Culture

MADISON, WI, SEPTEMBER, 1, 2011 -- Organic farming is known to be environmentally sustainable, but can it be economically sustainable, as well?

Yes, according to an article in Agronomy Journal. In an analysis of 18 years of crop yield and farm management data from a long-term University of Minnesota trial, organic crop rotation was more profitable and carried less risk of low returns than conventional corn and soybean production, even when organic prime premiums were cut by half.

Ischemic stroke hospitalization rates in adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 44 increased up to 37% between 1995 and 2008 according to a study conducted by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The findings available today in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association and the Child Neurology Society, report an increase in the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, lipid disorders, and tobacco use among this age group during the 14-year study period.

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.

Authors of a study in the September issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology say, with an estimated $1.5 billion in potential bonus payments for radiology professionals at stake, radiologists should study and respond to recent federal regulations related to meaningful use of complete certified ambulatory electronic health records and their equivalents.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Here's an easy way to improve your health: trust your neighbors. A new study from the University of Missouri shows that increasing trust in neighbors is associated with better self-reported health.

A study of almost 10,000 cardiac arrest patients in 10 North American regions shows that extending initial cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from one to three minutes provides no benefit.

The study, led by Dr. Ian Stiell of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) and the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC), resolves a worldwide controversy about cardiac arrest care. It is the largest randomized cardiac arrest trial in the world.

Just one second, one heartbeat.

That's what is needed for a new, noninvasive functional imaging technology to record data for locating the source in the heart of a dangerous cardiac arrhythmia called ventricular tachycardia (VT).

VT is an abnormal, fast beating of the heart, which, if ignored, can lead to ventricular fibrillation, which causes some 400,000 cases of sudden death yearly in the United States alone.

HOUSTON – (Aug. 31, 2011) – Using a patient's own bone marrow stem cells to treat acute stroke is feasible and safe, according to the results of a ground-breaking Phase I trial at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

Parents, if you want to improve your child's motivation to do homework, it will help to change your own attitude.

In atudy study published in Learning and Individual Differences,, researchers found that if parents had a more positive, supportive attitude and communicated the learning value as motivation, rather than focusing on completing an assignment or getting a higher grade, then the child's attitude and motivation would improve.

An editorial concludes that in the two years since extensive ghostwriting by pharmaceutical giant Wyeth to promote its hormone drug Prempro was exposed through litigation intervention, medical ghostwriting remains a prevalent problem with few concrete solutions in sight.

Marketing by pharmaceutical companies is baffling. Take erectile dysfunction commercials; someone looks at someone and then suddenly they are in a bathtub in the woods. It has nothing at all to do with the reason people want to take Viagra - to have sex.

Can changing a single word on a sign motivate doctors and nurses to wash their hands?

If you live in the country, you're more likely to get a pedophile living near you than if you live in the city. Does it mean they are more likely to be repeat offenders in the country? No, but that is the problem, according to two articles in Journal of Law and Economics which cast doubt on whether sex offender registry and notification laws actually work as intended.

As if nurses don't work hard enough for a lot less money than doctors, a new study is saddling these caregivers with additional pressure and responsibility: their attitudes can influence whether their patients commit to a healthy lifestyle.

Unfortunately, nurses may not actually be good models for an active lifestyle.

Victims who suffer violence at the hands of a spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, or other intimate partner aren't only brutalized physically; they also suffer disproportionately higher rates of mental health distress, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.