Washington — NIOSH is encouraging health care industry employers to craft mental health-related communications in a way that helps reduce the stigma around seeking support.

Silver Spring, MD — Protecting workers who handle products containing nanomaterials begins by controlling exposures “like other potential hazards,” CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training says in a new fact sheet.

Puncture wounds, sprained ankles and broken toes are just some of the injuries that can result from handling empty skids and pallets. With about 2 billion pallets circulating in the United States, according to the U.S. Forest Service, the Texas Department of Insurance offers tips to material handlers to help them avoid injury. 

Tumwater, WA — Spurred by separate rollaway incidents in which truck mechanics were killed, Washington state has published a hazard alert.

Arlington, VA — Miners dumping cargo from haulage vehicles should always load trucks or trailers properly and dump only on level surfaces, free of spillage, the Mine Safety and Health Administration says.

The National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction is an annual event. But employers should focus on fall prevention all year.

Many tile manufacturers place installation tips and techniques on the cardboard box, and many are based on the industry standards of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and industry recognized best practices.

Today more than ever it is vital for retailers to create a pleasant and unique shopping experience for consumers.

The post Antipsychotic Drugs: A Concise Review of History, Classification, Indications, Mechanism, Efficacy, Side Effects, Dosing, and Clinical Application was curated by information for practice.

Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Ahead of Print. Background:Using long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic medications can improve the outcomes of patients with schizophrenia, such as reducing symptom severity and hospitalization risk. However, the outcomes of switching from oral to LAI antipsychotic medications are unclear.Aims:The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of […]

The post Clinical, Quality of Life, and Health Care Utilization Outcomes of Switching the Administration Route of Antipsychotic Medications Among People With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis was curated by information for practice.

The post Disaster Risk Communication Hub: Simple guidance and practical tips for practitioners was curated by information for practice.

Brady chats with NYT columnist and Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan about this week's avalanche of political ads. Then, two seasoned primary watchers weigh in on the celebrities (and non-celebrities) candidates call upon in the primary's waning weeks. Finally, a public radio host who's interviewed hundreds of primary candidates shares her strategy to get them to open up. #FITN #2016 #Politics

Residents whose property was damaged by the Texas wildfires should contact their insurance company to file a claim as soon as possible.

The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) reminds flood victims to document damage and file insurance claims right away.

If you experienced damage from Hurricane Beryl, contact your insurance company to start a claim.

Scam artists often follow a large storm or disaster. The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) has tips to help recognize and avoid common contracting scams.

As the peak festive sales season approaches, retailers face greater cybersecurity risk during the fourth quarter than any other time of year. Last year the average cost of a data breach jumped up 10% between 2023 and 2024. For retailers the cost has increased beyond the global annual average and sits at an 18% YoY increase ($2.96m).

You're driving out of a parking lot when you suddenly feel that you're having problems with the power steering. Learn about how to diagnose power steering problems in this article.

Reconstructions from the Daynès Studio in Paris depict a male Neanderthal (right) face to face with a human, Homo sapiens.; Credit: /Science Source

It's something that many of us reckon with: the sense that we're not quite as sharp as we once were.

I recently turned 42. Having lost my grandfather to Alzheimer's, and with my mom suffering from a similar neurodegenerative disease, I'm very aware of what pathologies might lurk beneath my cranium.

In the absence of a cure for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, the most important interventions for upholding brain function are preventive — those that help maintain our most marvelous, mysterious organ.

Based on the science, I take fish oil and broil salmon. I exercise. I try to challenge my cortex to the unfamiliar.

As I wrote my recent book, A History of the Human Brain, which recounts the evolutionary tale of how our brain got here, I began to realize that so many of the same influences that shaped our brain evolution in the first place reflect the very measures we use to preserve our cognitive function today.

Being social, and highly communicative. Exploring creative pursuits. Eating a varied, omnivorous diet low in processed foods. Being physically active.

These traits and behaviors help retrace our past, and, I believe, were instrumental in why we remain on the planet today.

And they all were, at least in part, enabled by our brain.

Social smart alecks finish first

The human saga is riddled with extinctions.

By "human," I don't just mean Homo sapiens, the species we belong to, but any member of the genus Homo. We've gotten used to being the only human species on Earth, but in our not so distant past — probably a few hundred thousand years ago – there were at least nine of us running around.

There was Homo habilis, or the "handy man." And Homo erectus, the first "pitcher." The Denisovans roamed Asia, while the more well-known Neanderthals spread throughout Europe.

But with the exception of Homo sapiens, they're all gone. And there's a good chance it was our fault.

Humans were never the fastest lot on the African plains, and far from the strongest. Cheetahs, leopards and lions held those distinctions. In our lineage, natural selection instead favored wits and wiliness.

Plenty of us became cat food, but those with a slight cognitive edge — especially Homo sapiens — lived on. In our ilk, smarts overcame strength and speed in enabling survival.

Ecology, climate, location and just sheer luck would've played important roles in who persisted or perished as well, as they do for most living beings. But the evolutionary pressure for more complex mental abilities would lead to a massive expansion in our brain's size and neurocircuitry that is surely the paramount reason we dominate the planet like no other species ever has.

Much of this "success," if you can call it that, was due to our social lives.

Primates are communal creatures. Our close monkey and ape cousins are incredibly interactive, grooming each other for hours a day to maintain bonds and relationships. Throw in a few hoots and hollers and you have a pretty complex community of communicating simians.

An active social life is now a known preserver of brain function.

Research shows that social isolation worsens cognitive decline (not to mention mental health, as many of us experienced this past year). Larger social networks and regular social activities are associated with mental preservation and slowed dementia progression.

Entwined in this new social life was an evolutionary pressure that favored innovation. Our eventual ability to generate completely novel thoughts and ideas, and to share those ideas, came to define our genus.

As we hunted and foraged together, and honed stones into hand axes, there was a collective creativity at work that gave us better weapons and tools that enabled more effective food sourcing, and, later, butchering and fire. Effectively sharing these innovations with our peers allowed information to spread faster than ever before - a seed for the larger communities and civilizations to come.

Challenging ourselves to new pursuits and mastering new skills can not only impress peers and ingratiate us to our group, but literally help preserve our brain. New hobbies. New conversations. Learning the banjo. Even playing certain video games and simply driving a new route home from work each day, as neuroscientist David Eagleman does, can keep our function high.

Whether it's honing ancient stone or taking up Sudoku, any pursuit novel and mentally challenging may help keep the neural circuits firing.

We really are what we eat

All the while, as we hunted and crafted in new and communal ways, we had to eat. And we did so with an uniquely adventurous palette.

Homo sapiens is among the most omnivorous species on the planet. Within reason we eat just about anything. Whether it's leaves, meat, fungus, or fruit, we don't discriminate. At some point, one of us even thought it might be a good idea to try the glistening, grey blobs that are oysters - and shellfish are, it turns out, among the healthiest foods for our brain.

The varied human diet is an integral part of our story. As was the near constant physicality required to source it.

On multiple occasions over the past 1 to 2 million years climate changes dried out the African landscape, forcing our ancestors out of the lush forest onto the dangerous, wide-open grasslands. As evolution pressured us to create and commune to help us survive, a diverse diet also supported our eventual global takeover.

Our arboreal past left us forever craving the dangling fruits of the forest, a supreme source of high-calorie sugars that ensured survival. Back then we didn't live long enough to suffer from Type 2 diabetes: if you encountered sweets, you ate them. And today we're stuck with a taste for cookies and candy that, given our longer lifespans, can take its toll on the body and brain.

But humans were just as amenable to dining on the bulbs, rhizomes and tubers of the savanna, especially once fire came along. We eventually became adept scavengers of meat and marrow, the spoils left behind by the big cats, who preferred more nutritive organ meat.

As our whittling improved we developed spears, and learned to trap and hunt the beasts of the plains ourselves. There is also evidence that we learned to access shellfish beds along the African coast and incorporate brain-healthy seafood into our diet.

Studying the health effects of the modern diet is tricky. Dietary studies are notoriously dubious, and often involve countless lifestyle variables that are hard to untangle.

Take blueberries. Multiple studies have linked their consumption with improved brain health. But, presumably, the berry-prone among us are also more likely to eat healthy all around, exercise, and make it to level 5 on their meditation app.

Which is why so many researchers, nutritionists, and nutritional psychiatrists now focus on dietary patterns, like those akin to Mediterranean culinary customs, rather than specific ingredients. Adhering to a Mediterranean diet is linked with preserved cognition; and multiple randomized-controlled trials suggest doing so can lower depression risk.

A similar diversity in our ancestral diet helped early humans endure an ever-shifting climate and times of scarcity. We evolved to subsist and thrive on a wide range of foods, in part because our clever brains allowed us access to them. In turn, a similarly-varied diet (minus submitting to our innate sugar craving of course) is among the best strategies to maintain brain health.

All of our hunting, and foraging, and running away from predators would have required intense physical exertion. This was certainly not unique to humans, but we can't ignore the fact that regular exercise is another effective means of preserving brain health.

Being active improves performance on mental tasks, and may help us better form memories. Long before the Peletons sold out, our brains relied on both mental and physical activity.

But overwhelmingly the evidence points to embracing a collection of lifestyle factors to keep our brain healthy, none of which existed in a Darwinian vacuum.

Finding food was as social an endeavor as it was mental and physical. Our creative brains harnessed information; gossiping, innovating, and cooking our spoils around the campfire.

Researchers are beginning to piece together the complex pathology behind the inevitable decline of the human brain, and despite a parade of failed clinical trials in dementia, there should be promising treatments ahead.

Until then, in thinking about preserving the conscious experience of our world and relationships — and living our longest, happiest lives — look to our past.

Bret Stetka is a writer based in New York and an editorial director at Medscape. His work has appeared in Wired, Scientific American, and on The Atlantic.com. His new book, A History of the Human Brain, is out from Timber/Workman Press. He's also on Twitter: @BretStetka.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

What if the August 23 earth tremors had been closer or stronger? Would you know what to do? Here are some tips from Catawba County Emergency Services.

Keep your cool, arm yourself with the right knowledge, and other tips for staying unshaken by fraudsters’ scare tactics

You may not always stop your personal information from ending up in the internet’s dark recesses, but you can take steps to protect yourself from criminals looking to exploit it

BT decided to showcase its technology by hosting a virtual media summit for AMEA and we knew that we could save money and invite more people if we made it virtual.

The more plant personnel who participate in your facility’s food safety audit, the better. These educational experiences allow your staff to engage with the audit process and improve their food safety knowledge.

The transport of food and health/sanitary items such as cleaning supplies and paper towels have placed significant strains on the supply chain. Food distributors have to scrutinize significant preventative measures needed to ensure the health and safety of customers, drivers, and everyone that is in contact with goods that are transported and delivered.

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When it comes to a well pump that has fallen off the pitless to the bottom of the well due to a broken adapter, it can cost a homeowner a lot to fix.

A lot of times a snake cable will just stir up the sludge and I have seen cables in clean-outs or manholes downstream where the pipe is still clogged.

On our trucks, we keep all our soldering material, such as solder, paste, pipe cutters, emery cloth, inspection mirror and other miscellaneous items, in small tackle boxes.

This tool tip made my co-worker and our customer so happy that he made one and wrote my name on it. 

Leaking fixtures can waste a lot of water and money. 

When installing a toilet, the final touch is caulking around the base which can sometimes be a mess. 

First, remove the overflow trim. Then, insert a water hose down overflow. 

We do gas and electric water heaters for lots of residential customers. 

The customer says there is water at the base of the toilet after flushing, which means you get to replace the wax seal. 

Every time I installed an ice maker supply line, I was always concerned that it may leak — pushing and pulling on the fridge. 

Carry lengths of pipe in a standard cargo van and eliminate roof racks.

When installing a shower arm or hand held hose wall elbow, thread a ½" coupling onto the male ends and select the appropriate size pipe nipple to use as a lever.

I have seen and experienced draining a water heater for replacement, and the drain is clogged and won’t let out any water.