A patient education program combining videos with one-on-one follow-up did not appear to reduce the risk of falls among all older hospital patients, but was associated with fewer falls among patients who were not cognitively impaired, according to a report posted online today that will be published in the March 28 print issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Falls are a leading patient safety incident event in general hospitals and are especially common in older patients," the authors write as background information in the article. ...

EDITOR'S PICK: Who is in your poo? Working with mice and human patients, Eric Pamer, Carles Ubdea, and colleagues, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, have generated data that suggest that high-throughput DNA sequencing of bacteria in the gut could identify patients at high-risk of life-threatening bloodstream infection with the antibiotic-resistant bacterium vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). Bacterial infections acquired as a result of treatment in a hospital or health-care unit kill approximately 100,000 people a year in the US. Many of these ...

People who have an allotment, especially those aged over 60, tend to be significantly healthier than those who do not. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health have shown that the small gardens were associated with increased levels of physical activity at all ages, and improved health and well-being in more elderly people. Agnes van den Berg, from Wageningen University and Research Centre, the Netherlands, worked with a team of researchers to carry out a study into the health benefits of allotment gardening. She said, "Taken together, ...

The U.S. death rate from congenital heart defects dropped 24 percent from 1999 to 2006 among children and adults, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. A congenital heart defect was the underlying cause of 27,960 deaths — an age-standardized rate of 1.2 deaths per 100,000 people — based on data from death certificates. In a comparable study published in Circulation in 2001, deaths due to congenital heart defects dropped 39 percent from 1979 to 1997. Congenital heart defects are structural abnormalities of the heart ...

Implanted devices that treat cardiac dysfunction in heart failure patients are as successful in "real world" use as they are in controlled clinical trial settings, according to a large new study reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. In the study, researchers focused on three devices: Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) — shocks the heart to treat dangerously fast rhythms in its lower chambers, or ventricles, and can also treat sudden cardiac arrest; Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) —coordinates pumping of the two ventricles ...

Since 1871, when Charles Darwin wrote The Descent of Man, it has been widely accepted that "Variability is the necessary basis for the action of selection." Variability is associated with the ability to adapt, which is clearly beneficial at a species level. But there is increasing evidence that genetic variability may also give rise to advantages at the level of the individual. Steve Smith and Franz Suchentrunk at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna have now shown that variation at a particular gene locus in hares is ...

SALT LAKE CITY, November 22, 2010 —Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah report that they have identified a previously undiscovered trigger mechanism for a quality control checkpoint at the very end of the cell division process in a paper to be published in the November 29 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology and online today. This trigger mechanism monitors whether the cell's nucleus, where the DNA resides, has the proper structure and delays cell division if the structure is not correct. Previously discovered triggers have been associated ...

Targeted breast ultrasound should be the primary imaging technique used to evaluate focal (confined) breast signs and symptoms in women younger than 30, according to a study in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (www.ajronline.org). Breast ultrasound is commonly used to help diagnose breast abnormalities and to characterize potential abnormalities seen on mammography. For women younger than 30 years with focal breast signs or symptoms, targeted ultrasound is the technique typically recommended for initial imaging evaluation. However, questions ...

GALVESTON, November 17, 2010 – A startling number of overweight and normal weight women of reproductive age inaccurately perceive their body weight, affecting their weight-related behaviors and making many vulnerable to cardiovascular and other obesity-related diseases, according to new research from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston. In the December issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the researchers report that nearly 25 percent of overweight and 16 percent of normal weight reproductive-age women misperceive their body weight. This is the first ...

Skin cells from humans can be revamped into pro-clotting cells called platelets, according to a study published on November 22 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org). Patients with diseases causing thrombocytopenia—platelet deficiency—often require repeated transfusions with platelets obtained from healthy donors. But donor platelet isolation is expensive and labor intensive, and donor platelets can be attacked by the patient's immune systems as "foreign." Therefore, Koji Eto and colleagues sought a method for generating custom-made platelets from patients' ...

A sugar found in mouse breast milk promotes the generation of colitis in offspring, according to a study published online on November 22 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (www.jem.org). Sugars in breast milk are essential for the development of the newborn immune system and the growth of beneficial commensal bacteria in the gut. But certain milk sugars in certain contexts could be bad news. A group led by Thierry Hennet at the University of Zurich found that newborn mice fostered by mothers lacking one particular milk sugar—sialyl(alpha2,3)lactose—were less susceptible ...

Boston, MA – A new study released today estimates that the global initiative to eradicate polio could provide net benefits of at least US$40-50 billion if transmission of wild polioviruses is interrupted within the next five years. The study provides the first rigorous evaluation of the benefits and costs of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)—the single largest project ever undertaken by the global health community. The study comes at a crucial time—following an outbreak in the Republic of the Congo and one in Tajikistan earlier this year—that highlight the ...

There are 27 species of bats identified in the Basque Country today. Twenty years ago there were hardly any records. This data reflects the fruitful work on the ecology and behavioural development of bats by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) research team since the 90s. The director of the team, Mr Joxerra Aihartza, took the first steps when he began drawing up a complete atlas of the distribution of bat species in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (CAV-EAE). There are now nine biologists on the team. As Mr Egoitz Salsamendi, member of the team, ...

Hospitals all over the world need to be aware of how to treat emergency blast injuries and military surgeons can provide valuable knowledge and advice to their civilian counterparts based on their experience of battlefield injuries. That is the driving force behind two papers published online by BJS, the British Journal of Surgery. "The current inquest into the 2005 London bombings - and the recent international security alerts - provide a timely reminder that surgeons could be called on at a moment's notice to deal with blast injuries" says consultant surgeon Mr Jonothan ...

ATLANTA, GA – 22 November, 2010 – The College of Direct Support (CDS), an internet-based curriculum for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) and managed in partnership by Elsevier/MC Strategies and the University of Minnesota's Research and Training Center, has introduced its latest offering in the form of a new genre of its online learning content. The new Learning Session is called "R&R Arcade: Direct Support Professionalism: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)." This Learning Session is in a new memory-game format, based on the memory ...

Engineers have developed a new type of microchip muscle stimulator implant that will enable people with paraplegia to exercise their paralysed leg muscles. It is the first time that researchers have developed a device of this kind that is small enough to be implanted into the spinal canal and incorporates the electrodes and muscle stimulator in one unit. The implant is the size of a child's fingernail. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) project is being led by Professor Andreas Demosthenous from University College London. It includes engineers ...

Insomnia is bad news for software engineers' quality of life and deserves greater recognition and attention, according to new research by Sara Sarrafi Zadeh and Khyrunnisa Begum from the University of Mysore in India. Their work shows that poor sleep has a bearing on quality of life - affecting physical and mental health in particular - in this group with high levels of job-related stress. Their paper is published online in Springer's journal Applied Research in Quality of Life. Insomnia, a disorder of insufficient or poor quality sleep, has been shown to have adverse ...

A breakthrough in a University of Cincinnati engineering lab that could clear the way for a low-cost, even disposable, e-reader is gaining considerable attention. Electrical Engineering Professor Andrew Steckl's research into an affordable, yet high-performance, paper-based display technology is being featured this week as the November cover story of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, one of the scientific journals for the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. In the research, Steckl and UC doctoral student Duk Young Kim demonstrated ...

UPTON, NY — A study to be published as the "Paper of the Week" in the Journal of Biological Chemistry this December details how zinc, an element fundamental to cell growth, enters the cell via zinc-specific uptake proteins. The research, conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, is the first to purify this kind of protein and study its role in zinc uptake. Zinc is crucial to the health of all living organisms. At the cellular level, zinc is responsible for cell growth, which in turn affects the health, growth, and reproduction ...

Another conclusion of the report is that the amount of money played is underestimated: on average, a gambler who thinks he has bet 22 euros a month, in reality has bet 40 euros. Regarding on line gambling, the player stands out more as an internaut than as a gambler. "They think that they are browsing the net, going into pages of this type and gambling, believing that they are still browsing. On the other hand, in the case of conventional gambling, if you are going to make a bet on football scores, playing instant lottery, buying a lottery ticket, or taking part in ...

See it for yourself: a new breakthrough in imaging technology using a combination of light and sound will allow health care providers to see microscopic details inside the body. Access to this level of detail potentially eliminates the need for some invasive biopsies, but it also has the potential to help health care providers make diagnoses earlier than ever before—even before symptoms arise. Details describing this advance are published online in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org/content/early/2010/11/19/fj.10-171728.abstract). In the online research report, ...

The link between sleeping and obesity is drawn tighter as a new research published online in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org/content/early/2010/11/19/fj.10-172080.abstract) study shows that what your mother ate when she was pregnant may make you obese or overweight by altering the function of genes (epigenetic changes) that regulate circadian rhythm. In the report, pregnant primate females consuming a high-fat diet altered the function of fetal genes that regulate circadian rhythm (including appetite and food intake) during development. The offspring also had non-alcoholic ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Late-preterm babies – those born between 34 and 36 weeks – are at an increased risk for cognitive and emotional problems, regardless of maternal IQ or demographics, according to new research published by Michigan State University researchers in the current edition of the journal Pediatrics. While late-preterm births (full-term pregnancies last at least 37 weeks) have been associated with such problems before, the study represents one of the most rigorous looks at the issue by accounting for other potential causes, said the study's lead author, Nicole ...

Most patients who take anti-depressants give up their treatment in less than six months, the minimum period recommended for treating severe depression and other derived pathologies. This is the conclusion of a new study carried out by Catalan researchers, which reveals that only 25% continue their treatment for more than 11 months. "Only one in every five patients properly completes their treatment", Catalina Serna, co-author of the study, and an expert at the Jordi Gol Primary Care Research Institute (IDIAP) in Lleida, tells SINC. From 2003 to 2007, researchers from ...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that eventually destroys most motor neurons, causing muscle weakness and atrophy throughout the body. There is no cure and the current treatment has only a moderate effect on the march of the disease, which typically kills within three to five years. This week in PNAS, a team of Brandeis scientists reports an innovative approach to treating the most common form of familial ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. In the study, researchers studied mutations in the gene that makes a particular ...