ATLANTA — A nationwide study has found that the uninsured and those covered by Medicaid are more likely than those with private insurance to receive a diagnosis of cancer in late stages, often diminishing their chances of survival. The study by researchers with the American Cancer Society also found that blacks had a higher risk of late diagnosis, even after accounting for their disproportionately high rates of being uninsured and underinsured. The study’s authors speculated that the disparity might be caused by a lack of health literacy and an inadequate supply of providers in minority communities. The study is to be published online Monday in The Lancet Oncology. Previous studies have shown a correlation between insurance status and the stage of diagnosis for particular cancers. The new research is the first to examine a dozen major cancer types and to do so nationally with the most current data. It mined the National Cancer Data Base, which began collecting information about insurance in the late 1990s, to analyze 3.7 million patients who received diagnoses from 1998 to 2004. The widest disparities were noted in cancers that could be detected early through standard screening or assessment of symptoms, like […]
Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The lake, located in Nevada and Arizona, has a 50 percent chance of becoming unusable by 2021, the scientists say, if the demand for water remains unchanged and if human-induced climate change follows climate scientists’ moderate forecasts, resulting in a reduction in average river flows. Demand for Colorado River water already slightly exceeds the average annual supply when high levels of evaporation are taken into account, the researchers, Tim P. Barnett and David W. Pierce, point out. Despite an abundant snowfall in Colorado this year, scientists project that snowpacks and their runoffs will continue to dwindle. If they do, the system for delivering water across the Southwest would become increasingly unstable. ‘We were really sort of stunned,’ Professor Barnett said in an interview. ‘We didn’t expect such a big problem basically right on our front doorstep. We thought there’d be more time.’ He added, ‘You think of what the implications […]
A law professor and associate professor of geography set out to create the most comprehensive map of U.S. payday lenders to date. What they found, to their surprise, was ‘a surprising relationship between populations of Christian conservatives and the proliferation of payday lenders.’ And it’s not a side effect of a poor population that happens to be Christian, according to the authors: ‘Our research showed that the correlation between payday lenders and the political power of conservative Christians was stronger than the correlation between payday lenders and the proportion of a population living below the poverty line.’ Here are a couple of screen grabs from Google Earth-you can download and view the maps yourself if you want to explore them. The authors speculate that this may be the sad after-effect of a political deal-with-the-devil a couple of decades ago-after all, Christianity has historically been against usury: Peterson, who also holds an appointment at the University of Florida, Fredric G. Levin College of Law, said he believes part of the explanation for their findings lies in politics. ‘When the Christian Right allied itself with conservative Wall Street business interests in the 1980s and early ’90s, consumer protection law […]
In a move it hopes will spur research into medical uses of marijuana, the nation’s second-largest physicians’ group is calling on the government to ease criminal penalties for doctors who study and recommend the plant, and patients who smoke it. The American College of Physicians says several nonmedical factors – a fierce battle over legalization of the drug, a complicated approval process, and limited availability of research-grade marijuana – has hobbled scientists from looking into its full benefits. ‘A clear discord exists between the scientific community and federal legal and regulatory agencies over the medicinal value of marijuana, which impedes the expansion of research,’ the Philadelphia-based organization states in a 13-page policy paper. A White House official dismissed the report yesterday as a ‘political act’ that contained no new science, and noted that other doctors’ organizations think differently. Researchers generally agree that there is some medicinal benefit to the drug. The policy paper reviews evidence that its psychoactive ingredient – tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC – is useful for the treatment of glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, nausea and pain. But the report also argues that marijuana in its raw form may be helpful in ways that THC alone […]
The world’s first pet cloning service is to offer animal lovers the chance to recreate their dead companions, it was announced today. South Korean company RNL Bio will work alongside scientists who created the first cloned canine. A company spokeswoman said it was already working on its first order from an American who wanted a clone of her dead pit bull. The client, Bernann McKunney, of California, was very attached to the pet because it had saved her life during an attack by another dog. Kim Yoon said that ear tissue from the dog had been preserved at a US biotech laboratory before its death. DNA from the sample could now be used in an attempt to create a clone, she said, although the chances of success were about 25%. RNL Bio is charging customers $150,000 (£75,000) for the clones, which clients pay only after they receive their new pet. The cloning is to be carried out by Seoul National University scientists led by Dr Lee Byeong-chun, a veterinary professor. Prof Lee had worked with the disgraced stem cell scientist Dr Hwang Woo-suk, whose purported breakthroughs in the creation of human stem […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
