ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Reducing avoidable rehospitalizations among seniors: Unique approach improves discharge disposition and patient outcomes
• Teen brain data may predict pop song success, study finds
• Preventing avoidable opioid-related deaths top priority for pain medicine field
• Routine screening for autism not needed, researchers say
• Certain head and neck cancer patients benefit from second round of treatment
• Life-history traits of extinct species may be discoverable, large-scale DNA sequencing data suggest
• Hypnosis/local anesthesia combination during surgery helps patients, reduces hospital stays, study finds
• We are all mutants: First direct whole-genome measure of human mutation predicts 60 new mutations in each of us
• Family genetic research reveals the speed of human mutation

Reducing avoidable rehospitalizations among seniors: Unique approach improves discharge disposition and patient outcomes Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:44 PM PDT A new study demonstrates improvements in discharge disposition following a three-pronged intervention that combines standardized admission templates, palliative care consultations, and root-cause-analysis conferences.

Teen brain data may predict pop song success, study finds Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:44 PM PDT A new study suggests that the brain activity of teens, recorded while they are listening to new songs, may help predict the popularity of the songs. The researchers scientifically demonstrated that you can, to some extent, use neuroimaging in a group of people to predict cultural popularity.

Preventing avoidable opioid-related deaths top priority for pain medicine field Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:44 PM PDT Deaths related to prescription opioid therapy are under intense scrutiny, prompting those in pain medicine -- clinicians, patient advocates, and regulators -- to understand the causes behind avoidable mortality in legitimately treated patients. Studies reporting on statistics, causes, and adverse events involving opioid treatment are now available in a special supplement of the journal Pain Medicine.

Routine screening for autism not needed, researchers say Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:44 PM PDT In a new study, researchers say there is "not enough sound evidence to support the implementation of a routine population-based screening program for autism." Contrary to the researchers' findings, the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended that screening for autism be incorporated into routine practice, such as a child's regular physician check-up, regardless of whether a concern has been raised by the parents.

Certain head and neck cancer patients benefit from second round of treatment Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:44 PM PDT A new study has determined predictors that can better identify patients who will benefit from a potentially toxic second course of treatment, which offers a small but real chance of cure in select patients with head and neck cancer.

Life-history traits of extinct species may be discoverable, large-scale DNA sequencing data suggest Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:44 PM PDT Large-scale DNA sequencing data have been used to investigate a long-standing evolutionary assumption -- that DNA mutation rates are influenced by such life-history traits as the time between an individual's birth and the birth of its offspring. One of the implications of this research is that life-history traits of extinct species now could be discoverable.

Hypnosis/local anesthesia combination during surgery helps patients, reduces hospital stays, study finds Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:28 PM PDT Anaesthesiologists have found that using a combination of hypnosis and local anaesthesia (LA) in surgery where LA is feasible but, not on its own, sufficient to ensure patient comfort, can aid healing and reduce drug use and hospital stays.

We are all mutants: First direct whole-genome measure of human mutation predicts 60 new mutations in each of us Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:27 PM PDT How many new mutations does a child have and did most of them come from mum or dad? The first answer is that each of us typically receives 60 new mutations from our parents. Remarkably, the number of mutations passed on from a parent to a child varies between parents by as much as tenfold. These striking answers come from the first-ever direct measure of new mutations using whole human genomes.

Family genetic research reveals the speed of human mutation Posted: 12 Jun 2011 10:27 PM PDT A team of researchers has discovered that, on average, thirty mutations are transmitted from each parent to their child, revising previous estimations and revolutionizing the timescale we use to calculate the number of generations separating us from other species.