Patients with chronic conditions other than mental illness are less likely to be admitted to hospital if their care is co-ordinated, a metanalysis shows. This review of the literature also shows that among the elderly, such strategies decreased emergency department use by 31 per cent. Care coordination happens when physicians stop being the sole care provider, […]
Tag: Ontario
‘Vegetative’ patient follows the plot of an Hitchcock movie
Some patients thought to be in a vegetative state can have conscious experiences similar to healthy people, a new study shows. Researchers used fMRI to record the brain activity of 2 brain-injured patients and 12 healthy participants while they watched a 8-minute clip of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. One of the brain-injured patients, a man […]
How to have sex without hurting your back
Contrary to popular belief, spooning is not always the best sex position for those with a bad back. Using infrared and electromagnetic motion capture systems – like those used in the creation of video games – scientists tracked how 10 couples’ spines moved when attempting five common sex positions. They found that sex positions that are […]
Helping grad students prepare for life beyond the lab
Graduate students in Ontario have a new tool to help them prepare for life beyond the lab. MyGradSkills.ca is a new website available to any Ontario graduate student via their university e-mail account. It offers 18 short, self-paced training units on topics such as how to write a resume, how to conduct a job search, the […]
Dieting? Do whatever works for you
A new meta-analysis of dozens of “brand-name” diets finds that while most are better than no diet at all, there is not much difference between them. The study looked at 48 randomized trials containing a total of nearly 7300 overweight individuals. In terms of amount of weight lost, low-carbohydrate diets give a slight advantage at […]
Genetic studies trace shifting populations in Canada’s Arctic
A new genetic study has clarified the relationships between the ancient and modern cultures in Canada’s Arctic. The results confirm that a single group – known as Paleo-Eskimo – arrived around 3000 BCE and disappeared around 1300 CE when a new group arrived from northern Alaska, the ancestors of today’s Inuit. Genetic information shows that […]
A fish out of water . . . can get used to it
A new study shows just how much a fish can change when raised in a land environment, and sheds light on the role such changes could have played in the evolution of land animals. Bichir (Polypterus senegalus) have both gills and lungs and, although they prefer water, can walk across land to reach new habitat […]
Toronto air pollution slowly getting better
Efforts to curb air pollution in Canada’s largest city are having an effect, although there’s still room for improvement, according to a new study. Researchers analysed data from provincial and federal monitoring programs and found that between 2004 and 2012, levels of both nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) decreased by about half. However, […]
First flight: why young birds migrate more slowly
A slower migration from overwintering grounds in Belize and Costa Rica to breeding grounds in Canada may help young wood thrushes avoid competition with adults, a new study shows. Using data from geolocators – a kind of bird backpack that records location information – researchers showed that juvenile birds leave almost 2 weeks behind the […]
Citizen scientists help find pieces of deep space stardust
Particles discovered by volunteers sifting through photos from NASA’s Stardust spacecraft are very likely dust from the vast space between stars, according to a new paper. The particles were collected by exposing a soft absorbent material called an aerogel to the vastness of space. When the spacecraft returned to earth, the aerogel was photographed under […]
Is it our fault that glaciers are retreating?
A new paper helps quantify how much of the global loss of glaciers can be attributed to human activity as opposed to natural variation in earth’s temperature. The study uses a mathematical model to compare the amount of glacier melt that would have been expected based on natural and man-made forcings to the actual amount. […]
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Public Health
A group of doctors has published an editorial raising concerns about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – a trade agreement between Canada and eleven other Pacific Rim countries – and the effect it could have on the public health system. In particular the authors cite possible changes to intellectual property rules that could impact medications or […]
Terrifying airplane flight offers unique insight into PTSD
A terrifying near-accident on an airplane has offered new insight on how a person’s memory processes influence the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD.) In 2001, Air Transat flight 236 nearly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after running out of fuel; at the last minute the pilot was able to land safely on a small […]
Physicists explain bizarre quantum behaviour of light
Physicists have explained the results of a 2012 experiment in which photons appeared to be simultaneously acting as a wave and a particle, something that should not happen according to quantum physics. The authors of the new paper show that photons can behave differently depending on what part of the ring they came from. This […]
A new explanation for the Big Bang?
The big bang poses a big question: if it was indeed the cataclysm that blasted our universe into existence 13.7 billion years ago, what sparked it? Three researchers at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario explored a new idea about what might have come before the big bang in a Scientific American cover story called The […]
Sleep apnea not linked to cancer
People suffering from sleep apnea are not more likely to develop cancer, a new study shows. Sleep apnea is a common disorder where breathing stops for short periods of time during sleep; about 5 per cent of Canadian adults over 45 experience it. Previous reports had hinted that the low blood oxygen levels brought on […]
