Culture

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – October 30, 2013 – A clinical trial designed to measure the effectiveness of using a dedicated side branch-covering bare metal stent in true bifurcation coronary lesions found that that the strategy was safe, but the results did not establish non-inferiority compared to the currently accepted strategy of using a single stent with provisional use of a second side branch stent when indicated.

A new study suggests that changing the lighting patterns in hospital rooms so that they're more aligned with normal sleep-wake cycles could help patients feel better with less fatigue and pain. Published early online in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, the findings point to a simple and inexpensive way to potentially improve patient care.

Barrier films, used in everything from food and drug packaging to consumer electronics and solar cells, help prevent your food from spoiling, help to preserve medication, and protect your electronics from damage due to exposure to air or a splash of water. Now a group of researchers in Georgia have developed a new way to produce better films using atomic layer deposition.

(Garrison, NY) As New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg prepares to leave office, a commentary by a leading bioethicist analyzes his controversial public health policies and concludes that he is an urban innovator who created a new paradigm of public health, "reaching beyond infectious diseases to upstream risk factors in everyday life and the human habitat." The commentary appears in the Hastings Center Report.

Sophia Antipolis, France – 30 October 2013: First aid teams are set to improve the survival of heart attack patients with the first pocket-sized manual on acute cardiac conditions. The toolkit was created by expert members of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association (ACCA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) to help first aid teams across Europe make the best decisions in seconds after a heart attack.

The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has completed its first health economic evaluation. The report on antidepressants published on 30 October 2013 shows that the "efficiency frontier method" works and can provide very helpful results. In relation to their benefit, some drugs are markedly more expensive than others. The self-government of the German health care system can now be provided with well-founded information on the appropriate price at which the statutory health insurance (SHI) funds could reimburse a drug.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – October 29, 2013 – A new study found that both drug-eluting stents (DES) with biocompatible polymers and DES with biodegradable polymers were associated with low major adverse coronary events, demonstrating the non-inferiority of the biocompatible polymer stents in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The findings of the SORT-OUT VI trial were presented today at the 25th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium.

HUNTSVILLE, TX (10/30/13) -- Most parents who experienced intimate partner violence had children that grew to face violence in their own adult relationships, according to a study published by the Crime Victims' Institute at Sam Houston State University.

NEW YORK, NY – October 29, 2013 /Press Release/ –– A pilot initiative conducted at Mount Sinai Hospital offers compelling evidence that establishing standardized criteria for calling a palliative care consultation improves the quality of care for patients hospitalized with advanced cancer. The investigators saw improvements in the use of hospice services, inpatient mortality, and hospital readmissions among patients offered the intervention.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – October 29, 2013 – In a clinical trial, a self-expanding transcatheter aortic valve met the key performance objective of reducing death and stroke in patients with severe aortic stenosis at "extreme risk" for surgery.Results of the COREVALVE EXTREME RISK trial were presented today at the 25th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium. Sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), TCT is the world's premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – October 29, 2013 – A clinical trial conducted exclusively in women suggests that an initial strategy of using the radial artery in the arm as the entry point for cardiac catheterization or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in women has potential for reducing bleeding complications.

Boulder, CO, USA – A GSA Pardee Keynote Symposium on Wednesday concentrates on world politics, the rare Earth locations that hold elements important to modern civilization, and the need to find more in the U.S. These so-called "rare earth elements" (REEs) get their name not because they in themselves are uncommon, but locating them, differentiating them from each other, and separating them from their host ores is, to put it simply, complicated.

WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 29, 2013 – A new report released today by The Science Coalition illustrates one of the many returns on investment of federally funded scientific research: the creation of new companies. Sparking Economic Growth 2.0 highlights 100 companies that trace their roots to federally funded university research and their role in bringing transformational innovations to market, creating new jobs and contributing to economic growth.

New research suggests that estrogen protects women with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) from severe liver fibrosis. According to the study published online in Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, men are at higher risk of more severe fibrosis compared to women prior to menopause, but liver fibrosis severity is similar in men and post-menopausal women.

October 29, 2013 -- Our skin plays host to millions of beneficial and potentially disease-causing microorganisms; however, whether our immune system influences these microbial communities to prevent disease is unknown. In a study published online in Genome Research, researchers have explored the microbes living on the skin of patients with primary immunodeficiencies with eczema-like skin conditions.