Culture

Today, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it would dedicate $10 billion over the next ten years to support vaccine research, development and delivery throughout the developing world. This commitment is unprecedented.

Preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria take the lives of 5 million children worldwide every year, mostly in low-income countries, simply because life-saving vaccines don't reach those who need them most. Today's commitment from the Gates Foundation promises to take the biggest step yet toward addressing this global inequity.

You'd think folks who've had knee replacement surgery -- finally able to walk and exercise without pain -- would lose weight instead of put on pounds, but surprisingly that's not the case, according to a University of Delaware study.

Researchers Joseph Zeni and Lynn Snyder-Mackler in the Department of Physical Therapy in UD's College of Health Sciences found that patients typically drop weight in the first few weeks after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), but then the number on the scale starts creeping upward, with an average weight gain of 14 pounds in two years.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, shows that hip fractures in grandfathers are linked to low bone density and reduced bone size in their grandsons.

"This is the first time this risk factor for low bone mass has been demonstrated across two generations," says associate professor Mattias Lorentzon, who led the research team at the Sahlgrenska Academy. "This new risk factor may be significant for the diagnosis of low bone mass and suggests possible mechanisms for the inheritance of low bone mass and fracture risk."

Psychologists and psychiatrists should not be expected to participate in torture as they do not have the expertise to assess individual pain or the long-term effects of interrogation, says an expert on bmj.com today.

The authors, Derrick Silove and Susan Rees, from the University of New South Wales in Australia, say some senior members of the US military have argued that a psychologist's presence is necessary to protect the prisoner or detainee from the "severe physical or mental pain or suffering resulting in prolonged mental harm."

How has the structure of scientific research changed over the past decade? A team of researchers from Umeå University, Sweden, and the University of Washington, USA, aims to answer this question and others in a study published on January 27th in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE.

Cambridge, Mass., January 28, 2010 – The nation is hoping for a bright future. Many believe the key to strengthening the U.S. economy and competing globally lies in fostering an innovative culture and educating America's youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). According to this year's Lemelson-MIT Invention Index , an annual survey that gauges Americans' perceptions about invention and innovation, teens are enthusiastic about these subjects, with 77 percent interested in pursuing a STEM career.

Hands-On Learning Approach Needed

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC (Jan 28 2010) The methodology and evidence behind a widely publicized change in national mammography guidelines is questionable, according to a review in the Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JDMS), published by SAGE.

Typically science doesn't bed down with theatre, much less mate with artistic vigor, but the accord between the two is explored in the recent production Heuschrecken [The Locusts] developed by Stefan Kaegi of Rimini Protokoll. "And why not?" asks Arizona State University's Manfred Laubichler and Gitta Honegger who review the production in the Jan. 29 issue of the journal Science.

"Scientists have no trouble seeing themselves as artists," Honegger says. "But can theatre embrace science as art? That's another question. Traditionally there has been skepticism."

A new study shows that the number of hours physicians spend on the job each week is influenced by the fear of malpractice lawsuits.

Economists Eric Helland and Mark Showalter found that doctors cut back their workload by almost two hours each week when the expected liability risk increases by 10 percent. The study, published in the new issue of the Journal of Law and Economics, notes that the decline in hours adds up to the equivalent of one of every 35 physicians retiring without a replacement.

An interdisciplinary team coordinated by researchers from the University of Castilla La Mancha (UCLM) and the Canary Islands Health Service has evaluated the economic impact of mental illness in Spain, and estimated their social cost. According to the study, despite health resources being invested to alleviate the effects of such illnesses, informal care and lost work time places a heavy burden on society.

WASHINGTON, January 28, 2010 -- Government financial support that has bolstered this country's commercial news business since its colonial days is in sharp decline and is likely to fall further, according to a report released today by the University of Southern California's Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. Because these cutbacks are occurring at the height of the digital revolution, they will have an especially powerful impact on a weakened news industry.

Half of the mothers who took part in a study thought that their obese four or five year-old was normal weight, as did 39 per cent of the fathers, according to the February issue of Acta Paediatrica.

When it came to overweight children, 75 per cent of mothers and 77 per cent of fathers thought that their child was normal weight.

Researchers from University Hospital in Umea, Sweden, have identified several cytokines, cytokine-related factors, and chemokines that increase significantly prior to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease onset. These findings confirm those of earlier studies which suggest that the risk of developing RA can be predicted and disease progression may be prevented. Complete findings of this study are published in the February issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.

New guidance published on bmj.com this week sets out how personal information from clinical trials should be shared to help minimise risks to patient privacy.

Many peer reviewed journals now require authors to be prepared to share their raw, unprocessed data with other scientists or state the availability of raw data in published articles, but there has been little guidance on how such data should be prepared for sharing.

We have all been guilty of a transgression at one time or another. That's because we're not perfect. We all commit hurtful acts, violate trust, and hope for forgiveness.