Patient handovers have increased significantly as a result of the restrictions on the number of hours residents are allowed to work. Multiple shift changes, and resulting consecutive sign-outs, during patient handovers are linked to a decrease in both the amount and quality of information conveyed between residents, according to a new study by Dr. Adam Helms from the University of Virginia Healthsystem in the US and his colleagues. Their work¹, which characterizes the complex process of resident sign-out in a teaching hospital, appears online in the Journal of General ...

Compliance Safety Systems (CSS) proudly announced today that they have been selected by JB Hunt Transport Services, Inc. to offer drug and alcohol consortium services to carriers providing contracted services to J.B. Hunt. The CSS Consortium was established to assist carriers in complying with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations 49 CFR Part 382. Consortium services include annual certification, random selection and notification, certified drug testing laboratories, a Medical Review Officer, and semi-annual summary reports. Additionally, assistance with developing ...

Grainy asteroids and the craters they leave behind F. Pacheco-Vazquez and J.C. Ruiz-Suarez Physical Review Letters (forthcoming) It's generally accepted that craters in the moons and planets were created by asteroid collisions. But, why are some craters completely flat while others show central peaks? New experiments involving projectiles made of globs of granular material appear to provide a solution to the long-standing mystery: loosely-packed projectiles completely spread after collision, leading to bowl-shaped craters, while tightly-packed globs give rise to central ...

New York University and University of Iowa biologists have identified a key mechanism controlling early embryonic development that is critical in determining how structures such as appendages—arms and legs in humans—grow in the right place and at the right time. In a paper published in the journal PLoS Genetics, John Manak, an assistant professor of biology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Chris Rushlow, a professor in NYU's Department of Biology, write that much research has focused on the spatial regulatory networks that control early developmental ...

Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center today announce findings published in the October 20 issue of Nature that show for the first time the inhibition of both microRNA-33a and microRNA-33b (miR-33a/b) with chemically modified anti-miR oligonucleotides markedly suppress triglyceride levels and cause a sustained increase in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) "good" cholesterol. "The discovery of microRNAs in the last decade has opened new insights for up new avenues for the development of therapies targeted at these potent regulators of gene pathways," said ...

Even though previous studies have been shown the link between regular exercises and improved health the exact dose-response relation remains unclear. Guenther Samitz, researcher in physical activity and public health at the Centre for Sports Sciences and University Sports of the University of Vienna has investigated this relationship with a meta-study representing more than 1.3 million participants. The research project was carried out in collaboration with public health scientists and epidemiologists of the Universities of Bern, Switzerland and Bristol, UK. The results ...

Frequent spitting up, irritability and unexplained crying in infants are often very distressing to parents. Physicians frequently prescribe acid-suppressing drugs for these symptoms. However, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is an uncommon cause of these symptoms in otherwise thriving infants, and in his commentary published in the Journal of Pediatrics, Dr. Eric Hassall cautions against over-diagnosis of GERD and over-prescription of acid-suppressing drugs in children under one year of age. Dr. Hassall, a member of the division of gastroenterology at BC Children's ...

Researchers at UCLA have found a possible explanation for why autistic children act and think differently than their peers. For the first time, they've shown that the connections between brain regions that are important for language and social skills grow much more slowly in boys with autism than in non-autistic children. Reporting in the current online edition of the journal Human Brain Mapping, senior author Jennifer G. Levitt, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA; first author Xua Hua, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher; ...

The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every Southern Hemisphere spring, reached its annual peak on September 12, stretching 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest on record. Above the South Pole, the ozone hole reached its deepest point of the season on October 9 when total ozone readings dropped to 102 Dobson units, tied for the 10th lowest in the 26-year record. The ozone layer helps protect the planet's surface from harmful ultraviolet radiation. NOAA and NASA use balloon-borne instruments, ground instruments, and satellites to monitor the annual South ...

NOAA is now using a sophisticated forecast model that substantially improves predictions of space weather impacts on Earth. Better forecasts offer additional protection for people and the technology-based infrastructure we use daily. Explosions in the sun's outer atmosphere – tracked and forecast by NOAA scientists – can cause geomagnetic and solar radiation storms at Earth that can impede the operation of electrical power grids, interfere with the normal function of Global Positioning Systems and temporarily hamper radio and satellite telecommunications. Grid and satellite ...

Autumn at Panera Bread is all about the best ingredients and flavors that warm from the inside out. To celebrate the transition into Fall, Panera is offering a variety of seasonally inspired flavors with the return of some favorite feel-good foods and the introduction of exciting new items. New this Fall is the Roasted Turkey Artichoke Panini. Made with all-natural roasted turkey, artichoke-Parmesan spread, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and fresh baby spinach, all expertly grilled on Asiago Cheese Focaccia, it can be savored alone or paired with Panera's Mac ...

Autumn at Panera Bread is all about the best ingredients and flavors that warm from the inside out. To celebrate the transition into Fall, Panera is offering a variety of seasonally inspired flavors with the return of some favorite feel-good foods and the introduction of exciting new items. New this fall is the Roasted Turkey Artichoke Panini. Made with all-natural roasted turkey, artichoke-Parmesan spread, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and fresh baby spinach, all expertly grilled on Asiago Cheese Focaccia, it can be savored alone or paired with Panera's Mac ...

Using one of the largest DNA data sets for a group of birds and employing next-generation sequencing methods, Smithsonian scientists and collaborators have determined the evolutionary family tree for one of the most strikingly diverse and endangered bird families in the world, the Hawaiian honeycreepers. Not only have the researchers determined the types of finches that the honeycreeper family originally evolved from, but they have also linked the timing of that rapid evolution to the formation of the four main Hawaiian Islands. "There were once more than 55 species ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Violent deaths are outpacing traditional causes of maternal mortality, such as hemorrhage and preeclampsia, and conflicts with intimate partner are often a factor, researchers report. "We found that the mortality rate from homicide and suicide were more common than what we think of as traditional causes of maternal mortality," said Dr. Christie L. Palladino, an obstetrician-gynecologist and educational researcher at Georgia Health Sciences University. "It's not what you want to read, but it's the reality." The analysis of the Centers for Disease Control ...

Autumn at Panera Bread is all about the best ingredients and flavors that warm from the inside out. To celebrate the transition into Fall, Panera is offering a variety of seasonally inspired flavors with the return of some favorite feel-good foods and the introduction of exciting new items. New this Fall is the Roasted Turkey Artichoke Panini. Made with all-natural roasted turkey, artichoke-Parmesan spread, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and fresh baby spinach, all expertly grilled on Asiago Cheese Focaccia, it can be savored alone or paired with Panera's Mac ...

HOUSTON, Oct. 20, 2011 – Researchers at the University of Houston (UH) are recommending a new strategy for developing drugs to treat cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases. In an invited review published in the October issue of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, scientists at the Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling (CNRCS) at UH outline the results of years of research following the team's 1996 discovery of the estrogen receptor beta (ERβ). "We have known for some time that female sex hormones – estrogens – influence a number ...

After its initial appearance in New York in 1999, West Nile virus spread across the United States in just a few years and is now well established throughout North and South America. Both the mosquitoes that transmit it and the birds that are important hosts for the virus are abundant in areas that have been modified by human activities. As a result, transmission of West Nile virus is highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats. "The virus has had an important impact on human health in the United States partly because it took advantage of species that do well around ...

Los Angeles, CA (October 20, 2011)- Partners in Wall Street law firms write equally nice things about the work of their male and female junior lawyers, but when they use hard numbers, they rate the men higher, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE). The use of positive language may be to soften the blow of low evaluations or they may be based on lower expectations of female performance based on stereotypes, write Monica Biernat, of the University of Kansas, M.J. Tocci of Fulcrum Advisors and Joan Williams ...

HOUSTON -- (Oct. 20, 2011) -- Giant flakes of graphene oxide in water aggregate like a stack of pancakes, but infinitely thinner, and in the process gain characteristics that materials scientists may find delicious. A new paper by scientists at Rice University and the University of Colorado details how slices of graphene, the single-atom form of carbon, in a solution arrange themselves to form a nematic liquid crystal in which particles are free-floating but aligned. That much was already known. The new twist is that if the flakes – in this case, graphene oxide – ...

WASHINGTON -- The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every Southern Hemisphere spring, reached its annual peak on Sept. 12. It stretched to 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest ozone hole on record. Above the South Pole, the ozone hole reached its deepest point of the season on Oct. 9, tying this year for the 10th lowest in this 26-year record. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use balloon-borne instruments, ground-based instruments and satellites to monitor the annual Antarctic ozone hole, global levels of ozone in the stratosphere ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---For the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that's cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets. Water is an essential ingredient for life. Scientists have found thousands of Earth-oceans' worth of it within the planet-forming disk surrounding the star TW Hydrae. TW Hydrae is 176 light years away in the constellation Hydra and is the closest solar-system-to-be. University of Michigan astronomy professor Ted Bergin is a co-author of a paper on the ...

University of British Columbia researchers have identified three major patterns that emerge among couples dealing with male depression. These can be described as "trading places," "business as usual" and "edgy tensions." Published in the Social Science & Medicine journal and led by UBC researcher John Oliffe, the paper details how heterosexual couples' gender roles undergo radical shifts and strain when the male partner is depressed and the female partner seeks to help. Depression, a disorder often thought of as a women's health issue, is underreported in men, and little ...

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 20 – Exceptional cognitive and physical function in old age leaves a tell-tale immunologic fingerprint, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Likewise, older adults who have mild impairments bear a distinct immunologic pattern, too, according to findings published today in the Public Library of Science: One. Old age is not synonymous with impairment and disability, noted lead investigator Abbe N. de Vallejo, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics and immunology, University of Pittsburgh School ...

(New York City, October 20, 2011) In the October 20th edition of the journal Cell Host and Microbe, Drs. Claudia Plottel and Martin J. Blaser of the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology at NYU Langone Medical Center, and the Department of Biology at New York University, present a model for understanding how cancer evolves in humans based on an understanding of the bacteria living in our body, the microbiome. The authors suggest that the bacteria that reside in us play a crucial role in maintaining our health. This starts early in our lives, when a newborn is "seeded" ...

CINCINNATI – Children with certain dopamine system gene variants have an improved response to methylphenidate - the most commonly prescribed medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - in a finding that could help eliminate the guesswork from prescribing effective medications for children with ADHD. Researchers reporting their results in the Oct. 21 Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry tested 89 children with ADHD between ages 7 and 11. They found that children with specific variants of the dopamine transporter (DAT) and dopamine ...