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Is there such a thing as 'Facebook Murder'?

Investigators recently set out to consider whether homicides involving social networking sites were unique and worthy of labels such as 'Facebook Murder', and to explore the ways in which perpetrators had used such sites in the homicides they had committed.

The cases they identified were not collectively unique or unusual when compared with general trends and characteristics--certainly not to a degree that would necessitate the introduction of a new category of homicide or a broad label like 'Facebook Murder'.

Many dialysis patients unprepared for emergencies and disasters

Philadelphia, PA (November 13, 2014) -- Patients on dialysis are very vulnerable during emergencies or disasters, but many are unprepared for such situations, according to two studies that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA.

Dialysis patients are highly dependent on technologies to sustain their lives, with ongoing needs for transportation, electricity, and water for the dialysis apparatus. Interruption of these needs by a natural disaster can be devastating.

Tiny needles offer potential new treatment for two major eye diseases

Needles almost too small to be seen with the unaided eye could be the basis for new treatment options for two of the world's leading eye diseases: glaucoma and corneal neovascularization.

The microneedles, ranging in length from 400 to 700 microns, could provide a new way to deliver drugs to specific areas within the eye relevant to these diseases. By targeting the drugs only to specific parts of the eye instead of the entire eye, researchers hope to increase effectiveness, limit side effects, and reduce the amount of drug needed.

Combatting illegal fishing in offshore marine reserves

Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) at James Cook University in Australia have found a way to predict illegal fishing activities to help authorities better protect marine reserves.

Marine reserves are the most common strategy used to protect and maintain marine ecosystems around the world.

The International Convention of Biological Diversity aims to have 10 per cent of the world's marine areas protected by 2020.

New way to move atomically thin semiconductors for use in flexible devices

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new way to transfer thin semiconductor films, which are only one atom thick, onto arbitrary substrates, paving the way for flexible computing or photonic devices. The technique is much faster than existing methods and can perfectly transfer the atomic scale thin films from one substrate to others, without causing any cracks.

Bigger is not always better

For several years the Danish health service has been moving towards increased centralisation and specialisation in large hospital departments based on the thesis that this provides better results for patients. A new study involving more than 12,000 Danish patients with hip fractures presents a different picture, however:

UC Davis investigational medication used to resolve life-threatening seizures in children

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- In its first clinical application in pediatric patients, an investigational medication developed and manufactured at UC Davis has been found to effectively treat children with life-threatening and difficult-to-control epileptic seizures without side effects, according to a research report by scientists at UC Davis and Northwestern University.

Predicting US soldier suicides following psychiatric hospitalization

A study that looked at predicting suicides in U.S. Army soldiers after they are hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder suggests that nearly 53 percent of posthospitalization suicides occurred following the 5 percent of hospitalizations with the highest predicted suicide risk, according to a report in JAMA Psychiatry.

Valuable movies and valued movies may be two different things

Action movies may drive box office revenues, but dramas and deeper, more serious movies earn audience acclaim and appreciation, according to a team of researchers.

Regulatory and scientific complexity of generic nanodrugs could delay savings for patients

Nanomedicine is offering patients a growing arsenal of therapeutic drugs for a variety of diseases but often at a cost of thousands of dollars a month. Generics could substantially reduce the price tag for patients -- if only there were a well-defined way to make and regulate them. An article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, details the challenges on the road to generic nanodrugs.

QUT helps China to better predict dengue fever outbreaks

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers have found the habit of Googling for an online diagnosis before visiting the doctor can be a powerful predictor of infectious diseases outbreaks.

Now studies by the same Brisbane-based researchers show combining information from monitoring internet search metrics such as Baidu (China's equivalent of Google), with a web-based infectious disease alert system from reported cases and environmental factors hold the key to improving early warning systems and reducing the deadly effects of dengue fever in China.

New survey of US workers reveals 2 in 5 survey participants missed work due to depression

Depression causes an average of 10 lost working days per episode
Managers report need for better legislation, training and counseling to tackle the problem
Right Direction Initiative developed to increase awareness of depression, reduce stigma associated with the disease in the workplace, and encourage employees to increase help-seeking behaviors

Mothers are sexist, nurture emotions in girls over boys, say psychologists

A new study published today in The British Journal of Developmental Psychology has found that conversations mothers have with their daughters tend to contain more emotional words and content, than the conversations they have with their sons.

The researchers from the University of Surrey also found that as mothers use more emotional words than fathers, they are also reinforcing gender stereotypes to their children - which is sexism.

They suggest that these findings could explain why women are generally more emotionally intelligent than men.

Scoring system masks variation between GPs' communication skills

A large-scale study has revealed that the system of aggregating practice scores on GPs' communication skills may mask variation between individual doctors in lower-scoring centres.

The research, led by the University of Exeter Medical School, in collaboration with Cambridge University, has discovered that higher scoring GP practices tend to include predominantly higher-scoring GPs, while lower scoring practices have a wider variation in individual scores.

Life expectancy among patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection and cirrhosis

Patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection and advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis who attained sustained virological response (SVR) had survival comparable with that of the general population, whereas patients who did not attain SVR had reduced survival, according to a study in the November 12 issue of JAMA.