Culture

Hospitals in U.S. territories appear to have poorer outcomes and higher mortality rates for patients with acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure or pneumonia, compared to hospitals in U.S. states, according to a report published Online First today in the Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

There is a 17% greater risk of dying after a heart attack if you are treated in a hospital located in a U.S. territory—i.e. the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands—rather than in a hospital in the mainland United States, according to new findings published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study by Yale School of Medicine researchers shows that many U.S. citizens who call the U.S. territories home, are at a major healthcare disadvantage.

SEATTLE – June 27, 2011 – In today's society where access to media is ever present, many parents worry about what is appropriate media usage for their children and how media consumption can potentially affect them. Two new studies led by Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH and Dr. Michelle M. Garrison, PhD of Seattle Children's Research Institute, focus on different uses of media and assess how media usage can lead to depression in college students and disrupt sleep patterns in preschool aged children. The results of Dr. Christakis' study, "Problematic Internet Usage in U.S.

NEW YORK (June 27, 2011) -- As required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, millions of people will soon be added to the ranks of the insured. However, this rapid expansion of coverage is colliding with a different, potentially problematic trend that could end up hampering access to health care.

MIAMI – Shark populations over the last 50 years have decreased dramatically. From habitat degradation to overfishing and finning, human activities have affected their populations and made certain species all but disappear.

A new article in Current Issues in Tourism by Austin J. Gallagher and Dr. Neil Hammerschlag of the R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program at the University of Miami study the impact of these apex predators on coastal economies and the importance of including conservation efforts in long term management plans.

When taken with higher doses of aspirin (more than 300 milligrams), the experimental antiplatelet drug ticagrelor was associated with worse outcomes than the standard drug, clopidogrel, but the opposite was true with lower doses of aspirin.

The study is a secondary analysis of a clinical trial that compared the two drugs and found ticagrelor to be less effective in North America than in other countries.Researchers suggest the aspirin dose in combination with anti-clotting medicine may alter ticagrelor's effectiveness.

Most previous studies have indicated that people in cities have a smaller carbon footprint than people who live in the country. By using more complex methods of analysis than in the past, scientists at Aalto University in Finland have discovered that people's carbon emissions are practically the same in the city and in the rural areas. More than anything else, CO2 emissions that cause climate change are dependent upon how much goods and services people consume, not where they live.

Everything has its price, even the weather. So why would even routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days add up to an annual economic impact of as much as $485 billion in the United States?

A new study found that finance, manufacturing, agriculture and every other sector of the economy is sensitive to even minor changes in the weather. The impacts can be felt in every state.

The results appear in this month's issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Could a multi-million dollar prize spur the next big innovation in sustainable climate technology? One thing is certain, the Big Science model of grants haven't provided any solution to a climate change concern now in its fourth decade but the future may belong to the past - prizes, which were the default before the last half of the 20th century, instead of government funding.

Jonathan H. Adler, professor and director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Reserve University's School of Law, says that prize-based incentives could work again.

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA—Public gardens and arboreta rely on members as stable sources of funding and to fill critical volunteer needs. Maturing membership demographics coupled with flat enrollment numbers presents multiple challenges for arboreta directors and boards in attracting new members and competing for limited consumer discretionary entertainment and activity dollars.

Baltimore, Maryland, June 27, 2011 – A simple roll of duct tape has proven to be an inexpensive solution to the costly and time-consuming problem of communicating with hospital patients who are isolated with dangerous infections.

Promising results of the Phase I clinical trial of the generic drug BCG (bacillus Calmette-Guerin) to treat advanced type I diabetes were announced today at the American Diabetes Association scientific sessions in San Diego. A research team led by Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Immunobiology Laboratory is presenting two abstracts (No. 2240-PO and No.

Despite recent advances in the treatment of heart rhythm disturbances, mortality and morbidity rates associated withy atrial fibrillation (AF) remain "unacceptably high", according to a new report. The report, prepared jointly by the German Competence Network on Atrial Fibrillation (AFNET) and the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), will be published at the EHRA EUROPACE 2011 congress in Madrid from 26-29 June. AF, says the report, is emerging as "the new epidemic" in cardiovascular disease.

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J., June 25, 2011 – In a new post-hoc analysis based on the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE/ACE) diabetes algorithm presented at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 71st Annual Scientific Sessions, significantly more patients with type 2 diabetes treated with JANUMET® (sitagliptin/metformin HCl) tablets achieved blood sugar goals after 18 weeks compared to metformin as initial therapy.

AURORA, Colo. (June 25, 2011) New research shows that adolescents and young adults with type 1 (juvenile) diabetes have thicker and stiffer carotid arteries, also known as atherosclerosis, a risk factor for heart attack and stroke in adults. This research is believed to be the first to examine whether type 1 diabetes has a measurable effect on carotid arteries in this age group.