The inaugural Symposium of Penn State Hershey Institute for Personalized Medicine will be held 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, June 8 at the University Conference Center on the Penn State Hershey campus. (more)
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center's Christopher Sciamanna, M.D., M.P.H., is seeking volunteers who experience a lot of stress who are interested in decreasing their stress and improving their well-being. (more)
Have you ever wished you could exercise while watching TV or doing other sedentary activities? Researchers at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are testing how many calories people can expend using a portable exercise device. (more)
Biodiversity hot spots -- the world's biologically richest and most threatened locations on Earth -- and high biodiversity wilderness areas -- biologically rich but less threatened -- are some of the most linguistically diverse regions on our planet, according to a team of conservationists. (more)
Americans spend, on average, only about two hours each week participating in sports and fitness activities, according to researchers at Penn State and the University of Maryland who examined U.S. government data from the American Time Use Study.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults aged 18 to 64 get about four hours of physical activity each week by exercising moderately for 2.5 hours per week and engaging in a vigorous activity, such as running and muscle strengthening, for an hour and fifteen minutes per week. (more)
Sleep-deprived surgeons can perform a previously learned task or learn a new task as well as surgeons who are rested, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. However, in sleep-deprived surgeons, the brain must work harder, which could lead to problems during unexpected events. The researchers reached these conclusions using simulations to study the effects of sleepiness on surgeons. "Particularly in surgery, simulation has become the introduction to many procedures for new residents," said Jonathan Tomasko, a research fellow involved in surgical resident training. "Coupled with an 80-hour work week restriction, simulation is becoming increasingly important to ensure an adequate level of skill prior to operation on a patient." (more)
Susan L. Brantley, Distinguished Professor of Geosciences at Penn State and director of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences' Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI) has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences for her excellence in original scientific research. Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. (more)
The Center for Sport Concussion Research and Service, a new Penn State Center, will advance research on sport-related concussions and provide services to local collegiate and child athletes in the form of baseline assessments that can aid in diagnosing concussions and tracking recovery. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 1.3 million people in the U.S. sustain concussions -- mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) -- each year, and about a half-million children aged 0 to 14 years make visits to the emergency department for all forms of TBI each year. "Concussions are extremely prevalent in the population and are especially common among athletes," said Semyon Slobounov, professor of kinesiology and director of the new center. (more)
Giving people the freedom (but not too much freedom) to express themselves may help designers build more interactive Web portals and online communities, according to Penn State researchers. (more)
A new systematic assessment of malnutrition, created by researchers at Penn State, will aid dietitians and other health care providers in diagnosis and treatment.
Up to 50 percent of patients in hospitals and nursing facilities are estimated to be malnourished, according to Gordon Jensen, professor and head of nutritional sciences, Penn State. Although malnutrition is widespread, confusion exists in the clinical community on how to best make this diagnose. Malnourished patients are frequently not identified as such, and those not affected are sometimes thought to be malnourished. (more)
