Culture

DETROIT — Restaurant servers are more likely to give better service to patron types they believe are more inclined to tip well, a Wayne State University researcher has found, a principle that has significant consequences when African-Americans are at the table.

In what promises to be an eye-opener for many doctors and patients who routinely depend on cholesterol testing, a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that the standard formula used for decades to calculate low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels is often inaccurate. Of most concern, the researchers say, is their finding that the widely used formula underestimates LDL where accuracy matters most — in the range considered desirable for high-risk patients.

  • First economic models showing impact of post-weaning multi-systemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) on British Pig Industry published
  • Between £8 to £84 per pig lost, depending on severity of PMWS
  • Farm-level intervention could save farmers up to £11,500 per year

Five year-olds who watch TV for three or more hours a day are increasingly likely to develop antisocial behaviours, such as fighting or stealing by the age of seven, indicates research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

But the risk is very small, say the authors, who additionally found that time spent playing computer/electronic games had no impact on behaviour.

HUNTSVILLE, TX (3/26/13) -- Gangs are not using the Internet to recruit new members or commit complex cybercrimes, according to a new study funded by Google Ideas.

"What they are doing online is typically what they are doing on the street," said David Pyrooz, an assistant professor at Sam Houston State University, College of Criminal Justice and coauthor of the study. "For the most part, gang members are using the Internet for self-promotion and braggadocio, but that also involves some forms of criminal and deviant behaviors. "

Taking a long time to get pregnant may be linked to minor neurodevelopmental problems in the child, suggests a small study published online in the Fetal & Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood.

This suggests that impaired fertility itself - defined as failing to become pregnant after 12 months - rather than fertility treatment, may be a key factor in any subsequent developmental problems in the child, say the authors.

Five year-olds who watch TV for three or more hours a day are increasingly likely to develop antisocial behaviours, such as fighting or stealing by the age of seven, indicates research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

But the risk is very small, say the authors, who additionally found that time spent playing computer/electronic games had no impact on behaviour.

Limiting the number of continuous hours worked by medical trainees failed to increase the amount of sleep each intern got per week, but dramatically increased the number of potentially dangerous handoffs of patients from one trainee to another, new research from Johns Hopkins suggests. The reductions in work hours also decreased training time, the researchers found.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — At hospitals around the country, young doctors fresh out of medical school help care for patients of all kinds – and work intense, long hours as part of their residency training.

Traditionally, residents were allowed to work more than 24 hours without a break. In 2011, new rules cut back the number of hours they can work consecutively to 16, in the name of protecting patients from errors by sleepy physicians.

Boston – Hospital readmissions are a costly problem for patients and for the United States health care system with studies showing nearly 20 percent of Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge at an annual cost of $17 billion. Preventing avoidable readmissions could result in improved patient care and significant cost savings.

The advent of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have made us all more connected, but long-distance social networks existed long before the Internet.

An article published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds light on the transformation of social networks in the late pre-Hispanic American Southwest and shows that people of that period were able to maintain surprisingly long-distance relationships with nothing more than their feet to connect them.

Contrary to convention, vegetation, when well-maintained, can lower the rates of certain types of crime, such as aggravated assault, robbery and burglary, in cities, according to a Temple University study, "Does vegetation encourage or suppress urban crime? Evidence from Philadelphia, PA," published in the journal, Landscape and Urban Planning.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — In the wake of President Obama's "college scorecard," new research finds that government attempts to grade educational institutions can backfire when done for political or policy purposes.

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Checking blood pressure annually instead of at every outpatient office visit may improve the screening test's ability to correctly identify those without hypertension (specificity) without sacrificing its ability to identify those with hypertension (sensitivity).

CHICAGO, IL – Treatment of large cartilage knee defects with an allograft osteoarticular transplant (OATS) may not allow some military personnel to return to full active duty status, say researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day in Chicago, IL.