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.

Aerosol particles generated by human activity counteract the warming of the earth's atmosphere by greenhouse gases. However, this effect might be smaller than first thought, as many particles were already generated from tree emissions in pre-industrial times. This was the finding of a simulation carried out as part of the international CLOUD experiment, in which researchers from the Goethe University played a major role. The results are published in the form of three papers in the renowned journals "Science" and "Nature".

Crystals are solid materials composed of microscopic building blocks arranged in highly ordered patterns. They have countless applications, ranging from metallurgy to jewellery to electronics. Many of the properties that make crystals useful depend on the detailed pattern of arrangement of their constituents, which, in turn, is highly sensitive to the details of the interaction between the building blocks. In molecular and atomic crystals the interparticle forces are fixed by Nature, and the only way of tuning the microscopic arrangement is to either vary the external conditions (temperature, pressure, etc.) or change the particles themselves.

Since 2008, the overall rate of reported gonorrhoea infections has more than doubled across Europe, going up from 8 per 100 000 population to 20 cases per 100 000 persons in 2014.

In total, 66 413 gonorrhoea cases were reported in 27 countries of the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) in 2014 - which constitutes an increase of 25% compared with 2013. The highest rates were observed in the United Kingdom (60 per 100 000), Ireland (28), Denmark (20) and Latvia (18). The majority of gonorrhoea infections were diagnosed among young adults aged 15-24 years who accounted for 38% of cases; followed by the 25-34-year-olds (34%).

In 2012, Belgium scientists published a study that concluded that repeated bouts of intensive endurance exercise at the elite level may result in the pathological enlargement of the right ventricle, which, according to the article, is associated with potential health hazards including sudden cardia death. The publication was the cause of considerable debate among experts in the medical and sports communities. Sports medicine physicians at Saarland University have now tested the conclusions of the 2012 study by examining the hearts of elite master endurance athletes. Their findings refute the hypothesis proposed by their Belgian colleagues. The Saarland research team could find no evidence that years of elite-level endurance training causes any long-term damage to the right ventricle.