Culture

Implicit Association Test finds obesity bias in doctors - and everyone else, about everything

The perpetual psychology hoax known as the Implicit Association Test has been used to determine that 40 percent of medical students have an unconscious bias against obese people, according to a new paper by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in the Journal of Academic Medicine.

Consumers underestimate calorie content of fast food, even though it's published

People eating at fast food restaurants largely underestimate the calorie content of meals, especially large ones, according to a paper published today on bmj.com.

Do narcissists woo women more easily?

Narcissists do have an easier time attracting a mate, according to new research.

In one experiment, researchers asked 61 men to go out on the street in a large German town and to each approach 25 women they would generally like to get to know to try to collect contact information for as many of them as possible. Those male participants who ranked high in personality evaluations of narcissism collected the most contact information.

Improved chemo regimen for childhood leukemia may offer high survival, no added heart toxicity

(WASHINGTON, May 23, 2013) – Treating pediatric leukemia patients with a liposomal formulation of anthracycline-based chemotherapy at a more intense-than-standard dose during initial treatment may result in high survival rates without causing any added heart toxicity, according to the results of a study published online today in Blood, the Journal of the

Adult day services for dementia patients provide stress relief to family caregivers

Family caregivers of older adults with dementia are less stressed and their moods are improved on days when dementia patients receive adult day services (ADS), according to Penn State researchers.

"Caregivers who live with and care for someone with dementia can experience extraordinary amounts of stress," said Steven Zarit, professor and head, human development and family studies. "The use of adult day services appears to provide caregivers with a much-needed break that can possibly protect them from the negative health effects caused by chronic stress."

Second-generation TAVI device -- Lotus Valve -- shows good performance in REPRISE II

22 May 2013, Paris, France: The Lotus Valve, a second-generation transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) device, was successfully implanted in all of the first 60 patients in results from REPRISE II reported at EuroPCR 2013, which showed good device performance and low mortality at 30 days.

Milwaukee-York researchers forward quest for quantum computing

Research teams from UW-Milwaukee and the University of York investigating the properties of ultra-thin films of new materials are helping bring quantum computing one step closer to reality.

An on-going collaboration between physicists from York and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA, is focusing on understanding, tailoring and tuning the electronic properties of topological insulators (TI) - new materials with surfaces that host a quantum state of matter – at the nanoscale.

Calorie information in fast food restaurants used by 40 percent of 9-18 year olds when making food choices

A new study published online today (Thursday) in the Journal of Public Health has found that of young people who visited fast food or chain restaurants in the U.S. in 2010, girls and youth who were obese were more likely to use calorie information given in the restaurants to inform their food choices. It also found that young people eating at fast food or chain restaurants twice a week or more were half as likely to use calorie information as those eating there once a week or less.

'Boys will be boys' in the US, but not in Asia, where girls are brats too

A new paper says there is a gender gap when it comes to behavior and self-control in American young children – one that does not appear to exist in children in Asia.

Self-regulation is defined as children's ability to control their behavior and impulses, follow directions, and persist on a task. It has been linked to academic performance and college completion, in past studies by Oregon State University researchers.

OSA is associated with less visceral fat accumulation in women than men

ATS 2013, PHILADELPHIA ─ A new study from researchers in Japan indicates that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is independently associated with visceral (abdominal) fat accumulation only in men, perhaps explaining gender differences in the impact of OSA on cardiovascular disease and mortality.

Enzyme-activating antibodies revealed as marker for most severe form of rheumatoid arthritis

In a series of lab experiments designed to unravel the workings of a key enzyme widely considered a possible trigger of rheumatoid arthritis, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that in the most severe cases of the disease, the immune system makes a unique subset of antibodies that have a disease-promoting role.

Alleviating hunger in the US -- researcher says, it's a SNAP

URBANA - A University of Illinois researcher says that the cornerstone of our efforts to alleviate food insecurity should be to encourage more people to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) "because it works."

Survey points out deficiencies in addictions training for medical residents

A 2012 survey of internal medicine residents at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) – one of the nation's leading teaching hospitals – found that more than half rated the training they had received in addiction and other substance use disorders as fair or poor. Significant numbers felt unprepared to diagnose or treat such disorders, results similar to surveys of practicing physicians. In response to the findings, recently published online in the journal Substance Abuse, the MGH has increased residents' training in addiction medicine.

Registry questions superiority of bivalirudin over heparin

21 May 2013, Paris, France: Results from a large observational study reported at EuroPCR 2013 today question whether bivalirudin is superior to heparin in the absence of GPIIb/IIIa blockade, showing similar 30-day mortality in patients with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE-ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

European and US NSTE-ACS guidelines currently recommend bivalirudin alone as an alternative to unfractionated heparin plus GP IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitors in patients undergoing an intended urgent or early invasive strategy.

New blood-thinner measures may cut medication errors

Blood thinners are the preferred treatment option to prevent heart attacks, blood clots and stroke, but they are not without risk, and not just because of their side effects. These high-risk drugs, known as anticoagulants, account for nearly 7 percent of medication errors in hospitalized patients.