evidence that altruism may play a role in decisions about disappointing romantic relationships, the study authors said. “When people perceived that the partner was highly committed to the relationship, they were less likely to initiate a breakup,” Joel said. “This is true even for people who weren’t really committed to the relationship themselves or who were personally unsatisfied with the relationship. Generally, we don’t want to hurt our partners and we care about what they want,” she added. In such cases, the unhappy partner may be hoping the relationship will improve. But if that doesn’t happen, then it just means a bad relationship is prolonged,…  read on >

Can your personality determine how good you are with money? The answer is yes, according to research by Jacob Hirsh, an assistant professor of organizational behavior and human resource management at the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Institute for Management and Innovation. Introverts often prefer to save money, banking bucks for a large purchase or a retirement nest egg, while extroverts often like instant gratification and will spend on immediate rewards, even if they’re smaller. That can mean impulse buying, high credit card debt and little savings for a rainy day. But you don’t have to dampen an outgoing personality. Just take steps to keep it from making you financially poor. First, set a financial goal, whether it’s to buy a house, start a retirement fund or get out of credit card debt. Then work on a plan to reach that goal. People who write out their plan are twice as likely to actually save money. Of course, to be able to put any funds aside, you need to create a budget. Include your income, how much you spend and on what. You can do this with an app, an Excel spreadsheet or an old-fashioned paper ledger. Now look for ways to fill the piggybank. You can start small. Pay off your credit cards with the highest rates and switch to a credit card that pays…  read on >