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Immobilizing the spines of shooting and stabbing victims before they are taken to the hospital — standard procedure in Maryland and some other parts of the country — appears to double the risk of death compared to transporting patients to a trauma center without this time-consuming, on-scene medical intervention, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

Analyzing physicians' practice patterns may hold valuable clues about how to curb the nation's rising health care costs, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

According to a Johns Hopkins study published in the January edition of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the practice patterns of physicians participating in a workers' compensation system had a profound impact on the ultimate cost of claims.

Bifocal glasses may be effective in slowing the progression of myopia (nearsightedness) in children with high rates of progression, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues have identified the first genetic variant associated with aggressive prostate cancer, proving the concept that genetic information may one day be used in combination with other factors to guide treatment decisions.

The research will be reported online next week (Jan. 11-15) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers are a step closer to developing new antimalarial drugs after discovering the normal function of a set of proteins related to the malaria parasite protein, which causes resistance to the front-line drug chloroquine. The findings also provide a novel tool for studying the malarial chloroquine-resistance factor.

A study published this week reinforces the potential value of stem cells in repairing major injuries involving the loss of bone structure.

The study shows that delivering stem cells on a polymer scaffold to treat large areas of missing bone leads to improved bone formation and better mechanical properties compared to treatment with the scaffold alone. This type of therapeutic treatment could be a potential alternative to bone grafting operations.

On the marine microbial stage, there appears to be a vast, varied group of understudies only too ready to step in when "star" microbes falter.

At least that's what happens at the Lost City hydrothermal vent field, according to work led by the University of Washington and published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists have long puzzled over how iguanas, a group of lizards mostly found in the Americas, came to inhabit the isolated Pacific islands of Fiji and Tonga. For years, the leading explanation has been that progenitors of the island species must have rafted there, riding across the Pacific on a mat of vegetation or floating debris. But new research in the January issue of The American Naturalist suggests a more grounded explanation.

Can we trust the results of research done on children?

Flawed medical research could lead to children receiving treatment that either doesn't work or is harmful.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Parents are acutely aware of the influence of friends on their children's behavior -- how they dress, how they wear their hair, whether they drink or smoke.

A new laboratory-based study has shown that friends also may influence how much adolescents eat.

"Consider a person who usually comes home alone after school and eats out of boredom," says Sarah-Jeanne Salvy, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics in the University at Buffalo's Division of Behavioral Medicine and first author on the study.

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 11 – A drug that is already an approved therapy for some cancers also might be an effective secondary treatment for a rare tumor of the gastrointestinal tract, according to a team led by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). The findings, based on experiments using cell cultures, were published in the Jan.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The cardiovascular risk that is associated with proteinuria, or high levels of protein in the urine, a common test used by doctors as an indicator of increased risk for progressive kidney disease, heart attack and stroke, has race-dependent effects, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

The study appears in the January issue of Diabetes Care.

COLLEGE STATION - Mango. If you know little about this fruit, understand this: It's been found to prevent or stop certain colon and breast cancer cells in the lab.

That's according to a new study by Texas AgriLife Research food scientists, who examined the five varieties most common in the U.S.: Kent, Francine, Ataulfo, Tommy/Atkins and Haden.

Durham, NC – A growing number of scientists are merging methods and results from different disciplines to extract new meaning from old data, says a team of researchers in a recent issue of Evolution.

As science becomes increasingly specialized and focused on new data, however, researchers who want to analyze previous findings may have a hard time getting funding and institutional support, the authors say. In a commentary piece in the journal Evolution, the authors argue for removing cultural and technological barriers to this process.

A Tanzanian program to supply insecticide treated nets to prevent malaria in pregnant women successfully delivers the intervention to only 30% of women, but simple changes could increase effectiveness, according to an article http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj090268.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca.