Science X Newsletter Sunday, Dec 6

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for December 6, 2015:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- How is a developing brain assembled? 3-D software tracks worm embryo's brain development
- Samsung to pay Apple $548 mn in lengthy patent case
- Engine uses debris as propellant in concept to clean space junk
- The BBC has project which explores tailored viewing
- Liftoff: First US shipment in months flying to space station (Update)

Astronomy & Space news

	Liftoff: First US shipment in months flying to space station (Update) A U.S. shipment of much-needed groceries and other astronaut supplies rocketed toward the International Space Station for the first time in months Sunday, reigniting NASA's commercial delivery service.
	Orbital to try space cargo launch Saturday after high winds Orbital ATK will attempt to make it third time lucky Saturday in the launch of its Cygnus space cargo ship after high winds off Florida forced a second postponement in as many days.
	High winds push Orbital space launch bid to Sunday High winds in Florida have pushed to Sunday Orbital ATK's launch of its unmanned Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station, the latest in a series of delays due to weather.
	Weather improves for commercial space station delivery (Update) NASA's spirits soared Sunday as weather forecasters offered significantly better odds of launching a rocket with much-needed supplies to the International Space Station.

Technology news

	Samsung to pay Apple $548 mn in lengthy patent case Samsung has agreed to pay smartphone rival Apple just over $548 million in a years-long patent battle in federal court in California.
	Engine uses debris as propellant in concept to clean space junk Space debris is a pressing problem for Earth-orbiting spacecraft, and it could get significantly worse. It threatens satellites and craft; now scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing are looking at an approach that could draw more attention among those looking for solutions.
	The BBC has project which explores tailored viewing Why would a certain show grab you to the point where you let the coffee grow cold and rivet your attention to the screen from start to finish? It may not be just because the writers are brilliant or direction is smashing. It might just be a BBC product of the future, personalized video.
	Casinos could see guitar-playing, car-racing, card-grabbing Consider them the concept cars of casinos.
	One-step tumor detection from dynamic morphology tracking on aptamer grafted surface A team of researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington (UT-Arlington) in Texas, USA has demonstrated a novel cancer cell detection method based on real time cell behavior tracking on engineered surfaces. A synthetic RNA molecule is coated on chip surface to identify cancer cells. The otherwise "calm and quiet" cells on this surface show interesting dancing behavior when their membrane receptors are matched to the surface RNA molecules. The behavior is quantified using interesting image processing techniques. Cancer cells are shown to demonstrate significantly different behavior than regular healthy cells. This phenomenon has potential to detect cancer in a tabletop setup thus leveraging doctors to perform frequent and economic tests with faster results and better disease prediction. The report appears in the December 2015 issue of the journal Technology.
	Ship carrying nuclear waste arrives in Australia A ship carrying 25 tonnes of radioactive waste arrived back in Australia on Saturday, met by activists who warned against the vast nation becoming a nuclear dumping ground.

Medicine & Health news

	How is a developing brain assembled? 3-D software tracks worm embryo's brain development A new, open-source software that can help track the embryonic development and movement of neuronal cells throughout the body of the worm, is now available to scientists. The software is described in a paper published in the open access journal, eLife on December 3rd by researchers at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the Center for Information Technology (CIT); along with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York City; Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Zhejiang University, China; and the University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington. NIBIB is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Latin American migrants in Spain should be screened for Chagas disease Latin American migrants in Spain should be screened for Chagas disease, particularly women before pregnancy, doctors urged today at EuroEcho-Imaging 2015.
	Studies reveal the surprising complexity of cognitive issues in children with epilepsy Children with epilepsy face a number of challenges compared with their healthy peers, including an increased risk of cognitive impairment. Three studies presented the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting parse the complex underpinnings of cognitive development in these children, revealing a need for smarter assessments and targeted interventions.
Gene therapy restores immunity in children and young adults with rare immunodeficiency Gene therapy can safely rebuild the immune systems of older children and young adults with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1), a rare inherited disorder that primarily affects males, scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have found. NIAID's Suk See De Ravin, M.D., Ph.D., is scheduled to describe the findings at the 57th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Novel devices, technologies provide insights into seizure control, surgical targets Three studies to be presented at the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting describe novel devices and technologies that could reshape current understanding of the complex mechanisms underpinning seizure development in the brain.
	Four studies explore memory decline in people with epilepsy Four studies presented at the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting uncover the biological factors that mediate memory decline in people with epilepsy, particularly those with seizures that affect the temporal lobe.
Personalized medicine studies reveal gene targets for epilepsy Technological advances ranging from gene editing to next-generation sequencing offer unprecedented access to the human genome and promise to reshape the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.
	Study finds 'no-drill' dentistry stops tooth decay A University of Sydney study has revealed that tooth decay (dental caries) can be stopped, reversed, and prevented without the need for the traditional 'fill and drill' approach that has dominated dental care for decades.
	Early gene therapy results in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome promising Researchers reported promising preliminary outcomes for the first four children enrolled in a U.S. gene therapy trial for Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS), a life-threatening genetic blood and immune disorder, at the 57th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (abstract #260).
Clinical trial results show new drug is better for CLL patients Older adults with chronic lymphocytic leukemia may have an alternative to toxic chemotherapy as their first treatment, according to a national study to be reported online Dec. 6, 2015, in the New England Journal of Medicine and co-authored by a Wilmot Cancer Institute oncologist.
	Children with childhood leukemia benefit from prophylactic antibiotics Prophylactic antibiotics significantly reduce the risk of serious bacterial infections in children during the critical first month of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer, according to a U.S. and Canadian study led by investigators from Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. While the overall cure rate for ALL is high, about one to two percent of children with this diagnosis die during the first month of therapy from treatment complications, primarily infection-related.
Emerging technologies help advance the understanding, detection and control of epilepsy A smartphone-induced EEG waveform and an intelligent algorithm for seizure detection are among the emerging technologies to be unveiled at the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting. Four innovative studies presented at the meeting promise to reshape current paradigms for seizure detection and epilepsy management.
Researchers unravel mysteries of SCN8A mutation in epilepsy Three studies presented at the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting explore the effects of mutations in the SCN8A gene, thought to underlie early infantile epileptic encephalopathy (EIEE) and other neurological conditions.
	How to have a healthy holiday season (HealthDay)—You're at increased risk for colds and the flu over the holidays, but a few simple measures will help lower your chances of getting sick, an expert says.
	Mechanical thrombectomy benefits large vessel occlusion (HealthDay)—For patients with acute ischemic stroke caused by large artery occlusion, mechanical thrombectomy after usual care is associated with improved outcomes versus usual care alone, according to a review published in the Dec. 8 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
	IV bisphosphonate Tx linked to drop in bone turnover in DMD (HealthDay)—For patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), intravenous bisphosphonate therapy is associated with declines in bone turnover, according to a study published online Nov. 28 in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
	Glove-related hand urticaria may be rising in health care workers (HealthDay)—Health care workers are at high risk of glove-related hand urticaria, an occupational issue that may be increasing, according to a research letter published online Nov. 27 in the British Journal of Dermatology.
	Higher TENS dose may ease low back pain in older adults (HealthDay)—Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) devices may offer some relief for adults with chronic back pain, with higher-frequency, higher-intensity application more effective for older patients, according to research published in the December issue of The Journal of Pain.
	Cardiovascular trial sponsorship significantly impacts findings (HealthDay)—Large clinical studies that are sponsored by industry are more likely to report favorable outcomes and less likely to report unfavorable outcomes than those sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), particularly those in the cardiovascular field, according to research published in the Dec. 15 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.
	Guidelines promote awareness, use of pulmonary rehabilitation (HealthDay)—Guidelines for enhanced implementation, use, and delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) have been presented in a policy statement published in the Dec. 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
	Vitamin C, E, ferulic acid speed post-laser wound healing (HealthDay)—Laser-assisted delivery of vitamin C, E, and ferulic acid can decrease postoperative recovery time in fractional ablative laser resurfacing for photo damage, according to a study published online Nov. 27 in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine.
	Time to Tx initiation impacts survival in head, neck cancer (HealthDay)—For patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, time to treatment initiation (TTI) impacts overall survival, according to a study published online Nov. 30 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Making cancer care personal Researchers at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry are partnering with a private company to develop computer simulations that can help personalize cancer care by predicting how a patient will respond to a drug treatment.
Study shows age doesn't affect survival outcomes in patients with MDS who receive a HCT Results from a prospective study of 1,280 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) showed that survival at 100 days and at two years following hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) for patients aged 65 and older is comparable to patients aged 55 to 64. The study demonstrates that age alone should not be a determinant when considering HCT for patients with MDS. The study results were presented in an oral session at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology on Sunday, Dec. 6.
	Excess relative risk of repeat CT scans can be quantified (HealthDay)—Excess relative risk of computed tomography (CT) scans for quantification of cystic fibrosis (CF) can be calculated, according to a letter published in the Dec. 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
New juvenile myoclinic epilepsy research from American Epilepsy Society's Annual Meeting Researchers from Cardiff University, the University of Liverpool and Swansea University presented a new study revealing that people with drug-resistant juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) have a 10 percent chance of having a common copy number variation (CNV). These findings, presented at the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting, are important for accurate genetic counselling in the early detection and treatment of JME.

Biology news

Is climate change killing American starfish? On the remote rocky shores of the western United States, low tide brings visitors to wave-splashed tide pools to marvel at ocean wonders usually hidden from view.

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