OTTAWA, July 7, 2011 – Family doctors are reluctant to disclose identifiable patient information, even in the context of an influenza pandemic, mostly in an effort to protect patient privacy. A recently published study by Dr. Khaled El Emam the Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information at the University of Ottawa and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute recently found that during the peak of the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, there was still reluctance to report detailed patient information for public health purposes. These results are important ...

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is offering those with undisclosed offshore bank accounts an opportunity to get current on their tax returns. The 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (OVDI) seeks to bring taxpayers with undisclosed foreign bank accounts - whether in the Cayman Islands, Europe, South America or Asia - into compliance with United States tax laws. Taxpayers who have undisclosed offshore accounts are eligible to apply to the 2011 OVDI. The program requires disclosing unreported income from 2003 through 2010 and filing amended tax ...

Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed smart nanomaterials, which can disrupt the blood supply to cancerous tumours. The team of researchers, led by Physics lecturer Dr Antonios Kanaras, showed that a small dose of gold nanoparticles can activate or inhibit genes that are involved in angiogenesis - a complex process responsible for the supply of oxygen and nutrients to most types of cancer. "The peptide-functionalised gold nanoparticles that we synthesised are very effective in the deliberate activation or inhibition of angiogenic genes," said Dr ...

Researchers have discovered a way to capture and harness energy transmitted by such sources as radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks and satellite communications systems. By scavenging this ambient energy from the air around us, the technique could provide a new way to power networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors and communications chips. "There is a large amount of electromagnetic energy all around us, but nobody has been able to tap into it," said Manos Tentzeris, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering ...

The landscape of audits and health care compliance has been impacted significantly by the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Under PPACA, the Medicare hospice benefit underwent changes related to both documentation and billing requirements. It is important fo rproviders to recognize these changes and adjust their procedures accordingly. Failure to comply with these new requirements may leave providers vulnerable to claim denials and overpayment recoupment in a future RAC or other Medicare audit. Hospice Certification In order for ...

As the RACs continue to focus on medical necessity issues in inpatient hospital admissions, hospitals are left with few good options to effectively address these issues. The Medicare definitions regarding the terms "inpatient" and "outpatient" are circuitous and do not give hospitals much guidance, if any, as to when patients should be kept in outpatient observation as opposed to being admitted as an inpatient. If these admissions are subsequently audited, a RAC's decision that the services were medically necessary but should have been performed in a ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. –Children who witness domestic violence are more likely to be in abusive intimate relationships and experience psychological problems such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adulthood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A University of Missouri researcher has found that certain protective factors foster resilience and increase the likelihood that the cycle of violence will end for women who, as children, were exposed to their mothers' battering. Kim Anderson, associate professor in the MU School of Social Work, found that ...

Virginia's many bays, estuaries and rivers are a magnet for the quarter of a million registered watercraft in the state, especially during the summer months. Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac and other waterways provide many great destinations for a day of fishing or pleasure boating. But these waters can quickly turn dangerous when power boats or jet skis are piloted by drunk or otherwise negligent operators. Recently released statistics reveal that 2010 was a less deadly year for Virginia boaters. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) recently released national statistics on boating ...

New Rochelle, NY, July 7, 2011—Companies that try to increase sales of their products by adopting the color pink and pink ribbons to imply that they support breast cancer research—a practice called pinkwashing—but at the same time permit the use of chemicals shown to cause cancer are committing a form of social injustice against women, according to a thought-provoking article in Environmental Justice, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com) The entire issue is available online at www.liebertpub.com/env Amy Lubitow, Portland State ...

As the spring legislation session ends, many are wondering about the cluster of anti drunk driving bills that failed to garner support. The session began with lawmakers vowing to pass tougher laws that would keep more offenders off the road. Ultimately, lawmakers only agreed to send one proposal to the governor's office. One proposal called for deferred adjudication for first time offenders, but it was defeated. It would have allowed for them to be acquitted if they completed court ordered treatment and supervision. Proponents believed it would help offenders get the ...

LA JOLLA, CA – July 7, 2011 – Annually changing flu vaccines with their hit-and-miss effectiveness may soon give way to a single, near-universal flu vaccine, according to a new report from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and the Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell. They describe an antibody that, in animal tests, can prevent or cure infections with a broad variety of influenza viruses, including seasonal and potentially pandemic strains. The finding, published in the journal Science Express on July 7, 2011, shows the influenza subtypes neutralized with ...

The state of Idaho has an unusually high rate of bicyclist injuries and fatalities, according to statistics from 2009. Children and young adults who do not wear helmets when they ride are the most common victims of injury-causing bicycle accidents. However, Idaho does not currently have a bicycle helmet statute, so bicyclists who choose not to wear helmets are not violating any laws. While it is difficult to know how much a universal bicycle helmet law would reduce bicyclist injuries and deaths, such a law is a good place for Idaho to start. Bicycle Crashes According ...

LA JOLLA, CA - Researchers at the Salk Institute have been able to genetically incorporate "unnatural" amino acids, such as those emitting green fluorescence, into neural stem cells, which then differentiate into brain neurons with the incandescent "tag" intact. They say this new technique, described in the June 16 online issue of Stem Cells, may help scientists probe the mysteries of many different kinds of stem cells in humans as well as the cells they produce. This could be a boon to both basic and clinical research, such as helping to speed development of stem cell-based ...

"Our visual system is tuned towards perceiving other people. We spend so much time doing that—seeing who they are, what they are doing, what they intend to do," says psychology professor Nikolaus F. Troje of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. This process is called biological motion perception, and humans are so good at it that even a few dots on a screen representing the major joints of a body are enough to retrieve all the information we need—as long as they move. But what role does motion play in that process? Does the visual system use it only to connect the ...

Organizations and programs have been set up all over the globe in the hopes of urging people to end prejudice. According to a research article, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, such programs may actually increase prejudices. Lisa Legault, Jennifer Gutsell and Michael Inzlicht, from the University of Toronto Scarborough, were interested in exploring how one's everyday environment influences people's motivation toward prejudice reduction. The authors conducted two experiments ...

DETROIT – Biology textbooks maintain that the main function of sex is to promote genetic diversity. But Henry Heng, Ph.D., associate professor in WSU's Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, says that's not the case. Heng and fellow researcher Root Gorelick, Ph.D., associate professor at Carleton University in Canada, propose that although diversity may result from a combination of genes, the primary function of sex is not about promoting diversity. Rather, it's about keeping the genome context – an organism's complete collection of genes arranged by chromosome ...

DETROIT – Contrary to popular belief, so-called hypoallergenic dogs do not have lower household allergen levels than other dogs. That's the conclusion of a study by Henry Ford Hospital researchers who sought to evaluate whether hypoallergenic dogs have a lower dog allergen in the home than other dogs. Hypoallergenic dogs are believed to produce less dander and saliva and shed less fur. The findings are to be published online this month in the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy. The study will be available at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ocean/ajra "We ...

You've done your homework and listened to all the experts and their admonitions that everyone should have a will. Then, as it often does, life intervenes and you now find yourself in a divorce. What do you do with your will now? The Virginia General Assembly recognized that this could cause problems. If you died suddenly, you probably wouldn't want all of your wealth and assets being transferred to your ex-spouse. Section 64.1-59 of the 1950 Code of Virginia was created to modify your will automatically immediately upon divorce. A court in a case notes: "The ...

Selection has begun for a grand jury requested by acting Pennsylvania Attorney General William Ryan in April. The statewide grand jury will be made up of citizens from several Pennsylvania counties, and 23 jurors will ultimately be selected, as well as an alternate pool of 200 people. We use the word "grand" to describe these juries because of their size, but they also carry out an important part of the criminal justice process. Grand juries are convened in Pennsylvania to investigate allegations of criminal activity, and they can have either statewide or county ...

In the late 1990s, Jane Anderson was working as a landscape architect. That meant she didn't work much in the winter, and she struggled with seasonal affective disorder in the dreary Minnesota winter months. She decided to try meditation and noticed a change within a month. "My experience was a sense of calmness, of better ability to regulate my emotions," she says. Her experience inspired a new study which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, which finds changes in brain activity after ...

CHICAGO -- New research published online today in Circulation Research found that injections of adult patients' own CD34+ stem cells reduced reports of angina episodes and improved exercise tolerance time in patients with chronic, severe refractory angina (severe chest discomfort that did not respond to other therapeutic options). The phase II prospective, double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted at 26 centers in the United States, and is part of a long-term collaboration between researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine ...

The federal government is in the process of changing the rules that govern the number of hours that interstate truck drivers can spend behind the wheel. Federal hours-of-service regulations are a key strategy for limiting tractor trailer accidents in Colorado and other long-haul destinations. In addition to speeding, reckless driving, improper maintenance and other causes, driver fatigue is frequently found to be the reason behind a serious or fatal truck accident. Studies included by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in the bureaucratic process for reducing ...

Surprising results from a new study revealed that men who smoke had less risk of undergoing total joint replacement surgery than those who never smoked. Researchers also reported that men who were overweight, or who engaged in vigorous physical activity were more likely to need arthroplasty. Details of this study are now available in Arthritis & Rheumatism,a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). Research has shown that total hip and knee replacements, also known as arthroplasty, are among the most common elective ...

Is your kid a "dove" – cautious and submissive when confronting new environments, or perhaps you have a "hawk" – bold and assertive in unfamiliar settings? These basic temperamental patterns are linked to opposite hormonal responses to stress – differences that may provide children with advantages for navigating threatening environments, researchers report in a study published online July 8, 2011, in Development and Psychopathology. "Divergent reactions – both behaviorally and chemically – may be an evolutionary response to stress," says Patrick Davies, professor ...

One needs look no further than Paul Phelps to understand that anyone can get into a bad situation. At his sentencing hearing after causing a car accident that led to Maryland DUI/DWI charges, the judge told Phelps that he appeared to be a "good man," and that "I don't sentence you with any joy. I sentence you because I must." As Heather Rawlyk reports for Hometown Annapolis, Phelps's decision to drink and drive led to severe injuries to three people who had just arrived in the U.S. on work Visas. One of those people was 26-year-old Chalinee Unchain ...