Culture

(Edmonton) Make no mistake, Alex Clark and Lionel Messi were not separated at birth.

Both might be stars in their own right, but Clark, associate dean of research in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta, realizes he's not about to woo stadiums of crazed soccer fans like FC Barcelona's all-time top scorer.

A father's death can have long-term effects on a child's later success in life and can be particularly harmful if the father passes away during a child's late childhood or early adolescence, according to new research by a University of Missouri anthropologist. Recognizing the impact that a father's death can have on adolescents could lead to improved counseling and assistance programs, especially for needy families in the developing world.

New York, NY (December 17, 2012) — Are you stressed? Results of a new meta-analysis of six studies involving nearly 120,000 people indicate that the answer to that question may help predict one's risk of incident coronary heart disease (CHD) or death from CHD. The study, led by Columbia University Medical Center researchers, was published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Telestroke networks that enable the remote and rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke can improve the bottom line of patients and hospitals, researchers report.

A central hub hospital delivering rapid stroke diagnosis and treatment partnering with typically smaller spoke hospitals in need of those services means more patients recover better and the network – and hospitals – make money, according to a study in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

New research led by Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry suggests that the cognitive test used in Alzheimer's drug trials is flawed.

The current standard cognitive test for the disease is the ADAS Cog. The new research, published as two studies in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, investigates the role of the test and questions its effectiveness.

• Many researchers and clinicians believe that an early age at first drink (AFD) can lead to alcohol problems.
• A new study challenges that belief by examining linkages between AFD and problem behaviors.
• Findings show that early drunkenness was a greater risk factor for 15-year-olds than an early AFD.

ATLANTA - An international study of ibrutinib in people with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) continues to show unprecedented and durable results with few side effects.

Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center presented interim findings of the multi-center Phase 2 study today at the 54th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition.

DARIEN, IL – A new study suggests that there is a significant correlation between excessive daytime sleepiness and vitamin D, and race plays an important factor.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan Health System doesn't claim to be perfect. But its response to medical errors, near-misses, unexpected clinical problems and unintended outcomes is a model for the nation that other hospitals can and should copy, according to a new paper in a prestigious health care journal.

(SALT LAKE CITY)—Buprenorphine is a safe and effective drug for treating opioid addiction. But as the prescribed use of buprenorphine has dramatically increased in recent years, accidental exposure of children to the drug has risen sharply, placing them at risk for serious injury and in extremely rare cases even death, according to researchers at the Utah Poison Control Center (UPCC), U School of Medicine's Department of Family and Preventive Health, and the Utah Department of Health (UDOH).

Highlights

• In a study of African Americans with kidney disease, levels of mineral metabolites rose over time; those with faster rates of kidney function decline had the greatest increases in metabolites.
• Higher baseline levels of metabolites were linked with an increased risk for kidney failure or death independent of kidney function.

Disordered mineral metabolism is more severe in African Americans with chronic kidney disease, which might partially explain why their disease progresses more rapidly to kidney failure.

The Government and police efforts to tackle financial crime – from business fraud to tax evasion – are hampered by a lack of accurate data about the nature and extent of offending, according to new research.

Most of the data available on financial crime is produced without a credible methodology, says Michael Levi, Professor of Criminology at Cardiff University, whose research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Researchers in Belgium also show how dogs can help patients with severe sleep problems.

They describe a 35 year old patient with severe excessive daytime sleepiness. She suffered sleep attacks up to six times a day and sometimes slept up to 16 hours a day.

Until recently, this severe sleepiness considerably hampered her social life and limited her use of public transport, as she usually fell asleep within a few minutes of sitting down.

People over age 65 with high psychosocial distress face increased risk of stroke, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

Psychosocial distress is a broad concept that includes depression, stress, a negative outlook and dissatisfaction with life.

MAYWOOD, Il. - A survey has identified career burnout as a significant problem among neurologists who predominantly work with hospital inpatients.

Nearly 29 percent of these "neurohospitalists" said they had experienced burnout, and 45.8 percent said they were concerned about burnout but had not yet experienced it. (Burnout was defined as maintaining a schedule so burdensome as to limit the time a physician will or could spend as a neurohospitalist.)