Hurricane Sandy and the Boston Marathon Bombings in this week's health news

At the end of Health news for the week of election day, I wrote "Look for one more installment next week."  I also wrote in Kepler findings and other space news "This one will be huge!"  I wasn't kidding.

Rutgers University has the honor of going first, with Rise in Falls and Fractures Among Elderly After Superstorm Sandy.
Rutgers researcher attributes increase in injuries in older New Jerseyans to power outages
By Lisa Intrabartola
Monday, November 11, 2013

Everyone knows Superstorm Sandy left many New Jersey homes and businesses battered and bruised.

But most are not aware of the considerable toll the storm and its aftermath took on our state’s residents.

“With disasters, there are things beyond the obvious,” said Rutgers’ Sue Shapses, a professor in the department of Nutrition and chair of the Interagency Council of Osteoporosis. “There are real health hazard risks, especially falling and fracturing.  And it’s especially a problem for our elderly population.”

Based on a report Shapses wrote using data from the New Jersey Hospital Association that showed state hospitals experienced an 18 percent increase in visits related to falls and a 13 percent increase in visits related to fractures, during the week following the storm in comparison to the week prior. Of those who sought medical attention for falls and fractures after the hurricane, there was a 40 percent rise in falls and fractures in those who were 65 or older.

I couldn't resist putting a health story about Hurricane Sandy first, especially after four retrospectives last week.

Speaking of stories I've covered before, and being the exception to the rule that "if it bleeds, it doesn't necessarily lead" here at Crazy Eddie's Motie News, Boston University has a four-part video series about the university hospital's response to the Boston Marathon Bombings accompanied by a feature story in its magazine Bostonia.  Videos first.

Trauma Part 1: The Trauma Algorithm


Trauma Part 2: The Clock is Ticking


Trauma Part 3: The Lethal Triad


Trauma Part 4: Why It's Called a "Trauma Team"

Peter Burke discusses the methods his team uses to shave seconds off response time.

Now, the excerpt from the feature article Trauma.
Peter Burke spent 14 years building a surgical team that could handle the worst kind of emergencies. On April 15, that emergency arrived.
By Susan Seligson

Peter Burke had just finished the morning session of a medical conference at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas when the news flashed on a lobby TV: two bombs had exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line, turning an annual celebration into a war zone.

Minutes later he received an emergency text message from Boston Medical Center (BMC), where he is chief trauma surgeon. The unit was inundated with the grievously injured from an attack that killed 3, among them BU graduate student Lu Lingzi (GRS’13), and wounded at least 260. Many of those rushed to BMC were battling for life, with mangled legs, collapsed lungs, and profound blood loss. Burke called his chief nurse to find out if there was any way he could help from a distance of nearly 3,000 miles. The answer was no.

When he arrived in Boston around midnight, Burke rushed from Logan Airport to BMC, one of the city’s five adult Level 1 trauma centers, all of which were scrambling to stabilize the injured. BMC received 28 bomb victims; 19 were admitted, 11 with critical injuries.

In his 14 years at BMC, Burke had dealt with hundreds of multiple admissions from car crashes or shootings. But Marathon day presented a scene more familiar to trauma program manager Joseph Blansfield, a nurse practitioner who has been at BMC since 1992. An active colonel in the US Army Reserve, Blansfield (SON’78) had run combat support hospitals in Mosul and Tikrit, Iraq. As BMC trauma surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses mobilized, Blansfield was doing what had become second nature in those war-torn places: identifying the most critically injured and getting them to the trauma bays.

Follow over the jump for the rest of this installment of health news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Super Typhoon Haiyan).

Two dance interludes on campus

Since I can't be all DOOM all the time, I'm presenting these two dance interludes from campuses on the campaign trail that I included in the same Overnight News Digest on Daily Kos.  First, Rutgers University describes how Poi Dancing Reduces Stress and Improves Focus.

How do you relax? Rutgers students are using poi dancing, also commonly known as poi spinning, to help take the edge off the stresses of college life, while also improving focus and coordination. The real show starts when the lights are turned off and the spinning balls turn into ribbons of light. Take a look.

In a coincidence that I can't resist, Boston University posted Students Learn Aerial Dancing the very next day.

Students at Boston University learn the relatively new art of aerial dancing.

In case this dance form looks familiar, it's because I've posted a video featuring it in When fandoms collide at the auto show earlier this year.  Yes, these women can do this professionally.

That's it for these moments of grace, athleticism, fun, and escapism.  I'll return to my regular programming in the morning.

Historical candy left over from Halloween

I missed one item that should have gone into Happy Halloween on campus, but I missed it.  Instead, I managed to get it into Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Eclipse, Sandy Anniversary, and Fall Back).  Here is Boston University's How Did Halloween Get Started?
CGS lecturer on vampires, zombies, things that go bump in the night
By Amy Laskowski
10.31.2013

When you think of Halloween, you’re likely to conjure up images of Jack o’-lanterns, superhero costumes, and haunted houses. And candy—Americans will purchase nearly 600 million pounds of the sweet stuff to hand out and consume today. Overall, we are expected to spend a whopping $6.9 billion celebrating the holiday, according to a recent survey by the National Retail Federation.

Often lost among all the costumes, decorations, and sugar is the origin of the holiday. Halloween is based largely on Celtic religious traditions, says Regina Hansen, a College of General Studies senior lecturer in rhetoric and an expert in the supernatural and how it’s portrayed in literature and film. She is also a scholar of Neo-Victorianism.

Hansen’s affinity for the supernatural began as a child, fueled by her love of authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Edgar Allan Poe. In graduate school she joined the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, a scholarly organization devoted to the study of the fantastic, which includes the genres of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and the supernatural. There, she says, she “found a home for people who wanted to write about scary stuff. Now my scholarship has moved from writing about Victorian literature and sneaking in supernatural stuff, to being more on top of it.”

Oh, goodie, a chance to use my fantasy label for a post about academics!

Health news for the week of election day

It's time for the next installment of health news from campuses on the campaign trail.  I'll begin with a health issue that will become a political one, mandating that all employees be eligible for paid sick leave.  Rutgers University has the latest polling in Rutgers Study: Overwhelming Majority of New Jerseyans Support Paid Sick Days
Wednesday, October 30, 2013

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – As New Jersey’s policymakers consider establishing a minimum standard for paid sick days, the Center for Women and Work (CWW) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey has released an issue brief on the subject that finds an overwhelming majority (83 percent) of state residents of all political affiliations support paid sick day policies.

While there is a great deal of public support, results reported in, It’s Catching: Public Opinion toward Paid Sick Days in New Jersey, document a persistent need: 37 percent of state residents currently lack access to paid sick days, particularly Hispanic and Latino workers, younger workers and those who work part time or earn less than $50,000 per year.  

“Over 37 percent of New Jersey residents work in jobs with no paid sick days,” said Linda Houser, CWW affiliate fellow, assistant professor at Widener University and co-author of the report. “This proportion is significantly higher for some of New Jersey’s most vulnerable citizens – low-income earners, part-time workers and young adults. Additionally, over 50 percent of these workers cited concerns about financial affordability, job loss or bad performance reviews as having an impact on their decision about taking time off from work to recover from illness.”

In related news, the ballot measure to raise the minimum wage in News Jersey I mentioned in Election eve news from campuses on the campaign trail passed.  That's good news, but it's not for everybody, so no Professor Farnsworth.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the health-related news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Eclipse, Sandy Anniversary, and Fall Back) on Daily Kos.

Hurricane Sandy anniversary and other climate news from campuses on the campaign trail

I concluded PBS NewsHour on Hurricane Sandy one year later by writing, "I'll have more about the anniversary of Sandy's landfall from Columbia University and other sources after Midnight.  Stay tuned."  As promised, here it is.

I begin with this video from PBS NewsHour, which features a Columbia University faculty member, so I decided it counts.

Climate Change, Hurricane Sandy and How to Cope

Klaus Jacob, a special research scientist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, explains how climate change will turn events like Hurricane Sandy into more frequent and more disastrous events."One weather event like Sandy does not make climate change. But it is a symptom with many other events that will show yes there is something going [on] and we call it climate change," Jacob said.

Columbia University proper had even more about the occasion in Hurricane Sandy, One Year Later.
October 29, 2013

The year since Hurricane Sandy blew ashore in the New York area has been one of rebuilding and searching for how best to prevent the level of destruction and death it brought with it.

Columbia, with experts across multiple schools and disciplines and broad expertise in climate science, has played an important role in the recovery. “We have 700 people in the Earth Institute working on this,” said Steve Cohen, the institute’s executive director. “The Lamont Doherty Observatory has close to 100 doctoral level scientists working on this all the time.”

Columbia students and staffers helped communities rebuild. Scores of Columbia scientists have been explaining the causes behind the storm in hundreds of media interviews. Columbia professors serve on government panels that study how to prevent future damage and make recommendations to elected officials on preparedness and infrastructure changes.

Follow over the jump for more Hurricane Sandy and other climate news from Boston University via its NPR station WBUR, Columbia University, Rutgers University, and New York University, all of which I shared in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Eclipse, Sandy Anniversary, and Fall Back), plus one story I was planning on including in that diary on Daily Kos but left out by mistake.

Health news for the week of Halloween

As I've mentioned before the research universities on the campaign trail have proven to be rich sources of health news.  While I've already posted some Halloween-related health news, I have lots more from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (NASA back from shutdown) to pass along.

Follow over the jump for health research and outreach from Boston University, Columbia University, Rutgers University, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech.

Happy Halloween on campus

It's time for one more Halloween entry, this time highlighting the events campuses on the campaign trail are holding to celebrate the spooky holiday.  Boston University goes first with Pumpkin Palooza: Carving for a Cause.

Boston University students demonstrate their carving and decorating prowess during this year's Pumpkin Palooza, sponsored by the Community Service Center.

In Virginia, both major public universities are holding trick-or-treating events on campus.

The University of Virginia is playing it straight: U.Va. Annual ‘Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn’ Event Set for Oct. 31.
October 14, 2013

The University of Virginia will host its annual “Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn” on Halloween, Oct. 31, from 4 to 6 p.m.

U.Va.’s trick-or-treating tradition, started by students in the late 1980s, is open to the community. Children are invited to dress up in costumes and take part in trick-or-treating at each of the 54 Lawn rooms. Candy is donated and distributed by more than 70 student groups.

The event is hosted by the Lawn residents and receives additional support from the Office of Housing & Residence Life, Office of Emergency Preparedness, Parking & Transportation and the University Police Department. EMTs and a lost child station will be located on the south steps of the Rotunda and at Old Cabell Hall.

Virginia Tech already had their event, which was trick-or-treating FOR SCIENCE!

Virginia Tech: Tech-or-Treat offers Halloween-themed activities infusing science, technology, engineering and math

BLACKSBURG, Va., Oct. 15, 2013 – Children of all ages are invited to Tech-or-Treat, a family-friendly, Halloween-themed event featuring technologies developed by the affiliated faculty and students of Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology.

The free event, designed to give children the opportunity to learn more about science, technology, engineering, and math, will be held in the Cube, Center for the Arts, 190 Alumni Mall, on Wednesday, Oct. 30, from 5 to 8 p.m. Costumes are encouraged.

Children are invited to experience a room full of research and technology-based activities, including “The Labyrinth,” a series of intersecting circles creating a variety of paths throughout the space for participants to travel. The installation features a forest with hanging interactive light and sound components created by Paola Zellner, an assistant professor in the School of Architecture + Design in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and Tom Martin, an associate professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering.

And that's it for All Hallows Eve from campuses on the campaign trail.  Happy Halloween!

Religion news from campuses on the campaign trail

It's the week of Halloween, which means I have lots of scary and silly material planned for my upcoming entries, as if the prospect of civilization collapsing, for whatever reason, and the (pop) cultural responses to the possibility weren't scary and silly enough.  Before I begin with that project, I will take a more serious look at an aspect of culture I cover irregularly, religion.  Here are the religion stories from campuses on the campaign trail I've included in the past three weeks of Overnight News Digest on Daily Kos.

I begin with Rutgers Hillel Moves Torah to New Home from Rutgers University.

Members of the Rutgers Hillel community celebrated and danced in the street as they ceremoniously moved Torah scrolls to a temporary home on Bishop Place while their new building is under construction. Rabbi Esther Reed, senior associate director of Rutgers Hillel, says the ceremony recognized the significance of the move for the entire Jewish community on campus.

Follow over the jump for more, beginning with something appropriate both for the season and to the inspiration for the name of this blog, a book about Dante's Inferno.

Boston University on how to prevent asteroid impacts

In Eclipse and asteroid DOOM, I pointed out the latest news about the risks of asteroids colliding with the Earth.  That same week, Boston University posted How to catch an asteroid by Rich Barlow, which described how "BU astronomers ponder how to save the Earth."  Here are the relevant excerpts.

Last February’s atmospheric blowup of a meteor over Russia injured 1,500 people, mostly from glass smashed by the blast, whose force was estimated at 30 times that of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. A month later, the US Senate heard former astronaut Edward Lu advocate for beefing up asteroid detection, warning that the casualties in Russia would have been incalculably greater had the meteor exploded closer to a big city. The Russian rock, a NASA scientist noted at the hearing, snuck by Earth’s telescopes, whose sites are set on projectiles much larger than that 60-foot-diameter meteor.

Is NASA worried? Sufficiently so that it has announced an asteroid Grand Challenge, inviting ideas from the global scientific community about how to spot and stop asteroids that threaten our planet.
...
How exactly does one stop an asteroid? First, Hughes says, we should distinguish between planet-killers—asteroids so massive that we could kiss our posteriors good-bye—and smaller, potential city-killers like the Russian meteor. The former, he says, are hard to miss. Current scopes pick up 95 percent of those believed to be lurking near us, none of which currently threaten Earth, and improved technology will move that detection rate closer to 100 percent. Hughes and Andrew West, a CAS assistant professor of astronomy, concur that strikes from such monster rocks happen only once in tens of millions of years.

City-killers, the asteroids small enough to go undetected by telescopes, strike once every 1,000 years. That sounds disturbing, but Hughes points out that “tsunamis, super storms, and major earthquakes also can come close to obliterating cities or even small countries, and they happen far more frequently than once a millennium, so are a far more dangerous threat.” It’s better to invest in preparing for those more likely catastrophes, he says. “I don’t think detecting small asteroids should be a NASA priority.”

West agrees, saying that given Earth’s vast uninhabited real estate, from oceans to wilderness, “the real chances of them hitting a populated city…are very small.”

But Hughes also knows that human nature is easily frazzled by even the most unlikely events: “Tell people about a risk they’ve never heard about or thought about, and they get excited.”

Obviously, he notes, the best scenario would provide lots of warning—“ideally a decade or more”—of a coming collision, and the astronomer thinks such lead times are becoming possible as scientists’ ability to calculate orbits improves. The hard part is figuring out what to do once the heavenly threat is identified. Hughes’ preferred approach would be to knock it off course by hijacking its steering.

There is more, but in the spirit of showing instead of telling, I present the three videos that accompany the article, narrated by Professor Hughes.

Using Explosives to Move an Asteroid

Jeffrey Hughes explains how Hollywood's explosive solution to an asteroid may not be the best idea to avoiding destruction.

Using a Laser to Save the World from Asteroids

Jeffrey Hughes explains how lasers may one day save the world from an asteroid doomsday scenario.

Using Rockets to Save the Earth from Asteroids

Jeffrey Hughes explains how we might use rockets to save the earth from an asteroid impact--by pushing back.

Here's to there being spacefaring nations around capable of dealing with the threat when it arises--and it will arise.

Food news from campuses on the campaign trail

At the end of Drink and drive with "The Walking Dead", I told my readers what I'd be doing tonight.

I know where I'll be 9 PM Sunday--watching "The Walking Dead" with my wife.

We'll be doing that, as well as watching a new episode of "Once Upon a Time" at 8 PM, as I mentioned in Entertainment news from campuses on the campaign trail.  I forgot that AMC is marathoning all of last season's "The Walking Dead" right now.  I'm going to take advantage of that to correct some papers.  I'll see you all after 10 PM.

In the meantime, follow over the jump to enjoy this update to Food news from campuses on the campaign trail, which features stories and videos originally included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (ACA and shutdown on campus) and Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (2013 Nobel Prizes).  As I've written before, I can't be all doom all the time, especially while I'm watching arguably the most popular post-apocalyptic show on TV.

More health news from campuses on the campaign trail

The campuses on on the campaign trail have been rich sources for health stories.  First Health news from campuses on the campaign trail and now all the health stories from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (ACA and shutdown on campus).  I'll begin with this editorial from Boston University, which was the featured story over at Daily Kos.

POV: Opposition to Obamacare Is Maddening
Ignore the critics: here’s what the law really does
By Stephen Davidson
10.04.2013

Predictably, this week’s rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) received attention high in volume and intensity. While the administration signs up uninsured Americans flooding the health insurance exchanges, the government is shuttered thanks to a deadlock over opponents’ efforts to repeal the act, or failing that, to starve the implementation process for funds.

As one who has written about health policy for many years, I find the opposition to be nothing less than maddening. Some, like Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), are just nasty and cynical. As the New York Times’ Gail Collins points out, he wants to kill the act because it is bound to be popular, and therefore, hard to take away from people later on. Others continue to spew falsehoods about the law. Either they have not taken the time to inform themselves of the facts or they just don’t care what the facts are. It is maddening because the issues are serious, they affect us all, and those guys treat it like a game in which the only prize is a government job for themselves in the national legislature, where, historically at least, the object was to pass legislation.

While the law is hard to master because it is long and has many parts, most of the ideas are pretty simple and have been around for a long time. What follows is an attempt to set the record straight on the assumption that not everyone is taken in by the cacophony from the far-right chorus.

I couldn't agree more.

University of Virginia brings Emily Drake discusses New Postpartum Testing, which bears on a story I reported in Last night's top news from Reuters.  It turns out that that the poor woman who attempted to crash the gates at the White House and Capitol and was shot dead for her trouble was reported to have been suffering from post-partum depression.

Nursing professor Emily Drake's character lends a touch of humor to a serious condition that affects 10 to 15 percent of women after childbirth.

Follow over the jump for more health and health care news.

Archeology and paleoanthropology from campuses on the campaign trail

Among the current crop of research universities in jurisdictions holding elections this year, I've found one that has been putting out consistently good stories about archeology and paleoanthropology, Boston University.  Here are the stories from BU on these topics plus one from University of North Carolina at Charlotte that I originally included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (IPCC report released) and Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (ACA and shutdown on campus) arranged by school (BU first, then UNCC) and age of subject, oldest first.

Walking Like a Cavewoman,

In this video, anthropologist Jeremy DeSilva and physical therapist Kenneth Hold discuss how they unraveled the mystery of how a human ancestor walked.

Walking Like a Cavewoman
A chance BU collaboration sheds light on how a human ancestor got around
By Rich Barlow
09.19.2013

They say that to understand another person, you must walk in her shoes. Jeremy DeSilva took that advice to the extreme, attempting to understand a prehistoric ancestor by walking in her feet.

It hurt: putting his foot down on its outer edge, then rolling it inward, step by excruciating step. “It is painful,” says DeSilva, who ambulated (or, more scientifically, hyperpronated) around campus, and occasionally still does. He believes that’s how Australopithecus sediba got around two million years ago, with an anatomy, unlike ours, suited to such a peculiar gait. The South African protoperson, a mixed bag of human and ape traits, could walk upright and also clamber up trees.

DeSilva, a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of anthropology, was lead writer on one of six papers published last April in the journal Science, describing in loving detail how this hybrid hominid—a woman, four- to four-and-a-half-feet tall, whose skeletal remains were excavated in South Africa by a team led by paleoanthropologist Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand—got around.

More over the jump.

Health news from campuses on the campaign trail

While I've featured the shutdown three times this week, I haven't mentioned the nominal reason for it, the Affordable Care Act, taking effect once in the same time.  To mark this auspicious occasion, follow over the jump for the health news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (IPCC report released).  All of them are from research universities in jurisdictions holding elections this fall.

Entertainment news from campuses on the campaign trail

I could compile more news about the shutdown, but I've hit the wall of "I can't be all doom all the time."  Instead, I present some entertainment stories from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (IgNobel Prizes) and Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (IPCC report released), along with a bonus video, which I present first.

Boston University on YouTube: YouSpeak: Binge TV Watching

In this week's "YouSpeak," students talk about the pleasures of binge watching and which shows they can't get enough of.

My wife and I have been doing a lot of binge watching this summer, beginning with "House of Cards," and then proceeding on to "Falling Skies," "Once Upon a Time," "Grimm," and "The Walking Dead."  All of those, including "Grimm," are post-apocalyptic.  Yes, "Grimm."  Apocalypse originally meant "unveiling."  Only later did it become a synonym for the end of the world.  "Grimm" is certainly about what happens after an unveiling of the truth.

Enough of that.  I'll write about all those series later.  I'll leave the subject for now by noting that the University of Alabama is taking advantage of the popularity of "The Walking Dead" as UA Professors Turn Zombies Into Teaching Tools.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Matt Payne and Adam Schwartz, University of Alabama telecommunication and film professors, have one thing on their brains: “BRAINS.”

Actually, that’s not entirely true, but Payne and Schwartz are each teaching a UA course this semester on zombies, cashing in on the monsters’ current popularity to provide students with culturally relevant instruction while teaching them the skills they need to succeed after college.

“What’s going to catch people’s attention is the subject matter,” said Payne, an assistant professor in telecommunication and film, who is teaching TCF 444: Zombies in Culture. “At the same time, pedagogical utility is vital. It’s very important to us to underscore what the learning objectives are.”

Finally, here is a follow-up to Carolina Crown wins with Einstein on the Beach.

University of Massachusetts, Amherst: Hannum Helps Guide Carolina Crown Drum Corps to World Championship
September 11, 2013

Thom Hannum, associate director of the Minuteman Marching Band, who taught the Carolina Crown drum corps this past season, captured another laurel Aug. 10 as the group won its first title at the Drum Corps International (DCI) World Championship in Indianapolis.

Hannum, who directs the marimba band/marimba ensemble in the department of music and dance, is regarded as one of the nation’s foremost percussion arrangers, instructors, and clinicians. He is known internationally for his work with the DCI World Champion Cadets of Bergen County and Star of Indiana drum corps.

I'm always pleased to see drum corps people recognized for their work by their day jobs.

Crime and law news from campuses on the campaign trail

It's time for a sequel of sorts to Technology and security intersect at campuses on the campaign trail, as national security overlaps with terrorism, which overlaps with crime, which overlaps with law, which has an effect on technology.

Rutgers University on YouTube goes first with Gun Control Debate Heats Up on Campus.

Have the recent mass shootings in Connecticut and Washington D.C. changed the way you feel about guns and gun control? We surveyed students and staff at Rutgers with some hard questions about guns and gun violence. Should people be allowed to own assault weapons and high capacity magazine clips? Should gun ownership continue to be a constitutional right or should laws be changed? Would you be comfortable having a gun in your home?

Considering that gun control was the main issue in the recall elections in Colorado and that the law in question was a reaction to Sandy Hook, this topic looks like it will echo for quite a while.

Follow over the jump for more news about crime and law with a healthy heaping of technology.