Suicide has been on the increase recently in the United States, currently accounting for almost 40,000 deaths a year. A new study shows that one successful effort to avoid suicide attempts would be to focus on correcting the distorted, catastrophic thoughts about the future that are held by many who try to kill themselves. Such thoughts are unique and characteristic to those who attempt suicide, says Shari Jager-Hyman of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in the US.
Culture
NEW YORK, NY (April 28, 2014) – Using somatic cell nuclear transfer, a team of scientists led by Dr. Dieter Egli at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and Dr. Mark Sauer at Columbia University Medical Center has created the first disease-specific embryonic stem cell line with two sets of chromosomes.
Who had the privilege to spend eternal life next to the pharaoh? Close to the royal tombs in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings, excavations by Egyptologists from the University of Basel have identified the burial place of several children as well as other family members of two pharaohs.
CHICAGO – Two studies from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reveal new information about the effects of weight gain and obesity among pregnant women. One study, examining weight gain during pregnancy, shows that despite updated guidelines from the Institute of Medicine (2009), the majority of patients are still unaware of the appropriate amount of weight they should gain.
The findings from the research – led by Professor Simon Heller of the University of Sheffield's Department of Human Metabolism and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - could offer vital clues to the mechanism by which low blood sugar levels could contribute to life-threatening changes in heart rhythm, a major risk for patients with diabetes.
They also shed important new light on the 'Dead in Bed' syndrome – where young people without any history of long-term complications die suddenly from the disease.
PHILADELPHIA - Stroke researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will unveil a map demonstrating geographic hotspots of increased stroke mortality across the United States, among a series of stroke studies being presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014.
Hot and Cold: Stroke Mortality Varies Widely, Even in Neighboring Counties
DURHAM, N.C. – Despite their overall low risk, procedures to treat kidney stones lead to complications that require hospitalization or emergency care for one in seven patients, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.
These complications are costly. Patients who have an unplanned visit face an average cost of nearly $30,000, depending on the type of procedure and the subsequent care.
An international research group with members from the University of Basel, several EU countries, Israel and the USA, analyzed patient satisfaction with pain treatment after surgery. The study based on an extensive multi-national dataset shows that patients actively involved in their treatment report higher levels of satisfaction. Overall, satisfaction seems to be less associated with actual pain but rather with impressions of improvement. The scientific journal "PAIN" has published the results.
Physicians do not have sufficient information from clinical trials to understand the risks associated with the prescription of testosterone in older men, according to a Comment in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, written by Professor Stephanie Page, of the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, USA.
While the benefits of testosterone therapy in younger men with a deficiency of the hormone are well established, testosterone is now widely prescribed to older men, particularly in the USA.
Interactive training programmes for health workers could reduce overdiagnosis of malaria by half and help prevent valuable drugs from being wasted on patients who don't have the disease, according to new research published on World Malaria Day in The Lancet Global Health. The study shows that the roll-out of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) in endemic countries should run alongside these new training programmes.
Washington, DC (April 24, 2014) — Many kidney failure patients in Australia who could benefit from undergoing dialysis at home are being treated in hospitals and dialysis units, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). This is creating significant costs for healthcare providers and causing unnecessary disruptions to patients' lives.
Washington, DC (April 24, 2014) — Dialysis patients with more muscle mass had better scores on a 6-minute walking test as well as better scores on physical and mental health questionnaires in a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The findings suggest that physical activity that builds muscle mass may help improve the health and quality of life of dialysis patients.
If Facebook were around 1,400 years ago, the ancient Maya might have been big fans of the virtual self.
The Maya believed that part of your identity could inhabit material objects, like a courtier's mirror or sculptor's carving tool. Maya might even name these objects, talk to them or take them to special events. They considered these items to be alive.
The practice of sharing your identity with material possessions might seem unusual in a modern context.
Approved in 2012, Brazil's new Forest Code has few admirers. Agricultural interests argue that it threatens the livelihoods of farmers. Environmentalists counter that it imperils millions of hectares of forest, threatening to release the billions of tons of carbon they contain. A new study, co-authored by Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) scientists Michael Coe, Marcia Macedo and Brazilian colleagues, published this week in Science, aims to clarify the new law.
BOSTON (April 24, 2014)—Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have reprogrammed mature blood cells from mice into blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), using a cocktail of eight genetic switches called transcription factors. The reprogrammed cells, which the researchers have dubbed induced HSCs (iHSCs), have the functional hallmarks of HSCs, are able to self-renew like HSCs, and can give rise to all of the cellular components of the blood like HSCs.