Culture | Science Codex

New UNH research: Online predators not distinctively dangerous sex offenders

DURHAM, N.H. – A new University of New Hampshire study challenges the view that online predators are a distinctly dangerous variety of sex offender, requiring special programs to protect youth.

The study from the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center finds that sex offenders who target teens increasingly use Internet and cell phone communications to lure teens into sexual relationships. In crimes that involve such communications, offenders who meet and recruit youth online operate in much the same way as offenders who meet and know youth in ordinary offline environments.

Commonly used catheter's safety tied to patient population

CHICAGO (August 6, 2013) – A new study reports that peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) do not reduce the risk of central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in hospitalized patients. PICCs have become one of the most commonly used central venous catheters (CVCs) in healthcare settings since they are considered easier and safer to use, with less risk of CLABSIs.

Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center implants 1 of first MRI-safe devices for pain

MRI scans have become a diagnostic standard of care, allowing physicians to detect a wide range of health conditions by viewing highly detailed images using strong magnetic fields and radio frequency pulses to create images of structures in the body. Worldwide, it's estimated that 60 million MRI procedures are performed each year, including an estimated 32 million in the United States,

Vaccine stirs immune activity against advanced, hard-to-treat leukemia

Patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) often receive donor transplants that effectively "reboot" their own immune defenses, which then attack and potentially cure the hard-to-treat disease. However, there is a high rate of relapse in these patients, and the transplanted immune cells may also harm normal tissues, causing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

Ohio States's Wexner Medical Center implants 1 of first MRI-safe devices for pain

MRI scans have become a diagnostic standard of care, allowing physicians to detect a wide range of health conditions by viewing highly detailed images using strong magnetic fields and radio frequency pulses to create images of structures in the body. Worldwide, it's estimated that 60 million MRI procedures are performed each year, including an estimated 32 million in the United States,

Celiac disease patients with ongoing intestine damage at lymphoma risk

NEW YORK—Patients with celiac disease who had persistent intestine damage (identified with repeat biopsy) had a higher risk of lymphoma than patients whose intestines healed, according to findings published in the August 6, 2013, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

Prioritizing USPSTF Recommendations Based on Patient Characteristics May Improve Life-Expectancy

A mathematical model shows that United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations can be prioritized on the patient level to improve life-expectancy.

Currently, the USPSTF makes recommendations for 60 distinct clinical services. However, only about half of these recommended services are provided to patients and utilization for some services remains very low.

NYU Langone researchers offer new model, helping clinicians prioritize recommended preventive

NEW YORK, August 5, 2013 – With physicians facing increasing demands on their time, it can be extremely difficult to prioritize which preventive care methods should be used for their patients. Now, two researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have developed a mathematical model that will save time, lead to enhanced care, and potentially save lives.

Trial finds more support for universal HIV screening in emergency departments

CINCINNATI—Screening everyone for HIV in the emergency department may be superior to testing only those with apparent risk, when trying to identify patients with undiagnosed HIV infection, according to a new results by researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC).

Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease do not appear to share common genetic risk

A study by Valentina Moskvina, Ph.D., of the Cardiff University School of Medicine, Wales, United Kingdom, and colleagues, examined the genetic overlap between Parkinson disease (PD) and Alzheimer disease (AD).

Consumer satisfaction an indicator of quality of care in nursing homes

Consumer satisfaction surveys of nursing home residents and their families track closely with other quality of care measures. These results, which were published today in the journal Health Affairs, indicate that the surveys could be a valuable tool to both inform consumer choice and reward homes for quality of care.

The doctor will email you now

NEW YORK (August 5, 2013) -- Patients like it and so do health organizations, but electronic communications in clinical care will likely not be widely adopted by primary care physicians unless patient workloads are reduced or they are paid for the time they spend phoning and emailing patients, both during and after office hours.

Seafood menus from Hawaii reflect long-term ocean changes

DURHAM, N.C. -- The colorful restaurant menus that thousands of tourists bring home as souvenirs from Hawaii hold more than happy memories of island vacations.

They also contain valuable data that are helping a trio of researchers track long-term changes to important fisheries in the Aloha State.

The scientists are using the menus as part of a larger project to fill a 45-year gap in official records of wild fish populations in Hawaii's ocean waters during the mid-20th century.

New insight on vulnerability of public-supply wells to contamination

Key factors have been identified that help determine the vulnerability of public-supply wells to contamination. A new USGS report describes these factors, providing insight into which contaminants in an aquifer might reach a well and when, how and at what concentration they might arrive.

About one-third of the U.S. population gets their drinking water from public-supply wells.

The Numerous Cognitive Processes of Clinical Intuition

To gain a better understanding of "clinical intuition" as experienced by physicians, researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 18 family physicians, analyzing 24 different patient cases in which the physicians believed they had experienced an intuition.

While the medical literature discusses clinical intuition as "first impressions" or the first thing that comes to a physician's mind, researchers found this is only a part of what most family physicians understand by the term intuition.