June 1, 2016: Aortic disease, including aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection, is an important cause of cardiovascular morbidity and death. There have been exciting developments in caring for patients with aortic aneurysm and dissection, including great advances in diagnosis and endovascular therapies. Despite this, there remains significant gaps in knowledge of the understanding of mechanisms of aortic pathology and opportunity to further improve patient care. With this in mind, Vascular Medicine, the official journal of the Society for Vascular Medicine, dedicated its June, 2016 issue to this important topic.

The majority of patients prefer their dermatologists to be dressed in professional attire with a white coat, according to an article published online by JAMA Dermatology.

Patient perceptions of their physicians may affect outcomes so it is possible that physician attire may affect those outcomes.

Robert S. Kirsner, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and coauthors surveyed the attitudes of dermatology patients (261 were surveyed and 255 participated and completed enough questions to be included).

Scientists from RIKEN in Japan have discovered that acrolein--a toxic substance produced in cells during times of oxidative stress--in fact may play a role in preventing the process of fibrillation, an abnormal clumping of peptides that has been associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neural diseases. The key to this new role is a chemical process known as 4+4 cycloaddition, where two molecules with "backbones" made up of four-atom chains come together to form a ring-like structure with eight atoms. The group found that in some circumstances, acrolein can combine with a class of molecules called polyamines, which themselves are important biological players, to make substances that can prevent the fibrillation of Aβ40 peptides.

The earth's magnetic field has been existing for at least 3.4 billion years thanks to the low heat conduction capability of iron in the planet's core. This is the result of the first direct measurement of the thermal conductivity of iron at pressures and temperatures corresponding to planetary core conditions. DESY scientist Zuzana Konôpková and her colleagues present their study in the scientific journal Nature. The results could resolve a recent debate about the so-called geodynamo paradox.

WASHINGTON, DC, May 25, 2016 -- A new study suggests that psychotherapists discriminate against prospective patients who are black or working class.

"Although I expected to find racial and class-based disparities, the magnitude of the discrimination working-class therapy seekers faced exceeded my grimmest expectations," said Heather Kugelmass, a doctoral student in sociology at Princeton University and the author of the study.

Among middle-class people who contacted a therapist to schedule an appointment, Kugelmass found that 28 percent of whites and 17 percent of blacks received appointment offers. Appointment offer rates for both black and white working-class therapy seekers were 8 percent.

The imperial dominance of the ancient Wari Empire at the Huaca Pucllana site in Lima, Peru, was likely not achieved through population replacement, according to a study published June 1, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Guido Valverde from the University of Adelaide, Australia, and colleagues.