Culture

In a study published recently in the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, WSU Ph.D. student Zavin Nazaretian and David M. Merolla, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, found that a method called "capping" — which only allows survey respondents to represent a maximum of three incidents per crime type regardless of how many incidents they report — undercounted violent crime by 87 percent and household crime by 36 percent.

STANFORD, Calif. — Mining the records of routine interactions between patients and their care providers can detect drug side effects a couple of years before an official alert from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a Stanford University School of Medicine study has found.

The study, led by Nigam Shah, MBBS, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, will be published online April 10 in Nature Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

A 2011 record-breaking algae bloom in Lake Erie was triggered by long-term agricultural practices coupled with extreme precipitation, followed by weak lake circulation and warm temperatures, scientists have discovered.

The researchers also predict that, unless agricultural policies change, the lake will continue to experience extreme blooms.

In almost 90 per cent of cases, novel drugs tested on humans by pharmaceutical companies do not work as intended and must be scrapped. Often the drugs do not work, while at worst, test subjects die.New research from the University of Southern Denmark now shows that this number can be reduced. The secret is to test the drug on cells grown as 3D structures.

CHICAGO --- Systemic sclerosis, also known as scleroderma, is a rare autoimmune connective tissue disorder that's difficult to treat. However, thanks to new research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine, doctors may be able to treat some patients more effectively.

Cambridge, Mass. – April 10, 2013 – New research from Harvard University helps to explain how waterborne bacteria can colonize rough surfaces—even those that have been designed to resist water.

A team of materials scientists and microbiologists studied the gut bacterium Escherichia coli, which has many flagella that stick out in all directions. The researchers found that these tails can act as biological grappling hooks, reaching far into nanoscale crevices and latching the bacteria in place.

More than 1 in 5 seniors with Medicare Advantage plans received a prescription for a potentially harmful "high risk medication" in 2009, according to a newly published analysis by Brown University public health researchers. The questionable prescriptions were significantly more common in the Southeast region of the country, as well as among women and people living in relatively poor areas.

New research suggests that patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) who wear flat, flexible footwear (mobility shoes) had significant reduction in knee loading—the force placed upon the joint during daily activities. Results published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), show that long term use of the mobility shoes helped OA patients adapt their gait, or how they walk, which improved knee loading, even when the mobility shoes were no longer worn.

A Johns Hopkins Children's Center survey of 102 clinicians who treat teenage girls with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) has found that official guidelines designed to inform decisions about hospitalization versus outpatient care leave some clinicians scratching their heads.

According to a new study published online in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, any efficiencies in physician interpretation and diagnosis gained when different providers interpret different medical imaging scans performed on the same patient are minute and vary by procedure.

Amsterdam, NL, April 9, 2013 – Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is being increasingly explored as a therapeutic tool for movement disorders associated with deficient inhibition throughout the central nervous system. This includes treatment of focal hand dystonia (FHD), characterized by involuntary movement of the fingers either curling into the palm or extending outward.

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- Beyond good test scores and high school grades, a new study finds one key factor that helps predict if a young black man will succeed at a predominantly white university.

That factor is "grit" – a dedication to pursuing and achieving a goal, whatever the obstacles and failures along the way.

Grit is so important that it was found to affect college grades for black men almost as much as high school GPA and ACT scores, said Terrell Strayhorn, author of the study and associate professor of educational studies at The Ohio State University.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—April 9, 2013—A new national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America shows only 18% of respondents believe chronic pain is a major health problem, even though a majority of Americans (63%) say they know someone who experienced pain so severe that they sought prescription medicines to treat it. Chronic pain conditions affect about 100 million U.S. adults at a cost of approximately $600 billion annually in direct medical treatment costs and lost productivity.

BOSTON (April 9, 2013) – Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), or the formation of scar tissue in the eye, is a serious, sight-threatening complication in people recovering from surgical repair of retinal detachment. PVR is difficult to predict, lacks effective treatment options, and substantially reduces an individual's quality of life. Each year 55,000 people are at risk for developing PVR in the United States alone.

Older adults who categorise themselves as old and frail encourage attitudinal and behavioural confirmation of that identity.

This is the conclusion of a study conducted by Krystal Warmoth and colleagues at University of Exeter Medical School, which is being presented today, 9th April 2013, at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Harrogate, UK.