Fwd: Science X Newsletter Tuesday, Jul 28

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From: Newsletter Phys.org <not-for-reply@physorg.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 4:00 AM
Subject: Science X Newsletter Tuesday, Jul 28
To: Pascal Alter <pascal.alter@gmail.com>

Dear Pascal Alter,
Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for July 28, 2015:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- Scientists demonstrate first color-tunable and first graphene-based LED
- Short wavelength plasmons observed in nanotubes
- 'Expansion entropy': A new litmus test for chaos?
- Deep neural network can match infrared facial images to those taken naturally
- Enlisting symmetry to protect quantum states from disruptions
- Sex among eukaryotes is far more common than once believed
- Origins of life: New model may explain emergence of self-replication on early Earth
- Making polymers from a greenhouse gas
- New research rethinks how we grab and hold onto objects
- Washington, DC sinking fast, adding to threat of sea-level rise
- Experimental MERS vaccine shows promise in animal studies
- Climate models disagree on strength of carbon land sink across northern Eurasia
- Scientists show a link between intestinal bacteria and depression
- Research grasps how the brain plans gripping motion
- First measurements taken of South Africa's Iron Age magnetic field history

Nanotechnology news

	Scientists demonstrate first color-tunable and first graphene-based LED (Phys.org)—Currently, all light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emit light of only one color, which is predefined during fabrication. So far, tuning the color of light produced by a single LED has never been realized, despite numerous attempts.
	Reshaping the solar spectrum to turn light to electricity When it comes to installing solar cells, labor cost and the cost of the land to house them constitute the bulk of the expense. The solar cells—made often of silicon or cadmium telluride—rarely cost more than 20 percent of the total cost. Solar energy could be made cheaper if less land had to be purchased to accommodate solar panels, best achieved if each solar cell could be coaxed to generate more power.
	Carbon nanotube speakers play music with heat Troy Bouman reaches over, presses play, and the loudspeaker sitting on the desk starts playing the university fight song. But this is no ordinary loudspeaker. This is a carbon nanotube transducer—and it makes sound with heat.

Physics news

	'Expansion entropy': A new litmus test for chaos? Can the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? This intriguing hypothetical scenario, commonly called "the butterfly effect," has come to embody the popular conception of a chaotic system, in which a small difference in initial conditions will cascade toward a vastly different outcome in the future.
	Enlisting symmetry to protect quantum states from disruptions Symmetry permeates nature, from the radial symmetry of flowers to the left-right symmetry of the human body. As such, it provides a natural way of classifying objects by grouping those that share the same symmetry. This is particularly useful for describing transitions between phases of matter. For example, liquid and gas phases have translational symmetry, meaning the arrangement of molecules doesn't change regardless of the direction from which they are observed. On the other hand, the density of atoms in a solid phase is not continuously the same—thus translational symmetry is broken.
	Short wavelength plasmons observed in nanotubes The term "plasmons" might sound like something from the soon-to-be-released new Star Wars movie, but the effects of plasmons have been known about for centuries. Plasmons are collective oscillations of conduction electrons (those loosely attached to molecules and atoms) that roll across the surfaces of metals while interacting with photons. For example, plasmons from nanoparticles of gold, silver and other metals interact with visible light photons to generate the vibrant colors displayed by stained glass, a technology that dates back more than 1,000 years. But plasmons have high-technology applications as well. In fact, there's even an emerging technology named for them - plasmonics - that holds great promise for superfast computers and optical microscopy.
	Transforming living cells into tiny lasers In the last few decades, lasers have become an important part of our lives, with applications ranging from laser pointers and CD players to medical and research uses. Lasers typically have a very well-defined direction of propagation and very narrow and well-defined emission color. We usually imagine a laser as an electrical device we can hold in our hands or as a big box in the middle of a research laboratory.
	Oxygen atoms create detailed architectures in uranium dioxide, altering our understanding of corrosion Corrosion follows a different path when it comes to uranium dioxide, the primary component of the rods that power nuclear reactors, according to a new study by scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Chicago, and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource. In uranium dioxide, the oxygen atoms-key corrosion creators-do not diffuse randomly through the material. Rather, the oxygen atoms settle into the third, sixth, ninth, etc., layers. They space themselves within the layers and alter the structure by causing the layers of uranium atoms above and below to draw closer to the oxygen. The oxygen atoms essentially self-assemble into a highly structured array.
	Lobster-Eye imager detects soft X-ray emissions Solar winds are known for powering dangerous space weather events near Earth, which, in turn, endangers space assets. So a large interdisciplinary group of researchers, led by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) set out to create a wide-field-of-view soft X-ray imager capable of detecting the soft X-ray emissions produced whenever the solar wind encounters neutral gas.
	Time-symmetric formulation of quantum theory provides new understanding of causality and free choice The laws of classical mechanics are independent of the direction of time, but whether the same is true in quantum mechanics has been a subject of debate. While it is agreed that the laws that govern isolated quantum systems are time-symmetric, measurement changes the state of a system according to rules that only appear to hold forward in time, and there is difference in opinion about the interpretation of this effect.
	Latest results from the LHC experiments are presented in Vienna The world particle-physics community has convened in Vienna for the 2015 European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP2015), where the latest results in the field are being presented and discussed. These include the first results from Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, which are being presented for the very first time, less than two months after the experiments started to take data at the unprecedented energy of 13 TeV, following a two-year long shutdown.
	A miniature accelerator to treat cancer CERN, home of the 27-kilometre Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is developing a new particle accelerator just two metres long.
	Stabilizing the transmission of time signals for relativity research They say time waits for no man but David Gozzard might have found a way to at least tame it.
Identifying ever-growing disturbances leading to freak waves Physicists now better understand wave systems exhibiting unusual disturbances by identifying growing localised patterns as early indicators of such disturbances
	Study demonstrates rapid control of phase-changes in resonantly bonded materials Rewritable CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs owe their existence to phase-change materials, those materials that change their internal order when heated and whose structures can be switched back and forth between their crystalline and amorphous phases. Phase-change materials have even more exciting applications on the horizon, but our limited ability to precisely control their phase changes is a hurdle to the development of new technology.

Earth news

	Research spotlights a previously unknown microbial 'drama' playing in the Southern Ocean A team of marine researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has discovered a three-way conflict raging at the microscopic level in the frigid waters off Antarctica over natural resources such as vitamins and iron.
	Climate models disagree on strength of carbon land sink across northern Eurasia In a new assessment of nine state-of-the-art climate model simulations provided by major international modeling centers, Michael Rawlins at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues found broad disagreement in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) annually sequestered in tundra and boreal ecosystems of Northern Eurasia, a vast, understudied region of the world.
	First measurements taken of South Africa's Iron Age magnetic field history A team of researchers has for the first time recovered a magnetic field record from ancient minerals for Iron Age southern Africa (between 1000 and 1500 AD). The data, combined with the current weakening of Earth's magnetic field, suggest that the region of Earth's core beneath southern Africa may play a special role in reversals of the planet's magnetic poles.
	Washington, DC sinking fast, adding to threat of sea-level rise New research confirms that the land under the Chesapeake Bay is sinking rapidly and projects that Washington, D.C., could drop by six or more inches in the next century—adding to the problems of sea-level rise.
	'Carbon sink' detected underneath world's deserts The world's deserts may be storing some of the climate-changing carbon dioxide emitted by human activities, a new study suggests. Massive aquifers underneath deserts could hold more carbon than all the plants on land, according to the new research.
	Geology of the Pilanesberg Ring Dike complex While big game animals such as lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and water buffaloes draw most visitors to Pilanesberg National Park, the land these animals live on is just as compelling. Pilanesberg is located in one of the world's largest and best preserved alkaline ring dike complexes—a rare circular feature that emerged from the subterranean plumbing of an ancient volcano.
	Researchers study the impact of saltwater intrusion on tidal wetlands Along the muddy banks of the Pamunkey River in Virginia's New Kent County, Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have built an irrigation system that is allowing them to simulate the potential effects of climate change on tidal wetlands.
Strong earthquake rocks Indonesia's Papua province A strong earthquake struck Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua early Tuesday panicking people with at least one teenager missing after possibly drowning in a river. Several buildings and houses were either destroyed or damaged.
	SE Asia sees little progress on haze as fires rage Southeast Asian nations meeting Tuesday to discuss the problem of haze that shrouds the region's skies every year made little progress, as the number of smog-belching forest fires was on the rise in Indonesia.
	The year the sun turned blue Something strange started happening in cities and towns in Ontario and across the northeastern United States in the summer of 1950. In the middle of the day, it started to get dark—so dark, in fact, that cities like Toronto had to turn on their streetlights. The sun turned blue and receded behind a dark haze, sparking fears that the government was testing a secret weapon or worse, that the country was under nuclear attack.
Discovering untapped value in Europe's forests Non-wood forest products can help boost the economies of remote mountainous areas of Europe, maintain local traditions and preserve unique landscapes for generations to come. Exploitation of a variety of non-wood products also means that rural communities are less dependent on just one 'cash crop'.
	Court orders EPA to redo air-pollution limits in 13 states A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to relax some limits it set on smokestack emissions that cross state lines and taint downwind areas with air pollution from power plants.
	Past and present sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay Region, USA In a new article for GSA Today, authors Benjamin DeJong and colleagues write that sea-level rise (3.4 mm/yr) is faster in the Chesapeake Bay region than any other location on the Atlantic coast of North America, and twice the global average (1.7 mm/yr). They have found that dated interglacial deposits suggest that relative sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay region deviate from global trends over a range of timescales.
	NASA's GPM satellite sees heavy rainfall in new Tropical Depression 8E The eighth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season formed far from land as the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite passed overhead and measured rainfall and cloud heights.

Astronomy & Space news

	Born-again planetary nebula Beneath the vivid hues of this eye-shaped cloud, named Abell 78, a tale of stellar life and death is unfolding. At the centre of the nebula, a dying star – not unlike our Sun – which shed its outer layers on its way to oblivion has, for a brief period of time, come back to echo its past glory.
	'Bathtub rings' suggest Titan's dynamic seas Saturn's moon, Titan, is the only object in the Solar System other than Earth known to have liquid on its surface. While most of the lakes are found around the poles, the dry regions near the equator contain signs of evaporated material left behind like rings on a bathtub that, when combined with geological features, suggest that the location of the liquids on the moon has shifted over time.
	Federal officials examine probable cause of spaceship crash The National Transportation Safety Board is considering what caused a Virgin Galactic spaceship to break apart over the Mojave Desert during a test flight 10 months ago, killing the co-pilot and seriously injuring the pilot.
	Next two Galileo satellites reach Europe's Spaceport Europe's ninth and tenth Galileo satellites have crossed the Atlantic, touching down in French Guiana ahead of their joint launch this September.
	First applications from Sentinel-2A From agricultural monitoring to charting changing lands, early images from Europe's new Sentinel-2A satellite show how the 'colour vision' mission's critical observations can be used to keep us and our planet safe.
	Blues for the second full moon of July Brace yourselves for blue moon madness. The month of July 2015 hosts two full moons: One on July 2nd and another coming right up this week on Friday, July 31st at 10:43 Universal Time (UT)/6:43 AM EDT.
	NTSB: Company should have prepared for human error The National Transportation Safety Board concluded Tuesday that the developer of a commercial spacecraft that broke apart over the Mojave Desert last year failed to protect against the possibility of human error, specifically the co-pilot's premature unlocking of a braking system that triggered the in-flight breakup of the vehicle.
	RED Epic Dragon Camera captures riveting images on space station In October 2014 NASA delivered high-definition, 3-D footage of astronauts living and working on the International Space Station to the Internet, posting video of astronauts exploring water tension in microgravity. The same engineers who sent high-definition cameras and then 3-D cameras to the space station have now delivered a new camera capable of recording images with six times more detail than either of the previous cameras.

Technology news

	Deep neural network can match infrared facial images to those taken naturally A pair of researchers affiliated with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Institute of Anthropomatics & Robotics has created a deep neural network application that is able to successfully match faces recorded using infrared light with those taken using natural lighting. M. Saquib Sarfraz and Rainer Stiefelhagen have written a paper describing their research and findings and have posted it on the preprint server arXiv.
	Researcher to talk at Black Hat on 'scary' area in Android Does that cute little green robotic creature with two ear-sticks call up feelings of an open, friendly mobile operating system, aka Android? Wow, Monday stories were not about how cute and adorable is that little green creature. Wow, these are no small numbers.
	Tech leaders warn over 'killer robots' (Update) A group of top tech leaders, including British scientist Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, on Tuesday issued a stern warning against the development of so-called killer robots.
	Cellphones can steal data from 'air-gapped computers' Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) Cyber Security Research Center have discovered that virtually any cellphone infected with a malicious code can use GSM phone frequencies to steal critical information from infected "air-gapped" computers.
	Intel and Micron memory chip tuned to data driven age Intel and Micron Technology on Tuesday unveiled what they touted as a new kind of memory chip that could "revolutionize" computing devices, services and applications.
	Sydney makes its mark with electronic paper traffic signs Visionect, which is in the business of helping companies build electronic paper display products, announced that Sydney has launched e-paper traffic signs. The traffic signage integrates displays from US manufacturer E Ink and a platform for managing the traffic signs developed by Visionect, according to Visionect's blog earlier this month.
Nike offers partial refund to end FuelBand lawsuit Nike will give partial refunds or gift cards to people who bought FuelBand fitness trackers in the last 3 1/2 years, resolving a lawsuit that says the products can't accurately tally how many steps a user is taking or how many calories they've burned.
	NSA to stop using bulk US phone data in November The National Security Agency will cease its access to most bulk data collected under a controversial surveillance program in November, but retain records for litigation purposes, officials said Monday.
	Gossip site Gawker looks to turn over a new leaf Gawker says it will rethink its ethics policies following turmoil over an article about an executive's private life, in what could be a turning point for the popular news and gossip website.
	Microsoft's free Windows 10 giveaway: What that means Microsoft's new Windows 10 operating system debuts Wednesday, as the longtime leader in PC software hopes that giving the upgrade away for free will help it carve out a new role in a world where people increasingly rely on smartphones, tablets and information stored online.
	Baidu shares dive on earnings miss Baidu shares skidded after the Chinese Internet colossus reported earnings shy of most market expectations.
Video: Additive manufacturing—3-D printing beyond plastic At Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT), Christopher Williams heads the effort to further advance 3-D printing—known among engineers as additive manufacturing—with copper, a widely used conductor in electronics. Williams is using a process called binder jetting in which an inkjet printer selectively jets glue into a bed of copper powder, layer-by-layer. The printed copper product is then taken to a furnace to fuse the particles together
	States can lower electric bills with clean power plan The U.S. electric system faces an array of challenges. Sluggish demand growth and the rise of solar power challenge the ability of utilities to recover their costs. The digital economy requires reliable power quality, and growing cyber threats call for increased investments in grid security. On top of these issues, global climate disruption suggests that energy systems need to be transformed. As a result, most forecasts predict that electricity bills will rise significantly over the next several decades.
	Sri Lanka ties with Google for Internet beamed from balloons Sri Lanka teamed up on Tuesday with Google to bring high-speed Internet access to the island using balloons, aiming to become the first country in the region with complete coverage.
	Hackers take a page (literally) from Jane Austen It would be a shock, a terrible shock, to Elinor Dashwood and the other characters in "Sense and Sensibility," to see this happening.
	Older Australians are embracing video games Over the past decade, stereotypes that video games were a popular medium intended only for youths have been eroded. It is clear that video games are also a popular medium for adults.
	Lip-reading technology promises to make hearing aids more human Hearing aids can be lifelines for people with hearing loss. But their limitations can mean that, in particularly noisy environments, users cannot exploit the best of the existing technology. Most new hearing aid designs just make small improvements to microphones, power efficiency and noise filtering. We propose an entirely new approach.
	Is your phone safe from hackers? A multimedia text could be the vessel that cripples as many as 950 million Android phones around the world, a mobile security expert warned in a Forbes article on Monday.
	Motorola refreshes Android phones, offers better cameras Motorola is refreshing its Android smartphones with better cameras and other improvements as it seeks to lure customers who want lower-cost alternatives to leading smartphones from Apple and Samsung.
	Sleeping with smartphones, and other vices Consumers around the world admit it: they sleep with their smartphone, take it in the shower, and would rescue the device from a fire before saving the family cat.
	Still offline: US non-Internet users stuck at 15 pct Some 15 percent of American adults are not using the Internet—a figure which has not changed over the past two years, researchers said Tuesday.
	Amazon moves to fuel startups for its platform Amazon unveiled plans Tuesday to help startups launch and sell their products and services through the US online giant.
	Solar Impulse 2 needs 20mn euros to complete flight The team behind the sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 plane on Tuesday said it needed an additional 20 million euros ($22 million) to complete a historic round-the-world flight, after battery damage grounded it for months.
Senator objects to anti-terrorism rules for online sites Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and skeptic of broad government surveillance, objected Tuesday to a bill that would have required social media and online sites like Google, Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook to alert federal authorities of any terrorist activity.
	Twitter posts quarterly loss as revenue climbs Twitter on Tuesday reported that it lost $137 million in the recently ended quarter on revenue that jumped 61 percent to more than half a billion dollars.
	EPSRC rail consortium shows how to cut costs and reduce delays Practical measures to aid landslip prevention and enhance track stability are among the improvements pinpointed by recent research that will mean rail passengers face fewer speed restrictions, delays and cancellations in future – and will help the UK rail industry achieve multi-million-pound savings.
	FAU to develop unmanned marine vehicles for bridge inspections The task of inspecting and maintaining Florida's extensive network of approximately 11,450 bridges is arduous, especially since so many of the state's bridges span rivers, canals and saltwater areas. Researchers in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University have received a one year, $187,000 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to research and develop the use of unmanned marine vehicles for on-water bridge inspections. Unlike manned vessels, which are continuously teleoperated by a human user, unmanned surface vehicles or USVs are capable of operating autonomously without human intervention for prolonged periods of time.
	TEPCO's Fukushima compensation cost to reach over $57 bn Japan's embattled utility Tokyo Electric Power Co now expects the compensation costs after the Fukushima nuclear disaster to be more than $57 billion, the government confirmed Tuesday.
Taiwan, Thailand join deal to end tariffs on tech products The World Trade Organization says Taiwan and Thailand have joined an agreement reached last week to abolish duties on more than 200 technology products.

Chemistry news

	Origins of life: New model may explain emergence of self-replication on early Earth When life on Earth began nearly 4 billion years ago, long before humans, dinosaurs or even the earliest single-celled forms of life roamed, it may have started as a hiccup rather than a roar: small, simple molecular building blocks known as "monomers" coming together into longer "polymer" chains and falling apart in the warm pools of primordial ooze over and over again.
Brain disease scenarios revised by step-by-step imaging of toxic aggregation Diseases like Alzheimer's are caused when proteins aggregate and clump together. In a world first, EPFL scientists have successfully distinguished between the disease-causing aggregation forms of proteins. The finding can help change pharmaceutical treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
	New material opens possibilities for super-long-acting pills Medical devices designed to reside in the stomach have a variety of applications, including prolonged drug delivery, electronic monitoring, and weight-loss intervention. However, these devices, often created with nondegradable elastic polymers, bear an inherent risk of intestinal obstruction as a result of accidental fracture or migration. As such, they are usually designed to remain in the stomach for a limited time.
	Researchers create smartphone-based device that reads medical diagnostic tests quickly and accurately Enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay, or ELISA, is a diagnostic tool that identifies antigens such as viruses and bacteria in blood samples. ELISA can detect a number of diseases, including HIV, West Nile virus and hepatitis B, and it is widely used in hospitals. It can also be used to identify potential allergens in food, among other applications.
	New experimental and theoretical research could help make more efficient windows By tightly integrating experimental and theoretical techniques, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory team has provided fundamentally new insights into the specific factors that determine the absorption characteristics of copper complexes.
	Making polymers from a greenhouse gas A future where power plants feed their carbon dioxide directly into an adjacent production facility instead of spewing it up a chimney and into the atmosphere is definitely possible, because CO2 isn't just an undesirable greenhouse gas; it is also a good source of carbon for processes like polymer production. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, American scientists have now introduced a two-step, one-pot conversion of CO2 and epoxides to polycarbonate block copolymers that contain both water-soluble and hydrophobic regions and can aggregate into nanoparticles or micelles.
	New chemistry makes strong bonds weak Researchers at Princeton have developed a new chemical reaction that breaks the strongest bond in a molecule instead of the weakest, completely reversing the norm for reactions in which bonds are evenly split to form reactive intermediates.
	'Seeing' molecular interactions could give boost to organic electronics Organic materials are increasingly being applied in cutting-edge technologies. Organic semiconductors, for example, are being used to develop paper-thin, plastic LED screens.
	Understanding the molecular origin of epigenetic markers Researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), Cambridge University and New York University, led by Modesto Orozco, Group Leader at IRB Barcelona, Director of Life Sciences at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) and Professor at the University of Barcelona (UB), have determined the mechanics behind of one of the most common epigenetic modifications: histone-tail acetylation. Acetylation is a means by which a cell can control the expression of its genes.
	Scientists' new chemical blueprint could be the answer to tackling stone theft Scientists at Loughborough University hope their early trials of a new chemical blueprint technique could assist a crackdown on stone theft.
	Video: Chemistry of tattoos If you don't have a tattoo, you probably at least know someone who does—but what's the chemistry behind tattoos?

Biology news

	Sex among eukaryotes is far more common than once believed (Phys.org)—For a long time, biologists have considered sex to be an inherent trait of multicellular life, while microbial eukaryotes were considered to be either optionally sexual or purely clonal. From this perspective, clonality in eukaryotes is seen as exceptional. However, a group of researchers Europe and Canada have recently published a paper examining this broad distinction more closely, and have suggested that it appears to stem from an improper comparison of unicellular and multicellular species.
	Technology helps personalized medicine, enabling epigenomic analysis with a mere 100 cells A new technology that will dramatically enhance investigations of epigenomes, the machinery that turns on and off genes and a very prominent field of study in diseases such as stem cell differentiation, inflammation and cancer, is reported on today in the research journal Nature Methods.
	Plant light sensors came from ancient algae The light-sensing molecules that tell plants whether to germinate, when to flower and which direction to grow were inherited millions of years ago from ancient algae, finds a new study from Duke University.
	Ancient proteins involved in DNA repair could shed light on tumor development By studying the yeast used in beer- and bread-making, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have uncovered the mechanism by which ancient proteins repair DNA damage and how their dysfunction could lead to the development of tumors. The findings, published online today in Nature Communications, could lead to new ways to tailor cancer therapies.
	Close-up film shows for the first time how ants use 'combs' and 'brushes' to keep their antennae clean Using unique mechanical experiments and close-up video, Cambridge researchers have shown how ants use microscopic 'combs' and 'brushes' to keep their antennae clean, which could have applications for developing cleaners for nanotechnology.
Researchers develop new 'portable power supply' for engineering microbes Penn State engineers have developed a new 'portable power supply' that will make it easier to manufacture plastics, therapeutics, fuels and other chemicals from sustainable feedstocks using diverse microbial organisms.
	Cystic fibrosis microorganisms survive on little to no oxygen Microbes contributing to cystic fibrosis (CF) are able to survive in saliva and mucus that is chemically heterogeneous, including significant portions that are largely devoid of oxygen, according to a study published this week in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
	Head and body lice read DNA differently What makes head lice different from body lice had scientists scratching their heads as previous genetic studies failed to find any substantial differences between the two types of lice.
	Pygmies' stunted growth explains human success The pygmies of West Africa evolved their short stature independently, and very differently, from their cousins in East Africa, French researchers said Tuesday.
	Chimpanzees binge on clay to detox and boost the minerals in their diet Wild chimpanzees in the forests of Uganda are increasingly eating clay to supplement the minerals in their diet, according to a long-term international study published in the early version of the journal PLOS ONE.
	Ants use brawn and brains to haul heavy loads Ants have an astonishing ability to mix collective muscle with individual initiative for heavy lifting, a study published Tuesday has revealed.
	Scientist: Whale deaths off Alaska island remains mystery Researchers may never solve the recent deaths of 18 endangered whales whose carcasses were found floating near Alaska's Kodiak Island, a scientist working on the case said Monday.
	Hong Kong giant panda Jia Jia becomes oldest ever It may not be considered a landmark birthday for humans, but turning 37 on Tuesday made Hong Kong's Jia Jia the oldest-ever giant panda in captivity, and she celebrated in style.
	The truth about sharks Danger: shark attack (or more properly, say scientists, shark bite). With sharks swimming ever closer to shore this summer—or seeming to—and crossing paths with surfers and bathers, what's going on?
	Summer fruits depend on pollinators, but where have all the bees gone? Blackberries and blueberries. Cherries and peaches. Raspberries and apricots. These and many other summer fruits require pollination by bees.
	UV light can kill foodborne pathogens on certain fruits The growing organic produce industry may soon have a new way to ensure the safety of fresh fruits.
	How to make chromosomes from DNA Researchers at the University of Tokyo have discovered a long-overlooked process important for converting a long, string-like DNA molecule into a chromosome. This finding gives us a better understanding of the mechanism of how cells store safely genetic material, DNA.
	Switch for building barrier in roots Researchers at the University of Tokyo and Aberdeen University have identified the master switch for formation of the Casparian strip, a special structure in the root that plays an important role in nutrient uptake.
Study highlights major flaw in strategy to halt sea lion decline A new University of Otago-led study of the endangered New Zealand sea lion indicates efforts by the Government that focus mainly on the survival of sea lion pups to reverse the population decline will probably fail.
	Study highlights noise threat to Atlantic cod Atlantic cod could be at risk from noise created by wind farms and other off-shore developments, according to new University of Stirling research.
	Antibiotic resistance spreading to wildlife Researchers have found antibiotic resistance genes are spreading to bacteria of Australian wildlife, including captive sea lions and rock wallabies, and the little penguins of Sydney Harbour.
	A single hair shows researchers what a bear has been eating U.S. and Canadian researchers have found they can get a good idea of a grizzly bear's diet over several months by looking at a single hair. The technique, which measures residues of trace metals, can be a major tool in determining if the threatened animals are getting enough of the right foods to eat.
	Chill-tolerant hybrid sugarcane also grows at lower temperatures, team finds U.S. farmers have long hoped to extend sugarcane's growing range northward from the Gulf coast, substantially increasing the land available for sugar and biofuels. Several hybrid canes developed in the 1980s have proved hardy in cooler climes, surviving overwinter as far north as Booneville, Arkansas. But until now, no one had tested whether these "miscanes," as they are called, actually photosynthesize, and thus continue to grow, when the thermometer dips.
	Sleep deprivation reduces aggression, mating behavior in flies Whether you're a human, a mouse, or even a fruitfly, losing sleep is a bad thing, leading to physiological effects and behavioral changes. One example that has been studied for many years is a link between sleep loss and aggression. But it can be difficult to distinguish sleep loss effects from stress responses, especially in rodent or human models.
	Researchers provide new details about sea stars' immunity A study led by a University of Texas at Arlington graduate student examining sea stars dying along the West Coast provides new clues about the starfish's immune response and its ability to protect a diverse coastal ecosystem.
	S.Africa's top poacher-hunting pooch flies into battle Barking and snarling in his cage, "Killer"—South Africa's most successful poacher-catching canine—looks ready for another helicopter mission tracking down armed hunters who slaughter rhinos for their horns.
	Federal appeals court upholds California's shark fin ban A federal appeals court Monday upheld a California law banning the sale, distribution and possession of shark fins.
	Image: Why grasshoppers are plaguing Alberta's farms Western farmers, particularly those in Alberta, have had a rough summer.
	Tackling India's snakebite problem Gerry climbs up to the veranda of our tribal longhouse with a snake bag held out in front of him. "Now don't get too excited, but I've just caught a Kaulbacki," he says, looking pleased but exhausted from a long hike and a six-metre climb up a tree. We gape, hardly able to believe that we have finally found this rare snake alive after four years of intensive searching.
	And then there were four: rare rhino dies at Czech zoo Only four northern white rhinos remain on earth after a 31-year-old female named Nabire died in the Czech Republic late on Monday, zookeepers said.

Medicine & Health news

	Major mouse study reveals the role of genes in disease The functions of around 150 genes have been discovered by scientists across Europe in a major initiative to try to understand the part they play in disease and biology.
	Antibody found that fight MERS coronavirus (Medical Xpress)—An international team of researchers has found a MERS neutralizing antibody—a discovery that could perhaps lead to a treatment for people infected with the virus. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes the study they undertook that led to the discovery and why they believe what they found might lead to both prevention and treatment for the oftentimes deadly disease.
	Scientists show a link between intestinal bacteria and depression Scientists from the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute at McMaster University have discovered that intestinal bacteria play an important role in inducing anxiety and depression.
	Experimental MERS vaccine shows promise in animal studies A two-step regimen of experimental vaccines against Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) prompted immune responses in mice and rhesus macaques, report National Institutes of Health scientists who designed the vaccines. Vaccinated mice produced broadly neutralizing antibodies against multiple strains of the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV), while vaccinated macaques were protected from severe lung damage when later exposed to MERS-CoV. The findings suggest that the current approach, in which vaccine design is guided by an understanding of structure of viral components and their interactions with host cells, holds promise for developing a similar human MERS vaccine regimen.
	New research rethinks how we grab and hold onto objects It's been a long day. You open your fridge and grab a nice, cold beer. A pretty simple task, right? Wrong. While you're debating between an IPA and a lager, your nervous system is calculating a complex problem: how hard to grasp the can.
	Research grasps how the brain plans gripping motion With the results of a new study, neuroscientists have a firmer grasp on the way the brain formulates commands for the hand to grip an object. The advance could lead to improvements in future brain-computer interfaces that provide people with severe paralysis a means to control robotic arms and hands using their thoughts.
	Diabetics who skip breakfast provoke hazardous blood sugar spikes More and more Americans on-the-go are skipping the "most important meal of the day," not eating until lunch. This tendency to miss breakfast has already been linked to the growing epidemic of obesity and cardiovascular problems in the US—and it may put the health of diabetics at risk as well.
	Specific cardiovascular risk factors may predict Alzheimer's disease Specific cardiovascular risk factors, such as alcohol consumption, smoking, obesity and diabetes, are associated with smaller regional brain volumes that may be early indicators of Alzheimer's disease and dementia according to a study published online in the journal Radiology.
Breast cancer survivors who experience pain during intercourse may benefit from lidocaine Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University report that breast cancer survivors who experience pain during sexual intercourse, a common side effect of breast cancer treatment, may achieve comfort when liquid lidocaine is applied strategically to prevent pain. Their research was published online today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
One in four patients with defibrillators experiences boost in heart function over time A Johns Hopkins-led study of outcomes among 1,200 people with implanted defibrillators—devices intended to prevent sudden cardiac death from abnormal heart rhythms—shows that within a few years of implantation, one in four experienced improvements in heart function substantial enough to put them over the clinical threshold that qualified them to get a defibrillator in the first place.
	Data analyses back Sanofi dengue vaccine: study A dengue vaccine candidate by French drugmaker Sanofi protects more than three quarters of participants, an analysis found Monday.
	Ten tips for a great start to kindergarten Kindergarten is a big leap from preschool. The expectations for a child entering kindergarten are not what you or your parents may remember.
	Rugby study probes concussion impact on brain A major study of rugby union players points to a potential link between frequent concussion and brain function, the project's lead researcher said Tuesday.
	Study suggests firms "underinvest" in long-term cancer research Pharmaceutical firms "underinvest" in long-term research to develop new cancer-fighting drugs due to the greater time and cost required to conduct such research, according to a newly published study co-authored by MIT economists.
	Hospitals' compliance with guidelines for treating brain injuries doesn't guarantee better outcomes Two decades ago, the Brain Trauma Foundation published its first set of guidelines for treating traumatic brain injury.
Link between mood, pain in rheumatoid arthritis patients Depressive symptoms and mood in the moment may predict momentary pain among rheumatoid arthritis patients, according to Penn State researchers.
	Stress hormone reduces heroin cravings Every addiction is characterized by a strong desire for a certain addictive substance, be it nicotine, alcohol or other drug. Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland recently conducted a study on heroin addiction and demonstrated that the stress hormone cortisol can reduce addictive cravings. The findings from the research have been published in the medical journal Translational Psychiatry.
Pharmacy expenditures for children with serious chronic illness In an analysis of expenditures for outpatient pharmacy products used by publicly insured children with serious chronic illness in California, treating hemophilia accounted for about 40 percent of expenditures but included just 0.4 percent of the group studied, suggesting a need to improve pricing for this and other effective yet high-cost medications, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA.
	Rates of death, hospitalizations and expenditures decrease for Medicare patients Among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries age 65 years or older, all-cause mortality and hospitalization rates, along with inpatient expenditures per beneficiary, decreased from 1999 to 2013, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on Medicare and Medicaid at 50. There has also been a decrease in recent years in total hospitalizations and inpatient expenditures for the last 6 months of life.
ACA open enrollment periods associated with improved coverage, access to care and health Results of a national survey that included more than half a million adults indicates significant improvements in trends for self-reported insurance coverage, access to a personal physician and medications, affordability and health after the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) first and second open enrollment periods, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on Medicare and Medicaid at 50. Analyses also demonstrated that the largest improvements in coverage and access to medicine occurred among racial/ethnic minorities, suggesting that the ACA may be associated with reductions in long-standing disparities in access to care.
Findings question measures used to assess hospital quality Hospitals that were penalized more frequently in the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program offered advanced services, were major teaching institutions and had better performance on other publicly reported process-of-care and outcome measures, according to a study in the July 28 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on Medicare and Medicaid at 50. These findings suggest that penalization in this program may not reflect poor quality of care but rather may be due to measurement and validity issues of the HAC program component measures.
Delirium shows its signature A new blood test could help doctors identify patients at risk for delirium, a sudden, acute state of confusion that most often affects older adults and incurs $6.9 billion in medical costs each year in the U.S. It comes on quickly and can signal serious health trouble.
Study finds intramuscular fat affects skeletal muscle mechanics with implications for the age and obesity Efforts to battle the bulge and stay youthful aren't futile, but they are certainly compromised by a physiological process that undermines our mobility, according to a Simon Fraser University scientist.
Study shows prescription drug law's effectiveness Since Kentucky's landmark prescription drug abuse legislation took effect in 2012, the Commonwealth has seen a significant decline in the number of prescriptions for the most commonly abused medications, doctor shopping has decreased by more than 50 percent, and more Kentuckians are seeking treatment for prescription medication addiction.
Clinic uses exercise to combat post-traumatic stress disorder and depression With post-traumatic stress disorder affecting almost one million Australians every year, QUT Health Clinics and the White Cloud Foundation have today launched a free clinic of exercise training for sufferers.
	Are robot surgeons in the operating theatre as safe as they could be? A study has revealed that robotic surgery was involved in 144 deaths and 1,391 injuries in the US during a 14-year period. While this may seem a cause for concern, considering there were 1.7m operations carried out during the same period, this is very few indeed.
	Free online therapy for depression offered as part of exciting new research trial Researchers from the University of Exeter have launched a large-scale research study to improve understanding of treatments that are currently offered to people with depression. The aim of the trial is to develop stronger, more effective and more widely available treatments.
	Post-pregnancy pain linked to poor body perception A West Australian study has found a new mother's perception of her body could be directly related to cases of lumbopelivic pain post-pregnancy.
	5 things you should know about leprosy Leprosy is not common, but confirmed cases have jumped this year in Florida. There are usually 0-12 new cases of leprosy reported in the state every year. However, nine cases have been reported already. That's more cases than had been expected just after the mid-year point, and in all these cases, the people who were infected had had contact with armadillos—the likely source of the infection.
	How genetic mutations promote Ewing's sarcoma Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have elucidated at the molecular level how an otherwise innocuous inherited mutation that is quite common in European populations interacts with a spontaneous somatic mutation to promote the development of Ewing's sarcoma.
Where memory is encoded and retrieved Are the same regions and even the same cells of the brain area called hippocampus involved in encoding and retrieving memories or are different areas of this structure engaged? This question has kept neuroscientists busy for a long time. Researchers at the Mercator Research Group "Structure of Memory" at RUB have now found out that the same brain cells exhibit activity in both processes.
	Undergraduates publish parasite research A team of University of Bristol undergraduates have published a study on genetic diversity in the sexually transmitted parasite Trichomonas vaginalis that they carried out as part of project work for their degrees in the School of Biological Sciences.
New drug for blood cancers now in five phase II clinical trials Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have established the safety and dosing of a new drug for treating blood cancers. The findings are published online July 27 in The Lancet Haematology.
	Less is more when treating rare eye condition New research from the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry is showing less is more when it comes to the treatment of optic disc pits¬—a rare eye condition.
Researchers create promising new mouse model for lung injury repair Researchers at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and The Saban Research Institute of CHLA have created a dynamic functional mouse model for lung injury repair, a tool that will help scientists explain the origins of lung disease and provide a system by which new therapies can be identified and tested. Their findings have been published online by the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology.
	High-fat maternal diet changes newborn heart 'tastebuds' Baby rats whose mothers were fed a high-fat diet had larger than normal hearts with fewer taste receptors for bitter flavours, according to new UNSW research.
	Hepatitis B continues to be a global health problem Hepatitis B infections are among the most common infectious diseases worldwide. The disease can become chronic, and is one of the most important causes of severe diseases such as liver cancer. In the scope of an international study funded by the World Health Organization, scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig determined how often the chronic infection occurs in different countries and how many people of the general population are affected. They noted strong differences between different countries. Their results are published in the scientific journal, The Lancet.
Metagenome-wide association study on oral microbiome uncovered markers for rheumatoid arthritis Researchers from BGI, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, etc., reported the study on the oral and the gut microbiome in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The results show that the gut and oral microbiome are involved in the pathophysiology and management of RA and provide indication for developing microbiome-assisted personalized treatments. The latest finding was published online today in Nature Medicine.
	Fatty acid increases performance of cellular powerhouse Mitochondria are essential to all higher forms of life. Every animal and plant depends on these small intracellular structures. Mitochondria have multiple tasks: Since they generate most of the cell's biochemical energy, they are referred to as the powerhouses of the cell. In addition, they are responsible for producing and breaking down amino acids and fats. They also regulate cellular death, called apoptosis.
	Confetti-like depigmentation may predict vitiligo progression (HealthDay)—Confetti-like depigmentation may be a marker of rapidly progressing vitiligo, according to a review published in the August issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
	Improved care transitions needed post ambulatory surgery (HealthDay)—Patients age 70 or older are at greater risk of unanticipated hospital admission within 30 days of ambulatory surgery, even after adjusting for comorbidities, according to a study published online July 22 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
	Self-reported eczema valid for detecting atopic dermatitis (HealthDay)—Self- and caregiver-reported history of eczema is valid for identifying atopic dermatitis (AD), according to a study published online July 17 in the British Journal of Dermatology.
	One-third of septic shock survivors readmitted (HealthDay)—About one-third of survivors of sepsis or septic shock are readmitted within 30 days, according to a study published online July 20 in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
	Earlier physical therapy may help older patients with back pain (HealthDay)—For older adults presenting to their primary care providers with a new visit for back pain, early referral to physical therapy (PT) services results in no clinically meaningful differences in outcomes; however, the extent of improvement in symptoms may be greater, according to a study published in the Aug. 1 issue of The Spine Journal.
	Risk of death up with lower extremity amputation in diabetes (HealthDay)—Patients with diabetes and a lower extremity amputation (LEA) are more likely to die, with some of the increased risk due to diabetes-related complications, according to a study published online July 22 in Diabetes Care.
	Beetroot juice supplementation may help lengthen workouts (HealthDay)—Chronic supplementation with beetroot juice (BRJ), containing nitrate, has beneficial effects on the work of the heart in response to exercise, according to a study published online June 17 in the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
Effects over time of tobacco tax increases in New Zealand Ongoing tobacco tax increases predicted to improve health, reduce health system costs, and reduce health inequalities, but take years to have their maximum health impacts.
Probiotics improve behavioral symptoms of chronic inflammatory diseases in mice Probiotics may improve the behavioral symptoms of chronic inflammatory diseases by altering communication between the immune system and the brain, according to an animal study published July 29 in the Journal of Neuroscience. Chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease are associated with behavioral symptoms that include fatigue, depression, and social withdrawal. Researchers at the University of Calgary fed probiotics to mice with liver inflammation and found that the treatment reduced these behaviors.
Movement tracking technology sheds light on different speech disorders in children Facial motion capture - the same technology used to develop realistic computer graphics in video games and movies - has been used to identify differences between children with childhood apraxia of speech and those with other types of speech disorders, finds a new study by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Doctor warns about lead poisoning risk from recycling older electronic equipment The disposal and recycling of electronic devices has increased exposure to lead and other toxicants and created "an emerging health concern," according to a pediatrician who directs the Environmental Health and Lead Clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Early evidence suggests hybrid cochlear implants may benefit millions with common form of hearing loss People with a common form of hearing loss not helped by hearing aids achieved significant and sometimes profound improvements in their hearing and understanding of speech with hybrid cochlear implant devices, according to a new multicenter study led by specialists at NYU Langone Medical Center.
	Hormones influence unethical behavior Hormones play a two-part role in encouraging and reinforcing cheating and other unethical behavior, according to research from Harvard University and The University of Texas at Austin.
National study of deep brain stimulation for depression fails to demonstrate efficacy Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and treatment-resistant symptoms of depression have a terrible personal and societal cost. They can devastate lives, careers, and families. Some severely ill patients may be unable to attend to even the basic elements of self-care, while others attempt or complete suicide.
	Practice doesn't always make perfect (depending on your brain) How do you get to Carnegie Hall? New research on the brain's capacity to learn suggests there's more to it than the adage that "practise makes perfect." A music-training study by scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -The Neuro, at McGill University and colleagues in Germany found evidence to distinguish the parts of the brain that account for individual talent from the parts that are activated through training.
New eye-tracker method shows 'preferred retinal location' in both eyes Eyes with central vision loss adapt by developing a new fixation point in a different part of the retina, called the preferred retinal location (PRL). Now for the first time, a new method makes it possible to identify PRLs in both eyes simultaneously, reports a study in the August issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.
Doctor Google: How age and other factors influence online health information searches Consumers have access to multiple Web sites to search for online health information and can be far more involved in managing their own medical issues than ever before. However, this wealth of resources can make finding accurate information difficult, especially because it is often spread across multiple sites. A new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making aims to evaluate the types of search strategies that Internet users adopt when trying to solve a complicated health problem.
	Parents' health literacy affects child weight-loss tactics, study finds Parents who have low health literacy are less likely to choose government-recommended weight-loss strategies, such as increasing physical activity or serving more fruits and vegetables, to help their children control their weight than parents who are better able to understand basic health-related information, a new study suggests.
World's first bilateral hand transplant on child at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Surgeons at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) joined with colleagues from Penn Medicine recently to complete the world's first bilateral hand transplant on a child. Earlier this month, the surgical team successfully transplanted donor hands and forearms onto eight-year-old Zion Harvey who, several years earlier, had undergone amputation of his hands and feet and a kidney transplant following a serious infection.
	Autism costs estimated to reach nearly $500 billion, potentially $1 trillion, by 2025 UC Davis health economists have for the first time projected the total costs of caring for all people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the U.S. for the current calendar year and in 10 years if effective interventions and preventive treatments for the condition are not identified and widely available.
	More secondary schools serve healthier lunches Secondary students found healthier foods on more lunch menus in 2013 than in 2011, resulting in fewer nutrition disparities for small schools or those with racially diverse student bodies.
	Health care spending to accelerate, US report says The nation's respite from accelerating health care costs appears to be over.
	Coffee consumption habits impact the risk of mild cognitive impairment A new study by researchers at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy, Geriatric Unit & Laboratory of Gerontology and Geriatrics, IRCCS "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza", San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy, and Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Roma, Italy, estimates the association between change or constant habits in coffee consumption and the incidence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), evaluating 1,445 individuals recruited from 5,632 subjects, aged 65-84 year old, from the Italian Longitudinal Study on Aging (ILSA), a population-based sample from eight Italian municipalities with a 3.5-year median follow-up. These findings are published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Big data gives new insight into blood pressure reduction role of commonly prescribed drug With the growth of electronic medical records, research utilizing data from a large number of patients, known as big data studies, can provide important information which may be unattainable via clinical trials which tend to be costly, time-consuming and involve fewer patients.
	New tool uses 'drug spillover' to match cancer patients with treatments Targeted therapies attack a cancer's genetic sensitivities. However, it can be difficult to discover the genetics driving a patient's cancer, and the effects of drugs designed to target a genetic abnormality often go beyond their intended target alone. The result is threefold: sometimes a drug is prescribed to treat a target that proves to be irrelevant to the disease, sometimes an existing drug could be used to treat a cancer for which there is no approved targeted therapy, and sometimes a combination of targeted treatments could be used to simultaneously silence more than one genetic cause of a patient's cancer.
FDA approves stomach-filling balloon for weight loss Federal health regulators say they have approved an inflatable medical balloon that helps patients lose weight by filling up space in the stomach.
	Clinical validation for LOXO-101 against TRK fusion cancer The University of Colorado Cancer Center and Loxo Oncology, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of targeted cancer therapies, today announced the publication of a research brief in the online edition of the journal Cancer Discovery, describing the first patient with a tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) fusion cancer enrolled in the Phase 1 dose escalation trial of LOXO-101, the only selective TRK inhibitor in clinical development. Additional contributors to the paper include the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University and Foundation Medicine, Inc.
Omega-3 fatty acids may help improve treatment and quality of life in cancer patients Adding omega-3 fatty acids to anti-tumor medications may improve treatment response and quality of life for cancer patients according to a new study by researchers at the University Hospitals of Leicester in the United Kingdom.
New treatment may help neonatal liver disease associated with parenteral nutrition A new study finds that exogenous glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2) treatment may help fight neonatal parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease (PNALD).
	South Korea sees end of MERS threat after outbreak killed 36 South Korea said Tuesday it is now virtually free of the deadly MERS virus that killed 36 people and sickened nearly 200 since an outbreak was declared in May.
Report examines Medicare and Medicaid programs at 50 years and challenges ahead Although Medicare and Medicaid are playing a role in health care payment and delivery reform innovation, it will be difficult to enact large-scale program changes because of the conflicting priorities of beneficiaries, health practitioners and organizations, and policy makers, according to an article in the July 28 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on Medicare and Medicaid at 50.
Two patients in Britain test negative for MERS Two patients in Britain have tested negative for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), officials said Tuesday, after a hospital wing was shut down as a precautionary measure.
Hikma buys US generic drugmaker Roxane for $2.65bn London-listed pharmaceuticals firm Hikma on Tuesday bought US generic drugs company Roxane from German peer Boehringer Ingelheim for $2.65 billion (2.40 billion euros) in the sector's latest rapid round of consolidation.
	Do Latina women have lower risk of developing breast cancer than Americans? In Mexico, breast cancer has been adequately controlled, and is no longer considered a risk of death when it's diagnosed. The disease is common among women in the capital and the northern states, it ranks first in incidence of malignant neoplasms in females. It represents 11.34 percent of all cancer cases, and there is an overall increase of about a 1.5 per year.
	New hope for improved recovery after stroke Researchers with Neuroscience Research Australia and their colleagues have identified a remarkable new of improving recovery after stroke. The team found that some stroke patients have a distorted or "scrambled" representation map of their hand. When a patient is touched in one location on the hand, they perceive the sensation as originating from another site. A recent study revealed that it is possible to correct this scrambled map, leading to improved motor functioning.
Report documents unmet need for expanded family planning services at CHCs As part of a unique survey of nearly 2,000 women of childbearing age who receive health care at the nation's community health centers, 90 percent reported that they were not actively seeking to become pregnant in the next 12 months. Yet more than 3 out of 10 were not using contraceptives at the time of the survey.
Race and institutional factors play an important role in pharmacogenomic trial participation Cancer therapy has evolved from a "one-size-fits-all" type of treatment plan to a personalized approach based on a patient's type of cancer, the protein and genetic markers found in their tumors and their response to therapy. Important aspects of the personalized approach are pharmacogenomic studies that analyze associations between genetic variations and patient drug responses. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have published a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that analyzed the participation rate of patients in pharmacogenomic trials.
Tailored mobile health technologies may help patients take their medications appropriately It can be difficult for patients with complex chronic diseases to take medications appropriately, but a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) finds that tailored mobile health technologies can help ensure the safety of their care.
Many dialysis patients are unprepared for natural disasters Patients on dialysis are very vulnerable during emergencies or disasters due to their dependence on technology and infrastructure such as transportation, electricity and water to sustain their lives. A study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) shows that many are unprepared for such situations.
	New study data show reduced intracranial pressure Results from a European clinical trial comparing therapeutic hypothermia to standard treatment for patients with elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) as a result of severe traumatic brain injury demonstrate a significant mean decrease in ICP with body cooling to 32-35oC, which did not occur in the absence of therapeutic hypothermia. The study design and preliminary data are reported in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management.
	Illuminating mechanisms of repetitive thinking The ability to engage in mental time travel—to delve back into past events or imagine future outcomes—is a unique and central part of the human experience. And yet this very ability can have detrimental consequences for both physical and mental well-being when it becomes repetitive and uncontrolled.
	Dog sledding offers a healthy dose of adventure for children with cancer A team of sled dogs racing through the snowy forests of northern Canada conjures up the timeless spirit of exploration. But the intrepid youths on the sleds may not be exactly what you're picturing - they're young girls and boys with cancer.
New therapy delivers long-term relief for chronic back, leg pain, study finds Chronic back and leg pain sufferers in search of better pain relief options may have a new choice. According to a study published in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), patients who received a novel high frequency form of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) therapy experienced significantly greater, long-term relief for both chronic back and leg pain, when compared to a traditional low frequency form of SCS therapy.
Cancer healthcare disparities exist in the LGBTQ community, researchers say The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) community is a growing and medically-underserved minority population in the United States, with 3 to 12 percent of the population estimated to identify as LGBTQ. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers published one of the first articles that describe the current knowledge about cancers that may disproportionately affect the LGBTQ community, and also offered suggestions for improving their healthcare.
Neurology researchers evaluate evidence base for tests for clinical cognitive assessment Recommendations for improving clinical cognitive testing were reported by the American Academy of Neurology's (AAN) Behavioral Neurology Section (BNS) Group, led by Kirk R. Daffner, MD, of Boston, Mass. The Group focused on the Neurobehavioral Status Exam (NBSE), conducting evidence-based reviews of testing used for five domains - attention, language, memory, spatial cognition, and executive function). "Improving clinical cognitive testing" was published online ahead of print on July 10, 2015, in Neurology, the official journal of the AAN.
	Boy who lost limbs to infection gets double-hand transplant Surgeons in Philadelphia have performed a double-hand transplant on a boy believed to be the youngest patient to undergo the procedure.

Other Sciences news

	Unique tooth structure allowed predatory dinosaurs to efficiently crunch flesh and bone The Tyrannosaurus rex and its fellow theropod dinosaurs that rampage across the screen in movies like Jurassic World were successful predators partly due to a unique, deeply serrated tooth structure that allowed them to easily tear through the flesh and bone of other dinosaurs, says new research from the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM).
	French teen finds 560,000 year-old tooth (Update) A 16-year-old French volunteer archaeologist has found an adult tooth dating back around 560,000 years in southwestern France, in what researchers hailed as a "major discovery" Tuesday.
	Ancient fossils reveal remarkable stability of Caribbean lizard communities Tiny Anolis lizards preserved since the Miocene in amber are giving scientists a true appreciation of the meaning of community stability. Dating back some 15 to 20 million years, close comparison of these exquisitely preserved lizard fossils with their descendants alive today in the Caribbean has revealed, remarkably, little about them has changed.
Teacher social-emotional skills are key to successful implementation of new practices Teachers with strong social-emotional skills tend to implement new social-emotional intervention programs more faithfully, according to a study conducted by a University of Pittsburgh education professor published in the Society for Prevention Research's journal, Prevention Science. This study is part of a larger special issue on schools' readiness to implement new interventions, edited by Pitt's Shannon Wanless and her colleague Celene Domitrovich from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.
	Should androids have the right to have children? In contemporary science fiction, we often see robots passing themselves off as humans. According to a UiS researcher, the genre problematises what it takes to be accepted as a human being and provides a useful contribution to the debate about who should have the right to reproduce.
	Half of biomedical research studies don't stand up to scrutiny – and what we need to do about that What if I told you that half of the studies published in scientific journals today – the ones upon which news coverage of medical advances is often based – won't hold up under scrutiny? You might say I had gone mad. No one would ever tolerate that kind of waste in a field as important – and expensive, to the tune of roughly US$30 billion in federal spending per year – as biomedical research, right? After all, this is the crucial work that hunts for explanations for diseases so they can better be treated or even cured.
	Evidence stacks up that rocky outcrop was home to earliest Pictish fort An inhospitable sea stack on the Aberdeenshire coast has been confirmed as the site of the earliest Pictish Fort and predates the iconic Dunnottar Castle, carbon dating has revealed.
	The world's rarest skeleton stands on four legs once again Using cutting-edge technology, the world's rarest skeleton – a South African extinct zebra called a quagga – has regained its missing hind limb.
Geography, skills, local companies affect higher education impact on economic development Policy makers need to take factors like geography, available skills and knowledge and the networks of local companies into account to boost the impact of higher education on economic development, according to a new Atlas Award-winning paper published in the International Journal of Educational Development.
	Remains of four early colonial leaders discovered at Jamestown Archaeologists have uncovered human remains of four of the earliest leaders of the English colony that would become America, buried for more than 400 years near the altar of what was America's first Protestant church in Jamestown, Virginia.
	Majority rule: Why conformity can actually be a good thing Like to go your own way? Most of us actually prefer to follow the pack, according to UBC research.
How to digitally stoke that old-time auction fever Whether online auctions are selling rare Pokemon cards or fine art, the science behind inciting the highest bids gets a boost from a paper to be published in the September issue of the Journal of Retailing. Researchers from Germany and Australia teamed up to explore how bidders' emotions are affected by different types of auctions and how those emotions affect their bidding.
	Are we born racist? Bias expert answers timely questions Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, PhD, professor of psychology and Richard & Rhoda Goldman distinguished professor of social sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, recently co-edited a book called Are We Born Racist?: New Insights from Neuroscience and Positive Psychology. He is a frequent contributor to Psychology Today. Mendoza-Denton has published groundbreaking research on bias, stereotypes, and prejudice. He is also faculty advisor for the Greater Good Science Center, which studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, teaching skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.
	Research says tackling homelessness early is cost-effective A study by researchers at the University of York and Crisis shows how intervening to help people when they first become homeless makes good economic sense, saving between £3,000 and £18,000 for every person helped.
Study finds unexpected biases against teen girls' leadership Making Caring Common (MCC), a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, today released new research that suggests that many teen boys and teen girls—and some of their parents—have biases against teen girls as leaders. These biases could be powerful barriers to leadership for a generation of teen girls with historically high levels of education who are key to closing our nation's gender gap in leadership. The report also suggests that much can be done to prevent and reduce gender biases in children.
	The battle for Britain's roads – motorists versus pedestrians Professor Keith Laybourn, with Professor David Taylor, examine the coming of the car – what it meant for British society and in particular how it was policed.

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