Social Sciences
BOSTON ––– In a new study of terminally ill cancer patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that those who draw on religion to cope with their illness are more likely to receive intensive, life-prolonging medical care as death approaches –– treatment that often entails a lower quality of life in patients' final days.
Previous research has shown that more religious patients often prefer aggressive end-of-life (EOL) treatment. The new study –– to be published in the March 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association –– examined whether these patients actually…
Preliminary research in healthy men suggests that the narcolepsy drug modafinil, increasingly being used to enhance cognitive abilities, affects the activity of dopamine in the brain in a way that may create the potential for abuse and dependence, according to a study in the March 18 issue of JAMA.
Modafinil, a wake-promoting drug used in the treatment of sleep disorders, may enhance cognition and is used off-label for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction in some psychiatric disorders (i.e., schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]). The Physicians' Desk Reference…
St. Louis — With eight basic medical facts in hand, doctors can now estimate the risk of bleeding for a patient having a heart attack. Using clinical variables, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Duke University and collaborating institutions have created a new method to estimate bleeding risk and help lessen the chances that heart attack patients will experience this common complication.
"Until now, there hasn't been a simple tool applicable to the general population that can predict the risk of bleeding before patients are treated for heart attack," says…
EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan State University researcher has developed a working vaccine for a strain of E. coli that kills 2 million to 3 million children each year in the developing world.
Enterotoxigenic E. coli, which is responsible for 60 percent to 70 percent of all E. coli diarrheal disease, also causes health problems for U.S. troops serving overseas and is responsible for what is commonly called traveler's diarrhea.
A. Mahdi Saeed, professor of epidemiology and infectious disease in MSU's colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Human Medicine, has applied for a patent for his…
Researchers subjected the reinforced concrete masonry structure with clay masonry veneer to a series of simulated earthquakes, starting with a 5.0 magnitude and ending with an 8.0. The jolts were based on ground motions measured during the 1994 Northridge, Calif. earthquake, which registered a 6.7 magnitude.
Researchers used this test to study the different types of shear reinforcement and different types of veneer connectors and how they react to earthquakes. Concrete masonry with clay masonry veneer is used for commercial construction throughout the United States.
"The goal of this test…
MAYWOOD, Ill. -- Dr. Kathleen Ward noticed something odd when she examined the mammogram of a patient who had recently undergone breast cancer surgery.
The Loyola University Health System radiologist saw a suspicious pattern of white specks, much like grains of salt. The specks were calcium deposits similar to microcalcifications that sometimes are a sign of early breast cancer. But it was too early for the patient's breast cancer to have returned because it had been only a month since her lumpectomy.
It turns out the microcalcifications were not from cancer. Rather, they were due to a gel…
Mark Nicas has given some of his best years to spittle. He builds models – the mathematical kind – of how someone else's slobber ends up on you. The size of the particles, whether they come out in a dry cough or a wet sneeze, their evaporation rate, air speed – these are all complications, reasons why people like Nicas can spend careers piling up academic papers, all the while building up a healthy respect for pathogens.
Nicas, whose day job is at the University of California-Berkeley is one of a team of scientists affiliated with the Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment (CAMRA),…
When we look at a scene in front of us, we need to focus on the important items and be able to ignore distracting elements. Studies have suggested that inhibition of return (in which our attention is less likely to return to objects we've already viewed) helps make visual search more efficient – when searching a scene to find an object, we have a bias toward inspecting new regions of a scene, and we avoid looking for the object in already searched areas. Psychologists Michael D. Dodd from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Stefan Van der Stigchel of Utrecht University, and Andrew…
The benefits of physical activity and a balanced diet are well documented and form the basis of many public health recommendations. This is because each of these factors can independently influence risks for many chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. Some research also suggests that exercise and diet interact to influence health. For instance, exercising after short-term fasting (such as before breakfast) may increase the amount of fat burned. Similarly, consumption of a meal eliciting a low blood glucose response prior to exercise may also boost the use…
PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at Amgen are testing a fully human monoclonal antibody that inhibits the activity of insulin-like growth factors (IGF-1 and IGF-2) and appears to reduce pancreatic cancer cells in early testing, according to a report in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, and less than 4 percent of the 200,000 patients diagnosed annually live more than five years. The only available clinical treatment is gemcitabine, but this has yet to show a survival benefit.
Scientists are…