HOUSTON -- (June 15, 2015) -- A team of biologists from Rice University, the University of Notre Dame and three other schools has discovered that an agricultural pest that began plaguing U.S. apple growers in the 1850s likely did so after undergoing extensive and genome-wide changes in a single generation. This new result, which appears online this week in Ecology Letters, came from applying the latest tools of genome sequencing and analysis to preserved evidence from experiments carried out at Notre Dame in the 1990s. The research focuses on the fruit fly Rhagoletis ...

DENVER, June 15 -- A new study from the University of Colorado Denver finds that scientists agree that children of same-sex parents experience 'no difference' on a range of social and behavioral outcomes compared to children of heterosexual or single parents. The study was led by Jimi Adams, an associate professor in the Department of Health and Behavioral Studies at CU Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and published this month in Social Science Research. The research comes at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court is determining whether the Constitution requires ...

Bethesda, MD (June 15, 2015) -- Modifying the small white blood cells that protect against disease might help treat immune disorders, according to a study1 published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the basic science journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Specifically, researchers found that modulation of B lymphocyte function may be a means of regulating T lymphocyte function to treat immune-mediated disorders, including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Researchers uncovered the following pathway: gut bacteria stimulate intestinal ...

This news release is available in German. An innovative mechanism that the innate immune system uses to control viral infections has been uncovered by researchers at the University Medical Centers in Mainz and Freiburg. Central to this is the discovery that two different but related elements of the immune system can act together in concert to fight, for example, rotavirus infections. Infection with rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrhea in children around the world. The results of the research have recently been published in the eminent scientific journal Nature ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Aging can cause many changes to the body, including obesity and a loss of lean mass. Now, a group of University of Florida Health researchers has discovered that an existing drug reduces body fat and appetite in older rats, which has intriguing implications for aging humans. Rapamycin, a pharmaceutical used to coat coronary stents and prevent transplant rejection, reduces obesity and preserves lean body mass when given intermittently to older rats. The two rapamycin-related studies were published recently in the Journal of Gerontology as a joint effort ...

A simple way to turn carbon nanotubes into valuable graphene nanoribbons may be to grind them, according to research led by Rice University. The trick, said Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan, is to mix two types of chemically modified nanotubes. When they come into contact during grinding, they react and unzip, a process that until now has depended largely on reactions in harsh chemical solutions. The research by Ajayan and his international collaborators appears in Nature Communications. To be clear, Ajayan said, the new process is still a chemical reaction ...

The city where an individual lives can influence the risk of dying by suicide, according to a new study from sociologists at Rice University and the University of Colorado at Boulder. "Suicide in the City: Do Characteristics of Place Really Influence Risk?" appears in the latest edition of Social Science Quarterly. The study found that adults living in cities with more socio-economic disadvantages and fewer families living together have higher odds of suicidal death than adults living in less-disadvantaged cities and cities with more families living together. The findings ...

PHILADELPHIA (June 15, 2015) - Army ants, the nomadic swarming predators underfoot in the jungle, can take down a colony of prey animals without breaking a sweat. But certain army ant species can't take the heat. According to a new study from Drexel University, underground species of army ants are much less tolerant of high temperatures than their aboveground relatives--and that difference in thermal tolerance could mean that many climate change models lack a key element of how animal physiology could affect responses to changing environments. At face value, this is ...

Scientists at the University of Southampton have found a way to pry into the private lives of fish - by looking in their ears. By studying ear stones in fish, which act as tiny data recorders, scientists can now reveal migration patterns and even provide insights into their sex life. Managing fish stocks in a sustainable way is a major challenge facing scientists, conservationists, policy makers and fishermen. To get the best results, accurate information about the movements of fish in the wild is needed but gathering this information is extremely difficult. Tiny ...

Daejeon, Republic of Korea, Jun 15, 2015 -- Phase change random access memory (PRAM) is one of the strongest candidates for next-generation nonvolatile memory for flexible and wearable electronics. In order to be used as a core memory for flexible devices, the most important issue is reducing high operating current. The effective solution is to decrease cell size in sub-micron region as in commercialized conventional PRAM. However, the scaling to nano-dimension on flexible substrates is extremely difficult due to soft nature and photolithographic limits on plastics, thus ...

From the adventures of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider to the apocalyptic drama of Fallout - new research from the University of Warwick has revealed the secret to how some of the world's most iconic video games were created. Professor David Stark says it is because the creative teams behind these ground-breaking titles had the ideal mix of career backgrounds and working relationships. He claims his research offers a fresh insight into the factors which stimulate innovation - theories that can also apply away from the video gaming industry. The 'Big Data' analysis looked ...

Humans are unlikely to be the only animal capable of self-awareness, a new study has shown. Conducted by University of Warwick researchers, the study found that humans and other animals capable of mentally simulating environments require at least a primitive sense of self. The finding suggests that any animal that can simulate environments must have a form of self-awareness. Often viewed as one of man's defining characteristics, the study strongly suggests that self-awareness is not unique to mankind and is instead likely to be common among animals. The researchers, ...

Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a new technique to more precisely analyze bacterial populations, to reveal epigenetic mechanisms that can drive virulence. The new methods hold the promise of a potent new tool to offset the growing challenge of antibiotic resistance by bacterial pathogens. The research was published today in the journal Nature Communications, and conducted in collaboration with New York University Langone Medical Center and Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School. The information content of the ...

Scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum München have now discovered how Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) conceals itself in human cells. A main culprit for its bad visibility by the immune system is the viral protein LMP2A. As published in the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens, the protein helps EBV-infected cells hide from T cells. This camouflage through the LMP2A protein may play a major role in the causation of cancer by EBV. „We suspected that a viral protein was behind EBV's camouflage in cancerous cells", says Dr. Andreas Moosmann from the Research Unit Gene Vectors ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After this year's legalization of powdered alcohol, some states have already banned it -- a move that the majority of the public supports, according to a new University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. Adults across the country share the same top concern about the new alcohol-on-the-go product: potential misuse among underage youth. Packaged in travel-friendly pouches, powdered alcohol will be available in flavors of distilled spirits like vodka and rum and also mixed drinks. One packet of powdered alcohol ...

Lisbon, 15 June 2015: In October last year the Gothenburg, Sweden, group of Mats Bra?nnstro?m announced the world's first live birth following the transplantation of a donated uterus.(1) In an editorial accompanying the report, The Lancet listed this remarkable achievement as comparable to only three other landmarks in the history of reproductive medicine: "the arrival of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) in the late 1970s; the development of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in the early 1990s; the first ovarian transplant a decade ago; and [now] the first live birth ...

Lisbon, 15 June 2015: The academic performance of children conceived by assisted reproduction techniques (ART) is no better or worse than that of spontaneously conceived children when assessed at the ninth grade of their school education.(1) Similarly, ART singletons and ART twins also had comparable test scores, suggesting, say the investigators, that "the higher obstetric risk" identified in ART pregnancies - and particularly in twins - "is not associated with poorer academic performance in adolescence".(2) "These findings are very important for infertile patients," ...

EuroHeartCare is the official annual meeting of the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (CCNAP) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The 2015 meeting is held 14 to 15 June in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in collaboration with the Croatian Association of Cardiology Nurses. Professor Gafarov said: "Mortality from cardiovascular diseases accounts for nearly 50% of the total mortality among the population. Nearly 80% of deaths from cardiovascular disease are due to myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke. It means that today we are talking about ...

"It is my coronary artery and my coronary artery calcification and I am facing a real risk and challenge," said one patient. EuroHeartCare is the official annual meeting of the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (CCNAP) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The 2015 meeting is held 14 to 15 June in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in collaboration with the Croatian Association of Cardiology Nurses. Ms Mols said: "Patients with non-obstructive coronary artery disease and hyperlipidaemia (high blood lipids) urgently need to improve their lifestyles and ...

The American Thoracic Society has released a policy statement with recommendations for clinicians and the general public on achieving good quality sleep and getting an adequate quantity of sleep. "Sleep plays a vital role in human health, yet there is a lack of sufficient guidance on promoting good sleep health," said Sutapa Mukherjee, MBBS, PhD, chair of the committee that produced the statement. "In this statement, with an eye towards improving public health, we address the importance of good quality sleep with a focus on sleep health in adults and children; the effects ...

How light of different colours is absorbed by carbon dioxide (CO2) can now be accurately predicted using new calculations developed by a UCL-led team of scientists. This will help climate scientists studying Earth's greenhouse gas emissions to better interpret data collected from satellites and ground stations measuring CO2. By improving the understanding of how much radiation CO2 absorbs, uncertainties in modelling climate change will be reduced and more accurate predictions can be made about how much Earth is likely to warm over the next few decades. Previous methods ...

Background: According to Sturgis, the incidence of HPV-positive oropharyngeal carcinoma has increased dramatically in recent years. Although patients with HPV-positive disease have a better prognosis than those with HPV-negative disease, researchers are still seeking a better understanding of what group of patients is more likely to respond to treatment. How the Study Was Conducted: Sturgis and colleagues used blood samples from 209 patients with previously untreated oropharyngeal carcinoma, including 96 who had confirmed HPV-positive disease, and screened the samples ...

Background: Pietras said that although prognosis for breast cancer is relatively good when detected in its early stages, metastatic disease is the cause of 90 percent of all cancer-related deaths. Therefore, learning more about the metastatic process and finding new cures to inhibit disease spread is at the center of clinical attention. He explained that in order for a tumor to spread, a cancer cell must detach and traverse the vascular wall to escape into the blood stream, exit the vasculature to enter the metastatic site, and colonize the new tissue. The fact that ...

Lisbon, 15 June 2015: Women with endometriosis are at an increased risk of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy, according to results of a huge nationwide study presented today. Moreover, women with a history of endometriosis whose pregnancies progressed beyond 24 weeks were found to be at a higher than average risk of complications, including haemorrhage (ante- and postpartum) and preterm birth. "These results indicate that endometriosis predisposes women to an increased risk of early pregnancy loss and later pregnancy complications," said the study's first author Dr Lucky ...

Medical guidance on how to care for elderly people with dementia following a hip fracture is 'sadly lacking' according to researchers at the University of East Anglia. Almost half of all people who suffer hip fractures also have dementia. But a Cochrane Review published today reveals there is no conclusive evidence on how to care for this particularly vulnerable group. The review, which was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), highlights an urgent need for better research into what strategies improve post-operative care - both within hospital ...