PHILADELPHIA (July 8, 2013)— If all medical errors were counted together as a single cause, they would likely rank as the third leading cause of death in the United States. As health care personnel race to improve the quality of their care to save lives and prevent unneeded harm, a new study indicates there is more they can do to learn about what errors are occurring and why. Researchers from the Drexel University School of Public Health demonstrated a systematic analysis of hospital administrative data for patient safety at a population level, in a recent paper in the ...

When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Soulik in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, the MODIS and AIRS instruments captured images that showed the storm's eastern quadrant covered the Marianas Islands and that the storm has become more organized in the last day. The MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a brilliant visible image of Storm Soulik over the Mariana Islands on July 8 at 3:50 UTC (July 7 at 11:50 p.m. EDT). In the image, Soulik's center could be seen near the northern islands, ...

Tropical Storm Erick has been bringing some rain and rough surf along the southwestern coast of Mexico for a couple of days, and on July 7, 2013, NASA's TRMM satellite saw two areas of heavy rain within Erick on opposite ends of the storm. Meanwhile, the rainfall from the remnants of nearby Tropical Depression Dalila had dissipated. When NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite passed over Tropical Storm Erick on Sunday, July 7, it measured rainfall rates as seen from space. TRMM showed that the northeastern quadrant and southwestern quadrants had the ...

A new low-cost method of in-vitro fertilization developed at the University of Colorado Boulder that performed successfully in recent human clinical trials in Belgium may help thousands of infertile couples in developing countries. The study using the CU-Boulder technology showed that the low-cost of IVF for developing and "resource-poor" countries is feasible and effective, with baby delivery rates roughly the same as those achieved in conventional IVF programs. This proof-of-principle study, say the investigators, suggests that infertility care may now be universally ...

San Diego, CA, July 9, 2013 – Recent breakthroughs in cervical cancer prevention have resulted in new vaccination and cervical cancer screening guidelines. Recommendations do not always translate into practice, however. Less than one third of obstetrician-gynecologists vaccinate their eligible patients against the human papilloma virus (HPV), and only half adhere to cervical cancer prevention guidelines published three years previously, according to a survey published this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Vaccination against HPV has been recommended ...

Failure to consider public health in the formulation of agricultural policy has compromised the American nutritional environment by promoting the production and consumption of unhealthy foods San Diego, CA, July 9, 2013 – Agricultural subsidies are responsible for making those processed and energy-dense foods that contribute to the American epidemic of obesity the most affordable options for consumers, concludes a new study led by Dr. Mark J. Eisenberg, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. As Congress ...

The H7N9 avian flu strain that emerged in China earlier this year has subsided for now, but it would be a mistake to be reassured by this apparent lull in infections. The virus has several highly unusual traits that paint a disquieting picture of a pathogen that may yet lead to a pandemic, according to lead scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. David Morens, Jeffery Taubenberger, and Anthony Fauci, in a paper published in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, describe the history of H7 viruses ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Many brain-training companies tout the scientific backing of their products – the laboratory studies that reveal how their programs improve your brainpower. But according to a new report, most intervention studies like these have a critical flaw: They do not adequately account for the placebo effect. The new analysis appears in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. The results of psychological interventions, like medical ones, must be compared to improvements in a control condition, said University of Illinois psychology professor Daniel ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – U.S. intelligence agents – like the embattled Edward Snowden – are more prone to irrational inconsistencies in decision making when compared to college students and post-college adults. That's according a new Cornell University study to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science. The study found intelligence agents exhibited larger biases on 30 gain-loss framing decisions, and were also more confident in those decisions. Thirty-six agents were recruited for the study from an anonymous federal agency, and were presented with scenarios ...

HUNTSVILLE, TX (7/9/13) -- Texas has the second largest sex offender registry in the country, but relatively few people are accessing it or using it to develop protective actions against future sex crimes, a study by the Crime Victims' Institute at Sam Houston State University found. Texas began its sex offender registry in 1991 to inform citizens about sex offenders living and working in communities throughout the state and to encourage the public to adopt preventive measures against sex crimes. The Texas Department of Public Safety maintains the registry and as of October ...

July 7, Ulsan, S. Korea - Korean Researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) developed a new method to massively synthesize enhanced yet affordable materials for supercapacitors. Supercapacitors have attracted increasing attention due to their long life cycle, highly reversible charge storage process and specific power density along with increased concern over the exhaustion of natural resources. Graphene has been recognized as a promising active material for supercapacitors due to its outstanding electrical conductivity and large surface ...

Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have helped boost green foliage across the world's arid regions over the past 30 years through a process called CO2 fertilisation, according to CSIRO research. In findings based on satellite observations, CSIRO, in collaboration with the Australian National University (ANU), found that this CO2 fertilisation correlated with an 11 per cent increase in foliage cover from 1982-2010 across parts of the arid areas studied in Australia, North America, the Middle East and Africa, according to CSIRO research scientist, Dr Randall Donohue. ...

CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope has detected brief flashes of radio emission from the distant Universe. Their origin is unknown. CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia has detected mysterious 'flashes' of radio energy from the distant Universe that may open up a whole new area of astrophysics. The surprising finding, made by a team of scientists from ten institutions in Australia, the USA, UK, Germany and Italy, is published in today's issue of the journal Science. "Staggeringly, we estimate there could be one of these flashes going off every ten seconds ...

CINCINNATI -- Scientists have successfully targeted a malfunctioning immune system enzyme to kill diseased cells from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) -- a blood disorder and precursor to leukemia. Reporting their results July 8 in Cancer Cell, researchers say their successful laboratory tests in human MDS cells and mouse models of MDS provide a molecular target for designing new drugs to battle a syndrome with few effective treatments. "There is an urgent need to develop new targeted therapies that can eliminate MDS-initiating clone cells and provide a ...

Immune cells play a role in early pregnancy Macrophages are white blood cells that help prevent and alert the immune system to the threat of a pathogenic infection. Interestingly, macrophages are present in the uterus and ovaries at the time of conception. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Sarah Robertson and colleagues at the University of Adelaide investigated the role of macrophages in early pregnancy. The team utilized a mouse model in which macrophages could be depleted immediately after embryo implantation. They found that without macrophages, ...

Macrophages are white blood cells that help prevent and alert the immune system to the threat of a pathogenic infection. Interestingly, macrophages are present in the uterus and ovaries at the time of conception. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Sarah Robertson and colleagues at the University of Adelaide investigated the role of macrophages in early pregnancy. The team utilized a mouse model in which macrophages could be depleted immediately after embryo implantation. They found that without macrophages, embryos were unable to implant in the uterus. ...

The number of tumor-associated immune cells is correlated with poor prognosis in cancer patients. Reducing these cells in mouse models of breast cancer reduces tumor metastasis, indicating that tumor-immune interactions are critical for cancer progression. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Shelley Earp and colleagues at the University of North Carolina a Chapel Hill demonstrate that removal of the protein MerTK from immune cells decreased tumor growth in mouse models of breast cancer, melanoma, and colon cancer. Loss of MerTK reduced the release of ...

A new analysis has found that among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, African Americans more commonly present with advanced disease, and they tend to have shorter survival times than Caucasians despite receiving the same care. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the results suggest that biological factors may account for some racial disparities in cancer survival. Among cancer patients, minorities tend to have a worse prognosis than Caucasians for reasons that are unclear. In African American patients, lower ...

Antimatter has been detected in solar flares via microwave and magnetic-field data, according to a presentation by NJIT Research Professor of Physics Gregory D. Fleishman and two co-researchers at the 44th meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division. This research sheds light on the puzzling strong asymmetry between matter and antimatter by gathering data on a very large scale using the Sun as a laboratory. While antiparticles can be created and then detected with costly and complex particle-accelerator experiments, such particles are otherwise ...

Two drugs, telmisartan and valsartan, which are used to reduce blood pressure in people with diabetes, are associated with a lower risk of hospitalization for heart attack, stroke or heart failure, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). For people with type 2 diabetes, disease-related vascular illnesses are the main causes of death. Angiotensin-receptor blockers including telmisartan, valsartan, candesartan, irbesartan and losartan, are generally used interchangeably to control blood pressure. However, there is some evidence from ...

Researchers have discovered the genetic processes that cause specific types of bowel cancer. Using this knowledge, they identified cancer drugs that target these genes. Their findings offer the opportunity to develop personalised treatment based on a person's genetic profile. More than one million people develop bowel cancer each year, which is one of the most common causes of death in cancer patients. One in ten colon cancers are caused by mutations in the BRAF gene, a gene commonly associated with skin cancers. Although successful treatments against BRAF mutations in ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — They're young. They've been injured in an assault – so badly they went to the emergency room. And nearly one in four of them has a gun, probably an illegal one. What happens next? A new study by the University of Michigan Injury Center provides data that could be important to breaking the cycle of gun violence that kills more teens and young adults than anything except auto accidents. In the new issue of the journal Pediatrics, the team from the U-M Injury Center reports data from interviews with 689 teens and young adults who came to an emergency ...

London, 8 July 2013: Egg donation is now one of the major reasons why couples travel abroad for fertility treatment. Because this growing trend may circumvent regulations at home or raise concerns about financial inducement, it has also become one of the most controversial. Yet little is known about the women who provide the donor eggs in overseas clinics - their characteristics, their motivation and their compensation. A study performed by ESHRE, which surveyed (by questionnaire) 1423 egg donors at 60 clinics in 11 European countries, has now found that the majority ...

London, 8 July 2013: Phthalates are among a group of industrial chemicals shown in some studies to have adverse effects on reproductive health and development, particularly in the male. As such, they have been collectively defined as "endocrine disruptors", and proposed as one of several possible environmental exposures responsible for a decline in fertility. They are classified in two groups - high molecular weight phthalates are used in the production of plastics, while low molecular weight phthalates are frequently used in the manufacture of cosmetics.(1) Human ...

London, 8 July 2013: Studies over the past 20 years have suggested (though not unequivocally confirmed) that semen quality is in decline, reflected most evidently in falling sperm counts and reduced sperm motility.(1) The explanations have been controversially attributed to environmental factors (such as exposure to toxins) and to male smoking. Now, a new study based on a 20-year follow-up of one of the world's largest study cohorts, suggests that exposure to several factors in utero and in early life may also lead to reduced semen parameters in adulthood - and potentially ...