Chicago (April 2, 2014)—A surgical collaborative of hospitals across Florida resulted in broad improvement in the state, helping most hospitals significantly improve, according to a new study published today in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®), the Florida Surgical Care Initiative (FSCI) was able to reduce complications by 14.5 percent. The study looks at a 15-month period from March 2011 to July 2012 in which it estimates that the program averted 165 complications, ...

The distance between the two electrode tips can greatly influence the parameters used for recording compound nerve action potentials. To investigate the optimal parameters for these recordings in the rat median nerve, Prof. Jie Lao and colleagues from HuaShan Hospital, Fudan University in China dissociated the nerve using different methods and compound nerve action potentials were orthodromically or antidromically recorded with different electrode spacings. Compound nerve action potentials could be consistently recorded using a method in which the middle part of the median ...

When planting seedlings of desert plants in the desert area under no irrigation condition, why the survival rate is so low and the growth is so poor? A recent research using desert plant Haloxylon ammodendron discovered that high desert surface temperature (≥50oC) is a major limiting factor under numerous desert habitats. It provides a novel idea for ecological control measures of desert. Professor MA Hao and his group from Nanjing Agricultural University and Xinjiang Agricultural University found this phenomenon and set out to tackle this problem. After several years ...

Dispersions of carbon nanotubes with liquid crystals have attracted much interest because they pave the way for creating new materials with added functionalities. Now, a study published in EPJ E by Marina Yakemseva and colleagues at the Nanomaterials Research Institute in Ivanovo, Russia, focuses on the influence of temperature and nanotube concentration on the physical properties of such combined materials. These findings could have implications for optimising these combinations for non-display applications, such as sensors or externally stimulated switches, and novel ...

New Rochelle, NY, April 2, 2014–Recent mass killings at schools, movie theaters, political rallies, and races, whether in the U.S., Norway, or elsewhere around the globe, have generally been perpetrated by young males 15-30 years of age. In a provocative Roundtable Discussion published in the preview issue of Violence and Gender, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, a multidisciplinary expert panel explores the possible reasons for high incidence of these crimes, especially in the U.S., and the motives of the young male perpetrators. The ...

Results of EORTC trial 10994 appearing in the Annals of Oncology show that pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy is an independent predictive factor of favorable clinical outcomes in all molecular subtypes of breast cancer. Professor Hervé Bonnefoi of the Institut Bergonié Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Bordeaux and coordinator of this study says, "An analysis such as the EORTC's was needed to consider breast cancer heterogeneity. Until recently, a link between pathological complete response and excellent prognosis had only been shown for some ...

Philadelphia, April 2, 2014 – Clinical Therapeutics features a special report in its March issue focusing on the science and policy leading up to the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) preliminary steps toward restricting industrially produced trans fatty acids, or trans fat, at the federal level. "Trans fat is a compelling topic for Clinical Therapeutics to examine, because although it directly impacts human health, it also cues up controversy in multiple disciplines, including economics and politics," said John G. Ryan, Dr.PH., Topic Editor for Endocrinology and ...

Reinforcing concrete with steel bars is a very common practice in construction. The industrial engineer and researcher Aimar Orbe-Mateo (UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country) has studied the possible use of a material that is normally used for other applications for these tasks: concrete reinforced with steel fibres.What the study shows is that this material has certain advantages over conventional reinforced concrete; among others, it is less prone to cracking, and it can be used for purposes like the manufacture of cylindrical holding tanks. According to Aimar Orbe-Mateo, ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Mindfulness is always personal and often spiritual, but the meditation experience does not have to be subjective. Advances in methodology are allowing researchers to integrate mindfulness experiences with brain imaging and neural signal data to form testable hypotheses about the science — and the reported mental health benefits — of the practice. A team of Brown University researchers, led by junior Juan Santoyo, will present their research approach at 2:45 p.m on Saturday, April 5, 2014, at the 12th Annual International Scientific ...

Infants show unique physiological and behavioral responses to pleasant touch, which may help to cement the bonds between child and parent and promote early social and physiological development, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Previous studies with adults have shown that when the skin is stroked, a specific type of touch receptor is activated in response to a particular stroking velocity, leading to the sensation of "pleasant" touch. Cognitive neuroscientist Merle Fairhurst of the Max Planck ...

Improved thinking. Decreased appetite. Lowered blood pressure. The potential health benefits of dark chocolate keep piling up, and scientists are now homing in on what ingredients in chocolate might help prevent obesity, as well as type-2 diabetes. They found that one particular type of antioxidant in cocoa prevented laboratory mice from gaining excess weight and lowered their blood sugar levels. The report appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry. Andrew P. Neilson and colleagues explain that cocoa, the basic ingredient of chocolate, is one of the most ...

Athens, Ga. – The International Peanut Genome Initiative—a group of multinational crop geneticists who have been working in tandem for the last several years—has successfully sequenced the peanut's genome. Scott Jackson, director of the University of Georgia Center for Applied Genetic Technologies in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, serves as chair of the International Peanut Genome Initiative, or IPGI. The new peanut genome sequence will be available to researchers and plant breeders across the globe to aid in the breeding of more productive ...

To determine whether new medicines are safe and effective for humans, researchers must first test them in animals, which is costly and time-consuming, as well as ethically challenging. In a study published in ACS' journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, scientists report that they've developed a simple, "3D" laboratory method to test asthma and allergy medications that mimics what happens in the body, which could help reduce the need for animal testing. Amir Ghaemmaghami and colleagues note that respiratory conditions, such as asthma and allergies, are becoming more common. ...

An inscription on a 3,500-year-old stone block from Egypt may be one of the world's oldest weather reports—and could provide new evidence about the chronology of events in the ancient Middle East. A new translation of a 40-line inscription on the 6-foot-tall calcite block called the Tempest Stela describes rain, darkness and "the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses." Two scholars at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute believe the unusual weather patterns described on the slab were the result of a massive volcano explosion ...

NOS1 expression predicts melanoma-dependent immune dysfunction Individuals with cancer often exhibit dysfunctional immune signaling in response to interferon (IFN) stimulation. Furthermore, recent evidence indicates that pSTAT-1 levels, which are indicative of IFN responsiveness, in circulating immune cells are predictive of clinical outcome in melanoma patients. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Qiuzhen Liu and colleagues at Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China determined that melanoma cells have differing capacity to dampen IFN responses ...

A survey of more than 500 researchers indicates that scientists have the desire to get more involved in public discussion and policy decisions regarding environmental issues, but have concerns about how their efforts might be perceived. "Scientists debate whether they have a role in advocacy," says Gerald Singh, a PhD student in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC, who conducted the survey with his colleagues. "Some feel they need to remain objective and can't engage. Others feel they have a duty to get involved so that decisions are made ...

Director of Cornell's Food and Brand Lab Brian Wansink and post-doctoral lab researcher Aner Tal, are releasing a new study today published in the Journal of Environment and Behavior that discovered consumers are 16 percent more likely to trust a brand of cereal when the characters on the boxes on the supermarket shelves look them straight in the eye. Not surprisingly, the study also found that the gaze of characters on children's cereal boxes is at a downward, 9.6-degree angle, while characters on adult cereal boxes look almost straight ahead. Wansink says: "If you ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- The ability to stay positive when times get tough -- and, conversely, of being negative -- may be hardwired in the brain, finds new research led by a Michigan State University psychologist. The study, which appears in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, is the first to provide biological evidence validating the idea that there are, in fact, positive and negative people in the world. "It's the first time we've been able to find a brain marker that really distinguishes negative thinkers from positive thinkers," said Jason Moser, lead investigator ...

Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids! In a study of 65 cereals in 10 different grocery stores, Cornell researchers found that cereals marketed to kids are placed half as high on supermarket shelves as adult cereals—the average height for children's cereal boxes is 23 inches verses 48 inches for adult cereal. A second key finding from the same study is that the average angle of the gaze of cereal spokes-characters on cereal boxes marketed to kids is downward at a 9.6 degree angle whereas spokes-characters on adult cereal look almost straight ahead. To examine the influence ...

(Lebanon, NH, 4/2/14) — Using CT scans with contrast enhancement, Dartmouth researchers measured treatment response to pancreatic cancer photodynamic therapy (PDT) according to a paper published in Physics in Medicine and Biology. The research team at Dartmouth set out to reduce the imaging obstacles for PDT, a minimally invasive and nontoxic treatment for cancer. "This study implies that treatment response can be reliably predicted using contrast CT. This would represent a major breakthrough in PDT for pancreas cancer that allows for easier, faster treatment tailored ...

Several clues in the structure of NGC 1316 reveal that its past was turbulent. For instance, it has some unusual dust lanes [1] embedded within a much larger envelope of stars, and a population of unusually small globular star clusters. These suggest that it may have already swallowed a dust-rich spiral galaxy about three billion years ago. Also seen around the galaxy are very faint tidal tails — wisps and shells of stars that have been torn from their original locations and flung into intergalactic space. These features are produced by complex gravitational effects on ...

Colorado grandparents may be able to seek visitation or custody Article provided by Littman Family Law Visit us at http://www.davidlittmanpc.com The relationship between a child and his or her grandparents can be a huge factor in that child's happiness. Grandparents spoil us, teach us about our family's history, give us practical skills and shower us with love. In spite of the importance of the grandparent/grandchild relationship, in some circumstances, a grandparent is cut off from his or her grandchild because of a dispute or disagreement with the child's parent ...

Ohio employer charged in a payroll tax dispute Article provided by Terrence A. Grady & Associates Co., L.P.A. Visit us at http://www.tgradylaw.com When one thinks of tax liability or tax evasion, he or she may first imagine an employee who failed to report earned income. However, legal responsibility comes in varied forms. For example, employers or managers responsible for deducting pay roll taxes could be under the microscope, too. It is the duty of such person to forward deducted taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). If one fails to do so, he or she ...

Fatalities from stroller accidents trigger new regulations Article provided by The Epstein Law Firm, P.A. Visit us at http://www.theepsteinlawfirm.com The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a new safety standard for strollers in the United States. The changes were prompted by multiple reported amputations, lacerations and four fatalities since 2008. Key changes aimed at reducing the risk of releasing a defective or dangerous product that could injure a child include: -Braking systems. One of the reported lacerations occurred when a stroller rolled off ...

Club Leisure Group, the largest timeshare sales and property management company in South Africa, has contracted to use TrackResults Software sales management analysis tools to keep track of its growing business. Leadership at Club Leisure wanted more flexible reporting, plus the ability to run instant analytics on their data without an additional burden to the IT Department. Award-winning TrackResults Software, known around sales and marketing circles in the vacation ownership industry as being easy and ready-to-use with precise sales management analysis tools is used ...