Science X Newsletter Thursday, Nov 1

Dear Reader ,

Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for November 1, 2018:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

A new method to express robot incapability

A new approach to liquid-repelling surfaces

First two-dimensional material that performs as both topological insulator and superconductor

Scientists make first detailed measurements of key factors related to high-temperature superconductivity

Making a map of the brain—First-of-its-kind cellular atlas identifies neuron types, location and even function

Atomic path from insulator to metal messier than thought

Scientists 'tame' some disruptive environmental effects on quantum computers

Barn swallows may indeed have evolved alongside humans

Meet reCAPTCHA v3: Google ditches annoying challenges

Observation of blood vessel cell changes could help early detection of blocked arteries

High exposure to radio frequency radiation associated with cancer in male rats

Circadian rhythm in human epidermis identified via biomarkers

Cocaine adulterant may cause brain damage

Don't rule out severe global climate change yet

Hairy nanotechnology provides green anti-scaling solution

Astronomy & Space news

	Super-computer brings 'cloud' to astronauts in space A super-computer at the International Space Station aims to bring "cloud" computing to astronauts in space and speed up their ability to run data analysis in orbit, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise said Thursday.
	Dawn mission to asteroid belt comes to end NASA's Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system's earliest chapter.
	Soyuz launch failed due to assembly problem: Russia (Update) Russia said on Thursday the launch of a Soyuz rocket failed last month because of a sensor that was damaged during assembly at the Baikonur cosmodrome but insisted that the spacecraft remains reliable.
	Five things to know about InSight's Mars landing Every Mars landing is a knuckle-whitening feat of engineering. But each attempt has its own quirks based on where a spacecraft is going and what kind of science the mission intends to gather.
	Could 'Oumuamua be an extraterrestrial solar sail? On October 19th, 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System-1 (Pan-STARRS-1) in Hawaii announced the first-ever detection of an interstellar asteroid, named 1I/2017 U1 (aka, "Oumuamua). In the months that followed, multiple follow-up observations were conducted that allowed astronomers to get a better idea of its size and shape, while also revealing that it had the characteristics of both a comet and an asteroid.
	Memorabilia from astronauts Armstrong, Glenn up for auction As the sons of a legendary astronaut, Matt Carpenter says he and his little brother "were blessed to grow up around some pretty interesting stuff."

Technology news

	A new method to express robot incapability Researchers at Cornell University and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an a method to automatically generate motions with which robots can express their inability to complete a given task. These generated motions clearly communicate both what task the robot cannot complete and why it is unable to complete it.
	Meet reCAPTCHA v3: Google ditches annoying challenges Could your reCAPTCHA instructions get any more annoying? Relax. They just got far less annoying. The history-making day was October 29. Can you just imagine. No tests, no interactions, for Google's reCAPTCHA.
	New method peeks inside the 'black box' of artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence—specifically, machine learning—is a part of daily life for computer and smartphone users. From autocorrecting typos to recommending new music, machine learning algorithms can help make life easier. They can also make mistakes.
	To fight email scammers, take a different view. Literally. A team of researchers is helping law enforcement crack down on email scammers, thanks to a new visual analytics tool that dramatically speeds up forensic email investigations and highlights critical links within email data. Email scams are among the most prevalent, insidious forms of cybercrime.
	Japan anti-trust authorities to investigate tech giants Japan's anti-trust authorities will probe whether tech giants such as Google and Amazon are using their market-leader positions to exploit contractors or obstruct competition, the country's fair trade chief said Thursday.
	Chinese-style 'digital authoritarianism' grows globally: study Governments worldwide are stepping up use of online tools, in many cases inspired by China's model, to suppress dissent and tighten their grip on power, a human rights watchdog study found Thursday.
	Simulation of the forces induced on cylinders by ocean currents could help in the design of off-shore platforms A*STAR researchers have developed a model that can simulate the complicated forces exerted by flowing water on an array of cylinders supporting water-borne structures such as oil rigs. The work demonstrates the usefulness of numerical simulations to investigate complex physical real-world scenarios.
	Hate speech is still easy to find on social media Shortly after the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, I noticed that the word "Jews" was trending on Twitter. As a social media researcher and educator, I became concerned that the violence would spread online, as it has in the past.
	Heating up the electric vehicle market The EU-funded MAXITHERM project has developed an alternative heating system for electric vehicles that reduces energy consumption, increases range and ensures passenger comfort.
	Semiconductors for higher efficiency, comfort and affordability of EVs Electric cars are increasingly complex and frequently recalled. But does it necessarily have to be that way? A post-market in-vehicle diagnostics system and semiconductor-based technologies developed under the 3Ccar project promise greater integration of car systems, as well as constant monitoring and updates to prevent failures.
	Amazon's sexist hiring algorithm could still be better than a human Amazon decided to shut down its experimental artificial intelligence (AI) recruiting tool after discovering it discriminated against women. The company created the tool to trawl the web and spot potential candidates, rating them from one to five stars. But the algorithm learned to systematically downgrade women's CV's for technical jobs such as software developer.
	NY Times in profit column as digital subscriptions rise The New York Times said Thursday that digital subscriptions topped three million in the past quarter, keeping the prestigious daily profitable in a difficult environment for the news media.
	Sensor gives farmers more accurate read on plant health, provides valuable crop data A Purdue University professor has built an innovative handheld sensor that gives plant scientists and farmers a more precise way of measuring the health of crops while gathering up-to-the-minute data that state and federal officials and others will find valuable.
	Apple delivers strong profits, but shares slip on outlook Apple on Thursday delivered stronger than expected profits in the recently ended quarter, but shares slid on disappointing iPhone sales and the forecast going into the year-end holiday.
	Google employees leave work to protest treatment of women Carrying signs that included a mocking use of the company's original "Don't be evil" motto, thousands of Google employees around the world briefly walked off the job Thursday to protest what they said was the tech giant's mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations against executives.
	Germans vent VW fury in mass 'dieselgate' suit German consumer groups filed Thursday the country's first class-action suit over Volkswagen's emissions cheating scandal, in a first taste for the auto giant of the anger felt by duped diesel drivers.
	Environmentally friendly concrete from industrial waste is as strong as traditional Scientists at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania are developing methods for producing concrete without cement, using fly ash, an industrial waste product. The final product is as strong as traditional concrete, is more resilient to damaging effects of acid, and more stable in cases of exposure to extreme heat and cold.
	Electric light vehicles just got handier and smarter A consortium of 14 partners has developed technology demonstrators for what the compact and efficient electric vehicles of the future could look like. The three light vehicles, developed under the supervision of Piaggio and KTM, anticipate new design approaches for the sector.
	Toward temperature-resilient EVs The OSEM-EV project has come up with an entirely new concept of heat management for electric cars. These advances should enable a new generation of EVs with a greater and more predictable driving range.
	New fast-charge system makes e-buses a more appealing solution than ever The replacement of diesel bus fleets by electric ones will only become possible when the latter can compete in terms of operation time, comfort, weight and cost. Heliox has found a single solution to all these problems in a new fast-charge technology.
	Judge grounds Ryanair's plan to transfer Dutch pilots A Dutch court Thursday slapped down Ryanair's plan to transfer more than a dozen Dutch pilots elsewhere in Europe, saying the no-frills airline "abused its power" in deciding to close its Eindhoven base.
	Spotify earnings hit sour note on Wall Street Spotify shares took a hit Thursday after a disappointing growth outlook offset the first-ever quarterly profit posted by the streaming music sector leader.

Medicine & Health news

	Making a map of the brain—First-of-its-kind cellular atlas identifies neuron types, location and even function For decades, scientists have viewed the brain as a veritable black box—and now Catherine Dulac and Xiaowei Zhuang are poised to open it.
	Observation of blood vessel cell changes could help early detection of blocked arteries A study in mice has shown that it may be possible to detect the early signs of atherosclerosis, which leads to blocked arteries, by looking at how cells in our blood vessels change their function.
	High exposure to radio frequency radiation associated with cancer in male rats The National Toxicology Program (NTP) concluded there is clear evidence that male rats exposed to high levels of radio frequency radiation (RFR) like that used in 2G and 3G cell phones developed cancerous heart tumors, according to final reports released today. There was also some evidence of tumors in the brain and adrenal gland of exposed male rats. For female rats, and male and female mice, the evidence was equivocal as to whether cancers observed were associated with exposure to RFR. The final reports represent the consensus of NTP and a panel of external scientific experts who reviewed the studies in March after draft reports were issued in February.
	Circadian rhythm in human epidermis identified via biomarkers A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. has identified circadian rhythm patterns in human skin based on genetic biomarkers. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how they obtained skin samples from multiple volunteers over time, and what they discovered after conducting a genetic analysis.
	Cocaine adulterant may cause brain damage People who regularly take cocaine cut with the animal anti-worming agent levamisole demonstrate impaired cognitive performance and a thinned prefrontal cortex. These findings from two recent studies at the University of Zurich indicate that levamisole could have a toxic effect on the brain. Drug-checking programs should therefore be expanded, argue the researchers.
	New study offers hope for patients suffering from a rare form of blindness A new form of therapy may halt or even reverse a form of progressive vision loss that, until now, has inevitably led to blindness. This hyper-targeted approach offers hope to individuals living with spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) and validates a new form of therapy with the potential to treat neurogenetic diseases effectively and with far fewer side effects than other medications. Details of this therapy appear in the latest issue of Science Translational Medicine.
	Specific CD8 T cell states may indicate response to immune checkpoint therapy for melanoma A multi-institutional research team, led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, has identified specific states of cytotoxic CD8 T cells that are associated with patient response to checkpoint immunotherapy for melanoma. Their report published in the journal Cell also identifies specific marker proteins associated with these cell states, providing data that could help better understand why checkpoint therapy—which enables the immune system to attack cancerous tumors—doesn't work for all patients and may enable the development of tests to help predict which patients may be helped by the approach. A companion immunotherapy study, led by a separate research team from the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, appears in the same issue of Cell.
	Twenty years on, measuring the impact of human stem cells In November 1998, the world was introduced to human embryonic stem cells, the blank slate cells that arise at the earliest stages of development and that go on to become any of the scores of cell types that make up a human.
	Road to cell death more clearly identified for Parkinson's disease In experiments performed in mice, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have identified the cascade of cell death events leading to the physical and intellectual degeneration associated with Parkinson's disease.
	New study takes first step toward treating endometriosis Researchers at Northwestern Medicine have taken the first step in bioengineering the human uterus to treat endometriosis, uterine-factor infertility and endometrial cancer.
	Fishing for new leads in a rare melanoma Zebrafish are an emerging power tool in cancer research. They can be engineered to light up when certain genes turn on—capturing the moment when a cancer is initiated. Because they breed so quickly, they lend themselves to rapid, large-scale chemical screening studies, so can help identify tumor promoters and suppressors. Now, as a new study in Science demonstrates, zebrafish can also help scientists dissect the intricate molecular pathways that underlie many cancers, and could help guide treatment strategies.
	Older fathers associated with increased birth risks, study reports A decade of data documenting live births in the United States links babies of older fathers with a variety of increased risks at birth, including low birth weight and seizures, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
	Single women freeze their eggs to avoid 'panic parenting,' study finds Most single women who freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons are doing so to avoid 'panic parenting' (entering into unwise relationships to have a genetically-related child), a new study published in Human Fertility finds.
	Low-fat diet increases cancer survival rate in mice, study finds Something as simple as a change in diet can potentially help to increase the cancer survival rate of obese children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, according to a new study by UCLA scientists.
	Stress protein could be used to prevent childhood obesity in males New research published in The Journal of Physiology identifies a novel protein that reduces the likelihood of obesity and related metabolic disorders in boys.
	Study buckles down on child car seat use in ride-share vehicles Traveling with young children can be a challenge. As ride-share apps continue to surge in popularity, transporting children safely via these services has become a growing concern.
End-of-life care preferences of Chinese adults vary based on whether they have children Chinese adults who have children prefer to receive end-of-life care from family members at home, while those who lost their only child prefer to be cared for in hospice or palliative care institutions, finds a new study led by an international team of researchers and published in the November issue of The Journal of Palliative Medicine. Income, property ownership, and support from friends also influenced individuals' end-of-life care preferences.
	Dangerous blood pressure caused by specific signalling in the brain About 6 million Australians aged 18 years and over have high blood pressure. Of these, more than two thirds had uncontrolled or unmanaged high blood pressure (not taking medication), representing 4 million adult Australians.
	In-hospital infections increase odds of readmission for stroke patients Hospitalized ischemic stroke patients with an infection are significantly more likely to be readmitted within 30 days, regardless of the severity of their stroke or other individual patient characteristics, according to new research published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.
	Stanford, Apple describe heart study with over 400,000 participants A clinical trial to determine whether a smartwatch app that analyzes pulse-rate data can screen for a heart-rhythm disorder has enrolled more than 400,000 participants.
	Anti-convulsant drug significantly reduced major depression symptoms Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) exhibited a significant reduction of depressive symptoms after being treated with ezogabine, an FDA approved drug used to treat seizures.
	Poverty blamed on widening north-south gap in young adult deaths in England A major study of mortality across England led by University of Manchester data scientists blames socioeconomic deprivation for sharp rises in deaths among 22 to 44-year-olds living in the North of England.
	Cell-compressing technique a new path in immunotherapy Cell-based immunotherapies, which often involve engineering cells to activate or suppress the immune system, have delivered some dramatic results to cancer patients with few other options. But the complex process of developing these therapies has limited a field that many believe could be a powerful new frontier in medicine.
	Stress less: Minimizing the negative effects of social media Social media can be a place to connect with friends and family, make plans or hear about events. At the same time, social media use can sometimes overwhelm us with news and information. Navigating social media use is all about keeping things in perspective. Here are some tips to help minimize the stressful impacts of social media use.
	Drug combination for treatment-resistant depression not more effective than a single antidepressant Psychiatrists and GPs increasingly combine mirtazapine with an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) or SNRI (serotonin-noradenaline reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant for patients whose depression does not respond to a single antidepressant. A large clinical trial led by researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Exeter, Keele, Manchester and Hull York Medical School, and published in the British Medical Journal today, looked at the effectiveness of adding mirtazapine to an SSRI or SNRI in patients who remain depressed after at least six weeks of conventional (SSRI or SNRI) antidepressant treatment. They found that this combination was no more effective in improving depression than placebo and call on doctors to rethink its use.
	Reproducing pediatric kidney disease from human iPS cells Scientists in Japan have found a "skeleton key" for congenital kidney disease research. Using iPS cells generated from the skin cells of a patient with a nephrin mutation, Kumamoto University scientists have successfully developed kidney tissue that exhibits the early stages of congenital kidney disease. The protein nephrin is a constituent of the kidney filtration membrane, and abnormalities of this protein are commonly found in other types of kidney diseases.
	Targeted hope for metastatic cancer A cancer diagnosis is tough enough to hear, but a diagnosis that cancer has spread through the body has often been considered a death sentence.
	100 years after influenza pandemic, why should I get a flu shot? Fall 2018 marks the 100-year anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which infected roughly one-third of the world's population and killed more than 50 million people, including 675,000 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Influenza still has no cure today, but newer vaccines and anti-viral treatments could help thwart another deadly outbreak, says University of Illinois microbiology professor Christopher Brooke. An expert in the influenza virus and how it adapts, Brooke discussed the severity of influenza today and how the flu shot works in an interview with News Bureau biomedical sciences editor Liz Ahlberg Touchstone.
	Good housing may be key to eliminating childhood malnutrition New research suggests that improved housing with access to piped water may be the crucial keys to eliminating malnutrition and stunting in children. The research, from the MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), was published today in the journal BMC Medicine.
	Colectomy associated with increased risk of diabetes People who have had a colectomy have increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals. The researchers hope their effort will pave the way to methods for preventing and treating the disease. The research results have just been published in the scientific journal eLife.
	New insight into the mechanism of the drug against sclerosis and psoriasis A multidisciplinary research team at Aarhus University has provided fundamental new insight into the mechanism of the medical drug dimethyl fumarate, which is the active component of important treatments for multiple sclerosis and psoriasis. The results contribute to the development of new strategies for drug discovery.
	Tick-tock–for healthy mums and kids, dad's age counts Women are regularly reminded of their ticking biological clock. It turns out men should also pay attention to age when it comes to having a family.
	Cholera's global toil could diminish with new smartphone tech For most, cholera comes as a mild to moderate form of diarrhea. For others, the diarrhea quickly causes dangerous fluid loss – up to a quart an hour – and has a milky appearance. Then comes hours of vomiting, and possibly death from organ failure.
	Custom weight-based safety system to protect embryos and eggs against cryogenic storage failure Earlier this year, more than 4,000 eggs and embryos were inadvertently lost as a result of cryogenic tank failures at two fertility centers. Today, Columbia University Fertility Center announced it has developed and built the first weight-based scale safety system to protect stored eggs and embryos in response to these reported failures. Through its custom, web-enabled safety system, Columbia University Fertility can now continuously monitor the real-time weights of its storage tanks and can detect impending tank failures sooner. As a result, it reduces the risk of any damage to embryos and eggs by greatly increasing the time available to intervene should an issue arise. Columbia University Fertility Center is the first and only fertility center to offer this additional layer of protection in its clinic.
	Research says walking is an ideal activity for people with osteoporosis As Osteoporosis Month kicks off on Thursday, Brock University Kinesiology Professor Philip Wilson has some simple but effective advice for those living with the disease: lace up your shoes and get walking.
	How to build your own personal robot More than one million people are hospitalised each year in the EU with a brain injury. Such injuries are often the result of blood clots or accidents, and can occur at any age.
	Greater weight loss with gastric bypass than other bariatric surgeries (HealthDay)—Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) is associated with greater weight loss at one, three, and five years than sleeve gastrectomy (SG) or adjustable gastric banding (AGB), though it also has the highest rate of 30-day adverse events, according to a study published Oct. 29 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
	Opioid use often persists in workers' compensation claimants (HealthDay)—Many patients in a workers' compensation cohort have persistent opioid use, according to a study published online Oct. 26 in JAMA Network Open.
	Some weather conditions linked to myocardial infarction risk (HealthDay)—Certain weather conditions are associated with an increased risk for myocardial infarction (MI), according to a study published online Oct. 24 in JAMA Cardiology.
	Keeping track of healthy calories (HealthDay)—Even when eating nutritiously, healthy aging depends on moderating the number of calories you take in.
	Half of older women suffer incontinence, many don't tell their doc (HealthDay)—Nearly half of older American women have urinary incontinence, but many have not talked to a doctor about it, a new national poll shows.
	One man's journey back from stroke at 52 (HealthDay)—Price Woodward was the picture of health at age 52. He lived an active lifestyle and ran marathons. He was definitely not the type of person you'd expect to have a stroke.
	As Ghana gets ready to set standards for child nutrition, researcher shares his science on brain health Ghana will soon adopt new standards on food and nutritional products for children, and the coming guideline on dietary fats for infants will be informed in part by a University of Toronto researcher.
	Dolutegravir, an alternative first-line HIV treatment for low and middle-income countries The latest World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations published in July 2018 advocate first-line treatment of HIV infection using dolutegravir (DTG) as an alternative to treatment with efavirenz at 400 mg (EFV400). Until now, no clinical trial data have been collected for direct comparison of the efficacy of the two drugs in the specific context of low-income countries. The ANRS NAMSAL study has compared the effect of both DTG and EFV with 613 participants living with HIV who had not previously received ARV treatment.
	RNA defects linked to multiple myeloma progression in high risk patients Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most common type of blood cancer where cancer cells accumulate in the bone marrow, crowding out healthy blood cells. Studies on MM development have traditionally focused mostly on DNA abnormalities, but a team of researchers from the Cancer Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore has uncovered an association between RNA abnormalities and MM progression. In particular, the team discovered that overexpression of ADAR1, a RNA-editing enzyme, and a modified gene caused by irregular RNA editing are key to MM progression and the development of resistance to current treatments.
	New data confirm antioxidants accelerate spread of malignant melanoma Now there is additional evidence of the connection between the intake of antioxidant supplements and increased tumor growth. Experiments on animals and human cancer tissue confirm that addition of some antioxidants increases the growth of the severe malignant melanoma type of skin cancer.
	Team finds the origin of a type of thrombocytopenia caused by an oncogene The Cell Division and Cancer Group of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has discovered that MASTL, a protein whose function has not yet been sufficiently investigated, plays an important role in controlling the cytoskeleton, the structure that gives shape to cells and enables their mobility and capacity for grouping. The researchers have linked the protein to the origin of an inherited thrombocytopenia, and they point out that this discovery might have implications in the fight against cancer metastasis. The findings have been published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
	Study finds 'alarming' rates of HPV prevalence among American Indian women A just-released study found that American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women are at greater risk of HPV and cervical cancer than their white counterparts.
	Get the flu shot – to lower your risk of a heart attack Were the members of the legendary musical group Bon Jovi medical visionaries? How else do you explain Shot to the Heart? This prophetic song predicted the protective benefits of the flu shot against heart disease more than 30 years before researchers would arrive at the same conclusion.
	Study hard and you might lower your chances of dementia Every year hundreds of elderly students gather in Toronto for convocation, in-person and online, anxiously awaiting their diplomas. Some are in their nineties; some have dementia.
	Protein wars—why men love meat Nov. 1 is World Vegan Day and apparently Canada is going meatless, unless you are a white older male, that is.
	Improved rescue kits for people with diabetes, hypoglycemia Being with someone who has diabetes and needs immediate care to avoid a coma can be a frightening situation. Even worse, current products and injection kits to help in those emergencies can be complicated to use.
	10th patient dies at pediatric facility in viral outbreak A 10th person died amid a viral outbreak at a pediatric care center while a different strain of the virus was found at another facility in the state, New Jersey health officials said Thursday.
	Can an exhausted lung cell of a smoker fight bacterial infection? Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have discovered how lung cell exhaustion affects a patient's ability to fight diseases.
	High stress, job insecurity and unrealistic expectations put football managers at risk of mental health problems There aren't many jobs where an employee's potential sacking is everybody's business. But in the high-stakes world of elite sport, the jobs of those in charge – the managers, coaches and leaders – seem to be fair game and a talking point for fans and critics alike.
	Electricity—the new medicine When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. This saying is particularly apt in medicine where doctors treat nearly every condition – from depression to hypertension – with a pill. If your doctor prescribed you anything other than a pill (assuming you don't need surgery), you might think they were a quack. But this will soon change. Medicine is getting radical, and one of the radical new approaches for treating disease is electricity.
	Experts call for a targeted approach to cancer prevention Policymakers around the world should consider introducing more targeted early interventions in a bid to tackle cancer, according to experts at the University of Stirling.
	Ultrasound ovarian cancer screening improves survival A University of Kentucky study just published in Obstetrics & Gynecology shows that annual ultrasound screening of at-risk asymptomatic women increases the survival rates of women with type I and type II epithelial ovarian cancer.
	People with Internet addiction react the worst when WiFi fails Do you get frustrated and angry when your WiFi connection stops working? It could be because of your personality. When digital technology stops working, people with a fear of missing out (FOMO)—the anxiety that you're missing a social experience others might be having while you're not online—or an internet addiction have more extreme reactions, according to a new study in Heliyon.
Cocaine-fentanyl overdoses underscore need for more 'test strips' and rapid response Penn Medicine emergency department physicians are calling for more readily available testing strips to identify the presence of fentanyl in patients experiencing a drug overdose, and a rapid, coordinated response among health care providers and city agencies to help curb overdoses and identify high potency high risk drugs. Fentanyl testing strips are urine drug tests being used off-label to identify fentanyl and fentanyl analogues in the drug supply. In a letter to the editor published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors describe a recent cluster of 18 drug overdoses over a four-day period linked to "crack" cocaine laced with fentanyl that left three people dead.
	Online sperm donors more agreeable: study As prospective parents increasingly seek sperm donors online, an international study has analysed what sort of men are donating sperm in this informal setting as opposed to a traditional clinic. And it seems a key characteristic is they are more agreeable.
Investigators study how a protein factor contributes to cancer cell migration UCLA researchers have discovered a new protein factor that contributes to a fibroblast cell's ability to migrate to a wound and participate in its healing process. The study's results could help scientists prevent cancer cells from using the same mechanisms to move throughout the body and spread.
	Children who experience violence early in life develop faster A study in Biological Psychiatry has shown that exposure to violence early in life—such as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse—is associated with faster biological aging, including pubertal development and a cellular metric of biological aging called epigenetic age. In contrast, children exposed to forms of early life adversity involving deprivation—such as neglect and food insecurity—showed signs of delayed pubertal development compared with their peers.
	New study finds evidence of brain injuries in football players at surprisingly young age There have been more and more cases confirming that repeated hits to the head have lifelong consequences for professional football players, but a new study by Orlando Health in collaboration with the Concussion Neuroimaging Consortium finds evidence of lasting effects from head injuries at a much younger age than expected. The study tested biomarkers in the blood called microRNA's and found that the college football players had elevated levels of these biomarkers that indicate concussions before the season even started.
	Strengthening self-regulation in childhood may improve resiliency later in life Millions of families live in poverty in the United States. Associated stressors can often lead to adverse life experiences for children in those families, and negative socioemotional outcomes later in life.
	People link body shapes with personality traits When we meet new people, our first impressions of their personality may depend, at least in part, on their body shape, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
	Study finds tennis elbow treatments provide little to no benefit The painful condition known as "tennis elbow" results from overuse of the tendons in the forearm, typically in a patient's dominant arm. A repetitive stress injury, tennis elbow affects not just athletes, but also tradesmen, food industry workers, manufacturers and office workers—anyone who uses the hands and wrists for hours each day. Numerous treatments are available to the 200,000 new patients diagnosed with tennis elbow in the United States each year, but few high quality trials have compared these approaches.
	Cancer drug insight tactic could spell double trouble for tumours A new way of identifying potential cancer drugs could streamline the development of therapies, following a discovery by scientists.
	Lymph nodes are niches for prolonged tuberculosis infection Lymph nodes can contain large numbers of tuberculosis-causing bacteria and serve as long-term reservoirs of bacterial persistence, according to a study published November 1 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by JoAnne Flynn of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and colleagues. As niches for persistent infection, these organs are likely to play a larger role in tuberculosis than previously appreciated.
	Diabetes medications may reduce Alzheimer's disease severity People with Alzheimer's disease who were treated with diabetes drugs showed considerably fewer markers of the disease—including abnormal microvasculature and disregulated gene expressions—in their brains compared to Alzheimer's patients without treatment for diabetes, Mount Sinai researchers report.
	Long-term prognosis of Chagas patients improved with anti-parasite drug Researchers have found that the anti-parasite drug benznidazole may improve the long-term prognoses of patients with chronic Chagas disease, according to a study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, by Clareci Silva Cardoso at the Federal University of São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Brazil, and colleagues from the SaMi-Trop study, a project funded by NIAID/NIH.
Quit rates are low and not increasing among cigarette smokers with mental health problems Even as more and more American quit smoking cigarettes, individuals with serious psychological distress (SPD) are much less likely to extinguish their habbit. A new study by scientists at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and The City University of New York found that individuals with mental health problems quit cigarettes at half the rate of those without psychological distress. The findings are published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
We all want 'healthy aging,' but what is it, really? New report looks for answers "Healthy aging" sounds like a priority we all can share, but for geriatrics healthcare professionals—the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physicians assistants, social workers, and many others dedicated to the care we need as we age—that term represents something specific, and something worth defining. Led by Paul Mulhausen, MD, MHS, FACP, AGSF, colleagues from the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) set about doing just that as part of an expert panel convened to look critically at what "healthy aging" really means. Their definition—published in a white paper today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society —explores the intersection between our personal care goals and innovations in science, education, and public policy as the place where healthy aging may be understood best.
	To ward off fatty liver, breast is best for mom Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Kaiser Permanente have discovered that mothers who breastfed a child or children for six months or more are at lower risk for developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) years later during mid-life. With no other current prevention options aside from a healthy lifestyle, they say the finding may represent an early modifiable risk factor for a serious and chronic disease.
	First U.S. drug containing marijuana-derived ingredient goes on sale (HealthDay)—The first Food and Drug Administration-approved drug containing an ingredient derived from the marijuana plant went on sale Thursday in the United States.
	Infant ab levels highest with Tdap vax in early 3rd trimester (HealthDay)—Tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccines given to pregnant women early in the third trimester may offer the most protection against infant pertussis, according to a study published in the Oct. 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
	Updated guidelines released for emergency care of children (HealthDay)—The American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians, and Emergency Nurses Association have released updated guidelines for emergency care of injured and critically ill children. The guidelines were published in a policy statement in the November issue of Pediatrics.
	Financial conflicts of interest prevalent among CPG authors (HealthDay)—There is a high prevalence of financial conflicts of interest among authors of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) related to high-revenue medications and in gastroenterology, according to two research letters published online Oct. 29 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
	2011 to 2015 saw decline in health care-associated infections (HealthDay)—From 2011 to 2015, there was a reduction in the prevalence of health care-associated infections, according to a study published in the Nov. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
	ASN: High-dose, proactive IV iron noninferior in hemodialysis (HealthDay)—For patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis, a high-dose intravenous iron regimen administered proactively is noninferior to a low-dose intravenous iron regimen administered reactively, according to a study published online Oct. 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with a presentation at the American Society of Nephrology's Kidney Week, held Oct. 23 to 28 in San Diego.
	AAD releases new guidelines for the tx of cutaneous melanoma (HealthDay)—New guidelines have been released for the treatment of primary cutaneous melanoma, according to a report from the American Academy of Dermatology published online Nov. 1 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
	MDM2 inhibitors could be promising new treatment for uveitis Ocular inflammation uveitis is a serious disease that can destroy eye tissue and cause irreversible blindness.
	New study to decode what makes people immune to influenza The key to lasting protection against influenza may be in your bones. The cells that naturally protect you against illness originate and live in your bone marrow—and that is one spot where scientists will be looking to understand the human immune system's response to influenza in a groundbreaking new study led by the Human Vaccines Project. The goal is to harness an understanding of the immune system to develop longer lasting protection against the flu.
Women carrying rare breast cancer variants more likely to develop interval breast cancers While the presence of common breast cancer mutations was indicative of increased breast cancer risk, the presence of certain rare mutations was indicative of increased risk from interval breast cancers and death.
Insurance-related disparities in timely access to gold standard dialysis procedure Patients with newly diagnosed kidney failure must wait for up to 3 months before they qualify for Medicare. A new study found that this short period of time without insurance is associated with delays in the placement and use of preferred methods for gaining access to the bloodstream for dialysis. The study, which appears in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN), also found that this insurance lag time is linked with a higher risk of later dialysis-related infection.
	Long trip: Psychedelic advocate nears goal of legal ecstasy Growing up amid the tumult of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, Rick Doblin says he became convinced that humanity was "crazy" and "inherently destructive." As a teenager, he came to see the mind-expanding effects of psychedelics—including LSD and magic mushrooms—as the antidote to mankind's inner demons.
Supply chain transparency needed to combat soaring insulin costs Spiraling insulin costs have created a dangerous barrier for many people with diabetes who need to access lifesaving treatments. The Endocrine Society is calling on stakeholders across the supply chain to help reduce out-of-pocket costs for people with diabetes.
Updated European guidance for the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis in women The clinical significance of osteoporosis lies in the painful, debilitating fractures that arise, which are a major cause of long-term disability in the population. Nevertheless, osteoporosis is under-diagnosed and undertreated: in the European Union, it is estimated that 57 % of women at high risk of fragility fracture due to osteoporosis do not receive bone-specific treatment. In patients with fragility fractures, less than 20 % receive treatment to reduce the chance of a future fracture.
	Fatal measles case highlights importance of herd immunity in protecting the vulnerable Last year, a 26-year-old man receiving treatment for leukemia went to a Swiss hospital's emergency room with a fever, a sore throat, and a cough, and was admitted. His condition worsened, and 17 days later, he died from severe complications of measles. The man's weakened immune system was unable to fight off the disease, even though he was vaccinated against measles as a child.
	Federal health care website up and running after slow start The federal website where consumers can get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act was up and running Thursday after a slow start as sign-up season for 2019 opened days before the midterm elections.
	Young plasma restores aged livers A recent study published in The FASEB Journal examined the effect of young plasma on aged livers, and livers' sensitivity to ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) in experimental animals. IRI occurs when blood flow to an organ is temporarily interrupted, and can be a serious postoperative complication of liver resection and transplantation, especially among elderly patients.
Concurrent chemo-radiotherapy should be a treatment option for elderly patients with LS-SCLC Elderly patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) showed similar survival and toxicity compared to their younger counterparts when treated with concurrent chemo-radiotherapy. Concurrent chemo-radiotherapy should be a treatment option for fit patients aged 70 years or older.
	C-Path, CHDI and CDISC announce therapeutic area user guide for Huntington's Disease The Huntington's Disease Regulatory Science Consortium (HD-RSC), launched in March 2018 by the Critical Path Institute (C-Path) and CHDI Foundation, today, along with the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC), announce the open availability of a newly developed Huntington's Disease Therapeutic Area User Guide (TAUG-HD). The guide has been developed to describe the most broadly utilized clinical concepts for data acquisition and analysis in Huntington's disease (HD) clinical studies using the CDISC standard format. The user guide defines parameters for data collection and allows datasets from different sources to be compared or combined for sharing and analysis.

Biology news

	Barn swallows may indeed have evolved alongside humans The evolution of barn swallows, a bird ubiquitous to bridges and sheds around the world, might be even more closely tied to humans than previously thought, according to new study from the University of Colorado Boulder.
	Glutamine metabolism affects T cell signaling and function The cellular nutrient glutamine launches a metabolic signaling pathway that promotes the function of some immune system T cells and suppresses others, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.
	Immigration to the US changes a person's microbiome Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Somali, Latino, and Hmong Partnership for Health and Wellness have new evidence that the gut microbiota of immigrants and refugees rapidly Westernize after a person's arrival in the United States. The study of communities migrating from Southeast Asia to the U.S., published November 1 in the journal Cell, could provide insight into some of the metabolic health issues, including obesity and diabetes, affecting immigrants to the country.
	How invading jumping genes are thwarted Since Carnegie Institution's Barbara McClintock received her Nobel Prize on her discovery of jumping genes in 1983, we have learned that almost half of our DNA is made up of jumping genes—called transposons. Given their ability of jumping around the genome in developing sperm and egg cells, their invasion triggers DNA damage and mutations. This often leads to animal sterility or even death, threatening species survival. The high abundance of jumping genes implies that organisms have survived millions, if not billions, of transposon invasions. However, little is known about where this adaptability comes from. Now, a team of Carnegie researchers has discovered that, upon jumping gene invasion, reproductive stem cells boost production of non-coding RNA elements (piRNA) that suppress their activity and activates a DNA repair process allowing for normal egg development. The results are published in the November 1, 2018, issue of Developmental Cell.
	Researchers find that cells can at times have superelastic properties A team of researchers from Spain, France, Germany and Singapore has found that some cells under certain conditions can exhibit superelastic properties. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their study of epithelial cells and what they found. Manuel Théry and Atef Asnacios with Paris Diderot University have written a News and Views piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue.
	Students genetically engineer E. coli for skin ailment treatments Keratin is a naturally occurring protein that anchors skin cells to one another and plays a crucial role in forming the epidermis. But sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.
	Genes that could lead to improvement of beef cattle are identified Beef cattle improvement programs have focused for decades on promoting the rapid growth of calves. Now, the goal is to improve other traits, such as meat tenderness or ribeye muscle area.
	Mycoplasma pathogens sneaking past our line of defense New research reveals that Mycoplasma pathogens make DNA in a unique way that may protect them from our immune response. The result could provide new avenues to combat the pathogens that utilize this strategy. The study is published today in the scientific journal Nature.
	Yangtze dams put endangered sturgeon's future in doubt Before the damming of the Yangtze River in 1981, Chinese sturgeon swam freely each summer one after another into the river's mouth, continuing upriver while fasting all along the way. They bred in the upper spawning ground the following fall before returning quickly back to the sea. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on November 1 offer new insight into the threat the dams have since posed to the critically endangered fish.
	Study challenges conventional wisdom of how cell membranes work If you want to understand how the cell membrane works, Adam Cohen says, look no further than your kitchen.
	Editing nature: Scientists call for careful oversight of environmental gene editing In Burkina Faso, the government is considering the use of genetically modified mosquitoes to eradicate malaria. In Nantucket, Mass., officials are looking at gene editing as a tool in the fight against Lyme disease. And scientists are using gene technology to adapt coral to changing ocean conditions from the Caribbean to the Great Barrier Reef.
	How cancer-causing papillomaviruses evolved Cancer-causing human papillomaviruses (HPVs) diverged from their most recent common ancestors approximately half a million years ago, roughly coinciding with the timing of the split between archaic Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens, according to a study published November 1 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Zigui Chen of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Robert Burk of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and colleagues.
	Searching in soil, scientists find a new way to combat tuberculosis For decades, doctors have been using antibiotics to fight tuberculosis (TB). And consistently, the microbe responsible for the disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has been fighting back. When confronted with current drugs, such as the antibiotic rifamycin, the bacterium often mutates in ways that make it resistant to the treatment.
	Perilous times for Australia wildlife amid severe drought From abandoned baby kangaroos to wallabies being blinded by the sun and koalas having to go walkabout to look for eucalyptus leaves, Australia's exotic wild animals are struggling to adapt to a crippling drought.
	Trading sex for sleep—aging dormice shorten their hibernation for more reproduction Edible dormice are extremely long-lived for their size, thanks to their seasonal dormancy. The animals are veritable record holders in longevity, with hibernation periods lasting between at least six and a maximum of 11 months. The factors influencing the variable duration of the hibernation period, apart from the specific environmental conditions, have so far been unknown. Researchers at Vetmeduni Vienna hypothesised that older animals should shorten their winter dormancy in favour of a reproductive advantage. This hypothesis has now been confirmed in a database analysis, published in Scientific Reports, of dormice populations living in large outdoor enclosures. The shortened winter hibernation of aging males and females were due to an increase in reproductive activity. Older animals also delay the onset of hibernation and emerge earlier in the season.
	Photos in social media reveal socio-cultural value of landscapes Every day, users upload millions of photos on platforms such as Flickr, Instagram and Facebook. A study by researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) now shows that these photos can be used to assess the social importance of certain landscapes. For this purpose, they developed a new image analysis method based on artificial intelligence. The results might be of particular importance for landscape management and presentation. The results are published in the journal Ecological Indicators.
	Giraffes: Equals stick together In 2016, virtually overnight, one giraffe species turned into four. Using new, even more extensive genetic tests, Senckenberg scientists have now been able to show that the four giraffe populations identified as separate species practically never interbreed, even where they occur in close vicinity to each other. The negligible number of hybrids serves as additional evidence that the Southern, Masai, Reticulated, and Northern Giraffes in fact constitute four separate species, according to the team's study, published as the title story in the recent edition of Ecology and Evolution. Conservation measures in accordance with these findings are therefore urgently needed.
	How sheep grazing affects the Norwegian mountains When animals graze, they affect the environment. They keep meadows open, their faeces fertilizes the soil, and forests yield to cultivated landscapes. But what effect does grazing have on overall biomass? Does grazing affect carbon capture, too? How many plants survive and what kind?
	Plants rely on their resident bacteria to protect them from harmful microbes Fungi and other filamentous microbes called oomycetes cause many devastating plant diseases and are together responsible for more than 10 percent of all crop loss. A groundbreaking new study now shows that even healthy plants host potentially harmful fungi and oomycetes in plant roots. That they do not succumb to illness is due to the simultaneous presence of a wide range of co-residing bacteria, which regulate the balance among these microorganisms in plant roots and thus ensure plant survival in nature. These are the conclusions of a study published in the journal Cell that was led by Stephane Hacquard and Paul Schulze-Lefert at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany.
	Launch of global effort to read genetic code of all complex life on earth The Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), a global effort to sequence the genetic code, or genomes, of all 1.5 million known animal, plant, protozoan and fungal species on Earth, officially launches today (1 November) as key scientific partners and funders from around the globe gather in London, UK to discuss progress in organising and funding the project.
	Genetic code of 66,000 UK species to be sequenced The genetic codes of 66,000 species in the UK are planned to be sequenced by the Wellcome Sanger Institute and its collaborators as part of a global effort to sequence the genomes of all 1.5 million known species of animals, plants, protozoa and fungi on Earth.
	Tipping point: Huge wildlife loss threatens the life support of our small planet A report by the WWF published on October 30 reveals how our actions are degrading the natural world – the very basis on which our livelihood depends. The Living Planet Report 2018 shows that between 1970 and 2014, vertebrate – mammal, fish, bird, amphibian and reptile – population sizes have been reduced by 60 percent. South and Central America have been hit particularly hard, suffering population declines of 89 percent.
	Watching whales from space Scientists have used detailed high-resolution satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies' DigitalGlobe, to detect, count and describe four different species of whales. Reported this week in the journal Marine Mammal Science, this study is a big step towards developing a cost-effective method to study whales in remote and inaccessible places, that will help scientists to monitor population changes and understand their behaviour.
	Palestinian 'birdman' watches out over West Bank As the sun rises over the mountains behind the Dead Sea, Anton Khalilieh squints into a telescope and scans the skies.
	Bee diversity and richness decline as anthropogenic activity increases, confirm scientists Changes in land use negatively affect bee species richness and diversity, and cause major shifts in species composition, reports a recent study of native wild bees, conducted at the Sierra de Quila Flora and Fauna Protection Area and its influence zone in Mexico.
Team helps establish roadmap for filling the gaps in forest pollinator research Actively managed conifer forests may also provide important habitat for the pollinators that aid the reproduction of food crops and other flowering plants around the globe.
eDNA emerges as powerful tool for tracking threatened river herring in Chesapeake Bay Using environmental DNA (eDNA) to track the presence of fish in waterways is emerging as a powerful tool to detect and understand the abundance of species in aquatic environments. However, relatively few studies have compared the performance of this emerging technology to traditional catch or survey approaches in the field.
	Your showerhead slime is alive—and mostly harmless The day after Halloween, something scary may still lurk inside your showerhead. Researchers at CIRES have identified Mycobacterium as the most abundant genus of bacteria growing in the slimy "biofilm" that lines the inside of residential showerheads—and some of those bacteria can cause lung disease.
	Slashed award accepted in Monsanto cancer trial A cancer-stricken groundskeeper has accepted a slashed award in a landmark trial focused on weed-killer Roundup, setting the stage for an appeal by maker Monsanto.
	Estonian soil is surprisingly rich in species Due to its biodiversity and theoretically huge number of taxa waiting to be discovered, soil fauna has been called the poor man's rain forest. If a researcher cannot head to the tropics but wishes to discover something new, they can take a shovel and start digging in the home forest or meadow.

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