Body

While there is considerable interest in bundling payments to health care providers to encourage them to cut costs, putting the strategy into practice is proving to be more difficult than anticipated.

That's the lesson being drawn from a new RAND Corporation study that examined the first three years of a major effort designed to test the bundled payment approach to health care financing.

MADISON, Wisconsin, November 7, 2011 – A 79-year-old collection of fungal cultures and the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station are part of a team that will sequence 1,000 fungal genomes in the next 5 years.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School are the first to map epigenetic changes in neurons from the brains of individuals with autism, providing empirical evidence that epigenetic alterations—changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence—may play an important role in the disease.

Pathogens can alter their hosts, for example malaria parasites can make humans more attractive to mosquitoes, but how they do it has remained a mystery. Scientists from the John Innes Centre on Norwich Research Park have identified for the first time a specific molecule from a parasite that manipulates plant development to the advantage of the insect host.

"Our findings show how this pathogen molecule can reach beyond its host to alter a third organism," said Dr Saskia Hogenhout from JIC.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shed light on the role of temperature in controlling a fabrication technique for drawing chemical patterns as small as 20 nanometers. This technique could provide an inexpensive, fast route to growing and patterning a wide variety of materials on surfaces to build electrical circuits and chemical sensors, or study how pharmaceuticals bind to proteins and viruses.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7—The search for innovative, cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions for display and lighting applications are the focus of ongoing intense worldwide photonics research and development activities. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)—lightweight, potentially flexible, cheap-to-fabricate and highly energy-efficient lighting and display devices—offer one solution in alternative energy lighting and display applications.

Health professionals and researchers across the globe believe they are on the verge of eradicating polio, a devastating virus which can lead to paralysis and death. Despite successful eradication in most countries, there are still four countries where the virus is considered endemic -- and many more in which the virus still lurks.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new national study shows that wealthier Americans and those with private health insurance fare better than others on one important measure of health – and this health gap only grows wider as they age.

Researchers found that, when the study began, middle-aged and older Americans with more income and assets reported having less trouble with five activities of daily living: walking across a room, bathing, eating, dressing and getting in and out of bed.

Research led by Dr. Vladimir Hachinski of The University of Western Ontario reveals just how important it is for patients to be referred to a stroke prevention clinic following either a mild stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA). The study, published in the journal Stroke in November, showed a 26% reduction in one-year mortality rates among those referred to a stroke prevention clinic.

DURHAM, N.C. – For less than $100 and a day's work, a single family in an undeveloped country can construct a solid waste disposal system that not only processes the waste, but requires no electricity or additional energy while destroying harmful pathogens.

So argues a Duke University environmental engineer who envisions a simple system that can be constructed from everyday items designed specifically for Third World countries, where the disposal of solid human waste and the corresponding spread of disease is a leading health concern.

Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI) have discovered a key mechanism responsible for selectively degrading aggregates of ubiquitinated proteins from the cell. Their findings indicate that the capture and removal of such aggregates is mediated by the phosphorylation of a protein called p62, opening the door to new avenues for treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Interdisciplinary research between biology and physics aims to understand the cell and how it organizes internally. The mechanisms inside the cell are very complicated. LMU biophysicist Professor Erwin Frey, who is also a member of the Cluster of Excellence "Nanosystems Initiative Munich" (NIM) is working with his group on one particular issue involved in the cell's life. The professor for statistical and biological physics and his team, Louis Reese and Anna Melbinger, investigate the interplay of so-called molecular motors with the skeleton of the cell, the cytoskeleton.

DETROIT -- Prostate cancer patients who undergo radical prostatectomy get better results at teaching hospitals than at non-academic medical institutions, according to the findings of an international study led by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital.

"While our findings do not imply that teaching hospitals always provide better care than others, it is obvious that teaching hospitals have certain intrinsic characteristics that would explain the better results," says Quoc-Dien Trinh, M.D., a Fellow at Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Urology Institute and lead author of the study.

STANFORD, Calif. -- In a study to be published online Nov. 6 in Nature Medicine, investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that the development of osteoarthritis is in great part driven by low-grade inflammatory processes. This is at odds with the prevailing view attributing the condition to a lifetime of wear and tear on long-suffering joints.

Employers need to be more aware of the capabilities of women affected by breast cancer and provide them with better support, backed by employment directives and occupational health policies, according to a paper in the November issue of the European Journal of Cancer Care.

A review carried out by Dr Maggi Banning, from Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK, also showed that healthcare professionals need to provide breast cancer patients and survivors with better information about the best time to return to work.