Tag Archives: us population

Left-handed people more likely to have psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia: Yale Study

Being left-handed has been linked to many mental disorders, but Yale researcher Jadon Webb and his colleagues have found that among those with mental illnesses, people with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia are much more likely to be left-handed than those with mood disorders like depression or bipolar syndrome.

The new study is published in the October-December 2013 issue of the journal SAGE Open. (more…)

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comScore Releases April 2013 U.S. Online Video Rankings

Video Ad Views Reach Another All-Time High at 13.2 Billion in April

RESTON, VA, May 22, 2013  – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 181.9 million Americans watched 38.8 billion online content videos in April, while the number of video ad views reached an all-time high at 13.2 billion.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in April with 154.6 million unique viewers, followed by Facebook with 627 million, VEVO with 52.9 million, NDN with 45.3 million, and Yahoo! Sites with 45.1 million. Nearly 39 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 13.0 billion and Facebook reaching an all-time high once again with 740.8 million. Google Sites had the highest average engagement among the top ten properties. (more…)

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Hidden Dangers in the Air We Breathe

Berkeley Lab researchers work on new building standards after discovering previously unknown indoor air pollutants.

For decades, no one worried much about the air quality inside people’s homes unless there was secondhand smoke or radon present. Then scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) made the discovery that the aggregate health consequences of poor indoor air quality are as significant as those from all traffic accidents or infectious diseases in the United States. One major source of indoor pollutants in the home is cooking.

The Berkeley Lab scientists are now working on turning those research findings into science-based solutions, including better standards for residential buildings and easier ways to test for the hazardous pollutants. These efforts are the result of a paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives in 2012 that described a new method for estimating the chronic health impact of indoor air pollutants. That research uncovered two pollutants that previously had not been recognized as a cause for concern—fine particles and a gas called acrolein. (more…)

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Beliefs on Best Way to Lose Weight Can Torpedo New Year’s Resolutions

ANN ARBOR — People setting a goal to lose weight in 2013 may want to first ask themselves if diet or exercise is more important to success.

Whether a person believes obesity is caused by overeating or by a lack of exercise can predict whether he or she will gain or lose weight, according to University of Michigan research to be published in the journal Psychological Science.

With two-thirds of the adult U.S. population classified as overweight or obese and similar numbers in many developed nations, obesity has become an important health concern. (more…)

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Public Obsession with Obesity May be More Dangerous than Obesity Itself, UCLA Author Says

Much has been made about who or what is to blame for the “obesity epidemic” and what can or should be done to stem the tide of rising body mass among the U.S. population.

A new book by a UCLA sociologist turns these concerns on their head by asking two questions. First, how and why has fatness been medicalized as “obesity” in the first place? Second, what are the social costs of this particular way of discussing body size? (more…)

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comScore Releases January 2012 U.S. Online Video Rankings

*Long-Form Video Content on the Rise, Reaching 6 Minutes on Average in January*

RESTON, VA, February 20, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 40 billion videos of online video content in January.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in January with 152 million unique viewers, followed by VEVO with 51.5 million, Yahoo! Sites with 49.2 million, Viacom Digital with 48.1 million and Facebook.com with 45.1 million. Nearly 40 billion videos views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 18.6 billion, followed by Hulu with 877 million and VEVO with 717 million. The average viewer watched 22.6 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7.5 hours) and Hulu (3.2 hours) demonstrating the highest average engagement among the top ten properties. (more…)

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U.S. Believers Favor International Action on Climate Change, Nuclear Risk: UMD Poll

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A majority of Americans professing belief in God favor cooperative international efforts to combat climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons, says a new public opinion poll conducted jointly by the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and its Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

The nearly 1,500 Americans surveyed include large numbers of Catholics and Evangelicals.

The study, Faith and Global Policy Challenges: How Spiritual Values Shape Views on Poverty, Nuclear Risks, and Environmental Degradation, also finds that a majority of believers consider addressing global poverty a “spiritual obligation,” and think that the United States should work cooperatively with other nations to reduce it. (more…)

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