ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Surgery may be effective treatment option for older epilepsy patients
• Bug vs. Bug: Benign C. Difficile strains keep fatal strains at bay
• High-dose statins reduce gum inflammation in heart disease patients
• Insects modify mating behavior in anticipation of storms
• Computer scientists develop new approach to sort cells up to 38 times faster
• Fear of predators drives honey bees away from good food sources
• Longline fishery in Costa Rica kills thousands of sea turtles, sharks
• Newly identified biomarkers help predict outcome in deadly lung disease
• Red wine chemical, resveratrol, remains effective against cancer after the body converts it
• Transgendered males seen as an asset to some ancestral societies
• Tears for fears: Juvenile mice secrete a protective pheromone in their tears, blocking adult mating
• Specialized intestinal cells cause some cases of Crohn's disease
• Insect repellent: Scientists find insect DEET receptors, develop safe alternatives to DEET
• Technology, not uninsured patients, driving hospital costs
• Researchers identify the neural circuits that modulate REM sleep
• Seamless photography: Using mathematical models for image stitching
• Recruiting E. coli to combat hard-to-treat bacterial infections
• Understanding the dangers of the fake marijuana called 'Spice' or 'K2'
• New method allows quantitative nanoscopic imaging through silicon
• Discovery of charged droplets could lead to more efficient power plants
• Peculiar, diverse and dangerous to crops: A checklist of the scale insects of Iran
• Measuring height by connecting clocks
• Early mammal varieties declined as evolution of flowering plants radiated
• Eye contact may make people more resistant to persuasion
• Streams below fracking wastewater treatment show elevated salts, metals, radioactivity
• Did you have a good time? We know where you'll store the memory of it
• Spinach and nanodiamonds? nanodiamond biosensor for detection of iron-level in blood
• Like father, not like son: Brain and song structure in zebra finches are strongly influenced by the environment
• Textured images help tactile recognition for the blind
• Protecting the weedy and wild kin of globally important crops
• New bio bank to resolve legal, ethical issues
• New tuberculosis vaccine developed
• New genetic discovery could reduce the guess work in drug dosing
• Lactation may be linked to aggressive cancer in Mexican women

Surgery may be effective treatment option for older epilepsy patients Posted: 02 Oct 2013 03:57 PM PDT Surgery may be an effective treatment for epilepsy in older patients, a finding that runs counter to conventional treatment methods. Results showed that 74 percent of patients aged 50 years or older remained free of disabling seizures, compared with 58 percent of patients in a younger group. Among patients aged 60 years or older, 91 percent remained seizure-free.

Bug vs. Bug: Benign C. Difficile strains keep fatal strains at bay Posted: 02 Oct 2013 03:57 PM PDT In a recent study, two different strains of non-toxigenic Clostridium difficile provided protection against both historic and epidemic C. difficile strains.

High-dose statins reduce gum inflammation in heart disease patients Posted: 02 Oct 2013 03:56 PM PDT Statins, commonly prescribed medications for lowering cholesterol, also reduced inflammation associated with gum disease. The study suggests that steps taken to reduce gum disease may also reduce inflammation in the arteries and vice versa.

Insects modify mating behavior in anticipation of storms Posted: 02 Oct 2013 03:56 PM PDT Insects modify calling and courting mating behavior in response to changes in air pressure.

Computer scientists develop new approach to sort cells up to 38 times faster Posted: 02 Oct 2013 11:11 AM PDT A team of engineers led by computer scientists has developed a new approach that marries computer vision and hardware optimization to sort cells up to 38 times faster than is currently possible. The approach could be used for clinical diagnostics, stem cell characterization and other applications.

Fear of predators drives honey bees away from good food sources Posted: 02 Oct 2013 11:11 AM PDT Honey bees live in a world filled with danger in which predators seize them from the sky and wait to ambush them on flowers. Such fear drives bees to avoid food sources closely associated with predators and, interestingly, makes colonies of bees less risk-tolerant than individual bees, according to a new study.

Longline fishery in Costa Rica kills thousands of sea turtles, sharks Posted: 02 Oct 2013 11:11 AM PDT The second-most-common catch on Costa Rica's longline fisheries in the last decade was not a commercial fish species. It was olive ridley sea turtles. These lines also caught more green turtles than most species of fish. These findings and more indicate that the Costa Rican longline fishery represents a major threat to the survival of eastern Pacific populations of sea turtles as well as sharks.

Newly identified biomarkers help predict outcome in deadly lung disease Posted: 02 Oct 2013 11:11 AM PDT A study has identified a gene expression profile that can predict outcomes and lead to better treatment for one of the most lethal lung diseases, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Red wine chemical, resveratrol, remains effective against cancer after the body converts it Posted: 02 Oct 2013 11:11 AM PDT A chemical found in red wine remains effective at fighting cancer even after the body's metabolism has converted it into other compounds.

Transgendered males seen as an asset to some ancestral societies Posted: 02 Oct 2013 10:14 AM PDT Transgendered androphilic males were accepted in traditional hunter-gatherer cultures because they were an extra set of hands to support their families. This is according to an ethnographic study. The study reports that this "kin selection" is still at play in pro-transgender societies today.

Tears for fears: Juvenile mice secrete a protective pheromone in their tears, blocking adult mating Posted: 02 Oct 2013 10:14 AM PDT While looking for novel pheromones that can control different instinctive mouse behaviors, researchers have discovered a pheromone found only in the tears of young mice. Their experiments showed that this molecule protects prepubescent mice from mating activity by adult male mice. The research provides the first step toward a detailed understanding of how a sensory system can regulate social behavior.

Specialized intestinal cells cause some cases of Crohn's disease Posted: 02 Oct 2013 10:14 AM PDT Scientists have discovered that Crohn's disease, the inflammatory bowel disorder, can originate from specialized intestinal cell type called Paneth cells.

Insect repellent: Scientists find insect DEET receptors, develop safe alternatives to DEET Posted: 02 Oct 2013 10:14 AM PDT Researchers have identified DEET-detecting olfactory receptors in insects that cause repellency and three safe compounds that mimic DEET and could one day be used to prevent the transmission of deadly vector-borne diseases. Until now, no one had a clue about which olfactory receptor insects used to avoid DEET. Without the receptors, it was impossible to apply modern technology to design new repellents to improve upon DEET.

Technology, not uninsured patients, driving hospital costs Posted: 02 Oct 2013 09:55 AM PDT Technology, not uninsured patients, likely explains the steep rise in the cost of hospital care in Texas in recent years.

Researchers identify the neural circuits that modulate REM sleep Posted: 02 Oct 2013 09:55 AM PDT Researchers have identified, for the first time, a precise causal link between neuronal activity in the lateral hypothalamus and the state of REM sleep. Using optogenetics, they were able to induce REM sleep in mice and modulate the duration of this sleep phase by activating the neuronal network in this area of the brain.

Seamless photography: Using mathematical models for image stitching Posted: 02 Oct 2013 09:55 AM PDT Panoramic photographs were invented to capture large objects or scenes that could not otherwise fit within the constraints of a single photo. Panoramic photography is achieved through image stitching, a process that combines two or more photographs, seamlessly blending input images with overlapping regions into one picture.

Recruiting E. coli to combat hard-to-treat bacterial infections Posted: 02 Oct 2013 09:55 AM PDT The notorious bacteria E. coli is best known for making people sick, but scientists have reprogrammed the microbe -- which also comes in harmless varieties -- to make it seek out and fight other disease-causing pathogens. This new type of E. coli can even kill off slimy groups of bacteria called biofilms that are responsible for many hard-to-treat infections.

Understanding the dangers of the fake marijuana called 'Spice' or 'K2' Posted: 02 Oct 2013 08:24 AM PDT The harmful effects of increasingly popular designer cannabis products called "Spice" or "K2" have puzzled scientists for years, but now a group of researchers is reporting progress toward understanding what makes them so toxic. The study describes development of a method that could someday help physicians diagnose and treat the thousands of young adults and teens who end up in emergency rooms after taking the drugs.

New method allows quantitative nanoscopic imaging through silicon Posted: 02 Oct 2013 08:24 AM PDT Scientists have figured out how to quantitatively observe cellular processes taking place on so-called "lab on a chip" devices in a silicon environment. The new technology will be useful in drug development as well as disease diagnosis, researchers say.

Discovery of charged droplets could lead to more efficient power plants Posted: 02 Oct 2013 07:33 AM PDT In a completely unexpected finding, researchers have discovered that tiny water droplets that form on a superhydrophobic surface, and then "jump" away from that surface, carry an electric charge. The finding could lead to more efficient power plants and a new way of drawing power from the atmosphere, they say.

Peculiar, diverse and dangerous to crops: A checklist of the scale insects of Iran Posted: 02 Oct 2013 07:33 AM PDT Largely diverse and economically important group, the scale insects of Iran require further investigation and improvement of knowledge, both from taxonomic and practical point of view. A new detailed checklist of Coccoidea in Iran provides the first steps in the better understanding of the family and a call for future investigations and practical use of knowledge in pest control management.

Measuring height by connecting clocks Posted: 02 Oct 2013 07:30 AM PDT How far above sea level is a place located? And where exactly is "sea level"? It is one objective of the geodesists to answer these questions with 1 cm accuracy. Conventional measurement procedures or GPS technologies via satellites, however, reach their limits here. Now optical atomic clocks offer a new approach, because the tick rate of a clock is influenced by gravity.

Early mammal varieties declined as evolution of flowering plants radiated Posted: 02 Oct 2013 07:29 AM PDT The dramatic explosion of flowering plant species that occurred about 100 million years ago was thought to have been good news for evolving mammals. But new research suggests that wasn't necessarily the case.

Eye contact may make people more resistant to persuasion Posted: 02 Oct 2013 06:26 AM PDT Making eye contact has long been considered an effective way of drawing a listener in and bringing him or her around to your point of view. But new research shows that eye contact may actually make people more resistant to persuasion, especially when they already disagree.

Streams below fracking wastewater treatment show elevated salts, metals, radioactivity Posted: 02 Oct 2013 06:26 AM PDT Elevated levels of radioactivity, salts and metals have been found in river water and sediments at a site where treated water from oil and gas operations is discharged into a western Pennsylvania creek.

Did you have a good time? We know where you'll store the memory of it Posted: 02 Oct 2013 06:23 AM PDT Where do you go for a tasty bite and where is the food not so good? Where are you likely to have a great time and where might things not turn out so well? For every person – but also for animals – the information about pleasant and unpleasant experiences is of key importance. Researchers have now discovered how and where pleasant memories are stored.

Spinach and nanodiamonds? nanodiamond biosensor for detection of iron-level in blood Posted: 02 Oct 2013 06:22 AM PDT Popeye, the comic book hero, swears by it as do generations of parents who delight their children with spinach. Of course, today it is known that the vegetable is not quite as rich in iron as originally thought, but that iron is nevertheless essential for our physical well-being is undisputed. Lack of iron -- caused by malnutrition -- can lead to anemia while an increased level of iron may signal the presence of an acute inflammatory response. Therefore, the blood iron level is an important medical diagnostic agent. Researchers have now developed a novel biosensor for determination of iron content that is based on nanodiamonds.

Like father, not like son: Brain and song structure in zebra finches are strongly influenced by the environment Posted: 02 Oct 2013 06:21 AM PDT A central topic in behavioral biology is the question, which aspects of a behavior are learned or expressed due to genetic predisposition. Today it is known that our personality and behavior are far less determined by the genetic background. Especially during development environmental factors can shape brain and behavior via so-called epigenetic effects. Thereby hormones play an important role. netic predisposition. However, it is relatively hard to discriminate the effects of the environment from that of the genes.

Textured images help tactile recognition for the blind Posted: 02 Oct 2013 06:21 AM PDT The use of different materials with varied textures improves the recognition of tactile images by young blind people. This result emphasizes that early, regular use of tactile material by blind children is necessary to improve recognition through touch.

Protecting the weedy and wild kin of globally important crops Posted: 01 Oct 2013 07:12 PM PDT As more and more people recognize the importance of the wild relatives of crop plants to agriculture and food security, interest in cataloging and conserving these plants is building around the world. Agricultural researchers are working to identify and protect the wild relatives of domesticated crop plants both in the United States and abroad.

New bio bank to resolve legal, ethical issues Posted: 01 Oct 2013 04:18 PM PDT When researchers collect human tissue in a so-called bio bank, the purpose is usually to learn about various diseases and improve curing of them. But a group of researchers are in the process of creating a bio bank, which will generate knowledge about the legal and ethical aspects of bio banking as well as contributing to medical research.

New tuberculosis vaccine developed Posted: 01 Oct 2013 12:10 PM PDT A new vaccine has been developed to act as a booster to Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG), currently the only TB vaccine available. BCG was developed in the 1920s and has been used worldwide. The new "booster" would reactivate immune elements that over time diminish following BCG vaccination.

New genetic discovery could reduce the guess work in drug dosing Posted: 01 Oct 2013 12:10 PM PDT The discovery of genetic differences affecting up to a third of the population could take the guess work out of prescribing the correct dose of 25 percent of drugs currently on the market, researchers say.

Lactation may be linked to aggressive cancer in Mexican women Posted: 01 Oct 2013 12:10 PM PDT Scientific data suggest that a woman reduces her risk of breast cancer by breastfeeding, having multiple children and giving birth at a younger age. A study recently published indicates that women of Mexican descent may not fit that profile. In fact, results suggest that women of Mexican descent with more children and those who breastfeed are more likely to be diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

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