Culture

PHILADELPHIA – Patients with end-stage liver disease complicated by the most common type of liver cancer – hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – are less likely to die or become too sick for a transplant while waiting for a new liver than those with other complications of end-stage liver disease, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The investigators say their findings should prompt a re-examination of the criteria used to prioritize liver transplant candidates.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Based on a recent study, University of Missouri and Oregon researchers believe a legal definition for what constitutes "cruelty-free" labeled products should be determined and manufacturers should be required to abide by the legal use of the label. Many consumers intentionally buy products manufactured in ways that do not exploit child labor or cause minimal harm to animals or the environment.

New Rochelle, NY -- Online romance scams, a new form of cybercrime, is under-reported and increasing, and has victimized an estimated 230,000 people in England, costing them nearly $60 billion a year, according to an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who discontinue use of statin therapy are at increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and other causes. According to the findings of a population-based study now available in Arthritis Care & Research, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), RA patients should be advised of the importance of compliance to their statin therapy to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality risk.

Tourists who have visited a malaria-infected country and are over the age of 65 are almost 10 times more likely to die from the disease than those who are aged 18-35, reveals a study published on bmj.com today. The death rate among tourists is particularly high when returning from a 'winter sun' holiday in the Gambia, West Africa.

PITTSBURGH -- It is fairly common for clinical research participants to receive payment for expenses such as travel and parking. What has raised ethical questions are payments or incentives given to encourage people to participate in research or to use a specific health intervention or care plan as part of the research.

LOS ANGELES — EMBARGOED UNTIL 3/27, 1 p.m. PST — Health insurance policies that shift costs to patients through higher co-payments may have serious unintended consequences for children, including less use of effective treatments and an increased number of hospitalizations, according to a new study in JAMA by researchers from the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC.

Greater out-of-pocket asthma medication cost was associated with small reductions in medication use and with more frequent asthma-related hospitalizations among children ages 5 years or older, according to a study in the March 28 issue of JAMA.

Among patients with a high risk of recurrence of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor following surgery for its removal, patients who received imatinib (a drug to treat certain cancers) for 3 years instead of 1 had improved recurrence-free survival and overall survival, according to a study in the March 28 issue of JAMA.

Patients with a cardiac irregularity and myotonic dystrophy type 1 (a severe neuromuscular disorder with a high risk of sudden death) who received an invasive treatment strategy that included testing of their heart's electrical conduction system and if needed, implantation of a device such as a pacemaker, had an associated higher rate of 9-year survival compared to patients treated noninvasively, according to a study in the March 28 issue of JAMA.

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers presented 86 abstracts and plenary sessions at the American College of Cardiology's (ACC) 61st Annual Scientific Session, including ground-breaking research on aggressive statin therapy, the prevalence of unrecognized cardiovascular disease symptoms in women, and morbidity associated with non-adherence to medication after stent implantation. The meeting took place March 23-27, 2012 in Chicago.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A paper by neuroscientists at the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College suggests that ingestion of components of afterbirth or placenta -- placentophagia -- may offer benefits to human mothers and perhaps to non-mothers and males.

They say this possibility does not warrant the wholesale ingestion of afterbirth, for some very good reasons, but that it deserves further study.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Sandia National Laboratories is using its Ion Beam Laboratory (IBL) to study how to rapidly evaluate the tougher advanced materials needed to build the next generation of nuclear reactors and extend the lives of current reactors.

Reactor operators need advanced cladding materials, which are the alloys that create the outer layer of nuclear fuel rods to keep them separate from the cooling fluid. Better alloys will be less likely to deteriorate from exposure to everything from coolant fluids to radiation damage.

WASHINGTON -- Helping bridge the gap between photonics and electronics, researchers from Purdue University have coaxed a thin film of titanium nitride into transporting plasmons, tiny electron excitations coupled to light that can direct and manipulate optical signals on the nanoscale. Titanium nitride's addition to the short list of surface-plasmon-supporting materials, formerly comprised only of metals, could point the way to a new class of optoelectronic devices with unprecedented speed and efficiency.

Dementia -- an acute loss of cognitive ability -- can be marked by memory loss, decreased attention span, and disorientation. It occurs in severe disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Despite the fact that the condition is common, especially among older persons, there is still a lack of effective treatment.