Culture

Between 1999 and 2013 in the United States, between 279 (in 2000) to 507 (in 2012) people were killed each year by legal intervention or law enforcement, other than by legal execution. In 2013, an estimated 11.3 million arrests in the U.S. resulted in approximately 480 deaths from legal intervention. Between 1999 and 2013, there were 5,511 deaths by legal intervention.

URBANA, Ill. - A new University of Illinois study reveals that distracted dining may be as dangerous to your health as distracted driving is to your safety on the highway.

"Being distracted during meals puts kids at added risk for obesity and increased consumption of unhealthy foods. In this study, we found that noisy and distracting environments affected parents' actions, and we know that parents set the tone for the quality of family mealtimes," said Barbara H. Fiese, director of the U of I's Family Resiliency Center (FRC).

CHICAGO - Researchers have developed software for the Microsoft Kinect gaming console that measures body part thickness and checks for motion, positioning and beam adjustment immediately before X-ray imaging, according to a feasibility study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

INDIANAPOLIS -- The latest technological innovation to affect the doctor-patient relationship is the examination room computer with its promise of supporting safer, more efficient and more effective patient care. But exam room computing is challenging and there is growing evidence that it can be a threat to patient safety and detrimental to good relationships and health outcomes.

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive (FOP) is a rare, but devastating genetic disease where bone is grown within soft tissue, such as skeletal muscle. Accordingly, it is also known as Stone Man Syndrome, since the patient's body ossifies into a statue-like state. It is a genetic disease, but patients do not show symptoms until their school-aged years. Normally, an immune response or trauma triggers the disease. This complicates study of FOP because the trauma associated with acquiring patient cells could stimulate the irregular bone growth.

Four years after its approval in the United States, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) continues to evolve and demonstrate positive outcomes for patients with aortic stenosis, a common heart problem, according to a report published online by The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Music therapy can enhance terminally ill patients' wellbeing and relaxation. This treatment has been known since the 1970s, but there is little scientific research on the subject. A recent randomized controlled trial by Marco Warth et al. in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2015; 112: 788-94) analyzes the effect of music therapy on palliative care patients.