Culture

GALVESTON, July 25, 2011 – Inpatients cared for by hospitalists have higher Medicare costs in the 30 days after discharge than those whose personal physicians oversee their care. This is partly because hospitalists' patients are more likely to be discharged to a rehabilitation or nursing facility than to their homes and more likely to have subsequent emergency room visits and readmissions. Such "cost shifting" translates to more than $1.1 billion in Medicare expenses annually, contradicting beliefs that hospitalist care reduces overall costs.

A new research brief from the US2010 Project shows that the average black or Hispanic household earning over $75,000 lives in a poorer neighborhood than the average white resident earningunder $40,000.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 29, 2011) − In a recent study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, Ellen Hahn, professor in the University of Kentucky College of Nursing and Mark Pyles, assistant professor of finance in the School of Business at the College of Charleston, found smoke-free legislation does not negatively influence local economies in either rural or urban communities. This is true regardless of whether the law is enacted at the state or local level.

New Rochelle, NY, August 1, 2011—The dangers of cell phones have led to preventive policies in France, Israel, Finland, and India, and there are simple ways to minimize the health risks associated with exposure to the radiation energy they emit, according to Devra Lee Davis, PhD, MPH, President of the Environmental Health Trust, in a timely and informative interview featured in Alternative and Complementary Therapies.

Flexible, transparent electronics are closer to reality with the creation of graphene-based electrodes at Rice University.

The lab of Rice chemist James Tour lab has created thin films that could revolutionize touch-screen displays, solar panels and LED lighting. The research was reported in the online edition of ACS Nano.

More than 6000 attendees of the Love Parade 2010 in Duisburg required medical care. The mass panic in a narrow stretch of tunnel led to 21 dead and more than 400 injured, some seriously. The emergency physician Ole Ackermann of the Duisburg Medical Center and his coauthors present an assessment of the medical care provided. Rather than focusing on the treatment administered to those who later died, the authors give an overview of the number, severity and urgency of treatment as a whole.

The push for campaign finance reform may be driven by a tendency to overestimate the power of political messages to influence other people's opinions, according to researchers.

In an experiment, people who viewed negative political advertising said the advertisements had little effect on their own opinions, but believed the ads would have a greater influence on others, said Fuyuan Shen, associate professor, communications, Penn State.