Developing arthritis increases the risk of falling into poverty, especially for women, new research shows. In a study of more than 4,000 Australian adults, females who developed arthritis were 51% more likely to fall into income poverty than nonarthritic women. In men, arthritis was linked with a 22% increased risk. Also, women with arthritis were 87% more likely to fall into "multidimensional poverty," which includes income, health, and education attainment, while the arthritis-related risk in men was 29%. The investigators noted that given the high prevalence of ...

Inside the trillions of cells that make up the human body, things are rarely silent. Molecules are constantly being made, moved, and modified--and during these processes, mistakes are sometimes made. Strands of DNA, for instance, can break for any number of reasons, such as exposure to UV radiation, or mechanical stress on the chromosomes into which our genetic material is packaged. To make sure cells stay alive and multiply properly, the body relies on a number of mechanisms to fix such damage. Although researchers have been studying DNA repair for decades, much remains ...

DENVER, Colo. - The publication of the Eighth Edition of the Tumor, Node and Metastasis (TNM) Classification of Lung Cancer will provide physicians around the world access to new data to more precisely stage and treat cases of lung cancer. That data, collected by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Staging and Prognostic Factors Committee and presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Denver on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015 at the Colorado Convention Center, will be published in 2016. In 1998, IASLC established its Lung Cancer ...

Many cancers include increased copies of the gene MET. But in which cases is MET driving the cancer and in which do these increased copies happen to "ride along" with other molecular abnormalities that are the true cause of the disease? The answer influences whether a tumor will respond to drugs that inhibit MET, like crizotinib. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study being presented today at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Denver, Colorado sheds light on the best method to determine the threshold at which MET amplification becomes clinically relevant. "Generally, ...

When the influenza vaccine is well matched to the prevailing strains of flu in a given season, patients in nursing homes are significantly less likely to be hospitalized or to die of pneumonia and other influenza related causes. The finding comes from a study of more than 1 million Medicare fee-for-service long-stay nursing home residents. When the vaccine's match with A/H3N2--the influenza strain typically responsible for severe symptoms--was excellent (75%) during an A/H3N2 predominant season, there was an estimated 2.0% reduction in deaths and a 4.2% reduction in ...

DENVER, Colo. - If cancer patients are to receive optimal treatment, clinicians must have an accurate histologic classification of the tumor and know its genetic characteristics, said William D. Travis, M.D., attending thoracic pathologist, Department of Pathology, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Dr. Travis made his remarks today at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) hosted by the International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Dr. Travis said the pathology and oncology professions made a big step towards this goal ...

Organ donation after circulatory death (DCD), in which transplant organs are taken from donors after ay period of no blood circulation or oxygenation, is often considered inferior to donation after brain death, in which circulation and oxygenation are maintained until organs are removed for transplantation. Currently, the use of livers from DCD donors remains controversial, particularly with donors with advanced age. A new study of DCD liver transplantations conducted at the Cleveland Clinic from 2005 to 2014 found no significant correlation between donor age and organ ...

New research reveals that seizures are frequent in childhood brain tumor survivors. Among 298 children who were diagnosed with a brain tumor at least 2 years earlier and were followed for an average of 7.6 years, 24% of patients experienced seizures at the start of the study and 14% continued to experience them on an ongoing basis. Certain factors such as the type of tumor, its location, and the extent of surgery predispose patients to ongoing seizures. "This information will allow clinicians to understand better who needs to stay on antiseizure medications and who ...

Researchers who analyzed data from the 2006-2007 wildfires in Australia found that exposure to wildfire smoke was linked to increased visits to hospital emergency departments for asthma. The findings reveal the adverse health impacts due to wildfire particulate pollution in communities. These fine particulates are harmful because they are easily inhaled and remain present deep in the lungs. "Given the increase in frequency and intensity of wildfires experienced worldwide in recent years, it's important to understand the impact of wildfire smoke exposure on acute health ...

Anemia is common, and in surgical patients can increase various risks associated with operations. While blood transfusion can be a lifesaver for patients in these situations, it may not be always be appropriate and can even increase risks. A new review presents a 'patient blood management' program to help clinicians make decisions relating to anemia and blood transfusion. The approach relies on 3 pillars of care: detecting and treating anemia before surgery, reducing blood loss during surgery, and optimizing management of anemia after surgery. The program can be used ...

A new study that investigated the potential of certain psychological traits for predisposing heterosexuals to have negative attitudes towards homosexual people found that psychoticism--which is present in severe psychopathological conditions but may also contribute to less severe states of hostility and anger--and immature defense mechanisms may be important risk factors for homophobia, while depression and neurotic defense mechanisms appear to lower the risk of being homophobic. "After discussing for centuries if homosexuality is to be considered a disease, for the first ...

Many parents and caregivers believe that multi-sensory stimulation during infancy promotes developmental growth and learning, but researchers who conducted eye movement experiments on preverbal infants show that this is not always true. The team discovered that 8 to 10 month old infants could learn basic abstract rules, such as sequences, but only when the audio and visual stimuli were "congruently" or "consistently" paired. If a smiling face was paired with a crying sound, the infants were confused, and they did not learn the rule. The findings indicate that having ...

A new decision rule will help emergency department physicians determine when to use radiography in young children with minor head injuries. The Canadian-developed rule is published in CMAJ. Head injury is a common reason for children to visit emergency departments, resulting in more than 20 000 visits in Canada and 470 000 in the United States each year. Although termed "minor," these head injuries may have complications such as skull fractures and brain injury. Computed tomography (CT) scans, which are the most effective diagnostic tool, carry an increased risk of cancer, ...

Renewed medical interest in the use of psychedelic drugs for anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction has resulted in small research studies that show some success with the controlled use of these drugs, according to an analysis published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Psychedelic drugs are substances that have a strong effect on one's "conscious experience," such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, found in "magic mushrooms," dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). "The re-emerging ...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The timely administration of a clot-dissolving treatment for emergency department patients with acute ischemic stroke nearly doubled following the introduction of new technology that enabled electronic order entry and offered care-decision support for physicians, according to a study published today in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. The study was conducted during the staged implementation of computerized physician order entry when integrated into electronic health records across 16 Kaiser Permanente Northern California medical centers from 2007 to ...

(NEW YORK - September 8, 2015) Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Princeton University have designed a new online tool that predicts the role of key proteins and genes in diseases of the human immune system. Called "ImmuNet," details of the publically available resource were published online today in the journal Immunity. The tool uses information compiled from 38,088 public experiments to predict new immune pathway interactions, mechanisms, and disease-associated genes. With advances in inexpensive computing power, and stored data collections ...

As we grow older, we lose strength and muscle mass. However, the cause of age-related muscle weakness and atrophy has remained a mystery. Scientists at the University of Iowa have discovered the first example of a protein that causes muscle weakness and loss during aging. The protein, ATF4, is a transcription factor that alters gene expression in skeletal muscle, causing reduction of muscle protein synthesis, strength, and mass. The UI study also identifies two natural compounds, one found in apples and one found in green tomatoes, which reduce ATF4 activity in aged ...

PITTSBURGH--There are plenty of ways in the lab to determine which bug is bugging you when you're sick. The University of Pittsburgh's Xinyu Liu, Sanford Asher, and colleagues may have found a faster method. "You can do a swab and culture the bacterium or fungi, but that takes days," Liu says. "You can examine the DNA, but that takes another day or two. It's a pretty tedious process. So, before the identity of the pathogen can be determined, doctors give infected people a broad-spectrum antibiotic that kills everything." It would be better for the patient, then, to ...

Researchers have proven that rudeness -- like poison in the water cooler -- is toxic in the workplace, affecting both job and business performance. But what if your office is a hospital Intensive Care Unit where lives hang in the balance? A new Tel Aviv University study published in Pediatrics suggests that even the most benign forms of impoliteness may impede medical personnel's ability to perform under pressure and damage the quality of patient care. Rudeness alone accounts for a significant drop in hospital staff's diagnostic and professional performance, according ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--The boiling of water is at the heart of many industrial processes, from the operation of electric power plants to chemical processing and desalination. But the details of what happens on a hot surface as water boils have been poorly understood, so unexpected hotspots can sometimes melt expensive equipment and disable plants. Now researchers at MIT have developed an understanding of what causes this extreme heating -- which occurs when a value known as the critical heat flux (CHF) is exceeded -- and how to prevent it. The new insights could make it possible ...

This news release is available in German. The Earth, planets, stars, and galaxies form only the visible portion of the matter in the universe. Greater by far is the share accounted for by invisible "dark matter". Scientists have searched for the particles of dark matter in numerous experiments - so far, in vain. With the CRESST experiment, now the search radius can be considerably expanded: The CRESST detectors are being overhauled and are then able to detect particles whose mass lies below the current measurement range. As a consequence, the chance of tracking ...

Washington, DC (September 8, 2015) - The modern-day complaints department tends to be a direct mention on Twitter to the company that has wronged you. It's easier than ever to have a direct line to a company, but what does a corporation get out of this interaction? A recent study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication by researchers at VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, found that people who follow corporate social media accounts that present a human voice are more likely to have a positive view of the company. Corné Dijkmans (NHTV Breda ...

Sticky resin from conifers contains substances that could relieve or cure epilepsy. Researchers at Linköping University have synthesized and tested 71 substances known as resin acids, of which twelve are prime candidates for new medicines. "Our goal is to develop some of the most potent substances into medicines," says Fredrik Elinder, professor of molecular neurobiology and head of the study, which was newly published in Nature's open-access periodical Scientific Reports. Professor Elinder is an expert on the function of ion channels - the pores in the cell membrane ...

Individual transistors made from carbon nanotubes are faster and more energy efficient than those made from other materials. Going from a single transistor to an integrated circuit full of transistors, however, is a giant leap. "A single microprocessor has a billion transistors in it," said Northwestern Engineering's Mark Hersam. "All billion of them work. And not only do they work, but they work reliably for years or even decades." When trying to make the leap from an individual, nanotube-based transistor to wafer-scale integrated circuits, many research teams, including ...

Typhoon Kilo continues to thrive in the Northwestern Pacific and imagery from NASA's Terra satellite late on September 7 showed that the storm still maintained a clear eye. The MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument that flies aboard Terra provided a visible-light image of Kilo on September 7 at 23:50 UTC (7:50 p.m. EDT). The image showed thick bands of thunderstorms wrapping around the eastern and northern quadrants of the visible eye. At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) on September 9, Typhoon Kilo had maximum sustained winds near 65 knots (74.8 mph/120.4 ...