Science X Newsletter Monday, Feb 15

Dear Reader ,

Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for February 15, 2016:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- A new spin on quantum computing: Scientists train electrons with microwaves
- Trapped in amber: Flower identified as new species
- Scientists prove feasibility of 'printing' replacement tissue
- Eternal 5D data storage could record the history of humankind
- Researchers report possible therapeutic approach to fatty liver disease
- Best of Last Week – Gravitational waves detected, hidden galaxies found and lipids combating Alzheimer's disease
- Researchers find tough new obstacle to HIV cure strategies
- Sweet discovery in leafy greens holds key to gut health
- Jawless fish brains more similar to ours than previously thought
- Discovery lays the foundation to expand personalized chemotherapy for leukemia patients
- Scientists discover new microbes that thrive deep in the earth
- Vulnerability to depression linked to noradrenaline
- Mystery 'hobbits' not humans like us: study
- Childhood obesity, rapid growth linked to pregnant moms eating lots of fish
- Visualizing a parasite crossing the blood brain barrier

Astronomy & Space news

	Space tourism projects at a glance Virgin Galactic later this month in Mojave, California, is preparing to roll out its new SpaceShipTwo, a vehicle the company hopes will one day take tourists to the edge of space. It comes roughly 15½ months since an earlier incarnation was destroyed in a test flight, killing one of the pilots. Despite the setback, the dream of sending tourists to the edge of space and beyond is still alive. Space tourism companies are employing designs including winged vehicles, vertical rockets with capsules and high-altitude balloons.
	Hubble watches the icy blue wings of Hen 2-437 In this cosmic snapshot, the spectacularly symmetrical wings of Hen 2-437 show up in a magnificent icy blue hue. Hen 2-437 is a planetary nebula, one of around 3,000 such objects known to reside within the Milky Way.
	Putting Pluto's geology on the map How to make sense of Pluto's surprising geological complexity? To help understand the diversity of terrain and to piece together how Pluto's surface has formed and evolved over time, mission scientists construct geological maps like the one shown above.
	Star formation in distant galaxy clusters The first stars appeared about one hundred million years after the big bang, and ever since then stars and star formation processes have lit up the cosmos, producing heavy elements, planets, black holes, and arguably all of the other interesting characters in today's universe. When the universe was about three billion years old (currently it is 13.8 billion years old), star formation activity peaked at rates about ten times above current levels. Why this happened, and whether the physical processes back then were different from those today or just more active (and why), are among the most pressing questions in astronomy, and are among the drivers of future facilities from large ground-based telescopes to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
	Hunting for ephemeral cosmic flashes— a conversation with astronomer Mansi Kasliwal Mansi Kasliwal (PhD '11), a new assistant professor of astronomy, searches the night sky for astrophysical transients—flashes of light that appear when stars become a million to a billion times as bright as our sun and then quickly fade away. She and her colleagues have developed robotic surveys to help detect these transient events, and she has built a global network of collaborators and telescopes aimed at capturing details of the flashes at all wavelengths.
	New launch communications antenna ready for business ESA inaugurated a new tracking dish in Australia yesterday, marking a significant step in the Agency's worldwide satcom network.
	Astronomers report results of first search for visible light associated with gravitational waves Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts the emission of gravitational waves by massive celestial bodies moving though space-time. For the past century gravitational waves have eluded a direct detection, but now the LIGO Virgo Collaboration has announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, emitted by a merging pair of black holes. Catastrophic mergers of binary systems can also produce brilliant and explosive fireworks of light, so a team of astronomers, including at Harvard, sought evidence of such an visible afterglow. Although none was spotted, this work represents the first detailed search for a visible counterpart of a gravitational wave event. It also will serve as a model for similar event follow-up in the future.
Pan-STARRS chases source of LIGO gravity wave event The email came in the night on Sept 15. A potentially significant event had happened at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, during their engineering run. A ripple in spacetime had occurred somewhere in the universe. But where? LIGO had not yet started their formal observing run, and with only two Gravity Wave detectors, one in Hanford, WA, and one in Livingston, LA, they could not pinpoint where in the sky, amongst billions and billions of galaxies, the source of this disturbance had occurred. The LIGO team's first analysis was preliminary, but it showed that two black holes, in tight orbits around each other, had finally spiraled together and merged into a single black hole. The resulting turmoil launched a cascade of vibrations into the very fabric of spacetime that ultimately set the astonishingly sensitive pendulums at LIGO swinging together.
	Farewell to Philae? How do you say goodbye to a valued colleague with whom you have worked closely for almost two decades? Maybe there is a farewell party, a collection for a gift, a bunch of flowers? If the colleague is moving to an exciting new post, the affair is usually joyful, possibly tinged with envy as well as regret. The same is true if the colleague is retiring – depending how close you are to retirement yourself. But what are those who worked on developing the comet lander Philae supposed to feel now their colleague faces "eternal hibernation" after a decision was made to give up trying to contact it?
	Scientist helps NASA develop medical device In the future, NASA astronauts journeying into deep space may give themselves a health check-up with the aid of a small medical device developed by a team of scientists, including one from LLNL.
	Was the Big Bang just a black hole? Fraser Cain "Asks a Spaceman" Dr. Paul Matt Sutter – why do we call the Big Bang a singularity, when we also call black holes singularities?
	How satellites can help control the spread of diseases such as Zika The explosive spread of Zika throughout the Americas is raising questions about the best ways to control this and future epidemics. We first need to identify what factors contribute to the spread of Zika and understand where and when they occur. With that knowledge we can effectively target our resources to fight the disease and control its spread.
	What would happen if Earth fell into a black hole? Black holes have long been a source of much excitement and intrigue. And interest regarding black holes will surely grow now that gravitational waves have been discovered.
	Image: SMART-1 views a cluster of the moon's craters This image shows a crater-filled region in the northeastern part of the moon. Several features are visible here, including, to the left of the frame, the small Keldysh crater peeking into view. Below and to the right of Keldysh is the small depression of Hercules F, which sits to the left of the faint and eroded rim of Atlas E. The largest and most prominent feature, visible towards the top right of the frame, is Atlas crater.
	In search of new Earths and life in the Universe Twenty years ago, in Geneva, PhD student Didier Queloz discovered a planet orbiting another sun – something that astronomers had predicted, but never found. Today he continues his terra hunting for extreme worlds and Earth twins in Cambridge.
	The mystery about the Chelyabinsk superbolide continues three years later In 2013 February 15, the approach of asteroid (367943) Duende to our planet was being closely monitored by both the public and the scientific community worldwide when a superbolide entered the atmosphere above the region of Chelyabinsk in Russia. Three years and hundreds of published scientific studies later, we are still looking for the origin of this unexpected visitor that caused damage to hundreds of buildings and injuries to nearly 1,500 people. Finding the precise value of its speed as it touched the top of the atmosphere appears to be the key to determine the orbit of the parent body of the Chelyabinsk superbolide.
	French social networks atwitter over asteroid hoax Twitter and Facebook lit up this weekend when pranksters reported that an asteroid was hurtling toward France, prompting a humourless denial Monday on the website of a national radio station.
EGNOS augments the U.S. GPS system for safer skies The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is the first pan-European satellite navigation system. It augments the US GPS satellite navigation system and makes it suitable for safety critical applications such as flying aircraft.
	NASA seeks satellite maker for series of CubeSat technology missions In a unique invitation to develop a new satellite platform, NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) is requesting proposals from industry to provide small spacecraft for its Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator (PTD) missions that will include government-furnished technology payloads for a series of flight demonstrations.

Technology news

New hardware to expand fast fiber-to-the-home The cost of deploying fast fibre connections straight to homes could be dramatically reduced by new hardware designed and tested by UCL researchers. The innovative technology will help address the challenges of providing households with high bandwidths while futureproofing infrastructure against the exponentially growing demand for data.
	Algorithm lets planning systems generate backup plans efficiently Planning algorithms are widely used in logistics and control. They can help schedule flights and bus routes, guide autonomous robots, and determine control policies for the power grid, among other things.
	Google 'Project Loon' balloon enters Sri Lanka for Internet tests Google's balloon-powered high-speed Internet service known as "Project Loon" began its first tests in Sri Lanka Monday ahead of a planned joint venture with Colombo, the country's top IT official said.
	Self-parking chairs at conference tables show Nissan's auto push An amusing video has surfaced about an intelligent parking chair inspired by Nissan; the video shows the chairs swinging into action, self-guiding to finally park at a table in response to a person's claps.
	Drones becoming 'real' threat to commercial aviation: IATA Civilian drones are increasingly becoming a "real and growing threat" to the safety of commercial aviation, industry group IATA warned on Monday, calling for regulations to be put in place before any serious accidents occur.
	Sensor system to speed up airport security screening Everyone has experienced passing through security screening in airports. Not only is the process slow and intrusive, but you may also wonder whether it is reliable or just a waste of time.
	What is FPV drone racing? The new sport of drone racing sees small but very fast robots fly around a circuit littered with obstacles. Unlike motorsports we are familiar with, the course of a drone race can be three-dimensional, with obstacles they need to fly around, under, over and even through.
	No more keys or cards? Technology goes under the skin Researchers at the University of Melbourne are investigating the growth in a new type of technology, inserted under the skin, and set to revolutionise the way we gain access to our homes, our bank accounts and use public transport.
	Humanoid robots in tomorrow's aircraft manufacturing Developing humanoid robotic technology to perform difficult tasks in aircraft manufacturing facilities is the goal of a four-year joint research project, which is being conducted by the Joint Robotics Laboratory (CNRS/AIST) and Airbus Group. It will officially be launched on 12 February 2016 at the French Embassy in Tokyo. The introduction of humanoids on aircraft assembly lines will make it possible to relieve human operators of the most laborious and dangerous tasks, thus allowing them to concentrate on higher value-added ones. The primary difficulty for these robots will be to work in a confined environment and move without colliding with the numerous surrounding objects. This is the first issue researchers will have to solve by developing new algorithms for the planning and control of precise movements.
	Making message encryption easier Sending emails is as easy as pie. However, until now a lot of know-how has been required to securely encrypt them. This is bound to change: Deutsche Telekom and the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT in Darmstadt will be making encryption easy – with a popular encryption named Volksverschlüsselung. The Volksverschlüsselung software provides the required keys and configures the existing e-mail programs for the users to be able to encrypt and decrypt.
Comcast TV outage hits much of US, but problem mostly fixed Customers of Comcast Corp. lost part of their cable television service for several hours in many major U.S. metropolitan areas Monday, but the company said the problem was fixed in most places by early afternoon.
Mexico issues $8.9 million fine against VW for emissions Mexico has issued an $8.9 million fine against Volkswagen Mexico for selling 45,494 vehicles for the 2016 model year without certificates proving they comply with emissions standards.
	Imec introduces broad spectrum hyperspectral imaging solutions At this week's SPIE Photonics West, imec will present a new set of hyperspectral sensor and camera solutions with extended spectral range, going from the visible light (VIS) up to near infrared (NIR). The new line-scan VNIR (visible to near-infrared) sensor and snapshot mosaic VNIR camera outperform current solutions in spectral range and compactness.
An innovative air conditioning system enabling 27 percent savings Tecnalia is leading the development of an innovative air conditioning system enabling savings of 27% to be made. The system that goes by the name Hybrid Liquid Desiccant System-HLDS combines the technology of liquid desiccants to dehumidify the air with conventional technology on which air-conditioning is based (compression cycles for cooling) and allows humidity and temperature to be independently controlled.
	Fuels that do not produce hazardous exhaust gases Modern combustion engines become increasingly economical and clean. Engine developers, however, are now facing the technical conflict of whether fuel consumption or exhaust gas emission is to be further reduced. This Gordian knot might be cut by chemists' and engineers' further development of sophisticated fuels that help optimize combustion in the engine. This development work under the OME project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) via the FNR, the central project-coordinating agency in the area of renewable resources, with EUR 800,000 for a duration of three years.
	Cybathlon—A global Olympic-style competition to advance assistive and robotic technologies Slicing bread, pouring a cup of coffee, and sitting down at the kitchen table are a part of everyday life for most people, but for people with physical impairments such as limb amputations or neurological lesions, these tasks can present an insurmountable challenge without support. Pooling their efforts, researchers from the engineering and medical sciences are on a quest for smarter, more precise assistive devices ultimately piloted by the patients' minds.

Medicine & Health news

	Researchers find tough new obstacle to HIV cure strategies (Medical Xpress)—It's a good news/bad news scenario: Researchers have made a new discovery about HIV that will redirect curative strategies toward latent reservoirs of HIV—that's the good news. The bad news is that they discovered that clonally expanded, HIV-infected cells can can persist and produce new virus over many years in a patient on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Thus, any cure for HIV infection will have to attack these cells in order to permanently clear the virus.
	Scientists prove feasibility of 'printing' replacement tissue Using a sophisticated, custom-designed 3D printer, regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proved that it is feasible to print living tissue structures to replace injured or diseased tissue in patients.
	Researchers report possible therapeutic approach to fatty liver disease (Medical Xpress)—Steatosis is a condition in which the body fails to properly synthesize or eliminate triglyceride fat, causing abnormal retention of lipids inside cells. Steatohepatitis, then, is liver disease characterized by inflammation and fat accumulation. The condition is typically seen in alcoholics, but it is often observed in people with diabetes and obesity. Ultimately, steatohepatits can progress to life-threatening cirrhosis.
	Blood-boosters may give tiny preemies a developmental edge Two blood-building drugs injected soon after birth may give tiny preemies a lasting long-term edge, boosting brain development and IQ by age 4, a first-of-its-kind study found.
	Researcher calls for changes to auditory environment for preemies in neonatal care centers (Medical Xpress)—Amir Lahav, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, gave a presentation at this year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science recently, outlining what he described as premature babies being put into 'dungeon' incubators as they mature in hospital intensive care units—he believes the experience leads to learning disabilities for such children.
	Vulnerability to depression linked to noradrenaline The team of Bruno Giros, a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and professor of psychiatry at McGill University, reports the first-ever connection between noradrenergic neurons and vulnerability to depression. Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, this breakthrough paves the way for new depression treatments that target the adrenergic system.
	Discovery lays the foundation to expand personalized chemotherapy for leukemia patients An international research team has determined how inherited gene variations lead to severe drug toxicity that may threaten chances for a cure in children with leukemia. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists led the study, results of which set the stage to expand the use of a patient's genetic make-up to tailor chemotherapy.
	New subgroups of ILC immune cells discovered through single-cell RNA sequencing A relatively newly discovered group of immune cells known as ILCs have been examined in detail in a new study published in the journal Nature Immunology. By analysing the gene expression in individual tonsil cells, scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found three previously unknown subgroups of ILCs, and revealed more about how these cells function in the human body.
	Childhood obesity, rapid growth linked to pregnant moms eating lots of fish Eating fish more than three times a week during pregnancy was associated with mothers giving birth to babies at increased risk of rapid growth in infancy and of childhood obesity, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.
	Genetic variation shown in patients with severe vascular complications of infection Major infections such as influenza and bacterial sepsis kill millions of people each year, often resulting fro dangerous complications that impair the body's blood vessels. But the reasons why some patients experience these dramatic responses to infections—and others don't—have been unclear.
	Raising a child has a bigger effect on the immune system than gastroenteritis Raising a child together has a greater effect on your immune system than the seasonal 'flu vaccine or travellers' gastroenteritis, a study by researchers at VIB and KU Leuven in Belgium and the Babraham Institute in the UK has found.
	Sticks, not carrots, may work best to boost employees' health (Update) (HealthDay)—Financial penalties work better than cash rewards for motivating employees to meet physical activity goals in a workplace wellness program, a new study reports.
	Hypertensive women with physically demanding jobs at three times risk of heart disease Hypertensive women with highly active jobs have a nearly three times higher risk of ischaemic heart disease than women with normal blood pressure and moderately active jobs, according to research published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
	New study highlights effectiveness of a herpesvirus CMV-based vaccine against Ebola As the latest in a series of studies, researchers at Plymouth University, National Institutes of Health and University of California, Riverside, have shown the ability of a vaccine vector based on a common herpesvirus called cytomegalovirus (CMV) expressing Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP), to provide protection against Ebola virus in the experimental rhesus macaque, non-human primate (NHP) model. Demonstration of protection in the NHP model is regarded as a critical step before translation of Ebola virus vaccines into humans and other great apes.
Drug development crisis linked to bad technology choices, experts argue The search for new medicines is becoming unsustainably expensive despite huge technological advances because researchers are using the wrong methods, experts say.
	Increase employee wellness and motivation by tying 10 percent of managerial salary increases to health initiatives From helping new employees get settled in a job to setting deadlines and job expectations, it goes without saying that managers have a huge influence on employee behavior. A new Cornell Food and Brand Lab study finds that engaging managers in employee health programs and goals may be the solution that has been missing.
	Interferon not beneficial for most stage III melanoma Final results for the Sunbelt Melanoma Trial, published online this month in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, show that thanks to current diagnostic techniques, most stage III melanoma patients do not benefit from treatment with interferon. Kelly McMasters, M.D., Ph.D., the Ben A. Reid, Sr., M.D. Professor and Chair of the Hiram C. Polk, Jr., M.D. Department of Surgery at the University of Louisville, was the principal investigator and initiated the trial.
	Virtual reality therapy could help people with depression An immersive virtual reality therapy could help people with depression to be less critical and more compassionate towards themselves, reducing depressive symptoms, finds a new study from UCL (University College London) and ICREA-University of Barcelona.
	MIT students turn their brainpower toward suicide prevention After seven suicides in two years, students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are looking for their own solutions to prevent more deaths.
	Researchers find out what cancer cells are hungry for Growing tumour cells are always hungry. Researchers of prof. Reuven Agami's group at the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek have developed a method that uncovers for individual tumours which amino acid is most limiting an thus most needed to keep the tumour growing. Differential ribosome codon reading (diricore) makes it possible to aim for tumour starvation by specific amino acid deprivation. Their paper is published in Nature on February 15th.
	Researchers shine spotlight on failing hearts A vulnerable group of patients may be missing out on best-practice care, according to the first detailed snapshot of heart failure across NSW and ACT, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Hospital hand-washing campaign effective but expensive The National Hand Hygiene Initiative run in Australian hospitals successfully reduced risks of a potentially deadly and costly-to-treat 'golden staph' infection.
	Push the tobacco industry to change through economic incentives Public health measures to reduce smoking would have more success if policy makers intervened to curb the vast profitability of the tobacco industry, say researchers.
Dutch open their first 'poop bank' to treat gut diseases After blood and sperm banks, Dutch researchers have now opened the country's first "poop bank" in a rare and cutting-edge branch of medicine to treat people with chronic gut infections.
	Factor VII-antithrombin complex predicts mortality in CAD (HealthDay)—Activated factor VII-antithrombin complex (FVIIa-AT) levels correlate with increased mortality risk in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), according to a study published online Jan. 27 in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
	Few want to receive skin cancer biopsy results face-to-face (HealthDay)—For patients with suspected malignant melanoma or squamous cell carcinoma, most patients are happy to receive biopsy results by letter or telephone, according to a research letter published online Feb. 8 in the British Journal of Dermatology.
	Lean six sigma practices speed medical report dispatches (HealthDay)—Lean Six Sigma practices can improve the dispatch time of medical reports sent from a hospital to a primary care provider, according to research published online Feb. 8 in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.
REGARDS data show diabetics who use verapamil have lower glucose levels A new University of Alabama at Birmingham research paper published in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice shows for the first time that there is an association of verapamil use and lower fasting glucose levels in humans with diabetes. It is a promising finding at UAB, where the Comprehensive Diabetes Center is currently conducting a first-of-its-kind, JDRF-funded clinical trial using verapamil, a drug that researchers in the School of Medicine have shown completely reverses the disease in mice models.
	How feeling good about your lover might be bad for your sexual health A new study from U of T Mississauga psychology researcher John Sakaluk has found that the better you are bonded to your partner, the less likely you are to practice safe sex with them.
	Observing brain diseases in real time An innovative tool allows researchers to observe protein aggregation throughout the life of a worm. The development of these aggregates, which play a role in the onset of a number of neurodegenerative diseases, can now be monitored automatically and in real time. This breakthrough was made possible by isolating worms in tiny microfluidic chambers developed at EPFL.
A study takes a closer look at so-called 'adherent' patients A study at Universidad Miguel Hernández (UMH) in Elche shows that patients defined automatically as "adherent" by dint of collecting their prescriptions each month are not necessarily any better than their "non-adherent" peers at actually taking their medication. It also found that replacing a patient's medication with one that looks different can have a detrimental impact on adherence.
Second Zika case confirmed in China: Xinhua China confirmed its second imported Zika case Monday, a day after the first victim was discharged from hospital, state news agency Xinhua reported.
	New type of weight-loss surgery may be less risky, cheaper (HealthDay)—A new type of weight-loss procedure offers an alternative to traditional bariatric surgery for people who are mildly to moderately obese, researchers report.
	Readmission rates at children's hospitals influenced by patients' characteristics A team of researchers from children's hospitals across the country, including a University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty member, found that hospitals serving children may face financial penalties for patient readmissions due to factors beyond the control of the hospital.
'Invisible work' takes toll on unpaid caregivers Unpaid family and friends who assist older people with disabilities by coordinating doctor appointments and managing medications are significantly more likely to experience emotional, physical and financial difficulties than caregivers who don't provide this type of support, new research finds.
Proton pump inhibitors may be associated with increased risk of dementia The use of proton pump inhibitors, the popular medications used to treat gastroesophageal reflux and peptic ulcers, may be associated with an increased risk of dementia in a study using data from a large German health insurer, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology.
	No change in epilepsy incidence in younger patients, increase among elderly There appears to have been no change in the incidence of epilepsy in patients younger than 65 over the past 40 years in Finland but an increased incidence among older patients, which a new study suggests means no progress in preventing new cases of epilepsy, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology.
Cancer patients snagged in health law's tangled paperwork Walt Whitlow was under treatment for cancer when he got an unwelcome surprise.
	Heart attack patients with cardiogenic shock fair well 60 days post-discharge Heart attack patients who experience cardiogenic shock have a higher risk of death or rehospitalization than non-shock patients in the first 60 days post-discharge, but by the end of the first year, the gap between the two groups narrows, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Russia says its Ebola vaccine 'effective' in initial tests Russia's health minister said Monday that an Ebola vaccine developed by the country over the last 15 months had shown encouraging results and would undergo further testing in West Africa.
Membership of social/community groups after retirement linked to longer life Membership of social groups, such as book clubs or church groups, after retirement is linked to a longer life, with the impact on health and wellbeing similar to that of regular exercise, suggests research published in the online journal BMJ Open.
	Brazil finds Zika in microcephaly babies' brains Brazilian researchers said Monday that the discovery of Zika in the brains of babies with microcephaly adds to growing evidence of a link between the mosquito-transmitted virus and the birth defect.
	Anemia drugs may not boost kidney patients' well-being: study (HealthDay)—The pricey anemia drugs often given to people with chronic kidney disease may make no difference in how they feel day to day, a new research review confirms.
	How to keep your New Year's exercise mojo all year long (HealthDay)—If your New Year's resolution to get regular exercise is waning, there are a number of ways you can maintain your momentum, a nutrition expert says.
	Teen dating violence is target of new CDC program (HealthDay)—Reducing teen dating violence in the United States is the aim of a new program introduced by federal health officials.
	Study debunks claim that drug treatment centers are unsafe (HealthDay)—Violent crimes are less likely to occur near outpatient drug treatment centers than near liquor and corner stores, a new study finds.
	Dermoscopy can help ID staph scalded skin syndrome (HealthDay)—Dermoscopy can differentiate staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome (SSSS) from toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), according to a letter to the editor published online Feb. 4 in the Journal of Dermatology.
	Most HPV+ OPSCC recurrence, toxicity events occur early (HealthDay)—For patients with human papillomavirus-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV+ OPSCC), most of the disease recurrence and late toxicity events after treatment occur within six months, according to research published in the Feb. 15 issue of Cancer.
	Risk of reoperation up with perianal lesions in Crohn's (HealthDay)—For patients with Crohn's disease, the risk of reoperation is increased for those with perianal lesions, according to a study published online Feb. 5 in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
	Texting intervention promotes weight loss in prediabetes (HealthDay)—For patients with prediabetes offered Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) classes, text message support can enhance weight loss, according to a study published online Feb. 9 in Diabetes Care.
	Good long-term outcomes for fetal myelomeningocele surgery (HealthDay)—Fetal myelomeningocele (fMMC) surgery is associated with improved long-term functional outcomes, according to a study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
	Opioids tied to higher risk of infections in rheumatoid arthritis (HealthDay)—The use of opioid analgesics may increase the risk of serious infection in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to research published in the February issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology.
A new tool improves the diagnosis of frailty syndrome The Telecommunications Engineer Millor-Muruzábal has designed a new measuring tool that provides objective, quantifiable data to improve the diagnosis of frailty syndrome, a set of symptoms that render elderly people more vulnerable. It has been described thus in her Ph.D. thesis, read at the NUP/UPNA-Public University of Navarre, in which she wrote about a novel technology: inertial sensors that she used to analyse the patients' movements.
	Researchers 'going to the mat' to help teens cope with stress Though yoga is believed to have started more than 2,000 years ago, FIU-BRIDGE researchers and FIU students are finding that this ancient practice may have much to offer teens dealing with the many pressures that young people face in our modern world.
	Medical student recalls what it was like to have Zika It started in the middle of a Thanksgiving Day soccer game. Christophe de Lespinasse felt a sudden splitting headache. "It was really, really strong," he says. "A pulsating headache."
EU launches medical emergency corps The European Union on Monday launched its own medical corps to respond faster to emergencies such as the recent Ebola outbreak, with the capacity to act both within and outside the bloc.
Yellow fever outbreak kills 51 in Angola A yellow fever outbreak in Angola has killed 51 people out of 241 suspected cases, in the first epidemic of the disease to hit the country in 30 years, official statistics showed Monday.
200 Pennsylvania college students were sickened by norovirus Norovirus has been confirmed as the cause of a stomach illness that sickened more than 200 students at a Pennsylvania college last week, school officials said Monday.

Biology news

	Rooting the family tree of placental mammals Placental mammals consist of three main groups that diverged rapidly, evolving in wildly different directions: Afrotheria (for example, elephants and tenrecs), Xenarthra (such as armadillos and sloths) and Boreoeutheria (all other placental mammals). The relationships between them have been a subject of fierce controversy with multiple studies coming to incompatible conclusions over the last decade leading some researchers to suggest that these relationships might be impossible to resolve.
	DNA rice breakthrough raises 'green revolution' hopes Rice-growing techniques learned through thousands of years of trial and error are about to be turbocharged with DNA technology in a breakthrough hailed by scientists as a potential second "green revolution".
	Proposal for the assessment of new methods in plant breeding CRISPR/Cas9 is a new method for targeted genetic changes. Together with other methods, it is part of the so-called genome editing toolbox. At the moment, genome-editing is mostly discussed in the context of medical applications, but its use is perhaps even more promising for plant breeding. Scientists from China, the United States and Germany, among them Detlef Weigel of the Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, have now proposed a regulatory framework for genome editing in plants that has been published in the journal Nature Genetics.
	Study suggests virgin male mice prefer watching violence to watching sex (Phys.org)—A trio of researchers working in Japan has found via experiments they conducted, that male virgin mice prefer to watch videos of other mice fighting with one another, than videos of mice having sex. In their paper published in the journal Animal Cognition, Shigeru Watanabe with Keio University, Kazutaka Shinozuka with the RIKEN Brain Science Institute and Takefumi Kikusui with Azabu University, all in Japan, report on behavioral experiments they conducted with house mice and what they believe their findings suggest about mouse behavior.
	Visualizing a parasite crossing the blood brain barrier An estimated 30 percent of the world's population is chronically infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Most people live with the infection without noticeable effect, but it can be life-threatening for people with suppressed immune systems, such as people on cancer therapies or who have HIV/AIDS. Pregnant women can also pass an infection to their unborn children, putting the babies at risk of severe neurological disease.
	Scientists discover new microbes that thrive deep in the earth They live several kilometers under the surface of the earth, need no light or oxygen and can only be seen in a microscope. By sequencing genomes of a newly discovered group of microbes, the Hadesarchaea, an international team of researchers have found out how these microorganisms make a living in the deep subsurface biosphere of our planet.
New tarantula species named after singer Johnny Cash A tarantula named after singer Johnny Cash is among 14 new species identified by scientists who spent a decade collecting the hairy spiders and studying nearly 3,000 of them.
	Ivory trafficking in Africa controlled by a powerful few Ivory trafficking in Africa, which threatens the survival of elephants, is highly concentrated in a few geographic hotspots and controlled by a powerful few, say scientists who use DNA analysis to track the illegal wildlife trade.
	New method for bio-designing yeast could improve biofuel production An assistant research specialist at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) has designed a new strain of yeast that could improve the efficiency of making fuel from cellulosic biomass such as switchgrass.
	Unbear-lievable: doubts over Myanmar 'red panda' find Doubts were cast Monday over a poignant tale of a rescued panda donated to a Mandalay zoo, after an expert said a photo in Myanmar's state media showed a creature that more closely resembled a black bear.
	Americans' support for parks remains steady, according to study A lot has changed in America since the 1990s.
	Forensic odorology scientifically validated Odorology is a technique that uses specially-trained dogs to identify human scent. It is used in police investigations to establish that an individual has been at the scene of a crime. However, there is no international norm on how these dogs are trained. At the Centre de recherche en neurosciences de Lyon (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1/Inserm), researchers specializing in scents and their memorization have analyzed data, provided since 2003 by the Division of the Technical and Scientific Police (DTSP, Ecully) on dog performances in scent identification tasks. Their results show that, at the end of a 24-month training program, the dogs are able to recognize the smell of an individual in 80-90% of cases and never mistake it for that of another. These findings validate the procedures that are currently in use and should convince the international community of the reliability of this method. This work was published on 10 Feb! ruary 2016 in the journal PLOS ONE.
	Farmers to benefit from revitalised rabbit control method A new more virulent virus strain (RHDV K5) set to be released this year will help WA farmers combat Australia's increasing rabbit population.
	Weird woodlice guzzle water with their antennae Ever come across a slater, woodlouse or pill bug tucked under a rock in your garden? These tiny creatures and others like them hide in the moist earth under rocks and logs to avoid drying out.
Hyperthermia mediated by 'magnetotactic bacteria' could kill S. aureus As Staphylococcus aureus becomes increasingly resistant to antibiotics, new methods of killing these pathogens are urgently needed. Now a team of investigators has demonstrated in laboratory rodents that a form of hyperthermia using magnetic nanocrystals, and targeted to the pathogens, can kill S. aureus. The research is published ahead of print February 12 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
	Tree frogs with foreign sex chromosomes are less fit During the last glaciation, a huge ice shield reached up to the region of today's Berlin. By the time it started to melt about 20.000 years ago, it enabled a gradual re-colonization of the northern latitudes by many plant and animal species. Often, they took different colonization routes around the mountain ranges, for example the Carpathians - with astonishing outcomes for a special kind of re-unification that, for instance, happens in Poland: In the region of the Vistula River, two evolutionarily young species of tree frogs meet each other.
	Lactation, weather found to predict milk quality in dairy cows The quality of colostrum—the nutrient-rich milk newborn dairy calves first drink from their mothers - can be predicted by the mother's previous lactation performance and weather, according to new research from the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire.
Using light to control protein transport from cell nucleus Light can be used to control the transport of proteins from the cell nucleus with the aid of a light-sensitive, genetically modified plant protein. Biologists from Heidelberg University and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) working in the field of optogenetics have now developed such a tool. The researchers, under the direction of Dr. Barbara Di Ventura and Prof. Dr. Roland Eils, employed methods from synthetic biology and combined a light sensor from the oat plant with a transport signal. This makes it possible to use external light to precisely control the location and hence the activity of proteins in mammalian cells. The results of this research were published in the journal Nature Communications.
	Complete genome of all strains of the gibbon ape leukemia virus sequenced Berlin-based scientists have sequenced the complete genome of all five identified strains of the gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV). The scientists were able to prove that selection has shaped parts of the genome of this group of viruses. This is likely as a consequence of selective pressure from the host immune systems that the viruses face. GALVs are the causative agents of hematopoietic neoplasms such as leukemia and thus far have been isolated exclusively from captive primates. However GALV is used in biomedical research as vector for cancer therapy. Therefore, the sequencing of the full genomes and understanding their evolution should help to enhance their utility as viral vectors. The findings were published in the scientific magazine Journal of Virology.
	Amateur beekeepers sought to help halt the decline in Britain's bee population A beehive and wildflower garden have been installed on the roof of the University by City's Sustainability team. The beehive has been introduced to enhance the biodiversity and habitat of the City campus and to raise awareness of the importance of sustainability among staff, students and the local community.
	NOAA expands critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales Using new information not previously available, NOAA Fisheries is expanding critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales to cover its northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank region and southeast calving grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

---

This email is a free service of Phys.org
You received this email because you subscribed to our list.
If you no longer want to receive this email use the link below to unsubscribe.
https://sciencex.com/profile/nwletter/
You are subscribed as jmabs1@gmail.com