Culture

MOOCs are linked to the appearance of digital culture in all the areas of our lives, from the way we listen to music to the way we take photos, read the newspaper or watch movies.

TORONTO, Ontario (June 24, 2013) – A new method of maturing human heart cells that simulates the natural growth environment of heart cells while applying electrical pulses to mimic the heart rate of fetal humans has led researchers at the University of Toronto to an electrifying step forward for cardiac research.

The discovery, announced this week in the scientific journal Nature Methods, offers cardiac researchers a fast and reliable method of creating mature human cardiac patches in a range of sizes.

The European Institute of Studies on Prevention (Irefrea) surveyed more than 6,000 people in various airports in Mediterranean countries during summer 2009 to find out the levels of harassment and sex against one's will that had occurred. According to the experts, one in ten female English or German tourists has fallen victim to these practices while on holiday in southern Europe, as well as one in 15 males, as published in the journal 'Archives of Sexual Behavior'.

Athens, Greece, 24 June 2013. Moderation seems to be key when it comes to eating fish to prevent atrial fibrillation (AF) according to an observational study presented at the EHRA EUROPACE congress held 23 to 26 June in Athens, Greece.

OAKLAND, Calif., June 24, 2013 – Patients are not at increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome in the six-week period after vaccination with any vaccine, including influenza, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The retrospective study by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center spanned 13 years and was controlled for seasonality.

Athens, Greece, 23 June 2013. Electrophysiologists (EPs) rate the quality of life of patients with Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) significantly better than the patients themselves do, with the greatest level of disagreement about mental health. The abstract study,¹ presented at the EHRA EUROPACE meeting, 23 to 26 June, in Athens, Greece, found that patients with paroxysmal AF, even in the absence of significant concomitant cardiac disease, showed signs of depression, sleeping disorders and low levels of physical activity.

Compared with adults already enrolled in Medicaid, low-income uninsured adults who may be eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act were less likely to have chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia, although those with 1 of these conditions were less likely to be aware they had it or to have the disease controlled, according to a study in the June 26 issue of JAMA. The study is being released early to coincide with its presentation at the AcademyHealth annual research meeting.

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J., June 22, 2013 – Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced results from a post-hoc pooled analysis showing patients with type 2 diabetes and mild renal impairment treated with JANUVIA® (sitagliptin) 100 mg once-daily achieved similar blood sugar reductions as those treated with the sulfonylureas glipizide or glimepiride, with significantly fewer events of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), and with weight loss instead of weight gain. Results were presented at the American Diabetes Association 73rd Scientific Sessions.

Researchers in the Netherlands find a surprisingly high prevalence and long duration of chronic abdominal pain among children consulting in primary care.

Analyzing data from a 12-month prospective study of 305 children ages 4 to 17 years who visited a primary care physician for abdominal pain, researchers found most had or developed chronic abdominal pain – pain at least one time a month during at least three consecutive months that has an impact on daily activities.

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. – June 21, 2013 – A new study reports that the use of a quarterly report card is associated with improved colonoscopy quality indicators. Endoscopists at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis, Ind., who participated in the study showed an overall adjusted adenoma (precancerous polyp) detection rate increase from 44.7 percent to 53.9 percent, and a cecal intubation rate increase from 95.6 percent to 98.1 percent. These two metrics are validated measures of colonoscopy performance quality.

PHILADELPHIA-- The brain-preserving cooling treatment known as therapeutic hypothermia is rarely being used in patients who suffer cardiac arrest while in the hospital, despite its proven potential to improve survival and neurological function, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in the June issue of Critical Care Medicine.

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have found that high quality science by female academics is underrepresented in comparison to that of their male counterparts.

The researchers analysed the genders of invited speakers at the most prestigious gatherings of evolutionary biologists in Europe - six biannual congresses of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) and found that male speakers outnumbered women.

Patients transferred to hospital via helicopter ambulance tend to have a higher survival rate than those who take the more traditional road route, despite having more severe injuries. The research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care suggests that air ambulances are both effective and worthy of investment.

Helicopters have been used as emergency ambulances for the past 40 years. For much of that time there has been ongoing debate about the cost of the service compared to the benefit in saving lives.

The young field of "neureconomics" has shown that humans have a well-developed, innate sense of justice, presumably due to our evolutionary history as social animals. Johanna Alexopoulos and colleagues from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, here show that two key variables determine whether we feel that a reward has been fairly distributed: how much we received compared to our peers, and how much influence we had over the distribution.

WASHINGTON —More than three-quarters (81.8 percent) of unscheduled admissions to the hospital now come through the emergency department, which is a sharp increase from the previous decade when only 64.5 percent of unscheduled admissions came through the ER. A study, published early online this week in the journal Medical Care, re-confirms recent findings by the RAND Corporation highlighting the growing role emergency physicians play in health care beyond the emergency department ("Changes in the Source of Unscheduled Hospitalizations in the United States").