Culture | Science Codex

Phone contact with nurses linked with better outcomes for women with gestational diabetes

OAKLAND, Calif., May 25, 2012 – Among women with gestational diabetes mellitus, referral to a telephone-based nurse management program was associated with lower risk of high baby birth weight and increased postpartum glucose testing, according to Kaiser Permanente researchers.

Investigators for the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research examined the associations between referral to telephone-based nurse consultation and outcomes in 12 Kaiser Permanente medical centers with variation in the percent of patients referred to telephonic nurse management.

Routine care for Crohn's disease in children should include measurement of bone age

Measuring bone age should be a standard practice of care for pediatric patients with Crohn's disease, in order to properly interpret growth status and improve treatment, according to a new study from the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

"Not only is bone age helpful in predicting a child's remaining growth potential, our study demonstrates that bone age is necessary to correctly interpret a patient's growth status in pediatric Crohn's disease," said lead study researcher Neera Gupta, MD, MAS, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

Infections may be deadly for many dialysis patients

Highlights

An infection called peritonitis commonly arises in the weeks before many patients on peritoneal dialysis die.
More studies are needed to determine whether peritonitis causes premature death in dialysis patients.

10% to 20% of dialysis patients receive peritoneal dialysis.

Relatively speaking: Researchers identify principles that shape kinship categories across languages

PITTSBURGH—Different languages refer to family relationships in different ways. For example, English speakers use two terms — grandmother and grandfather — to refer to grandparents, while Mandarin Chinese uses four terms. Many possible kinship categories, however, are never observed, which raises the question of why some kinship categories appear in the languages of the world but others do not.

In Brazil number of hip fractures expected to increase 32 percent by 2050

A new Audit report on fragility fractures, issued today by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), predicts that Brazil will experience an explosion in the number of fragility fractures due to osteoporosis in the coming decades.

Osteoporosis, a disease which weakens bones and makes them more likely to fracture, is thought to affect around 33% of postmenopausal women in Brazil. Fractures due to osteoporosis mostly affect older adults, with fractures at the spine and hip causing the most suffering, disability and healthcare expenditure.

Older-looking presidential candidates preferred during wartime

Voters prefer older-looking presidents in times of war, according to research published May 23 in the open access journal PLoS ONE.

Author Brian Spisak of VU University Amsterdam also used altered images of Barack Obama and John McCain to show that the older-looking version of each candidate was preferred in a war scenario. Spisak suggests that these results may indicate an inherent advantage for older candidates running for office during wartime.

Internists challenge Congress to work with physicians to develop better payment models

(Washington) The American College of Physicians (ACP) today urged the House Ways and Means Committee to report legislation to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) and transition to better payment models, building on the extensive work being done in the public and private sectors by physicians, government, consumers and other stakeholders to develop new models aligned with high-value patient care.

Docs slower to drop 'black box' drugs, adopt new therapies, when access to drug reps is restricted

After years of reducing their contact with pharmaceutical sales representatives, physicians now risk an unintended consequence: Doctors who rarely meet with pharmaceutical sales representatives — or who do not meet with them — are much slower to drop medicines with the Food and Drug Administration's "black box" warnings and to adopt first-in-class therapies.

Sociologists' research study finds everyday tax talk is 'morally charged'

As U.S. presidential election campaigns heat up, candidates can expect an earful of complaints over taxes. Now a new study led by a Northern Illinois University sociologist argues that American middle-class hostilities toward the federal income tax follow a common discourse rooted in moral beliefs.

"We propose that everyday tax talk among the middle class is not simply about economics or free markets," NIU sociologist Jeffrey Kidder said. "Tax talk is morally charged.

Wayne State develops IT solution to help disabled make better wheelchair selections

DETROIT — A Wayne State University researcher has introduced computer technology that makes it easier for people who need wheelchairs to select one that best suits their needs.

In "Remote Decision Support for Wheeled Mobility and Seating Devices," recently published online and set to appear in the June edition of Expert Systems with Applications, Kyoung-Yun Kim, Ph.D., associate professor of industrial and systems engineering in WSU's College of Engineering, introduces a Web-based decision support system for remotely selecting wheelchairs.

Study reveals trade patterns for crucial substance played key role in Maya collapse

Shifts in exchange patterns provide a new perspective on the fall of inland Maya centers in Mesoamerica approximately 1,000 years ago. This major historical process, sometimes referred to as the "Maya collapse" has puzzled archaeologists, history buffs, and the news media for decades. The new research was published online today in the journal Antiquity.

Prevalence of kidney stones doubles in wake of obesity epidemic

The number of Americans suffering from kidney stones between 2007 and 2010 nearly doubled since 1994, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and RAND.

Old herbicides enlisted in new 'war on the weeds'

The emergence of weeds resistant to the most widely used herbicide is fostering a new arms race in the war against these menaces, which cost society billions of dollars annually in control measures and lost agricultural production. That's the topic of a story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly magazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

Economic power of self-employment felt countywide

People in rural counties who work for themselves may add a boost to local economies, improving income and job growth, according to economists.

The share of self-employed workers in non-metro counties significantly predicted personal income and job growth, as well as declines in family poverty levels, said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and regional economics, Penn State, and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.

Days of '1-size-fits-all' cloud contracts are numbered, report finds

Combined legal and market factors may force online companies to offer more flexible contract terms, suggests new research from Queen Mary, University of London.

The paper examines how and why companies providing IT services over the internet, also known as cloud computing, have begun to negotiate standard contract terms to better meet cloud users' needs, minimise operating risks and address legal compliance obligations.