In results characterized as "very surprising," UCLA researchers found for the first time that higher-earning clinicians make more money by ordering more procedures and services per patient rather than by seeing more patients, which may not be in patients' best interest. The research team from the UCLA Department of Urology and the Veterans' Health Administration examined what Medicare was billed and what it paid to clinicians. The data reviewed was Medicare Part B payments from the 2012 calendar year, said letter first author Dr. Jonathan Bergman, an assistant professor ...

Fairfax, Va., December 9, 2014--The use of hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation (HF-WBI) for patients with early-stage breast cancer increased 17.4 percent from 2004 to 2011, and patients are more likely to receive HF-WBI compared to conventionally fractionated whole-breast irradiation (CF-WBI) when they are treated at an academic center or live ≥50 miles away from a cancer center, according to a study published in the December 1, 2014 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific ...

Is being located next to a big-name competitor always bad for your small business? A new study in the Journal of Marketing Research shows that contrary to accepted belief, the presence of a large, nearby competitor can actually boost the sales of smaller brands. "When the owner of Los Angeles's Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf could not stop Starbucks from moving in next door, he at first admitted defeat," note authors Neeru Paharia (Georgetown University), Jill Avery (Harvard University), and Anat Keinan (Harvard University). "However, soon after, he was surprised to see his sales ...

The first long-term study of a pioneering endoscopic laser treatment for early vocal-cord cancer, developed at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and previously shown to provide optimal voice outcomes, finds that it is as successful as traditional approaches in curing patients' tumors while avoiding the damage to vocal quality caused by radiotherapy or by conventional laser or cold-instrument surgery. The report in the December Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology describes results for the first 117 patients treated for vocal-cord cancer with the green-light potassium-titanyl-phosphate ...

As of Dec. 8, Super Typhoon Hagupit has caused up to 27 deaths. Early reports indicate the Philippines has been spared the widespread destruction caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Hagupit (called Ruby in the Philippines) forward motion slowed on December 4, 2014 before reaching the Philippines. After hitting Samar in the eastern Philippines Hagupit's continued slow movement resulted in high rainfall amounts along the typhoon's track. These high rainfall totals meant that flooding occurred frequently along the typhoon's track. When NASA/Japan Aerospace Exploration ...

Most consumers have experienced online ads so garish, loud, or aggravating that they can't possibly be ignored. But a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research suggests that this way of forcing customer's attention may actually be bad for business. "Annoying ads are interesting because they both make and cost money for publishers. They make money because advertisers pay publishers to run ads. They cost money when annoyed users abandon a site, leaving the publisher with less advertising revenue," write authors Daniel G. Goldstein, Siddharth Suri and Fernando Diaz ...

Boulder, Colo., USA - In the late 13th century, Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, launched one of the world's largest armada of its time in an attempt to conquer Japan. Early narratives describe the decimation and dispersal of these fleets by the "Kamikaze" of CE 1274 and CE 1281 -- a pair of intense typhoons divinely sent to protect Japan from invasion. These historical accounts are prone to exaggeration, and significant questions remain regarding the occurrence and true intensity of these legendary typhoons. For independent insight, we provide a new 2,000 year ...

A leopard may not be able to change its spots, but new research from a World Heritage site in Nepal indicates that leopards do change their activity patterns in response to tigers and humans--but in different ways. The study is the first of its kind to look at how leopards respond to the presence of both tigers and humansLeopard in Chitwan, Nepal simultaneously. Its findings suggest that leopards in and around Nepal's Chitwan National Park avoid tigers by seeking out different locations to live and hunt. Since tigers--the socially dominant feline--prefer areas less disturbed ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- Results of treating shoulder pain in baseball pitchers and other throwing athletes are not as predictable as doctors, patients and coaches would like to think, according to a report in the journal Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America. Nickolas Garbis, MD, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in shoulder and elbow injuries at Loyola University Medical Center, is the primary author. Shoulder pain occurs in athletes who play sports that require rapid acceleration and deceleration of the throwing arm. They include baseball pitchers, ...

James Ingle, M.D., an internationally recognized breast cancer expert, will receive the 2014 William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award on Dec. 10 at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Dr. Ingle is a professor of oncology and the Foust Professor in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. He has been the leader of breast cancer research at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, serving as program co-leader of the women's cancer program with responsibility for breast cancer. He is currently co-director of the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer Specialized ...

(Boston)-- Moms who use mobile devices while eating with their young children are less likely to have verbal, nonverbal and encouraging interactions with them. The findings, which appear online in Academic Pediatrics, may have important implications about how parents balance attention between their devices with their children during daily life. Parent-child interactions during meal time in particular show a protective effect on child health outcomes such as obesity, asthma and adolescent risk behaviors. These findings have been attributed to the positive family communication ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- In the battle between native and invasive wetland plants, a new Duke University study finds climate change may tip the scales in favor of the invaders -- but it's going to be more a war of attrition than a frontal assault. "Changing surface-water temperatures, rainfall patterns and river flows will likely give Japanese knotweed, hydrilla, honeysuckle, privet and other noxious invasive species an edge over less adaptable native species," said Neal E. Flanagan, visiting assistant professor at the Duke Wetland Center, who led the research. Increased human ...

PULLMAN, Wash. - Imagine standing in a long line at your favorite coffee shop only to receive the wrong order. What would you do? While some might be angry and tell all their friends about the shop's bad service, researchers say other customers may think "it's all good" - IF they learn that the coffee shop donates a percentage of every purchase to charitable causes that customers value. Corporate social responsibility maximizes consumer return Writing in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, researchers help firms understand when and why corporate social responsibility ...

SAN FRANCISCO (DECEMBER 9, 2014) -Common variations in four genes related to brain inflammation or cells' response to damage from oxidation may contribute to the problems with memory, learning and other cognitive functions seen in children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to a study led by researchers from Boston Children's Hospital, The Children's Hospital at Montefiore, and Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. The data, presented at the 56th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (abstract #856), suggest ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 9, 2014 - Researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology have made new compact, high-value resistors for nanoscale quantum circuits. The resistors could speed the development of quantum devices for computing and fundamental physics research. The researchers describe the thin-film resistors in an article in the Journal of Applied Physics, from AIP Publishing. One example of an application that requires high-value resistors is the quantum phase-slip (QPS) circuit. A QPS circuit is made from very narrow wires of superconducting material ...

It may be possible to develop a simple blood test that, by detecting changes in the zinc in our bodies, could help to diagnose breast cancer early. A team, led by Oxford University scientists, took techniques normally used to analyse trace metal isotopes for studying climate change and planetary formation and applied them to how the human body processes metals. In a world-first the researchers were able to show that changes in the isotopic composition of zinc, which can be detected in a person's breast tissue, could make it possible to identify a 'biomarker' (a measurable ...

December 9, 2014 - Within a few months after drug withdrawal, patients in recovery from dependence on prescription pain medications may show signs that the body's natural reward systems are normalizing, reports a study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The study by Scott C. Bunce, PhD, of Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, and colleagues provides evidence of "physiological re-regulation" ...

Physical aggression in toddlers has been thought to be associated with the frustration caused by language problems, but a recent study by researchers at the University of Montreal shows that this isn't the case. The researchers did find, however, that parental behaviours may influence the development of an association between the two problems during early childhood. Frequent hitting, kicking, and a tendency to bite or push others are examples of physical aggression observed in toddlers. "Since the 1940s, studies have observed an association between physical aggression ...

Several factors influence how well a severely premature infant (23 weeks gestation) will do after birth and over the long term, according to researchers at Loyola University Medical Center. These findings were published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Perinatology. Researchers found that males, multiples and premature infants born in a hospital without a neonatal intensive care unit had a significantly higher death rate. Lack of exposure to steroids before birth and lower birth weights also significantly increased the risk for disability. Some studies suggested ...

MANHATTAN, Kansas -- A research project in the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine presents the largest model to date for evaluating the impact and control of a potential outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in livestock. Mike Sanderson, professor of epidemiology in the college's diagnostic medicine and pathobiology department, and Sara McReynolds, a former graduate student of Sanderson's, published the results of their research in the December issue of the journal Preventive Veterinary Medicine. The researchers developed simulation models to assess ...

How do wealth and culture affect the international success of a new product, especially for those nations that have to wait? According to a new study in the Journal of International Marketing, national wealth and cultural characteristics such as individualism play a large part in citizens' enthusiasm and patience for new products. "Even if they have to wait, consumers in wealthy countries are less hesitant to spend money on new products. Cultural factors such as individualism increase patience for adopting new products because of the high value placed on social uniqueness," ...

Scientists at the University of Southampton have discovered variations in an enzyme belonging to the immune system that leaves individuals susceptible to Ankylosing Spondylitis. The variation in ERAP1 can be detected by genetic testing which, if available, could lead to people becoming aware of the risk of the condition earlier. Ankylosing Spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease which mainly affects joints in the spine. In severe cases, it can eventually cause complete fusion and rigidity of the spine, called "Bamboo spine". It tends to first develop in teenagers ...

Glass is mysterious. It is a broad class of materials that extends well beyond the everyday window pane, but one thing that these disparate glasses seem to have in common is that they have nothing in common when it comes to their internal structures, especially in contrast with highly ordered and patterned crystals. Glassy systems can also range in scale: from things like metallic glasses, composed of atoms, to sandcastles, composed of grains of sand. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have now shown an important commonality that seems to extend through the ...

PITTSBURGH (December 9, 2014) ... Precious elements such as platinum work well as catalysts in chemical reactions, but require large amounts of metal and can be expensive. However, computational modeling below the nanoscale level may allow researchers to design more efficient and affordable catalysts from gold. These novel computer simulations to better explore how catalysts function at the nanoscale, led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was featured as the cover article in the January issue of "Catalysis Science & Technology," ...

When it comes to remembering where a tasty titbit was left, female great tit birds are miles ahead of their male counterparts. This ability might have evolved because the females come second when there's food to be shared, argue Anders Brodin and Utku Urhan of Lund University in Sweden. In Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, they present one of only a handful of cases in nature in which the female of a bird species has better spatial and learning abilities than the male. Great tits (Parus major) are highly intelligent and quick learners. These common ...