Culture

CHICAGO – The results of two randomized trials indicate that among intensive care unit (ICU) patients receiving prolonged mechanical ventilation, use of the sedative dexmedetomidine was not inferior (outcome not worse than treatment compared to) to the standard sedatives midazolam and propofol in maintaining light to moderate sedation; also, dexmedetomidine reduced the duration of mechanical ventilation compared with midazolam, and improved patients' ability to communicate pain compared with the other drugs, according to a study in the March 21 issue of JAMA.

Researchers from Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the University of Melbourne have identified a new way to accurately test for peanut allergy.

It is hoped the test would be more cost effective and convenient than standard approaches and minimise over-diagnosis of peanut allergy in the community.

Currently, an oral food challenge is the standard for diagnosing peanut allergy, and while an oral food challenge is definitive in diagnosing patients, it is time-consuming, costly and patients risk severe reactions such as anaphylaxis.

Management of fisheries at the community level can help curb overfishing and the 'tragedy of the commons' which is driving humans to decimate the planet's dwindling fish stocks, an international scientific team says.

The positive finding comes from the world's largest field investigation of 42 co-managed coral reef fisheries in five countries spread across the Indian and Pacific oceans.

(Philadelphia) – Intervention by peer mentors has a statistically significant effect on improving glucose control in African American veterans with diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP). Full results of the study were published in the March 20th issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and other groups on more than 40 coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans indicates that "co-management"—a collaborative arrangement between local communities, conservation groups, and governments—provides one solution to a vexing global problem: overfishing.

University of Granada researchers have developed a software tool that makes an accurate estimation of the risk that a person has to suffer a heart disease. In addition, this software tool allows the performance of massive risk estimations, i.e. it helps estimating the risk that a specific population group has of suffering a heart condition. The researchers employed a sample including 3 000 patients.

Heart conditions increasingly affect working age population, which can make individuals loss potential years of work and productivity.

Who wouldn't pay a penny for a sports car? That's the mentality some popular online auctions take advantage of -- the opportunity to get an expensive item for very little money.

In a study of hundreds of lowest unique bid auctions, Northwestern University researchers asked a different question: Who wins these auctions, the strategic gambler or the lucky one? The answer is the lucky. But, ironically, it's a lucky person using a winning strategy.