Culture

Major progress has been made in reducing the burden of infectious diseases in Brazil as part of a "remarkable" success story for health in the South American country, according to researchers on a series of papers published in The Lancet.

Today, the White House issued a press release stating they would not move to issue a final standard on ozone pollution. The American Thoracic strongly condemns this decision. "This is not change we believe in," said ATS President-Elect Monica Kraft, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Asthma, Allergy and Airway Center at Duke University.

What does a typical European face look like according to Europeans? It all depends on which European you ask. Germans think the typical European looks German while Portuguese people think the typical European looks more Portuguese.

Although medication which decreases the risk of angina attacks are frequently prescribed in patients who have sustained a myocardial infarction, the possible influence of medication on long-term survival is not known, with the exception of beta-blocking agents, which have been shown to decrease mortality in clinical trials performed 30 years ago.

Because antianginal drugs also protect the myocardium against ischemia (insufficient oxygen delivery to the heart muscle), there is a possibility that they may improve the prognosis of patients having suffered a heart attack.

A recent study of the speech information rate of seven languages concludes that there is considerable variation in the speed at which languages are spoken, but much less variation in how efficiently languages communicate the same information. The study, "A cross-linguistic perspective on speech information rate," to be published in the September 2011 issue of the scholarly journal Language, is co-authored by François Pellegrino, Christophe Coupé, and Egidio Marsico.

According to Dr Ian Roberts, Head of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Injury Control at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the recent episode ("Big Lies, Small Lies") seriously misrepresents the scientific evidence.

"In clinical trials, Factor VIIa (the drug presented in the programme) was shown to substantially increase the risk of serious side effects from unwanted clotting but it has never been shown to save lives. In fact, the most recent trial showed a trend towards more deaths with Factor VIIa" says Roberts.

Studies by psychologists at the University of Toronto claim that gay black men have a likability edge over straight ones, the opposite of what occurs in the perception of white men - even if the study subjects aren't told which people they are looking at are straight or gay.

Obviously it may instead mean some people like men who look less threatening - no one ever reads about someone getting mugged by a gay man wearing Versace.

This week we look at two images taken simultaneously with different Envisat sensors of Hurricane Irene, which struck the US east coast last week.

The first black and white image is from Envisat's radar, covering the coastal areas of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

The radar provides an unusual view of a hurricane as it shows the rough ocean surface through the clouds.

PHILADELPHIA—Half-matched bone marrow or stem cell transplants for blood cancer patients have typically been associated with disappointing clinical outcomes. However, a clinical trial conducted at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson testing its unique, two-step half-match procedure has produced some promising results: the probability of overall survival was 45 percent in all patients after three years and 75 percent in patients who were in remission at the time of the transplant.

A new study by the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), the country's leading genetics society, has found that more than 85 percent of states have genetics standards inadequate for preparing America's high school students for future participation in a society and health care system that are certain to be increasingly impacted by genetics-based personalized medicine.

According to ASHG's study, which included all 50 states and the District of Columbia:

Philadelphia, PA, September 1, 2011 – For patients undergoing rehabilitation following cardiac events, aerobic exercise training (AT) is widely recommended. Resistance training (RT) has also been shown to be beneficial because it enhances muscular strength and endurance, functional capacity and independence, and quality of life, while reducing disability. In a study scheduled for publication in the October issue of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, researchers compared two RT regimens of different intensity in combination with AT.

Hospital executives should consider the value-added services of hospital-based radiology groups before allowing radiology departments to be taken over by teleradiologists or other specialists, according to an article in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Although imaging has become an increasingly important cornerstone in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury, hospital-based imaging is now often read by other specialists or via teleradiology rather than hospital-based radiologists.

In a rare eye disease, the retina degenerates because light-receiving cells fail to regenerate, research led by a student at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine shows.

The researchers include Dr. Samuel G. Jacobson's group at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Andreas Engel's group at University of Basel, Switzerland. They found that when the natural renewal process fails, metabolites are locked in, build up and turn toxic, killing cells over time in Enhanced S-Cone Syndrome.

In Spain, children leave the family home a lot later than northern Europe much less USA children - similar to other Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Portugal and Italy.

"We have worked with young people, in this case, in the family environment, to see what happens during the 'full nest syndrome', i.e., when children reach 18 years of age and they continue living at home," explained Beatriz Rodríguez, researcher from the University of La Laguna and co-author of the study.