Almost 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Strategies for fighting obesity, such as pharmacological and behavioral approaches to decrease food intake, have been only marginally successful. Patients who have undergone various surgeries for the gastrointestinal system have found success, but these are extreme measures. Scientists are hopeful that increasing energy expenditure with brown or brite/beige fat cells could be an effective way to fight obesity.

One of every three deaths in the U.S. in 2013 were from heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, while heart disease and stroke were the top and second killers worldwide, according to American Heart Association's 2016 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update, which uses data from the AHA, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government sources.  

In the U.S. the data showed:

• cardiovascular diseases claimed 801,000 lives;

• heart disease killed more than 370,000 people;

• stroke killed nearly 129,000 people;

• about 116,000 of the 750,000 people in the U.S. who had a heart attack died;

Quebec's legislation on medical aid in dying has many aspects in common with laws passed in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2002 to regulate euthanasia, but it is more restrictive in nature because it only concerns people at end-of-life.

This was observed by Jocelyne St-Arnaud, a professor of ethics in health at the University of Montréal's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, during a seminar she gave on December 2 as part of the Séminaires de l'IRSPUM series.

Daejeon, Republic of Korea, Dec. 16, 2015 -- When a fake phone company released its line of products, NoPhones, a thin, rectangular-shaped plastic block that looked just like a smartphone but did not function, many doubted that the simulated smartphones would find any users. Surprisingly, close to 4,000 fake phones were sold to consumers who wanted to curb their phone usage.

As smartphones penetrate every facet of our daily lives, a growing number of people have expressed concern about distractions or even the addictions they suffer from overusing smartphones.

Santa Claus performers struggle with fulfilling the role of jolly old St. Nicholas due to an acute awareness of the sensitivities around interactions with children in modern times, according to 15 formal interviews with Santa performers comprising 14 male Santa performers aged between 52 and 81 and one female grotto assistant who performed in the guise of an elf, aged 32.

Psychologists say they have evidence of tool use by greater vasa parrots (Coracopsis vasa). They determined this by studying ten captive parrots and seeing that the birds adopt a novel tool-using technique to acquire calcium from seashells. They also noted active sharing of tools among themselves.