Culture

Philadelphia, PA, July 19, 2011 – As the population ages and obesity and diabetes increase, more people suffer from noncardiac vascular diseases. In the July/August issue of Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, published by Elsevier, a series of articles from recognized experts on key topics in vascular disease and endovascular medicine provide an insightful compendium of the evidence available to help improve the care of this complex patient population.

An examination of the calorie content of food from about 40 fast-food and sit-down restaurants in 3 states finds that overall the stated calories of items on the menus of the restaurants are accurate, although there was substantial inaccuracy for some individual foods, with understated calorie figures for those items with lower calorie contents, according to a study in the July 20 issue of JAMA.

Stress cardiomyopathy (a transient form of acute heart failure triggered by stressful events) appears to have clinical characteristics that are broader than reported previously, including younger patients, men, and patients without an identifiable stressful trigger, according to a study in the July 20 issue of JAMA.

Outliving one's resources and falling into poverty is an increasingly common experience among today's senior citizens, according to a new report produced jointly by the Heller School's Institute on Assets and Social Policy and the public policy research and advocacy organization Demos.

And, researchers say, the situation could deteriorate further if cuts in Social Security are made.

The report, "From Bad to Worse: Senior Economic Insecurity On the Rise," found that seniors have too few resources and too little time to plan for a fulfilling retirement.

WASHINGTON – A report released today by the National Research Council presents a new framework for K-12 science education that identifies the key scientific ideas and practices all students should learn by the end of high school. The framework will serve as the foundation for new K-12 science education standards, to replace those issued more than a decade ago. The National Research Council is the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering; all three are independent, nongovernmental organizations.

Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) who report treatment for gastroespophageal reflux (GER) appear to have longer survival than IPF patients who are not treated for GERD, according to a new study from the University of California, San Francisco.

"While preliminary, these findings support a relationship between GER, chronic microaspiration and IPF," said lead researcher Joyce Lee, MD, clinical instructor in the Department of Medicine at UCSF. Microaspiration occurs when gastric droplets reflux into the esophagus and enter the airways.

Patient safety researchers are calling for the expanded use of electronic health records (EHRs) to address the disquieting number of medical errors in the healthcare system that can lead to readmissions and even death. Their commentary is in the July 6 issue of JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association .

Suicide rates among people with mental illness in England and Wales have fallen over the last decade, latest figures show.

The 2011 Annual Report published today (Tuesday, 19 July) by The University of Manchester's National Confidential Inquiry (NCI) into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness reveals:

Small-scale fisheries could pose a more serious threat to marine life than previously thought. Research led by the University of Exeter, published today (19 July) in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, shows that tens of thousands of turtles from across the Pacific are being captured through the activities of small-scale fisheries.

A landmark study by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) shows that patients in Africa receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) for HIV can expect to live a near normal lifespan.

Physician-based screening for melanoma is associated with higher rates of physician-detected melanoma and detection of thinner melanoma, according to a report published Online First today by Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Removing a portion of the platysma muscle may ease symptoms for patients experiencing chronic neck stiffness and involuntary movement, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

A simple eight-question survey administered soon after injury can help predict which of the 30 million Americans seeking hospital treatment for injuries each year may develop depression or post-traumatic stress, report Therese S. Richmond, PhD, CRNP, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and her colleagues in General Hospital Psychiatry.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The next time you're outdoors, see if you can spot the tallest tree. If you're in the desert Southwest, this may be an easy task — trees there are few and far between, and tend to hunch low to the ground to conserve resources. In the temperate Northeast, dense forests make the exercise a bit more difficult. And in the rainy Northwest, the towering stands of sequoias often reach higher than the eye can estimate.

In the 1960 Presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, television viewers picked Kennedy as the winner while radio listeners said Nixon had a better showing. On television, Nixon - who refused to wear makeup - looked pale and ill. The looks of political candidates are now a key factor influencing voters, a phenomenon identified by a number of scholars since then.