Tag: behavioral science
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Medications, Phone Calls Boost Smoking Cessation Rates
20 August 2014. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found a combination of free medications and repeated automated telephone calls sharply cuts smoking rates among discharged patients, compared to patients receiving the standard counseling before leaving the hospital. The findings of the team led by Nancy Rigotti, director of Mass. General’s Tobacco Research and…
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Text Messages Help Young Adults Reduce Binge Drinking
11 July 2014. Medical researchers at University of Pittsburgh show mobile phone text messages can provide feedback to young adults with a history of alcohol abuse that cuts their binge drinking. Findings from the team led by emergency medicine professor Brian Suffoletto were published online earlier this week in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine.…
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Virtual Reality System Developed to Track Crowd Moves
8 July 2014. A psychology research group at Brown University in Providence is using virtual reality to detect and document patterns of autonomous individuals taking part in crowds. The system developed by Brown’s Virtual Environment Navigation lab was described last week by its director William Warren in a keynote address at a meeting of the…
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Online Clinical Trial with Children Tests Autism Therapy
30 June 2014. Researchers at University of California in San Francisco and Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore completed a clinical trial conducted entirely online testing the ability of omega-3 fatty acids to control hyperactivity in children with autism. The team led by UC-San Francisco medical professor Stephen Bent published its findings in this month’s issue…
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Mobile App/Sensor Designed to Help Parents Control Stress
4 June 2014. Computer scientists at University of California in San Diego and Microsoft Research designed a system for smartphones and tablets providing immediate research-based guidance for parents to control their stress. The team led by San Diego engineering Ph.D. candidate Laura Pina, with colleagues from Microsoft’s Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment group…
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Novo Nordisk, University Partner on Diabetes in Big Cities
28 March 2014. The pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, based in Denmark, and University College London in the U.K. are studying the scope of diabetes in big cities to develop a strategy for attacking the problem, while accounting for the special needs of urban centers. The Cities Changing Diabetes project, which includes Steno Diabetes Center, a…
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New Jersey Tech, IT Company to Develop Autism Device
21 March 2014. Engineers at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark and WebTeam Corp. in Somerset, New Jersey are designing a device to help children with autism spectrum disorders develop basic educational skills. Financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed, but NJIT and WebTeam will share the intellectual property arising from the project.…
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Store Checkout Data Generate Neighborhood Food Profiles
11 March 2014. An epidemiologist at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada devised a method for tracking food choices, with data from food stores, that helps gauge family nutrition in city neighborhoods. The team led by McGill’s David Buckeridge published its findings online in a recent issue of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences…
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Monthly Pharmacist Appointments Improve Medication Adherence
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond found regular monthly appointments with pharmacists can help patients keep taking their medications as prescribed. Pharmacy professor David Holdford and then-doctoral candidate Timothy Inocencio published their findings in the current issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (subscription required). A study published earlier this year in…
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Graphic Labels Reduce Smoking More Than First Thought
Public health researchers at University of Illinois in Chicago and University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada found graphic warnings on cigarette packs can reduce smoking to a greater extent than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimated two years ago. The team led by Chicago’s Jidong Huang published its findings online earlier this month in…