Culture

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.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — With prescription drug abuse at epidemic levels nationwide, and overdoses killing more people than auto accidents in many states, a new University of Michigan study provides striking new data about the misuse of potent prescription painkillers and sedatives by teens and young adults.

Arnhem, 28 October 2013- Enterocystoplasty is a good surgical option with a low rate of severe complications in the treatment of children who were born with developmental abnormalities of the genitourinary system, according to the new study conducted by a group of Portuguese urologists.

Enterocystoplasty is a surgical enlargement of the urinary bladder which is performed to improve bladder function as a low-pressure reservoir.

An international team led by University of Adelaide researchers has identified the mechanism of pain relief of a new drug for treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation (IBS-C), based on nonclinical studies, and quantified its effectiveness in pain relief in human trials.

Published in the journal Gastroenterology, the study describes the pain mechanism of action for Linaclotide, a recently approved drug for the treatment of chronic abdominal pain and constipation in adult IBS-C patients.

WASHINGTON (Oct. 28, 2013) – Researchers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) found that outpatient emergency department encounters could reimburse considerably more after implementation of the insurance coverage expansions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

WASHINGTON — Emergency departments, which have suffered shortfalls in reimbursement for decades due to the high rate of uninsurance in the United States, may begin receiving "considerably more" reimbursement once the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) is fully implemented. A study forecasting how emergency department reimbursements could improve will be published online tomorrow in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Anticipated Changes in Reimbursements for U.S. Outpatient Emergency Department Encounters After Health Reform").

A resurgence in the popularity of traditional swaddling has prompted fears of a rise in developmental hip problems in babies, which are now known to be linked to the technique, warns a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The swaddling of infants used to be an almost universal practice, but fell out of favour in many parts of the world.

Strategies to prevent heart attack, stroke and other major cardiac events should be individualized for older adults who should play a role in choosing their therapies, according to an American Heart Association scientific statement published in its journal Circulation.

Fewer patients were studied as part of expedited reviews of new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008 and some safety questions remain unanswered, according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

The FDA is authorized to make new drugs available more quickly if they would be a significant therapeutic advancement and if they fulfill unmet therapeutic needs for serious illnesses, according to the study background.

Centuries of economic theory have been based on one simple premise: when given a choice between two items, people make the rational decision and select the one they value more. But as with many simple premises, this one has a flaw in that it is demonstrably untrue.

The fields of psychology and behavioral economics have experimentally identified a laundry list of common biases that cause people to act against their own apparent interests. One of these biases — the mere fact of possessing something raises its value to its owner — is known as the "endowment effect."

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal PLOS ONE shows that when colorectal cancer is targeted by the drug bevacizumab (Avastin), tumors may switch dependence from VEGF-A, which is targeted by the drug, to related growth factors in including VEGF-C, VEGF-D and placental growth factor. This change to new growth-factor dependence may allow colorectal cancer to push past bevacizumab's blockage of VEGF-A to continue to drive tumor growth.

SAN DIEGO -- It may seem counterintuitive, but young and middle-aged fibromyalgia patients report worse symptoms and poorer quality of life than older patients, a Mayo Clinic study shows. Fibromyalgia most often strikes women. It is characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain with fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. The research, one of several Mayo studies being presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting, suggests the disorder plays out differently among different age groups.

People with a type of arthritis affecting the skin and joints respond significantly better to early, aggressive drug treatment compared to standard care, according to preliminary results presented by a University of Leeds lecturer to a major US conference.

Dr Philip Helliwell, who is leading an Arthritis Research UK-funded multi-centre clinical trial into psoriatic arthritis, revealed today (Monday October 28) at the prestigious American College of Rheumatology Congress in San Diego that patients benefited from a rapid escalation of medication.

WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AstraZeneca and Ardea Biosciences today presented results from a large study of allopurinol, a treatment commonly used to lower uric acid in patients with gout. The LASSO (Long-term Allopurinol Safety Study evaluating Outcomes in gout patients) study was a multinational, 6-month, open, prospective observational study involving 1,735 patients with gout and was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of medically appropriate doses of allopurinol. Results of the LASSO study showed no new safety signals with allopurinol doses of approximately 300mg/day.

Social science graduates are more likely to be in employment after their first degree than graduates in other areas such as science and the arts, and a higher proportion are in managerial and senior official roles, a new report says.

The report, by the Campaign for Social Science, analyses data from higher education surveys on graduates 3.5 years after they finished their first degree.