Culture

Washington, DC - September 6, 2016 -Researchers in Pennsylvania and Iowa have discovered that fungal communities found in chronic wounds can form mixed bacterial-fungal biofilms and can be associated with poor outcomes and longer healing times. Their report, the first deep characterization of the fungi found in diabetic foot ulcers, is published this week in mBio, an online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Fishers in Central Africa often cover hundreds of miles in very basic boats without engines searching for food to feed their families and make a living, a new study shows.

Experts from the University of Exeter have tracked the journeys taken by fishers in the Republic of Congo as part of their work with the Congolese Government to protect the local marine environment and improve marine resource management.

There has been a massive boom in wind power capacity both in Europe and worldwide. In 2015 global installed capacity was around 350 gigawatt (GW), with 135 GW installed in Europe, distributed across some 87,000 wind turbines. Wind power now provides a bigger share (13 percent) of electricity than nuclear power stations. In countries such as Spain, Denmark and Germany, the amount of wind power already installed is in theory enough to cover nationwide demand for electricity under ideal conditions, i.e. maximum wind power output and low consumer demand.

"F**k it! Let's get to drinking - poison our livers!" According to researchers at the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, lyrics such as these in YouTube music videos may harmfully influence adolescents in Britain. Their study is published in Springer's International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

The new research is an extension of previous work which found that UK teenagers were heavily exposed to images of alcohol and tobacco in YouTube music, effectively glamourising the habits and promoting underage drinking and smoking.

In a recent analysis of patient charts from eight different emergency departments, documented screening for self-harm, suicide ideation, or suicide attempts declined with age, from approximately 81 percent in younger age groups to a low of 68 percent among those aged greater than or equal to 85 years.

The prevalence of patients identified as having suicidal thoughts and behaviors through these screens also declined with age, with a peak among young and middle-aged adults (9.0 percent) and a low among patients aged greater than or equal to 75 years (1.2 percent).

A study presented today (5 September, 2016) at this year's European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in London shows that increased physical activity among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) reduces their risk of anxiety or depression. The study is by Drs Milo Puhan, Anja Frei, and Tsung Yu, University of Zurich, Switzerland, and Dr Gerben ter Riet, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Traditional efficacy trials have limited relevance to everyday clinical practice and should be changed, according the authors of a new study into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatments.

The report (Effectiveness of Fluticasone Furoate-Vilanterol for COPD in Clinical Practice) published today (4 September 2016) in the New England Journal of Medicine details a new method of testing effectiveness of drugs which puts the patients' clinical experience at the heart of the process.

A year's course of benralizumab injections has led to a significant decrease in the frequency of asthma exacerbations - cutting the rate of exacerbations by a third to a half compared with placebo among people with the most severe form of asthma, according to two phase 3, double-blind, randomised controlled trials including more than 2500 patients in total.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Results from an international, randomized study show that an implanted nerve stimulator significantly improves symptoms in those with central sleep apnea, without causing serious side effects.

Dr. William Abraham, co-lead author and director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, presented findings from the study at the recent European Society of

September 1, 2016 - What do you think about the quality of healthcare in the United States? Your opinion may depend on your politics, with Democrats perceiving more problems in the healthcare system compared to Republicans, reports a study in the Journal for Healthcare Quality (JHQ).

COLUMBIA, Mo. - A significant part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was the $25 billion invested in health information technology (IT) to improve quality, safety, efficiency in health care while also reducing health disparities. However, nursing homes did not receive the same level of investment in technology as hospitals, leading to little understanding of how IT sophistication is impacting patient care in nursing homes. Now, research from the University of Missouri shows increases in IT sophistication can lead to potential improvements in health care quality measures.

Many human factors experts are studying effects of automation in vehicles to help ensure the safe application of technology for drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and infrastructure. More work needs to be done in this area as vehicle and technology developers rush to bring products and systems to market in what has become a highly competitive area in transportation.

A new study by University of Leicester academics has shown that lower severity trauma patients could be more likely to die after two to three weeks.

Using data from the largest trauma database in Europe, the Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) database, Dr Evgeny Mirkes, Professor Tim Coats, Professor Jeremy Levesley and Professor Alexander Gorban used 165,559 trauma cases to conduct the research, among them 19,289 cases with unknown outcome.

A pioneering study led by researchers at the University of York's Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) shows that life story work has the potential to help people with dementia.

Life story work involves helping people to record aspects of their past and present lives along with future hopes and wishes, often in a book or folder or, increasingly, in music, film and multi-media formats.

The study found that many health and social care services in England now use life story work, but the ways in which they do this vary considerably.

(Nepal) - Encouraging hospital births are an important component of reducing maternal mortality in low-resource settings. Now, new research shows certain factors, including age and income, determine whether women living in rural Nepal have home births or hospital deliveries.