Most of the primary care malpractice claims filed in Massachusetts are related to alleged misdiagnoses, according to study by Gordon D. Schiff, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and colleagues. The focus for improving patient safety and malpractice risk is increasingly on outpatient care, according to the study background. Researchers examined the types, causes and outcomes of primary care malpractice claims by studying closed (resolved) claims data from two Massachusetts insurance carriers that covered most of the state's ...

The proportion of infants bed sharing with caregivers increased between 1993 and 2010, especially among black and Hispanic families, according to a study published by JAMA Pediatrics, a JAMA Network publication. While infant bed sharing is a common practice in many countries, strong associations between the practice and sudden infant death syndrome have been established, according to the study background. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants share a room with their parents but not a bed for sleeping to prevent sleep-related infant deaths. The study ...

Early-term births (37 to 38 weeks gestation) are associated with higher neonatal morbidity (illness) and with more neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or neonatology service admissions than term births (39 to 41 weeks gestation), according to a study by Shaon Sengupta, M.D., M.P.H., now of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and formerly of the University at Buffalo, N.Y., and colleagues. Researchers examined data over a three-year period from medical records of 33,488 live births at major hospitals in Erie County, N.Y., 29,741 at a gestational age between 37 to 41 ...

When faced with uncertain situations, people are less able to make decisions as they age, according to a new study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine. Published in the Sept. 30 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study also found that older people are more risk-averse than their midlife counterparts when choosing between possible gains, but more risk-seeking when choosing between losses. Scientists have long-observed that cognitive function improves throughout adolescence, peaks in adulthood, and declines with age, but behavioral changes in decision-making ...

The joint study by Luca Giuggioli and Jonathan Potts from the University of Bristol, and Daniel Rubenstein and Simon Levin from Princeton University shows that animals deposit marks wherever they go to show their presence, and retreat from marks left by a member of the same species more quickly if the encountered mark is recent. The study published today [30 September] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has important implications for how epidemic disease spreads and animal sociality. Lead author, Dr Luca Giuggioli of Bristol's Department ...

Since 1990, the street price of illegal drugs has fallen in real terms while the purity/potency of what's on offer has generally increased, both of which are indicators of availability. The United Nations recently estimated that the illicit drug trade is worth at least US $350 billion every year. And needle sharing is one of the key drivers of blood borne infections, including HIV. The drug trade is also linked to high rates of violence. Over the past several decades most national drug control strategies have focused on law enforcement to curb supply, despite calls ...

The response to common life events may trigger long lasting physiological changes in the brain, say the authors. They base their findings on 800 Swedish women whose mental health and wellbeing was formally tracked over a period of almost 40 years as part of the larger Prospective Population Study of Women in Gothenburg, Sweden, which started in 1968. The women, who were all born in 1914, 1918, 1922 and 1930, underwent a battery of neuropsychiatric tests and examinations in 1968, when they were in their late 30s, mid 40s, and 50s, and then again in 1974, 1980, 1992, ...

Total sleep duration is shorter and punctuated by more frequent waking at night, the research shows. Poor quality sleep may affect daytime learning and behaviour, say the authors. Disrupted sleep patterns have been linked to autism before, but the quality of the evidence accumulated to date has often been compromised by small sample size, lack of agreed definitions, and poor comparability of study participants. The authors of this study instead base their findings on long term data derived from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which has ...

New research shows that humans distinguish the difference between fine textures, such as silk or satin, through vibrations, which are picked up by two separate sets of nerve receptors in the skin and relayed to the brain. Previous research has shown that coarse textures, such as Braille dot patterns, are encoded by receptors that are densely packed into the primate fingertip. The spatial layout of responses of these receptors corresponds to the spatial layout of surface features of a texture. However, most natural textures are too fine to be perceived in this manner. ...

Naked mole rats have what any animal would want. They live long lives—about 30 years—and stay healthy until the very end. Now biologists at the University of Rochester have new insights into the animal's longevity—better-constructed proteins. Proteins are involved in nearly all functions of an animal cell, and consequently, are essential to all organisms. But before proteins can do their job, they must fold into the appropriate shapes that allow them to connect to and interact with other structures in the cell. In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the ...

Sequestered in Antarctica's Vestfold Hills, Deep Lake became isolated from the ocean 3,500 years ago by the Antarctic continent rising, resulting in a saltwater ecosystem that remains liquid in extreme cold, and providing researchers a unique niche for studying the evolution of the microbes that now thrive under such conditions. Deep Lake's microscopic inhabitants are dominated by haloarchaea, microbes that require high salt concentrations to grow and are naturally adapted to conditions – at minus 20°C – that would prove lethally cold to other organisms. In a detailed analysis ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., – Sept. 30, 2013 – Flushed face, sweating, a sudden rush of heat. The hot flash, the bane of menopausal women, also can affect men who are undergoing hormone therapy for prostate cancer. But unlike in women, neither soy protein nor a common antidepressant provides relief for men, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Hot flashes occur in approximately 80 percent of men who are undergoing hormone manipulation as treatment for prostate cancer. Hormone therapy reduces the levels of male hormones, called androgens, to prevent ...

A mix of serendipity and dogged laboratory work allowed a diverse team of University of Pittsburgh scientists to report in the Oct. 1 issue of Nature Cell Biology that they had solved the mystery of a basic biological function essential to cellular health. By discovering a mechanism by which mitochondria – tiny structures inside cells often described as "power plants" – signal that they are damaged and need to be eliminated, the Pitt team has opened the door to potential research into cures for disorders such as Parkinson's disease that are believed to be caused by dysfunctional ...

VIDEO: This is a video of radial diffusion of lithium into an uncoated germanium nanowire as well as axial lithiation of a silicon-coated nanowire's germanium core. This research on nanowires could... Click here for more information. New research led by an electrical engineer at the University of California, San Diego is aimed at improving lithium-ion batteries through possible new electrode architectures with precise nano-scale designs. The researchers created nanowires ...

The aerosolized dust created by vacuums contain bacteria and mold that "could lead to adverse effects in allergic people, infants, and people with compromised immunity," according to researchers at the University of Queensland and Laval University. Their findings are published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. This finding is worrying as the study found resistance genes for five common antibiotics in the sampled bacteria along with the Clostridium botulinum toxin gene. This is of particular concern as, "The dust found indoors could act as a vehicle ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Two Kansas geologists are helping shed new light on how tungsten metal is leached from the sediment surrounding aquifers into the groundwater. The findings may have implications for human health. Tungsten is a naturally occurring metal that is primarily used for incandescent light bulb filaments, drill bits and an alternative to lead in bullets. Though it is thought to be nonhazardous to the environment and nontoxic to humans, it can be poisonous if ingested in large amounts. In recent years, tungsten has been tentatively linked to cases of childhood ...

Younger patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to other parts of the body represent a high-risk group that is less likely to respond to treatment. Colorectal cancer in patients younger than 40 is more likely to grow despite treatment and young patients are at greater risk of death than people in other age groups. That's according to research presented to the 2013 European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam. The team of scientists is led by an investigator at University of Colorado Cancer Center. An analysis of 20,034 patients in 24 phase III clinical trials showed ...

DURHAM, N.C. – By detailing a process required for repairing DNA breakage, scientists at the Duke Cancer Institute have gained a better understanding of how cells deal with the barrage of damage that can contribute to cancer and other diseases. The insights, reported online the week of Sept. 30, 2013, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, build on earlier work by the research team and identify new prospects for developing cancer therapies. The researchers have focused on a complex series of events that cells routinely undertake to repair DNA ...

Blending cremated remains into tattoos, creating "virtual tombstones" online and displaying "Rest in Peace" car decals or T-shirts are unconventional ways people increasingly are using to honor the dead this century, a Baylor University researcher says. "With 'do-it-yourself' memorials, people are creating their own ways of memorializing the dead, particularly in a more secularized society," said Candi Cann, Ph.D., an assistant professor of religion in Baylor's Honors College. "Some people are alienated from some common traditions such as a long funeral Mass. Cohesive ...

Alexandria, VA – In the first study of its kind, the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) Workforce Program has published the results of the National Geoscience Student Exit Survey, which documents the experiences of graduating geosciences majors. Initial findings support that these new graduates, at all levels, shared some common traits such as the importance of field experiences and exposure to Earth science at the K-12 level. The need for continued growth in the geoscience workforce is well documented and supported by its continuance as one of the most lucrative ...

ANN ARBOR—A microfluidic chip developed at the University of Michigan is among the best at capturing elusive circulating tumor cells from blood—and it can support the cells' growth for further analysis. The device, believed to be the first to pair these functions, uses the advanced electronics material graphene oxide. In clinics, such a device could one day help doctors diagnose cancers, give more accurate prognoses and test treatment options on cultured cells without subjecting patients to traditional biopsies. "If we can get these technologies to work, it will advance ...

BOSTON (Sept. 30, 2013) — Short-term hearing loss during childhood may lead to persistent hearing deficits, long after basic auditory sensitivity has returned to normal. The processing of sound in the brain is shaped by early experience. New research from Massachusetts Eye and Ear has identified two critical periods occurring shortly after hearing onset that regulate how sounds from each ear are fused into a coherent representation in the brain. Their research is described in Nature Communications. Hearing scientist Daniel Polley, Ph.D., an investigator at Massachusetts ...

UCLA chemical engineering researchers have created a new synthetic metabolic pathway for breaking down glucose that could lead to a 50 percent increase in the production of biofuels. The new pathway is intended to replace the natural metabolic pathway known as glycolysis, a series of chemical reactions that nearly all organisms use to convert sugars into the molecular precursors that cells need. Glycolysis converts four of the six carbon atoms found in glucose into two-carbon molecules known acetyl-CoA, a precursor to biofuels like ethanol and butanol, as well as fatty ...

Membrane proteins are responsible for transporting chemicals and messages between a cell and its environment. But determining their structure has proved challenging for scientists. A study by UC Santa Barbara's Han Research Group demonstrates a new tool to resolve the structure of membrane-embedded and membrane-associating proteins using the water dynamics gradient they found across and above the lipid bilayer as a unique ruler. More than 25 percent of all human proteins are membrane proteins, which perform other essential functions, such as sensing and signaling. They ...

LA JOLLA, CA—September 30, 2013¬–A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has created the first comprehensive roadmap of the protein interactions that enable cells in the pancreas to produce, store and secrete the hormone insulin. The finding makes possible a deeper scientific understanding of the insulin secretion process—and how it fails in insulin disorders such as type 2 diabetes. "The development of this insulin interaction map is unprecedented, and we expect it to lead us to new therapeutic approaches for type 2 diabetes," said William E. ...