A new study from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics finds that reducing prescriptions of sleep medication in older adults could provide substantial health and economic benefits.

New research has shown opt-out organ donation policies may reduce living organ donors, leaving systems overall no better supplied with lifesaving organs.

Opt-out organ donation policies which enrol everyone into post-mortem donation programmes by default unless people choose to opt out are being adopted by an increasing number of countries as a way to increase the supply of desperately needed organs.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham were part of an international team that analysed data from 24 countries from 2000 to 2023 and found that although opt-out policies did increase deceased organ donors by a small, non-significant amount of 7%, the number of living donors dropped significantly by 29%. Overall, the opposite effects of deceased and living donors on the supply of organs result in no additional benefit in donor numbers from moving to an opt-out policy.  

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) based on crop residues such as corn stover or perennial bioenergy crops such as miscanthus or switchgrass have the potential to mitigate carbon (C) emissions. However, SAF production scale-up is hindered by high establishment costs and yield and price riskiness, making the return profiles less appealing to risk-averse, present-biased, and credit-constrained farmers. A new study found that SAF feedstock choice, adoption levels, and spatial patterns depend on the type of C mitigation payments and farmer risk profiles, shedding light on potential policy decisions that might incentivize increased bioenergy crop cultivation.

Specially qualified nurses with extended roles – known as Dementia Care Managers – can measurably improve the care of people with dementia living at home. This is the finding of a study conducted by DZNE in collaboration with partners from the medical and healthcare sectors. More than 400 people with mild to moderate dementia participated in this research. Care provided by Dementia Care Managers reduced unmet needs more effectively than standard care and improved the quality of life of the affected individuals.

The worsening consequences of the climate crisis could fatally “derail” climate action, researchers have warned.

Convenience features built into contactless payment systems are quietly undermining their security, as a study led by the University of Surrey, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, exposes hidden weaknesses that allowed researchers to perform unauthorised high-value transactions with some of the most modern contactless payment devices.