Medicaid patients 5.5 times more likely to get cataract surgery than VA patients - study

INDIANAPOLIS – Patients seen at private facilities reimbursed by Medicare were more than 550 percent more likely to have routine cataract surgery than those who received their care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, a strong indication that the frequency of cataract surgery may be responsive to financial incentives to either or both the medical facility and the physicians who perform the procedure.

These findings from a large eight-year study are reported in the March 2010 issue of the American Journal of Medical Quality.

China and India: Neighbors need to collaborate for sake of global environment

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- With large and growing economies and populations, China and India will strongly influence the quality of the global environment for years to come. While their political relationship is strained, it's critical the two countries work together to slow global warming, deforestation, water shortages and other environmental issues, says a Michigan State University scientist and colleagues.

Failed college dreams don't spell depression, study finds

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - High school seniors, take note: A wise person once said, "It is better to shoot for the stars and miss than aim at the gutter and hit it."

That's right on, says Florida State University Sociology Professor John R. Reynolds, who just completed a study to determine whether unrealized educational expectations are associated with depression among adults. Reynolds also is the director of the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy at Florida State.

The 'evolution' of fairness and punishment

Researchers have long been puzzled by large societies in which strangers routinely engage in voluntary acts of kindness, respect and mutual benefit even though there is often an individual cost involved.

While evolutionary forces associated with kinship and reciprocity can
explain such cooperative behavior among other primates, these forces
do not easily explain similar behavior in large, unrelated groups,
like those that most humans live in.

Bipolar diagnosis in children may do more harm than good

(Garrison, NY) Troubled children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may fare better with a different diagnosis, according to researchers at The Hastings Center.

The researchers support an emerging approach, which gives many of those children a new diagnosis called Severe Mood Dysregulation (SMD) or Temper Dysregulation Disorder with Dysphoria (TDD).

The findings come soon after proposed revisions to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) were opened to public comment.

A bleak outlook for social science

London (18th March 2010) – Social science is at the center of every major challenge the world faces, yet faces a tough future, according to a panel of senior academics and politicians speaking in London this week who were taking part in a debate hosted by the British Academy and SAGE to explore how social science research can strengthen its involvement in policymaking and therefore increase its impact and, of course, protect itself from government funding cuts.

The cultural divide in our ability to recognize sensual sounds

An F1000 evaluation looks at a British study of how the six basic human emotions are universally recognized but other positive emotions are culturally specific

Humans use a wide range of different cues, both verbal and non-verbal, to share important information and particularly to warn others of danger. A team from University College London's psychology department studied a range of non-verbal emotional vocalizations, such as screams and laughs, in two very different cultural groups.

Education: copying college homework significant cause of course failure nationally

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The history of students who copy homework from classmates may be as old as school itself. But in today's age of lecture-hall laptops and online coursework, how prevalent and damaging to the education of students has such academic dishonesty become?

According to research published online today in Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research, unnoticed student cheating is a significant cause of course failure nationally.

Tryptophan-enriched diet reduces pig aggression

Feeding the amino acid tryptophan to young female pigs as part of their regular diet makes them less aggressive and easier to manage, according to a study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators.

Cat-calls are detrimental to everyone

For every woman who is a direct target of sexism, there are others who witness the event and are also affected. The actions of one sexist man affect how female bystanders feel and behave towards men in general. Stephenie Chaudoir and Diane Quinn, from the University of Connecticut in the US, publish their work1 on the effects of bystander sexism and group-level reactions to sexism in Springer's journal Sex Roles.