Culture

PITTSBURGH, March 5 – Family members of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) tend to be overly optimistic about the possibility of recovery despite being told that the prognosis is grim, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, reported in the March 6 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, indicate that family members try to sustain hope and harbor beliefs that their loved one will defy medical odds.

With Super Tuesday tomorrow, candidates are warned to know that it's the viability they show as a leader, rather than their image or electability that may be the most important attribute in garnering the Republican nomination.

As health care reform expands the use of "report cards" to grade health care providers, greater attention to reporting methods may be needed to assure the quality of such efforts, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

SEATTLE – A small, early-phase clinical trial to test the effectiveness of treating patients with advanced melanoma using billions of clones of their own tumor-fighting cells combined with a specific type of chemotherapy has shown that the approach has promise. One patient of the 11 experienced a long-term, complete remission that has lasted more than three years, and in four others with progressive disease, the melanoma temporarily stopped growing.

Santa Barbara, CA – The ocean is becoming an increasingly crowded place. New users, such as the wind industry, compete with existing users and interests for space and resources. With the federal mandate for comprehensive ocean planning made explicit in the National Ocean Policy, the need for the transparent evaluation of potential tradeoffs is now greater than ever.

Newcastle University scientists, in work funded by Arthritis Research UK, have discovered a new way of potentially treating rheumatoid arthritis. This works by preventing damaging white blood cells cells from entering the joints.

Using a unique drug, they are able to stop destructive white blood cells migrating from the bloodstream into inflamed tissue and so preventing them causing further injury.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Just a few minutes of listening to mainstream rock music was enough to influence white college students to favor a student group catering mostly to whites over groups serving other ethnic and racial groups, a new study found.

However, white students who listened to more ethnically diverse Top 40 pop music showed equal support for groups focused on whites, African Americans, Arab Americans and Latino Americans.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) — Want to save nearly $800 the next time you purchase a new car?

A recently published paper co-authored by Jorge Silva-Risso, an associate professor of marketing at the University of California, Riverside's School of Business Administration, can help you do that.

For assessing severe trauma, single-pass whole-body computed tomography (CT) can prove but not definitively exclude the presence of injuries and should be performed later than 30 minutes after admission to an emergency department for optimal results, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Sawfishes wouldn't be sawfishes if they didn't come equipped with long toothy snouts—their saws. Now, researchers reporting in the March 6 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have figured out what they use those saws for, and it turns out the answer is quite impressive. It might even help save the critically endangered and incredibly elusive sawfishes.

The Fukushima disaster happened one year ago – the impacts are not over yet, neither in Japan nor in Germany. Immediately after the reactor accident became known, KIT established working groups that are still processing scientific findings for the public. Meanwhile, the KIT Energy Center is supporting the energy turnaround in Germany by conducting research into energy efficiency, storage technologies, smart grids, electromobility, and renewable energies.

A new study from Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing emphasizes the importance of having discussions related to quality of life before becoming critically ill.

Barbara Daly and Sara Douglas led a research team that observed, taped and analyzed discussions from 116 family meetings, which took place in five intensive care units (ICUs) at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and MetroHealth Medical Center. The family meetings were for patients who had long ICU stays greater than five days.

People's personalities can change considerably over time, say scientists, suggesting that leopards really can change their spots.

Psychologists from The University of Manchester and London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) also showed that small positive personality changes may lead to greater increases in happiness than earning more money, marrying, or gaining employment.

Dramatic growth over the past 20 years has made Houston the most ethnically diverse large metropolitan area in the country and reduced its segregation, according to a new report from Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research and the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas.

A study by researchers at Queen Mary, University of London and Barts and The London NHS Trust proves that HGVs pose the greatest risk of death and serious injury to cyclists.

A number of high profile campaigns have highlighted the vulnerability of cyclists on our city roads but very little evidence exists to back up these campaigns and to show how deaths and injuries can be prevented.