March 31, 2016 - Imagine contact lenses that can deliver medicines directly to the eye, slow progression of nearsightedness in children, or monitor glucose levels in patients with diabetes. Those are some of the emerging advances in contact lens technology reported in the April special issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.
Culture
Especially with improved chances of survival from severe combat trauma, plastic surgeons play a critical role in managing injuries sustained in modern warfare, suggests an experience at a combat hospital in Afghanistan described in the April issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
State-level public corruption in the United States affects firms' value and disclosure policies, according to a new study from The University of Texas at Dallas.
Dr. Steven Xiao, assistant professor of finance, and Dr. Vikram Nanda, O.P. Jindal Distinguished Chair in Finance, studied state-level corruption in the U.S. and its effect on publicly listed firms.
The study, published in the Review of Corporate Finance Studies, found that firms have significantly lower value and informational transparency when located in areas that are more corrupt.
People buying fake 'luxury brand' goods experience a range of psychological motivations - including the 'thrill of the hunt' - new research has shown.
Consumer behavioural expert Dr Xuemei Bian, of the University of Kent, together with researchers from three other universities, carried out the first in-depth study of why consumer demand for counterfeit brands is growing.
Opioid addiction is a rapidly escalating public health crisis in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdoses accounted for more deaths nationwide in 2013 than automobile accidents--with 71 percent of these overdose deaths attributed to opioid painkillers.
Physical and biological models often have hundreds of inputs, many of which may have a negligible effect on a model's response. Establishing parameters that can be fixed at nominal values without significantly affecting model outputs is often challenging; sometimes these parameters cannot be simply discerned by the outputs. Thus, verifying that a parameter is noninfluential is both computationally challenging and quite expensive.
Chicago, 31 March 2016 - Patients undergoing minimally invasive mitral valve repair or replacement (mini-MVR) have similar outcomes as patients undergoing conventional surgery and also experience shorter hospital stays and fewer blood transfusions, according to an article posted online today by The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
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WASHINGTON, DC, March 28, 2016 -- A new study reveals that while homicide victimization rates declined for whites, blacks, and Hispanics in the United States from 1990-2010, the drop was much more precipitous for the two minority groups.
Doctors are failing to help people with gender dysphoria, argues a leading doctor in The BMJ this week.
James Barrett, a consultant psychiatrist at Charing Cross Gender Identity Clinic in London and President of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists, argues that conservatism in treating trans people in primary care is unacceptable.
Waking up to the bubbling melody of a dawn chorus is one of life's simple pleasures, but not all birds indulge in vocal displays of virtuosity. Some, like hummingbirds, produce exotic buzzing sounds as their wing feathers vibrate while they bustle around. Fascinated by several wing-singing species, Richard Prum and Christopher Clark from Yale University, USA, were keen to expand their repertoire of birds that produce song with their feathers. 'We knew broadbills were reported to make fantastic sounds', says Clark.
In a pivotal phase-3 trial led by a Stanford University School of Medicine investigator, a novel drug for rheumatoid arthritis substantially reduced symptoms and improved daily physical functioning in patients for whom other therapies had failed.
New research reveals that nine laws designed to reduce underage drinking have been instrumental in saving more than 1,100 lives each year in the states that have adopted them, and that an additional 210 lives could be saved annually if they were adopted in every state.
SAN DIEGO, Calif., March 30, 2016 - Renova™ Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing gene therapy treatments for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, announced the publication of Phase 2 clinical trial results of AC6 gene transfer for the treatment of patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction in JAMA Cardiology. This trial was funded via a public-private partnership between the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Renova Therapeutics.
A sweeping new report assessing chronic kidney disease in the United States offers startling statistics about a condition that affects almost 14 percent of the U.S. population and costs billions in Medicare spending each year.
Suffering from emotional problems in adolescence is an important risk factor for future joblessness, irrespective of socio-economic background, according to a new report by academics at the University of Stirling.
The research, which examined the employment patterns of over 7,000 Americans over a 12 year period, found clear evidence that distressed adolescents - who tend to feel nervous or depressed rather than calm or happy - subsequently experienced higher levels of joblessness in early adulthood.