Culture

More than half of the older, anemic patients in a New England Journal of Medicine study did not need blood transfusions as they recovered from hip surgery, according to new research co-authored by University of Maryland School of Medicine scientists. The findings could immediately change the way such patients are treated.

A combination of two common drugs, lamotrigine and valproate, is more effective in treating difficult-to control epilepsy than other anti-epileptic regimens, according to a University of Washington report to be published online this week in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

More than 3 million Americans have epilepsy, and about one million of these have a difficult-to-treat form.

If this year's holiday period is anything like the last, seniors should be advised that, along with seasonal elevations of joy and good cheer, the risk of falling victim to elder financial abuse is also increasing. Older adults need to know the warning signals of financial abuse and exploitation, how to prevent it, and what to do if it does occur.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) occurs when fat builds up in the liver. This accumulation of fat damages the liver and leads to cirrhosis. NASH is rapidly increasing in the U.S. mainly related to the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. As a result, the proportion of liver transplantations performed for NASH cirrhosis rose dramatically from roughly 1% in 1997-2003 to more than 7% in 2010.

The rising cost of a college education and limited access to financial aid may create a less productive workforce and steeper wealth inequity, according to a study by North American economists.

Students with low-income parents are discovering that it is more difficult to find funds to pay for a college education now compared to students of similar economic backgrounds in the 1980s, said Alexander Monge-Naranjo, assistant professor of economics, Penn State.

Philadelphia, PA, December 13, 2011 – Guidelines for clinical management of patients with low back pain (LBP) encourage health care practitioners to advise staying active and returning to work. Despite this, most practitioners believe work factors can cause or exacerbate LBP, and a recommendation for a "short break from work" to allow healing is common.

CHICAGO – Common causes for stillbirth include obstetric complications and placental abnormalities, while factors that could be known at the start of pregnancy, such as previous stillbirth or pregnancy loss, were associated with an increased risk for stillbirth, although these and other factors accounted for only a small proportion of the overall risk, according to two studies in the December 14 issue of JAMA.

GALVESTON, Dec. 13, 2011 – Stillbirth is associated with a range of health and socio-demographic factors identifiable before or at the start of pregnancy, including prior pregnancy outcomes, ethnicity and modifiable health factors, such as diabetes, obesity and smoking. These findings are the result of the largest population-based stillbirth study and are reported in the December 14th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A newly released study from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) concludes that small modular reactors may hold the key to the future of U.S. nuclear power generation.

"Clearly, a robust commercial SMR industry is highly advantageous to many sectors in the United States," concluded the study, led by Robert Rosner, institute director and the William Wrather Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Commissioned by the Dalton Nuclear Institute, the country's leading academic nuclear research capability, the report highlights the opportunity for the Government to invest in the vast potential of the region to meet the demands of the UK's nuclear new build and use this as a springboard for providing goods and services to the £300bn global nuclear sector.

DURHAM, N.H. – New Hampshire voters are about to observe their first-in-the-nation presidential primary. However, someone will be missing from this civic celebration: the Yankee Republican, that rural stalwart of New England conservative values, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

People with Parkinson's disease swing their arms asymmetrically -- one arm swings less than the other -- when walking. This unusual movement is easily detected early when drugs and other interventions may help slow the disease, according to Penn State researchers who used inexpensive accelerometers on the arms of Parkinson's disease patients to measure arm swing.

SAN DIEGO—A therapy involving a natural compound may improve the ability of stem cells from umbilical cord blood to engraft in patients receiving a stem cell transplant for cancer or other diseases, a phase I clinical trial led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists indicates.

Chewing the natural stimulant khat increases the risk of death and stroke in patients with heart disease compared to those who are not users, according to new research in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Since ancient times, people in the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa have chewed the fresh leaves of the Catha edulis plant which has effects similar to amphetamines and cocaine. It causes euphoria, hyperactivity, restlessness, loss of appetite and weight loss.

Providence, RI -- "I'm too pretty to do math": This year, a T-shirtcarrying that slogan was marketed to young girls. After outragedobjections, the shirt was pulled from stores, but is still availablefor sale on the internet -- and its familiar message continues to echo:It's boys, not girls, who excel in math. Was the outrage over theshirt knee-jerk political correctness? Is it perhaps time just toaccept the fact that boys are better at math than girls?