Culture

WASHINGTON -- The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), established under the Affordable Care Act, is charged with funding research that ultimately helps patients make better-informed health care decisions. But some at the forefront of such research -- primary care physicians -- say the grant money is not supporting the PCORI mission.

In the largest and longest study thus far of ethnic disparities in dementia risk, researchers compared six ethnic and racial groups within the same geographic population and found significant variation in dementia incidence among them. The results are published online today in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has denied the Pavement Coatings Technology Council’s (PCTC) Request for Correction (RFC) of information nearly two years after PCTC submitted an appeal under the EPA’s Information Quality Guidelines (IQGs). The group asked EPA to correct information on its web site and in a “fact sheet” based on US Geological Survey (USGS) studies demonstrated to be unreliable.

Toronto, ON - A new study by the University of Toronto (U of T), released today, found that those with schizophrenia who'd been physically abused during childhood were five times more likely to have attempted suicide.

The lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts among individuals with schizophrenia was 39.2 per cent compared to 2.8 per cent of those without the disorder, according to the study.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The recent stock market decline from its high point has caused concerns for many investors who are affected by short-term market trends. However, experts say now is an important time for investors to remember that many mistakes can be made in this economic environment. In a new study, a personal financial planning expert from the University of Missouri has identified several risk factors for people who are more likely to make investment mistakes during a down market.

By seeking the advice of patients, families and other stakeholders in designing a clinical trial investigating pediatric appendicitis, researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital found a way to significantly increase the number of people recruited and retained in the trial.

The most significant complications of diabetes include diabetic retinal disease, or retinopathy, and diabetic kidney disease, or nephropathy. Both involve damaged capillaries.

The biggest risk factor associated with damage to the tiny blood vessels is high blood sugar, although genetic factors are also at play. Experiments conducted on both individual cells and laboratory animals indicate that the presence of vitamin B1 inside the cell can prevent the damage caused by high blood sugar.

A new study led by a Northern Medical Program (NMP) researcher shows that alcohol-impaired driving crimes spike immediately after the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) is reached, indicating that minimum legal drinking age legislation in Canada can have a major impact on young drivers.

Fibres from the Australian native spinifex grass are being used to improve latex that could be used to make condoms as thin as a human hair without any loss in strength.

Working in partnership with Aboriginal traditional owners of the Camooweal region in north-west Queensland, the Indjalandji-Dhidhanu People, researchers from The University of Queensland have developed a method of extracting nanocellulose -- which can be used as an additive in latex production -- from the grass.

University of Warwick research indicates that a fall in one to one nursing care of very sick and premature new-borns is linked to a higher death rate in neonatal intensive care.

The findings which have been published in the in the Archives of Disease in Childhood (Fetal & Neonatal Edition) show the proportion of this type of nursing care provided in intensive care units fell by around a third between 2008 and 2012.

A higher nurse to patient ratio is linked to a reduced risk of inpatient death, finds a study of staffing levels in NHS hospitals, published in the online journal BMJ Open.

In trusts where registered (professionally trained) nurses had six or fewer patients to care for, the death rate was 20 per cent lower than in those where they had more than 10.

Policies geared towards substituting registered nurses with healthcare support workers (healthcare assistants and nursing auxiliaries) should at the very least be reviewed, conclude the researchers

A fall in the provision of one to one nursing care of very sick and premature newborns is linked to a higher death rate in neonatal intensive care, finds research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood (Fetal & Neonatal Edition).

The proportion of this type of nursing care provided in neonatal intensive care units fell by around a third between 2008 and 2012, the findings show.

Ask Americans to name the former U.S. president whose face currently graces the U.S. $10 dollar bill and most will be quick to answer Alexander Hamilton.

Sure, it's a trick question. But a new study from memory researchers at Washington University in St. Louis confirms that most Americans are confident that Alexander Hamilton was once president of the United States.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For previous generations of Americans, homeownership was seen as one of the final rites of passage into adulthood and financial independence.

As population growth, greater food consumption, competition for land use, and climate change pose challenges to world food production, managing loss of crop due to pests and weeds becomes increasingly important. While chemical pesticides offer effective means for control, potential loss of crop yield is still significant, as is cost. Global potential loss from pests has been estimated to be between 50% and 80% of yield based on crop type.