Forensic biomedical scientists from KU Leuven, Belgium, have developed a test to predict individuals' age on the basis of blood or teeth samples. This test may be particularly useful for the police, as it can help track down criminals or identify human remains. When forensic examiners find traces of blood at a crime scene, they can try to identify the perpetrator on the basis of DNA. From now on, the blood samples can also be used to predict the criminal's age. This is also the case for deceased individuals: when traditional methods do not lead to identification, the ...

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden may have discovered one of the keys to understanding how the body develops acute pancreatitis. The results offer hope for the development of drugs that specifically target the disease. Within gastro research it is a well-known fact that the excessive activation of a type of white blood cells, neutrophils, causes the inflammation of the pancreas. Until now, however, there has been no satisfactory explanation for what causes neutrophil activation. Three research groups at Lund University have worked together to find an answer. "Our ...

Chicago, September 8, 2015 - A new statistical model may help predict which patients are most likely to receive life-extending benefits from surgical treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), according to an article in the September 2015 issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Key points A new statistical model may help identify which patients will benefit most from surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Younger age, no history of asbestos exposure, epithelioid histology, and a low number of affected lymph nodes were strongly associated with better ...

Researchers at the University of Bonn have discovered how cells in the body can detect the genetic material of so-called retroviruses. The pathogen of the immunodeficiency disease AIDS, the HI-1 virus, also belongs to this group. At the same time, the HI virus appears to circumvent this important defense mechanism. The researchers are now presenting their results in the renowned journal Nature Immunology. The first line of defense of the immune system against pathogens is innate immunity. It is based on specialized sensor proteins, the receptors. These receptors detect ...

Gold is a kind of rare precious metal and has a wide-range use. Gold price has been rising since the 80's of the last century. The great demand for gold has not only stimulated gold exploration but also led to the need of understanding the genesis of gold deposits. A number of models have been advanced to explain how gold deposits were formed, and several types of gold deposits are accordingly established, such as the Witwatersrand-type, porphyry-type, Carlin-type, epithermal (low and high sulphidation), and orogenic gold deposits. These popular models, however, can hardly ...

Chicago, September 8, 2015 - Injection drug users who undergo surgery for infective endocarditis (IE) have a significantly higher risk of reoperation or death between 3 and 6 months after surgery compared to patients who develop endocarditis who are not IV drug abusers, according to an article in the September 2015 issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Key points: Patients with active injection drug use who undergo surgery for infective endocarditis have a 10-fold increased risk of reoperation or death between 3 and 6 months after surgery compared to non-drug abusers. The ...

A species of ant is thriving in habitats created by thousands of acres of coniferous forest planted in a UK National Park in the last 60 years, according to new research by scientists from the Department of Biology at the University of York and Forest Research, the Forestry Commission's research agency. The success of the northern hairy wood ant (Formica lugubris) in colonising plantations of largely non-native coniferous species in the North York Moors National Park supports recent suggestions that non-native plantations can have positive influences on forest-dependent ...

Ottawa - September 8, 2015 - Researchers from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI), together with the teams of Dr. Martin Farrell at Oxford University, and Dr. Sekar Kathiresan at the Broad Institute, have found the answer to an ongoing debate in the cardiovascular scientific world. Dr. Ruth McPherson and Dr. Majid Nikpay, researchers at the UOHI's Ruddy Canadian Cardiovascular Genetics Centre, report that the genetic basis of heart disease is largely derived from the cumulative effect of multiple common genetic variants, rather than from a few rare variants ...

Making a plan can be the difference in overcoming a difficult childhood, while just thinking about those difficulties can drag down the child. A set of four new studies from researchers at USC and Southwest University in China suggest, contrary to prior belief, children in difficult situations need to do more than dream of a happier and successful future self: They need a strategy for becoming that person. Two of the studies found eighth graders performed better in school if they had strategies for becoming their future selves, as well as several options for becoming ...

PITTSBURGH--How did the elephant get its trunk? Or the turtle its shell? How, in general, did the seemingly infinite diversity of complex animal forms on our planet arise? The scientific pursuit of how such "evolutionary novelties" come about is one of the big mysteries that biologists are trying to tease apart. The University of Pittsburgh's Mark Rebeiz and colleagues provide some answers in a paper published today in the journal Developmental Cell. Even in the most complex organisms, the genetic repertoire is limited. If creatures don't evolve by acquiring new genes, ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Teenagers are irrational and make bad decisions. Or do they? A new Duke study finds that adolescents ages 10 to 16 can be more analytical in their economic choices than many slightly older young adults. Published online in the October-December issue of Cognitive Development, the study suggests not only that society should give adolescents more credit for rationality but also that parents should help children hone their cost-benefit analysis skills in making real-life decisions. "The new results point to the idea that we should not think of adolescents ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Low-risk cancers that do not have any symptoms and presumably will not cause problems in the future are responsible for the rapid increase in the number of new cases of thyroid cancer diagnosed over the past decade, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in the journal Thyroid. According to the study authors, nearly one-third of these recent cases were diagnosed when clinicians used high-tech imaging even when no symptoms of thyroid disease were present. "We are spotting more cancers, but they are cancers that are not likely to cause harm," says ...

This news release is available in French. Chemical substances that are safe for humans when taken in isolation can become harmful when they are combined. Three research teams bringing together researchers from Inserm and CNRS in Montpellier have elucidated in vitro a molecular mechanism that could contribute to the phenomenon known as the "cocktail effect." This study is published in the journal Nature Communications. Every day we are exposed to many exogenous compounds such as environmental pollutants, drugs or substances in our diet. Some of these molecules, known ...

Got rope? Then try this experiment: Cross both ends, left over right, then bring the left end under and out, as if tying a pair of shoelaces. If you repeat this sequence, you get what's called a "granny" knot. If, instead, you cross both ends again, this time right over left, you've created a sturdier "reef" knot. The configuration, or "topology," of a knot determines its stiffness. For example, a granny knot is much easier to undo, as its configuration of twists creates weaker forces within the knot, compared with a reef knot. For centuries, sailors have observed such ...

WORCESTER, MA -- Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School are the first to show that it's possible to reverse the behavior of an animal by flipping a switch in neuronal communication. The research, published in PLOS Biology, provides a new approach for studying the neural circuits that govern behavior and has important implications for how scientists think about neural connectomes. New technologies have fueled the quest to map all the neural connections in the brain to understand how these networks processes information and control behavior. The human ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 7, 2015 - If you are in a special relationship with another person, thank grandma - not just yours, but all grandmothers since humans evolved. University of Utah anthropologist Kristen Hawkes is known for the "grandmother hypothesis," which credits prehistoric grandmothering for our long human lifespan. Now, Hawkes has used computer simulations to link grandmothering and longevity to a surplus of older fertile men and, in turn, to the male tendency to guard a female mate from the competition and form a "pair bond" with her instead of mating with ...

Physicists from the Department of Nanophotonics and Metamaterials at ITMO University have experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of designing an optical analog of a transistor based on a single silicon nanoparticle. Because transistors are some of the most fundamental components of computing circuits, the results of the study have crucial importance for the development of optical computers, where transistors must be very small and ultrafast at the same time. The study was published in the scientific journal Nano Letters. The performance of modern computers, which ...

Developing transparent or semitransparent solar cells with high efficiency and low cost to replace the existing opaque and expensive silicon-based solar panels has become increasingly important due to the increasing demands of the building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) systems. The Department of Applied Physics of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has successfully developed efficient and low-cost semitransparent perovskite solar cells with graphene electrodes. The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of this novel invention are around 12% when they are illuminated ...

Calculation with electron spins in a quantum computer assumes that the spin states last for a sufficient period of time. Physicists at the University of Basel and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute have now demonstrated that electron exchange in quantum dots fundamentally limits the stability of this information. Control of this exchange process paves the way for further progress in the coherence of the fragile quantum states. The report from the Basel-based researchers appears in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters. The basic idea of a quantum computer is to ...

DENVER, Colo. -- The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) today issued a new statement on Tobacco Control and Smoking Cessation at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Denver. The statement calls for higher taxes on tobacco products, comprehensive advertising and promotion bans of all tobacco products and product regulation including pack warnings. "Tax policies that increased the cost of cigarettes have played a prominent role in the reduction of cigarette smoking," said Dr. Kenneth Michael Cummings, Professor, Hollings Cancer ...

Scientists studying funnel-web spiders at Booderee National Park near Jervis Bay on the New South Wales south coast have found a large example of an unexpected funnel-web species. The scientists believe the 50-millimetre spider is a species of the tree-dwelling genus Hadronyche, not the ground-dwelling genus Atrax, which includes the Sydney funnel-web, the only species reported in the Park's records. "It's remarkable that we have found this other species in Booderee National Park," said Dr Thomas Wallenius, from The Australian National University (ANU). "It shows ...

Graphene, the ultra-thin, ultra-strong material made from a single layer of carbon atoms, just got a little more extreme. University of British Columbia (UBC) physicists have been able to create the first ever superconducting graphene sample by coating it with lithium atoms. Although superconductivity has already been observed in intercalated bulk graphite--three-dimensional crystals layered with alkali metal atoms, based on the graphite used in pencils--inducing superconductivity in single-layer graphene has until now eluded scientists. "This first experimental realization ...

Social network Flickr and citizen science website BugGuide have helped scientists to expand the known range of a rarely collected parasitic woodwasp, native to the eastern United States. Partially thanks to the two online photograph platforms, now the species' distribution now stretches hundreds of miles west of previous records. Previously known from only 50 specimens mainly from the Northeast, now the species was discovered in the Ozark Mountains by researchers from the University of Arkansas. Their study is published it in the open access journal Biodiversity Data Journal. Spurred ...

[Basel, Switzerland - 8 September 2015] The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) has announced today at the 9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health (ECTMIH) in Basel, Switzerland, the successful completion of Phase I human clinical trials for SCYX-7158 (AN5568), the first oral drug candidate specifically developed from the earliest drug discovery stage to combat human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, a deadly parasitic disease transmitted by the tsetse fly. The Phase I study, conducted in France, assessed the safety, ...

Edible dormice (Glis glis) spend about eight months on average in hibernation. Wildlife biologists from the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology of the Vetmeduni Vienna have shown for the first time that these animals can hibernate for up to 11.4 months. "This may be a world record," says Claudia Bieber, co-author of the study. "Dormice in our climate zone don't just spend the winter months underground, they sometimes begin hibernating in summer." The animals do not hibernate for so long every year, but only in years when beech trees produce few beechnuts. Successful ...