University Times

As cigarette smoking rates fall, more people are smoking tobacco from hookahs, communal pipes that enable users to draw tobacco smoke through water. A meta-analysis led by the School of Medicine shows that hookah smokers are inhaling a large load of toxicants. The findings, published in Public Health Reports, represent a mathematical summary of previously […]

Poor, rural kids have more poisonings from medication Children younger than 5 who live in economically disadvantaged areas had a greater risk of medication poisoning that resulted in referral to a health care facility, according to scientists at the Graduate School of Public Health and the University of California-San Diego. These areas were rural and […]

Info sciences prof wins grant School of Information Sciences (SIS) faculty member Kostas Pelechrinis has won a one-year grant from the Army Research Office for his project, “Models and Metrics for Socio-Spatial Composite Networks.” His research will explore the use of tensor theory to represent and analyze composite network structures that involve multiple types of […]

Bariatric surgery leads to joint pain reduction In the three years following bariatric surgery, the majority of patients experience an improvement in pain and walking ability, according to the preliminary results of a Graduate School of Public Health-led analysis. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), identified key patient characteristics that can […]

Emergency pediatric CT scanning varies Emergency departments vary widely when it comes to ordering CT scans for children who come in with injuries, according to a study conducted by the School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital. The findings, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, suggest that improvement in decision making about imaging and establishing best-practice […]

Adolescent brain development, substance abuse studied A research team in the School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry has been awarded a $5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to participate in a multisite study focusing on the impact of adolescent marijuana, alcohol and other drug use on the developing brain. The adolescent brain cognitive […]

Popular Science reveals the 2015 “Brilliant 10” Pitt biologist Jonathan Pruitt  has been named one of Popular Science magazine’s Brilliant 10, honoring the brightest young minds in science and engineering. Those on the list are networking cars, decoding the brain, preventing plagues — and, in the case of Pruitt, using spider societies to explain evolution, […]

Novel way to ID pathogens There are plenty of ways in the lab to determine which bug is bugging you when you’re sick. Chemistry faculty members Xinyu Liu and Sanford Asher in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and their colleagues may have found a faster method. Says Liu: “You can do a swab […]

Stillbirth may be obesity related Obese women are nearly twice as likely as their lean counterparts to have stillborn babies for several specific, potentially preventable medical reasons, a new Graduate School of Public Health analysis reveals. Placental diseases and hypertension were the most common causes of stillbirth among obese women, according to the study, published […]