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Over 2,200 veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance

A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.

The researchers, who released their analysis today, pointedly say the health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not significantly affect this grim picture.

GOES satellite sees bulk of Ida's clouds and rain inland while center making landfall

Tropical Storm Ida made landfall around 6:40 a.m. ET this morning on Dauphin Island, along the Alabama coastline. NASA's GOES Project created the latest image from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12) data showed that the bulk of Ida's clouds and rain are now inland, even though Ida's center was just near the Alabama coast.

Improving security with state-of-the-art face recognition technology

CORAL GABLES-(November 10, 2009)-- A number of U.S. states now use facial recognition technology when issuing drivers licenses. Similar methods are also used to grant access to buildings and to verify the identities of international travelers. Historically, obtaining accurate results with this type of technology has been a time intensive activity. Now, a researcher from the University of Miami College of Engineering and his collaborators have developed ways to make the technology more efficient while improving accuracy.

Some chest pain patients wait longer than 10 minutes to see ER physician

ATLANTA – Emory University Rollins School of Public Health researchers will present Nov. 10 on a range of topics at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting in Philadelphia, including a study that examined compliance with national recommendations that a physician screen chest pain patients within 10 minutes of their arrival to the Emergency Department (ED).

Additional public health research findings from Emory scientists are highlighted below.

Disparities in emergency room waiting times for chest pain patients

Special issue of medical journal explores Latino health and health care

October 28, 2009 – Los Angeles, Calif. The Latino population is the nation's largest minority group at an estimated 47 million in 2008 and is predicted to make up 30% of the US population by 2050. At the same time, chronic diseases among Latinos are on the rise and require long-range strategies to prevent and clinically manage. Understanding the healthcare of this fastest growing population is critical to the healthcare debate and reform initiatives.

Study examines quality and duration of primary care visits

Adult primary care visits have increased in quality, duration and frequency between 1997 and 2005, according to a report in the November 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Discussing adverse events with patients improves how they rate their hospital care

A survey of patients had who experienced some sort of adverse event during their hospitalization found that, although caregivers discussed the event with patients less than half the time, those patients to whom the adverse event had been disclosed rated the quality of their care higher than did patients whose caregivers did not address the problem. The report from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute for Health Policy appears in the November 9 Archives of Internal Medicine.

New study reveals handwriting is real problem for children with autism

November 9, 2009 (Baltimore, MD) – Handwriting skills are crucial for success in school, communication, and building children's self-esteem. The first study to examine handwriting quality in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has uncovered a relationship between fine motor control and poor quality of handwriting in children with ASD, according to research published in the November 10, 2009, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

NASA's TRMM Satellite sees most of Ida's heaviest rain stayed off coasts

NASA and the Japanese Space Agency's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew over Ida and captured her rainfall when she passed by Nicaragua, Honduras and Belize this weekend. TRMM data revealed that most of the heaviest rainfall totals, as much as 11 inches, were just off the coasts of those countries, even though all of those areas dealt with flooding rains.

Wet ethanol production process gives producers a bigger bang for their buck

URBANA – Using a wet ethanol production method that begins by soaking corn kernels rather than grinding them, results in more gallons of ethanol and more usable co-products, giving ethanol producers a bigger bang for their buck – by about 20 percent.

New transparent insulating film could enable energy-efficient displays

Johns Hopkins materials scientists have found a new use for a chemical compound that has traditionally been viewed as an electrical conductor, a substance that allows electricity to flow through it. By orienting the compound in a different way, the researchers have turned it into a thin film insulator, which instead blocks the flow of electricity, but can induce large electric currents elsewhere. The material, called solution-deposited beta-alumina, could have important applications in transistor technology and in devices such as electronic books.

Newly discovered fat molecule: An undersea killer with an upside

A chemical culprit responsible for the rapid, mysterious death of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been found by collaborating scientists at Rutgers University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). This same chemical may hold unexpected promise in cancer research.

The team discovered a previously unknown lipid, or fatty compound, in a virus that has been attacking and killing Emiliania huxleyi, a phytoplankton that plays a major role in the global carbon cycle.

Activity-based questions would improve online security, computer scientists suggest

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – If you forget your password when logging into an e-mail or online shopping Web site, the site will likely ask you a security question: What is your mother's maiden name? Where were you born?

The trouble is that such questions are not very secure. More people than you may think will know your answers. And if they don't, it might not be hard to search for it online or even make a lucky guess.

But Rutgers computer scientists are testing a new tactic that could be both easier and more secure.

Findings show nanomedicine promising for treating spinal cord injuries

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new approach for repairing damaged nerve fibers in spinal cord injuries using nano-spheres that could be injected into the blood shortly after an accident.

The synthetic "copolymer micelles" are drug-delivery spheres about 60 nanometers in diameter, or roughly 100 times smaller than the diameter of a red blood cell.

Higher carotid arterial stenting rates associated with poorer clinical outcomes

PHILADELPHIA—Among eligible Medicare beneficiaries, increased use of carotid arterial stenting (CAS) procedures to treat carotid stenosis—the narrowing of the carotid artery—is associated with higher rates of mortality and adverse clinical outcomes, including heart attack and stroke, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.