Futurity.org » University of Maryland

Push to send patients home can backfire

Neil Tickner-Maryland — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:59:47 +0000

U. MARYLAND (US) — Revenue-driven surgery and poor planning can send patients home too soon following surgery, resulting in higher rates of readmission, new research shows.

A pair of studies published in the journal Health Care Management Science highlights a correlation between readmission rates and how full a hospital is at the time of a patient’s discharge. Better planning and other logistical solutions could help avoid the problems, researchers say.

Americans exercise more, but not enough

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:01:48 +0000

PENN STATE / U. MARYLAND (US) — Americans exercise almost three times more than they did 40 years ago, but still far less than the recommended four hours a week.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults aged 18 to 64 exercise moderately for 2.5 hours per week and engage in a vigorous activity, such as running and muscle strengthening, for an hour and fifteen minutes per week. The current average time Americans spend on exercise is two hours a week.

Plants spring up sooner in warming climate

Sonia Fernandez-UCSB — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:47:49 +0000

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Plants may be reacting to climate change more than we think, and the uncertainty could leave us ill-prepared for the future effects of global warming, say scientists.

The team’s findings are published in the early online edition of the journal Nature.

“This suggests that predicted ecosystem changes—including continuing advances in the start of spring across much of the globe—may be far greater than current estimates based on data from experiments,” says the paper’s first author Elizabeth Wolkovich, an ecologist at the University of British Columbia, who led the study at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at University of California, Santa Barbara.

For trauma victims, costly choppers save lives

Stephanie Desmon-JHU — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:33:17 +0000

JOHNS HOPKINS / U. MARYLAND (US) — Patients with traumatic injuries fare better when airlifted by helicopter compared to patients transported by ambulance.

According to a new study, airlifted patients by comparison are 16 percent more likely to survive.

Microbes flipped early Earth from haze to sun

Lee Tune-Maryland — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:42:23 +0000

U. MARYLAND (US) — Early Earth’s atmosphere flipped back and forth between sun and haze, which would have had major effects on the climate.

The research, from scientists at the University of Maryland, Newcastle University, and NASA, is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Butterflies decline after early snowmelt

Stanford — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:12:06 +0000

STANFORD / U. MARYLAND (US) — The number of Mormon fritillary butterflies in the Colorado Rocky Mountains is on the decline due to earlier spring weather, say researchers.

The region’s early snowmelt is driving down the population of the butterflies by reducing their favored nectar supply and killing off caterpillars that die during early-season frosts.

Earth’s mantle survived crash that created Moon

Lee Tune-Maryland — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:50:20 +0000

U. MARYLAND (US) — Parts of Earth survived early impacts, including one that formed the Moon.

Unexpected findings by a University of Maryland team of geochemists show that some portions of the Earth’s mantle (the rocky layer between Earth’s metallic core and crust) formed when the planet was much smaller than it is now, and that some of this early-formed mantle survived Earth’s turbulent formation, including a collision with another planet-sized body that many scientists believe led to the creation of the Moon.

Turn corporate cash into 2.4 million jobs

Neil Tickner-Maryland — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:44:54 +0000

U . MARYLAND (US) — If corporations invested their “excess” cash reserves in capital projects, it could generate as many as 2.4 million jobs over the next three years, new research finds.

While US corporations have far less cash on hand to invest than popularly believed, it could be enough to provide a significant economic stimulus and renewed employment growth in the midst of a tepid economic recovery, concludes a new study by University of Maryland economic researchers.

Do cell phones kill our desire to connect?

Neil Tickner-Maryland — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:09:00 +0000

U. MARYLAND (US) — Though cell phones are usually considered devices that connect people, they may actually make users less socially minded.

University of Maryland marketing professors Anastasiya Pocheptsova and Rosellina Ferraro, with graduate student, Ajay T. Abraham, conducted a series of experiments on test groups of cell phone users.

Rural hot spots point to terrorism threats

Neil Tickner-Maryland — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:02:06 +0000

U. MARYLAND (US) — Nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, but rural areas were hit, too, a new report says.

The largest number of events clustered around major cities: