Culture

The world population could top 8 billion in the year 2023 if current growth rates remain constant, according to United Nations figures. However, if global fertility rates slow more quickly than expected, there could be up to half a billion fewer mouths to feed on Earth in 2023. Based on a recent study by a University of Missouri anthropologist, economic changes have the greatest impact on reducing family size, and thus slowing population growth, compared to other factors.

The team led by José Manuel Zarzuelo,Professor of Applied Economics, has applied the co-operative Game Theory to calculating motorway toll charges. The results of the study have been published in the specialised journal European Journal of Operational Research. In this study, the authors propose that sophisticated mathematical methods could be used in traffic management.

Anyone who has flown in an airplane knows about turbulence, or when the flow of a fluid — in this case, the flow of air over the wings — becomes chaotic and unstable. For more than a century, the field of fluid mechanics has posited that turbulence scales with inertia, and so massive things, like planes, have an easier time causing it.

Now, research led by engineers at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that this transition to turbulence can occur without inertia at all.

TORONTO, April 30, 2013—Patients with acute kidney injury who see a nephrologist within 90 days of being discharged from a hospital have a 24 per cent lower risk of dying than those who do not see a kidney specialist, a new study has found.

The benefit of seeing a nephrologist was most pronounced in individuals who had not previously seen a nephrologist, and likely had new onset kidney disease, according to the study by Dr. Ziv Harel of St. Michael's Hospital.

The study appears in the May issue of the journal Kidney International.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – April 30, 2013 – A new study reports that flexible endoscopic treatment of Zenker's diverticulum by using a diverticuloscope offers a treatment modality with a very low complication rate. Zenker's diverticulum is an abnormal pouch in the upper part of the esophagus that causes difficulty swallowing and is most commonly found in older patients. Clinical remission was achieved over a single session of treatment in the majority of the cases. This study also demonstrated the long-term efficacy of the technique.

Rochester, MN, April 30, 2013 – There is worldwide concern in the biomedical research community that enrollment in clinical trials is lagging, putting clinical research and consequent benefits to society in jeopardy. Experts explore ways to embed patient voices and values in clinical research in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Americans are over-diagnosed and over-treated for depression, according to a new study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study examines adults with clinician-identified depression and individuals who experienced major depressive episodes within a 12-month period. It found that when assessed for major depressive episodes using a structured interview, only 38.4 percent of adults with clinician-identified depression met the 12-month criteria for depression, despite the majority of participants being prescribed and using psychiatric medications.

Washington, DC, April 30, 2013 – The nation's more than 2,900 nonprofit hospitals are facing new requirements to qualify for federal tax-exempt status under the Affordable Care Act, including producing a Community Health Needs Assessment that identifies local health needs.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 12:01 A.M. ET, Tuesday, April 30, 2013, Cleveland: The use of Internet-based stress management programs (ISM) effectively reduce stress for a sustainable period, according to a Cleveland Clinic study published recently in Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Online stress management programs aim to increase accessibility for individuals affected by chronic stress at a lesser cost than traditional methods. Data suggests that stress reduction using ISM is comparable to face-to-face stress management.

New recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) urge physicians to screen all adults and adolescents aged 15 - 65 for HIV.

In addition, all pregnant women should receive screening, even those who are in labor but have not yet been screened. Rapid screening tests and conventional tests are considered equally accurate for screening.

A new scientific statement from the American Heart Associations reminds physicians and people with congenital heart disease that regular physical activity is still important and should be promoted.

Congenital heart disease (heart structural problems existing since birth) is estimated to affect more than 859,000 children and 850,000 adults in the United States.

According to the statement:

A study by Andrew D. Auerbach, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, San Francisco, suggests that receiving selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in the perioperative period was associated with a higher risk for adverse events. (Online First)

The study included 530,416 patients aged 18 or older who underwent major surgery from January 2006 through December 2008 at 375 U.S. hospitals. The main outcomes researchers studied were in-hospital mortality, length of stay, readmission at 30 days, bleeding events, transfusions and incidence of ventricular arrhythmias.

Bethesda, MD (April 29, 2013) — Pregnant women with mid to high levels of antibodies common in patients with celiac disease are at risk for having babies with reduced fetal weight and birth weight, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. The antibody tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) is most commonly found in patients with celiac disease.

Bethesda, MD (April 29, 2013) — A commonly used class of biologic response modifying drugs can cause acute liver injury with elevated liver enzymes, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Patients with inflammatory diseases such as Chron's disease or ulcerative colitis often are prescribed tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists, which modify the body's response to infection.

As states continue to grapple with aging correctional facilities, overcrowding, underfunded retiree obligations and other constraints, new research from Temple University's Center for Competitive Government finds that privately operated prisons can substantially cut costs – from 12 percent to 58 percent in long-term savings – while performing at equal or better levels than government-run prisons.