Fwd: Science X Newsletter Tuesday, Aug 30

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From: Newsletter Phys.org <not-for-reply@physorg.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 12:30 AM
Subject: Science X Newsletter Tuesday, Aug 30
To: Pascal Alter <pascal.alter@gmail.com>

Dear Pascal Alter,
Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for August 30, 2016:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

Behind the curtain: Abnormal discharge of striatal projection neurons in Parkinson's disease revealed

Irregular dimming of a young stellar object investigated by astronomers

People with alcohol dependency lack important enzyme

Researchers discover machines can learn by simply observing

System may help treat rare genetic disorder, reduce severe side effects

Technique could assess historic changes to Antarctic sea ice and glaciers

Researchers use quantum dots to manipulate light

Kiwi birds younger than originally thought, research shows

Land-use change rapidly reducing critical honey bee habitat in Dakotas

New discovery Proxima b is in host star's habitable zone—but could it really be habitable?

Researchers discover how human immune receptors become activated in the presence of harmful substances

Increases in coastal development and precipitation push a parasite from land to sea

Invisibility cloak with photonic crystals

Did meteorites bring life's phosphorus to Earth?

New species of pterosaur discovered in Patagonia

Nanotechnology news

'Helix-to-Tube'—a simple strategy to synthesize covalent organic nanotubes Organic nanotubes (ONTs) are tubular nanostructures composed of organic molecules that have unique properties and have found various applications, such as electro-conductive materials and organic photovoltaics. A group of scientists at Nagoya University have developed a simple and effective method for the formation of robust covalent ONTs from simple molecules. This method is expected to be useful in generating a range of nanotube-based materials with desirable properties.

Physics news

	Researchers use quantum dots to manipulate light Leiden physicists have manipulated light with large artificial atoms, so-called quantum dots. Before, this has only been accomplished with actual atoms. It is an important step toward light-based quantum technology. The study was published on August 30th in Nature Communications.
	Invisibility cloak with photonic crystals Almost as elusive as unicorns, finding practical materials for invisibility cloaking is challenging. Michigan Technological University researchers have new ideas how to solve that.
	A 'nonlinear' effect that seemingly turns materials transparent is seen for the first time in X-rays at SLAC's LCLS Imagine getting a medical X-ray that comes out blank – as if your bones had vanished. That's what happened when scientists cranked up the intensity of the world's first X-ray laser, at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, to get a better look at a sample they were studying: The X-rays seemed to go right through it as if it were not there.
	Reducing runoff pollution by making spray droplets less bouncy When farmers spray their fields with pesticides or other treatments, only 2 percent of the spray sticks to the plants. A significant portion of it typically bounces right off the plants, lands on the ground, and becomes part of the runoff that flows to streams and rivers—often causing serious pollution. But a team of MIT researchers aims to fix that.
	New instrument improves studies of explosions, helps control hot spots Testing explosions is epic science. The most detailed studies of explosive charges have been conducted at national laboratories using a gun as big as a room to fire a flat bullet—the flyer plate, typically 100 millimeters in diameter—into an explosive charge inside a thick-walled chamber that contains the fierce blast. The tests require enormous facilities.
	Quest to find the 'missing physics' at play in landslides During the 1990s, Charles S. Campbell, now a professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California, began exploring why large landslides flow great distances with apparently little friction, and the larger the volume of flowing rock the lesser the friction.
	New optical material offers unprecedented control of light and thermal radiation A team led by Nanfang Yu, assistant professor of applied physics at Columbia Engineering, has discovered a new phase-transition optical material and demonstrated novel devices that dynamically control light over a much broader wavelength range and with larger modulation amplitude than what has currently been possible. The team, including researchers from Purdue, Harvard, Drexel, and Brookhaven National Laboratory, found that samarium nickelate (SmNiO3) can be electrically tuned continuously between a transparent and an opaque state over an unprecedented broad range of spectrum from the blue in the visible (wavelength of 400 nm) to the thermal radiation spectrum in the mid-infrared (wavelength of a few tens of micrometers). The study, which is the first investigation of the optical properties of SmNiO3 and the first demonstration of the material in photonic device applications, is published online today in Advanced Materials.
	Theorists solve a long-standing fundamental problem Trying to understand a system of atoms is like herding gnats - the individual atoms are never at rest and are constantly moving and interacting. When it comes to trying to model the properties and behavior of these kinds of systems, scientists use two fundamentally different pictures of reality, one of which is called "statistical" and the other "dynamical."
	Colors from darkness: Researchers develop alternative approach to quantum computing Researchers at Aalto University have demonstrated the suitability of microwave signals in the coding of information for quantum computing. Previous development of the field has been focusing on optical systems.
Diamonds and quantum information processing on the nano scale A City College of New York led-team headed by physicist Dr. Carlos Meriles has successfully demonstrated charge transport between Nitrogen-Vacancy color centers in diamond. The team developed a novel multi-color scanning microscopy technique to visualize the charge transport. The breakthrough experiment could potentially lead to room-temperature quantum information processing in diamond and optical data storage in three dimensions.
	MEPhI tests detector prototypes for future experiments at Large Hadron Collider In June and July 2016, a group of young scientists at MEPhI tested detector prototypes for future experiments at the Large Hadron Collider with the participation of colleagues from LPI (Russia), MSU (Russia), the University of Bonn (Germany) and the University of Bari (Italy).

Earth news

	Technique could assess historic changes to Antarctic sea ice and glaciers Historic changes to Antarctic sea ice could be unravelled using a new technique pioneered by scientists at Plymouth University.
	Increases in coastal development and precipitation push a parasite from land to sea Coastal waters near heavy human development are more likely to receive land-based "pathogen pollution," which can include viruses, bacteria and parasites, according to a recent study from the University of California, Davis. The study said higher levels of rainfall and development increase the risk of disease-causing organisms flowing to the ocean.
	Did meteorites bring life's phosphorus to Earth? Meteorites that crashed onto Earth billions of years ago may have provided the phosphorous essential to the biological systems of terrestrial life. The meteorites are believed to have contained a phosphorus-bearing mineral called schreibersite, and scientists have recently developed a synthetic version that reacts chemically with organic molecules, showing its potential as a nutrient for life.
	People enhanced the environment, not degraded it, over past 13,000 years Human occupation is usually associated with deteriorated landscapes, but new research shows that 13,000 years of repeated occupation by British Columbia's coastal First Nations has had the opposite effect, enhancing temperate rainforest productivity.
	Strong typhoon Lionrock heads for Japan's northeast A strong typhoon was on course on Tuesday for a direct hit on northeastern Japan, with authorities warning of heavy rain and high waves along the Pacific coast.
	Millions at risk from rising water pollution: UN Increasingly polluted rivers in Africa, Asia and Latin America pose a disease risk to more than 300 million people and threaten fisheries and farming in many countries, a UN report warned Tuesday.
	Sentinel-1 provides new insight into Italy's earthquake On 24 August, an earthquake struck central Italy, claiming at least 290 lives and causing widespread damage. Satellite images are being used to help emergency aid organisations, while scientists have begun to analyse ground movement.
	Tool identifies individual contributions to nitrogen overload in Chesapeake Bay Citizens living in the Chesapeake Bay watershed who want to live and eat healthy while helping the health of the bay now have a handy online tool with which to better understand how individual lifestyle decisions cascade into the environment. A newly released "Bay Footprint" calculator – which focuses on nitrogen pollution – helps citizens to see how diet and other choices affect the bay's health, and how changed behaviors can improve the bay.
	Fires pollute the air in West Africa West Africa is changing rapidly. An explosively growing population, massive urbanization, and unregulated deforestation modify the composition of the atmosphere, thus affecting weather and climate. How exactly these emissions are changing the region in the long term is not clear. The EU-funded project DACCIWA coordinated by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) therefore studied the air over the coastal region of West Africa with the help of research aircraft and ground stations.
	Researchers show that when it comes to climate change and stream flow, plants play an important role In California's Sierra Nevada mountains, as more precipitation falls in the form of rain rather than snow, and the snowpack melts earlier in spring, it's important for water managers to know when and how much water will be available for urban and agricultural needs and for the environment in general.
	Impact of road transport on air quality not given sufficient priority in UK transport planning UK transport planning is not sufficiently taking into account the environmental impacts of transport choices according to researchers from the Centre for Transport and Society and Air Quality Management Resource Centre at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).
Fertigation strategies improve production of Hippeastrum Recent studies have demonstrated that a priority for the floriculture industry is identifying environmentally friendly production strategies that result in marketable ornamental plants. The authors of a report in the June 2016 issue of HortScience say that implementing recommended nutrient management strategies in soilless culture production offers multiple benefits for growers.
	Satellites see Tropical Depression 8 off the North Carolina coast ASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP and NOAA's GOES satellites showed Tropical Depression 8 nearing the North Carolina coast. An animation of satellite imagery showed the development and movement of the depression toward the coast over a two day period.
	NASA looks at Eastern Pacific's Category 3 Hurricane Lester NASA satellites provided forecasters with infrared and visible imagery of Major Hurrricane Lester as it continued to move through the Eastern Pacific Ocean. After peaking as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 29, Lester weakened to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale today, Aug. 30.
	NASA satellite catches major Hurricane Madeline as Hawaii braces NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP and NOAA's GOES satellites showed major Hurricane Madeline nearing the Hawaiian Islands. An animation of satellite imagery showed the movement of Madeline and nearby Hurricane Lester over a two day period.
	Satellite sees large Tropical Depression 9 in the Gulf of Mexico Although the center of Tropical Depression 9 moved away from Cuba and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, western Cuba was still getting drenched from the system. A visible image from NOAA's GOES-East satellite showed the reach of the large depression.
	NASA's Terra satellite spies tropical storm weakening Lionrock over Hokkaido Tropical Storm Lionrock moved over Honshu, the big island of Japan and then proceeded over the Hokkaido, the northernmost island, when NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead and analyzed the storm's cloud top temperatures.

Astronomy & Space news

	Irregular dimming of a young stellar object investigated by astronomers (Phys.org)—New research conducted by a team of astronomers, led by Simone Scaringi of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, examines peculiar dimming of a newly found young stellar object designated EPIC 204278916. The study tries to explain the nature of these dipping events observed in the object's light curve. The results were published Aug. 25 in a paper available on arXiv.org.
	New discovery Proxima b is in host star's habitable zone—but could it really be habitable? The world's attention is now on Proxima Centauri b, a possibly Earth-like planet orbiting the closest star, 4.22 light-years away. The planet's orbit is just right to allow liquid water on its surface, needed for life. But could it in fact be habitable?
	Planet Nine could spell doom for solar system The solar system could be thrown into disaster when the sun dies if the mysterious 'Planet Nine' exists, according to research from the University of Warwick.
	SETI detects possible signal at 11 GHz frequency from sun-like star A star system 94 light years away is in the spotlight as a possible candidate for intelligent inhabitants, thanks to the discovery of a radio signal by a group of Russian astronomers.
	Anomalous grooves on Martian moon Phobos explained by impacts Some of the mysterious grooves on the surface of Mars' moon Phobos are the result of debris ejected by impacts eventually falling back onto the surface to form linear chains of craters, according to a new study.
	SpaceX gets taker for 1st flight of recycled rocket SpaceX has a taker for the first flight of one of its recycled rockets.
	The rise and fall of galaxy formation An international team of astronomers, including Carnegie's Eric Persson, has charted the rise and fall of galaxies over 90 percent of cosmic history. Their work, which includes some of the most sensitive astronomical measurements made to date, is published by The Astrophysical Journal.
	Geospatial expert on newly discovered planet Proxima b Last week, an international team of astronomers announced the discovery of a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, our solar system's closest neighbor. Called Proxima b, the planet is 4.2 light years away from Earth—the closest any extrasolar planet is ever likely to be—and lies within the potentially habitable zone of its star, raising the possibility for life.
Researchers observe solar eclipse's effects on weather When the Moon abruptly cuts off sunlight from Earth at a total solar eclipse, our weather reacts to the sudden darkness. A new issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, the oldest surviving scientific journal, deals with the effects of the March 20, 2015 eclipse. Williams College professor Jay Pasachoff, former Fulbright visitor to Williams College Marcos Peñaloza-Murillo, recent alumna Allison Carter '16, and University of Michigan postdoc Michael Roman have an article in this theme issue of "Phil Trans A" discussing the effect measured. Pasachoff and Carter had been on Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago controlled by Norway, for the eclipse. They had carried sensors for temperature and pressure borrowed from Williams College's Jay Racela of the Center for Environmental Studies. The expedition to Svalbard was supported by a grant to Pasachoff from the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society.
	An atypical protostar At the centre of this image, captured by ESA's Herschel space observatory, is a truly peculiar cosmic object: a star named IRAS 19312+1950.
	Who else is looking for new worlds around Proxima Centauri? Finding exoplanets is hard work. In addition to requiring seriously sophisticated instruments, it also takes teams of committed scientists; people willing to pour over volumes of data to find the evidence of distant worlds. Professor Kipping, an astronomer based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is one such person.

Technology news

	Researchers discover machines can learn by simply observing It is now possible for machines to learn how natural or artificial systems work by simply observing them, without being told what to look for, according to researchers at the University of Sheffield.
	Sony's FES Watch U has new look on e-ink face, band You go to your closet each morning and you choose your shirt, trousers, dress, shoes according to your mood and style needs for the day —so why not have the same style freedom with your watch.
	Offshore wind sails forward, but a different story on land Even as Rhode Island makes history as the first U.S. state with an offshore wind farm, its people are not so fond of wind turbines sprouting up on land near where they live.
	Dotcom wins right to live-stream appeal against US extradition Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom was on Tuesday granted his wish to live-stream his bid to avoid extradition to the United States where he is wanted on online piracy charges.
Apple hit with record EU tax bill (Update 3) The EU ordered tech giant Apple on Tuesday to pay a record 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland, a move Washington warned could damage hugely important transatlantic economic ties.
	'Russian hackers' attack two US voter databases Russian-based hackers may have been responsible for two recent attempts to breach US voter registration databases in two states, raising fears Moscow is trying to undermine November's presidential election, US media said Monday.
Poland investigates massive download of personal data Prosecutors and other state security officials in Poland are investigating unprecedented massive night downloading by bailiffs of personal data of some 1.4 million Poles.
	EU orders Apple to pay up to 13B euros in back taxes Apple has to pay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion)—plus billions more in interest—in back taxes to Ireland after the European Union found Tuesday that the U.S. technology giant contributed almost no tax across the bloc's 28 countries for 11 years.
Apple says will appeal EU tax ruling Apple vowed Tuesday to appeal an EU ruling ordering it to pay a record 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland, saying the decision would harm jobs and investment in Europe.
Apple tax ruling could 'undermine' US-EU economic partnership: Treasury Dept The US Treasury Department on Tuesday slammed an EU ruling ordering Apple to pay record back taxes, saying the decision threatened the bilateral "spirit of economic partnership".
	How driverless cars and mathematics could spell the end of traffic jams Being stuck in miles of halted traffic is not a relaxing way to start or finish a summer holiday. And as we crawl along the road, our views blocked by by slow-moving roofboxes and caravans, many of us will fantasise about a future free of traffic jams.
	Flywheel technology could create new savings for light rail transit (Edmonton) University of Alberta mechanical engineering professors Pierre Mertiny and Marc Secanell are looking to make an old technology new again and save some money for transit train operators such as the Edmonton LRT while they do it.
Comey: FBI wants "adult conversation' on device encryption FBI Director James Comey is again warning about the bureau's inability to access digital devices because of encryption.
	Why the EU's tax probe of Apple and others is raising US ire The European Union's crackdown on corporate tax avoidance has landed on Apple ; its antitrust regulator is demanding that the U.S. tech giant pay Ireland up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest in back taxes.
Ghost HQ and Double Irish: Apple's tax deals Take one set of European profits, one phantom headquarters and two companies and there you have it: Apple's recipe for avoiding tax.
Multi-billion Apple windfall puts Ireland in unusual bind The European Commission's demand for Apple to pay Ireland some 13 billion euros in back taxes has put the country in the strange position of refusing the windfall for fear of scaring away valuable investment.
Google to expand Waze carpooling service in San Francisco Google is set to expand a San Francisco carpooling program that could morph into a showdown with its one-time ally, the popular ride-hailing service Uber.
New rules on small drones kick in: What you need to know For companies that want to use small drones, a new era began Monday.
Transatlantic tussles: EU cases against US firms The EU's decision to make Silicon Valley giant Apple repay 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland is the latest in a string of competition cases against US firms.
Obama to guest-edit issue of Wired magazine Is President Barack Obama already thinking about his next job? In the coming months, he will guest-edit an issue of tech-focused Wired magazine.

Chemistry news

	Protein cages for designing various catalytic reactions Compartmentalization is a common strategy used by living organisms to create isolated reaction environments to protect reaction catalysts from undesired reaction partners in cells. Mimicking such compartment systems is a novel approach for developing new biohybrid materials as well as for understanding the complex cellular processes.
	Simple synthesis of CF2H-containing organic molecules Organofluorine compounds are important in the fields of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and functional materials, because incorporation of fluorine atoms into organic molecules frequently influences their medicinal actions as well as chemical and physical properties. In particular, difluoromethyl group (CF2H) is an intriguing structural motif, especially in medicinal chemistry, because it may provide a lipophilic hydrogen donor and act as bioisostere of alcohols and thiols.
	Video: What if humans could photosynthesize? The sun shines a massive amount of energy onto the Earth's surface every day. What if humans could take a cue from plants and use sunlight to make their own food?

Biology news

	Kiwi birds younger than originally thought, research shows New Zealand's kiwi may be one of the world's oddest birds – flightless, nocturnal, an enigmatic dirt digger with nostrils at the end of its long bill. But the national symbol also has a lot to tell the world about evolution during the most recent ice age.
	Land-use change rapidly reducing critical honey bee habitat in Dakotas The Northern Great Plains of North and South Dakota, which support over 40 percent of United States commercial honey bee colonies, are quickly becoming less conducive to commercial beekeeping as a result of land-use changes, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study published today.
	Gut biome of monkeys found to change when they are kept in captivity (Phys.org)—An international team of researchers has found that when monkeys are kept in captivity, their gut biomes become less diverse. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes how they collected fecal samples from monkeys from several sites and compared DNA analysis of organisms living in their guts to learn more about the impact of a changing gut biome.
	Mitosis study finds potential cancer target Structural biologists show in a new study that an apparently key step in the process of cell division depends on a unique interaction among specific proteins, including one that is strongly linked to cancer. Their hope now is that the detailed new characterization of the interaction will make it a target for exploring a new cancer therapy.
A new way to create synthetic proteins could lead to more flexible designs Building up proteins from scratch, rather than piecing together fragments of existing proteins, could make designing new nanomaterials easier.
	Environmental DNA uncovers biodiversity in rivers Most natural ecosystems are heavily affected by changes to the human habitat, climate change or invasive species. In order to protect these ecosystems, one needs to know which organisms live in them. Therefore, assessing the state of and change in biodiversity is central to ecology and conservation biology. However, classical methods are often only suitable for determining a subset of organisms. Moreover, they are expensive and involve collecting the organisms themselves.
	Changes in the immune system lead to success The sequencing of the Atlantic cod genome in 2011 demonstrated that this species lacks a crucial part of its immune system. In a follow-up study, Kjetill S. Jakobsen and collaborators have investigated a large number of additional fish species and found that this is a trait that Atlantic cod have in common with its close relatives, the codfishes. Further analyses show that the alternate immune system observed is associated with increased speciation rates, and a key to the success of this group of fishes. The results are now published in the world-leading journal Nature Genetics.
	Female fiddler crabs want protection not sex New research has resolved a mystery over why female fiddler crabs visit and leave many males during mating season, and found the females aren't just being picky.
	Dog brains process both what we say and how we say it, study shows The first study to investigate how dog brains process speech shows that our best friends in the animal kingdom care about both what we say and how we say it. Dogs, like people, use the left hemisphere to process words, a right hemisphere brain region to process intonation, and praising activates dog's reward center only when both words and intonation match, according to a study in Science.
	New research shows how songbirds island-hopped out of Australia While it is widely accepted that songbirds originated from the Australian continent, how and when they diversified and colonized the rest of the globe has remained a mystery.
	Tasmanian devils evolve to resist deadly cancer Tasmanian devils are evolving in response to a highly lethal and contagious form of cancer, a Washington State University researcher has found.
	Plants found to regulate leaf temperature to boost carbon uptake A new study has found that plants regulate their leaf temperature with some independence from the surrounding air temperature, a trait that increases carbon uptake through photosynthesis. The research offers promise for refining Earth system models that help predict climate change impacts and feedbacks.
	Defend or grow? These plants do both From natural ecosystems to farmers' fields, plants face a dilemma of energy use: outgrow and outcompete their neighbors for light, or defend themselves against insects and disease.
	Sensing viruses by exploring their electrical properties Our living sphere is exposed to a wide range of pathogenic viruses—some known and others of novel origin.
	More tomatoes, faster: Accelerating tomato engineering Tomatoes are already an ideal model species for plant research, but scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) just made them even more useful by cutting the time required to modify their genes by six weeks.
	What's hiding behind the trapdoor? Spiders, of course Australia is known as a country full of deadly creatures - now people have trapdoor spiders hiding in their backyards.
	Two-photon imaging of Meissner's corpuscle mechanoreceptors in living tissue When a fingertip explores the surface of a material, mechanoreceptors called Meissner's corpuscles (MCs) near the surface of the skin mainly respond to low-frequency vibration stimuli such as fluttering or slipping on the skin. Thus they are responsible for sensitivity to light touch.
	High seas fisheries management could recoup losses due to climate change Closing the high seas to fishing could increase fish catches in coastal waters by 10 per cent, helping people, especially the most vulnerable, cope with the expected losses of fish due to climate change, new UBC research finds.
	Trapped in a nuclear weapon bunker wood ants survive for years in Poland Having built their nest over the vertical ventilation pipe of an old nuclear weapon bunker in Poland, every year a large number of wood ants fall down the pipe to never return back to their colony.
	A nonet of new plant species from Africa emphasizes the importance of herbaria in botany Combining modern molecular methods, with more traditional morphological ones, a recent revision of the custard apple genus Monanthotaxis has revealed a nonet of new species.
	Anti-whalers enlist fast ship to fight off Japanese Marine conservationists announced Tuesday they will for the first time be able to outrun the Japanese whaling fleet in the upcoming annual battle to protect the giant mammals in the icy Southern Ocean.
	Light treatments inhibit intumescence injury of tomato Intumescence injury, also known as edema or oedema, is a nonpathogenic physiological disorder that can cause blister- or callus-like tumor growths to develop on the surface of leaves, petioles, and stems of plants. Problematic intumescence injury has been observed in many different plant species. Researchers from the School of Plant Sciences at The University of Arizona published a study in the June 2016 issue of HortScience in which they report on recommended light treatments to mitigate the disorder for tomato plants grown in UV light-deficient environments.
Alaska agency turns to crowdfunding for park project With Alaska's fiscal crisis drying up funding for a number of state projects, officials hope a crowdfunding campaign will raise $50,000 toward shoring up a crumbling riverbank creeping toward century-old buildings at a state park.

Medicine & Health news

	Behind the curtain: Abnormal discharge of striatal projection neurons in Parkinson's disease revealed (Medical Xpress)—Parkinson's disease (PD) – an incurable, progressive illness caused by dysfunction and death of dopaminergic neurons in the brain (mainly in the substantia nigra) – results in a wide range of symptoms, motor system disorders such as tremors, akinesia (muscle rigidity), bradykinesia (slowed motion), and impaired balance (PD-related nonmotor symptoms include depression, gastrointestinal disorders, low blood pressure, and sleep disorders.) While PD can be managed with to varying degrees with medication and (less frequently) surgery, its precise cause has yet to be identified. At the same time, neuronal interconnection (or circuitry) models of Parkinson's disease are based on dopamine loss in a subcortical nucleus of the forebrain known as the striatum, as well as atypical striatal inputs into the basal ganglia (a neuronal network that plays a role in motor function and is thus relevant to PD and other neurological disorders manifesting with tremors and other involuntary movements). However, current research has been focused largely on extrastriatal mechanisms rather than striatal discharges in PD. Recently, however, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, San Pablo University, Madrid and Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid studied striatal projection neuron (SPN) patterns in PD patients undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, and compared that activity pattern with patients having the non-PD conditions essential tremor (ET) and isolated dystonia (ID) that lead to tremors and intermittent muscle contractions, respectively. The researchers found that their study provides significant insight into the role of striatal mechanisms in basal ganglia circuits and PD pathophysiology, as well as reports for the first time altered striatal SPN activity in dystonia and activity compatible with unchanged striatal function in ET.
	People with alcohol dependency lack important enzyme A research group under the leadership of Linköping University Professor Markus Heilig has identified an enzyme whose production is turned off in nerve cells of the frontal lobe when alcohol dependence develops. The deficiency in this enzyme leads to continued use of alcohol despite adverse consequences.
System may help treat rare genetic disorder, reduce severe side effects Researchers at Oregon State University and other institutions have discovered a type of drug delivery system that may offer new hope for patients with a rare, ultimately fatal genetic disorder - and make what might become a terrible choice a little easier.
	Researchers discover how human immune receptors become activated in the presence of harmful substances In George Orwell's classic dystopian novel Animal Farm, as the barnyard devolves into chaos the slogan "all animals are equal" quickly becomes "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others".
	Critical protein shows promise for the treatment of Alzheimer's The tidal wave approaches. In the coming decades, Alzheimer's disease is projected to exact a devastating economic and emotional toll on society, with patient numbers in the US alone expected to reach 13.5 million by mid-century at a projected cost of over a trillion dollars.
	Researchers identify multidrug-resistant E. coli bacteria from New Jersey patient New Jersey researchers have identified what is believed to be the first strain of Escherichia coli bacteria from a patient in the United States that harbored two mobile genes making it resistant to both broad spectrum carbapenem antibiotics as well as colistin, an older antibiotic increasingly used as a last resort for multidrug-resistant infections. Their report is published this week in mBio, an online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
	Amputees' brains remember missing hands even years later Our brains have a detailed picture of our hands and fingers, and that persists even decades after an amputation, Oxford University researchers have found. The finding could have implications for the control of next generation prosthetics.
	Variation in 'junk' DNA leads to trouble All humans are 99.9 percent identical, genetically speaking. But that tiny 0.1 percent variation has big consequences, influencing the color of your eyes, the span of your hips, your risk of getting sick and in some ways even your earning potential.
	Researchers finds mechanism affecting alcohol consumption A Washington State University researcher has found a mechanism that strongly influences whether or not an animal is likely to drink a lot of alcohol.
	Progress in refining the genetic causes of schizophrenia The study, published today in Genome Biology and funded by the Medical Research Council, combined genetic sequence information with measures of gene regulation in schizophrenia patients and matched controls.
	A new animal model to understand metastasis in sarcomas The Sarcoma research group of Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), led by Dr. Òscar Martínez-Tirado, has developed a modified version of an orthotopic model that allows researchers to recreate more closely the metastatic steps in Ewing sarcoma (ES), the second most common bone tumor in children and adolescents. This new model has been used for the first time as part of the team's latest work, published in Oncotarget, which provides new insights into metastatic processes in ES, and may become a valuable experimental tool to analyze metastatic potential in different kinds of sarcomas.
Factors associated with improvement in survival following heart attack Among nearly 400,000 patients hospitalized with a certain type of heart attack in England and Wales between 2003 and 2013, improvement in survival was significantly associated with use of an invasive coronary strategy (such as coronary angiography) and not entirely related to a decline in baseline clinical risk or increased use of pharmacological therapies, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2016.
	Cell phone conversations hinder child pedestrian crossing abilities Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have determined that a child pedestrian's ability to safely cross the road is hindered more during a cell phone conversation than an adult's. The study will be published in the November, 2016 issue of Safety Science.
Five-year study reveals patients operated on at night twice as likely to die as patients who have daytime operations New research presented at this year's World Congress of Anaesthesiologists (WCA) in Hong Kong (28 Aug - 2 Sept) shows that patients who have surgery during the night are twice as likely to die as patients operated on during regular working hours. Patients operated on later in the working day or in the early evening also have a higher mortality risk, concludes the study by Dr Michael Tessler, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, and Dr Ning Nan Wang, Chief Resident, Department of Anesthesia at McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada, and colleagues.
Trial results for anticoagulants for cardioversion in AF patients published The results of the largest known clinical trial to investigate the use of anticoagulants prior and post cardioversion in atrial fibrillation patients, published in The Lancet, show that non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) could be equally as effective as the currently used warfarin.
Peripheral arterial disease: Longer duration of dual antiplatelet therapy after stent placement improves outcomes In a study published online by JAMA Cardiology, Marco Valgimigli, M.D., Ph.D., of Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland, and colleagues assessed the efficacy and safety of prolonged (24 months) vs short (6 months or less) dual antiplatelet therapy in patients with peripheral arterial disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2016.
	Microbubbles show whether radiotherapy is reaching its target An interdisciplinary team of researchers at KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium, have developed a new way to evaluate whether a cancer radiation treatment is effective. Their technique uses gas-filled microbubbles and ultrasonic sound waves to determine whether the radiation beams have reached the target area. This makes it easier to limit or avoid damage to healthy tissue.
	Peptide mutants may help to identify vulnerability in tumor cells Researchers from MIPT, the Institute of Biomedical Chemistry, the Institute for Energy Problems of Chemical Physics, and the Research Institute of Physico-Chemical Medicine have presented an algorithm to detect mutant proteins based on mass spectrometry data and the results of exome sequencing. Using this new approach, the scientists have discovered unique genome variants, some of which are linked to cancer development. Studying mutant peptides will help to detect weaknesses in tumor cells that could lead to more effective drug treatments. The results have been published in the journal Proteomics.
Increasing nursing mothers' vitamin D levels may benefit babies New research from the University of Otago has found that giving breastfeeding mothers monthly high-dose vitamin D supplements may be a possible way to improve their babies' vitamin D status.
	Failure to identify obesity results in missed opportunity to intervene Despite a growing epidemic, many medical providers fail to diagnose obesity in their patients and miss an opportunity to identify an important component of long-term health, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study published in the Journal of Community Health.
	As leukemia evolves, stem cells hold keys to newer therapies A recent study by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers proves why leukemia is so difficult to treat and suggests that the current approach to drug development should be adjusted to target a broader range of genes or signaling pathways.
	Curing health care with a dose of big data and common sense While commanding four vessels sailing between England and India in 1601, Captain James Lancaster performed one of the great experiments in medical history. Each of the seamen on just one ship – his own, of course – was required to sip three teaspoons of lemon juice per day. By the midpoint of the voyage, about 40 percent of the sailors on the other three ships had died, most from scurvy, while no one on his had succumbed to the disease.
	Progress in the fight against ALS A Brandeis research group has found a way to repair a vital signaling mechanism in fruit flies with symptoms of ALS. As a result, dying motor neurons regained health and the once paralyzed flies regained partial motion.
	Doctors much more likely to miss heart attacks in women Women have a 50 per cent higher chance than men of receiving the wrong initial diagnosis following a heart attack, according to a new study by the University of Leeds.
Doctors urged to be cautious when treating low testosterone Doctors have been advised to exercise caution when prescribing testosterone treatment for older men with low testosterone and a history of cardiovascular disease, according to a position statement published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.
	New iPad game could help diagnose autism in children Autism could be diagnosed by allowing children to play games on smart phones and tablets, a study involving the University of Strathclyde has found.
	Economists say sugar taxes likely to be effective Debates on a proposed tax for sugar sweetened beverages in South Africa have reached fever pitch with the local food and beverage industry squaring up against the proposed sugary drinks tax expected to be implemented in April 2017. Professor Karen Hofman and Aviva Tugendhaft provide a few facts.
	Researchers investigate the reading habits of children and adults As part of a project from the DeveL (Development Lexicon Project) study, scientists at the Berlin-based Max Planck Institute for Human Development are studying how words are read by people of different ages. Participants range from first-graders through to seventy-year-olds – in other words, people of all generations. To date, studies compared children with young adults or young adults with older adults, but there was never research on children and older adults jointly.
	The rise of the Fitbit kids—a good move or a step too far? The concept of tracking your fitness with wearable technology is not new but the rate at which activity trackers are being worn by school children, is. And it's causing quite a range of reactions.
	The immune system's influence on sickness behaviour It is hard to find the words to describe how I feel at the moment because my brain is only working at about 10% capacity. At least I made it to work today. This is an improvement on last week, when I decided to stay home after waking up exhausted with a warm and unpleasant throbbing pressure spreading into my eyeballs and across my sinuses.
	Brain's internal compass also navigates during imagination When you try to find your way in a new place, your brain creates a spatial map that represents that environment. Neuroscientists from Radboud University's Donders Institute now show that the brain's 'navigation system' is not only active during actual or virtual movement, but also when imagining view directions. This suggests that the brain's spatial navigation system might also be important for cognitive functions such as imagination and memory. Scientific journal eLife published the results on August 30.
First randomized trial compares stenting techniques for coronary bifurcation Coronary bifurcations – a type of coronary artery narrowing – are best treated with a technique known as culotte stenting, as opposed to T-and-protrusion (TAP) stenting, when there is need for a side-branch stent according to results of the BBK II (Bifurcations Bad Krozingen) trial.
Intravascular imaging identifies some heart attack patients who can forego stenting More than one quarter of heart attack patients who are normally treated with stents to re-open their blocked arteries might be able to forgo this procedure and receive anti-thrombotic medications only, according to results of a pilot study.
	The search for prognostic markers and treatment options for cutaneous lymphoma Primary cutaneous lymphomas, cancers of the lymphatic system, occur in the skin and originate either from T-lymphocytes (T-cell lymphomas, incidence 75 percent) or in B-cell lymphocytes (B-cell lymphomas, 25 percent). Lymphocytes are cells of the blood system. This is a rare disease of ultimately unknown causation. Every year there are 6 – 8 new cases for every million people. MedUni Vienna is simultaneously conducting several studies relating to this disease with the aim of identifying prognostic markers for the course of the disease and also generally improving the quality of life and survival rate of those affected.
Simple diagnostic algorithm can be used to rule out pulmonary embolism Patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) often undergo computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) to confirm or exclude the diagnosis.
A rapid and effective antidote for anticoagulant bleeds A specially designed antidote to reverse acute, potentially life-threatening anticoagulant-related bleeding worked quickly, and was well-tolerated according to interim results of the ongoing ANNEXA-4 study.
Researcher develops effective fasting tool against cancer Fasting is a tool for effective cancer treatment. A new study shows that the right diet in combination with chemoteraphy not only protect the body´s immune system, it also turns it against cancer cells.
Caution urged in the use of blood pressure lowering treatment for heart disease patients Caution has been urged in the use of blood pressure lowering treatment for heart disease patients after a study in more than 22 000 patients with coronary artery disease found that too low blood pressure was associated with worse outcomes. The analysis from the CLARIFY registry is presented today at ESC Congress and published in The Lancet.
	Cannabinoid receptor activates spermatozoa Biologists from Bochum and Bonn have detected a cannabinoid receptor in spermatozoa. Endogenous cannabinoids that occur in both the male and the female genital tract activate the spermatozoa: they trigger the so-called acrosome reaction, during which the spermatozoon releases digestive enzymes and loses the cap on the anterior half of its head. Without this reaction, spermatozoa cannot penetrate the ovum. The researchers published their findings in Scientific Reports.
	Molecularly shutting down cancer cachexia Healthy fat tissue is essential for extended survival in the event of tumor-induced wasting syndrome (cachexia). In Nature Medicine, researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München show that selective manipulation of an enzyme can stop unwanted metabolic processes.
	Patient volunteers needed for GP exercise referral study Local patient volunteers are being sought by researchers investigating whether or not adding web-based coaching to a GP exercise referral scheme (ERS) would lead to increased uptake and sustained health enhancing physical activity.
Prasugrel and ticagrelor: Equally safe and effective in STEMI The antiplatelet drugs prasugrel and ticagrelor had similar safety and efficacy among patients with acute myocardial infarction and ST segment elevations (STEMI), according to results of PRAGUE-18, the first randomised, head-to-head comparison of the drugs.
Systems biology research study reveals benefits of vacation and meditation Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the University of California, San Francisco, and Harvard Medical School used a rigorous study design to assess the biological impact of meditation compared to vacation. They examined the effect of meditation on gene expression patterns in both novice and regular meditators. The researchers found that a resort vacation provides a strong and immediate impact on molecular networks associated with stress and immune pathways, in addition to short- term improvements in well-being, as measured by feelings of vitality and distress. A meditation retreat, for those who already used meditation regularly, was associated with molecular networks characterized by antiviral activity. The molecular signature of long-term meditators was distinct from the non-meditating vacationers. The study was published today in Springer Nature's journal Translational Psychiatry.
Less efficacy than expected in largest drug-eluting stent trial Rome, Italy 30 August 2016: New generation drug eluting stents (new DES) did not outshine contemporary bare metal stents (BMS) as they were expected to, in a surprise finding of the largest randomized stent trial to date.
Antipsychotic medications linked to increased risk of pneumonia in persons with Alzheimer's disease Antipsychotic medications are associated with an increased risk of pneumonia in persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to new research from the University of Eastern Finland. The risk of pneumonia was the highest at the beginning of antipsychotic treatment, remaining elevated also in long-term use. No major differences were observed between the most commonly used antipsychotics.
	Functional human tissue-engineered liver generated from stem and progenitor cells A research team led by investigators at The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles has generated functional human and mouse tissue-engineered liver from adult stem and progenitor cells. Tissue-engineered Liver (TELi) was found to contain normal structural components such as hepatocytes, bile ducts and blood vessels. The study has been published online in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.
Drug-eluting stents more benefit in saphenous vein graft Drug-eluting stents had a clear advantage over bare metal stents in patients undergoing revascularisation of saphenous (leg) vein grafts, results of the BASKET-SAVAGE trial show.
It's not just the heat: Bad policies contributing to heat-related deaths in farmworkers With this summer slated to be the hottest on record, more and more people, especially farmworkers, are at even higher risks of heatstroke. In fact, the state of California is currently investigating whether heat exposure caused three deaths in California's Central Valley this July.
	WHO urges shift in STD treatment due to antibiotic resistance (Update) Growing resistance to antibiotics has complicated efforts to rein in common sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday as it issued new treatment guidelines.
Retinoic acid suppresses colorectal cancer development, study finds Retinoic acid, a compound derived in the body from vitamin A, plays a critical role in suppressing colorectal cancer in mice and humans, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Bipolar adolescents continue to have elevated substance use disorder risk as young adults A follow up to a previous study finding an association between adolescent bipolar disorder and the incidence of cigarette smoking and substance use disorder finds that risk was even greater five years later, particularly among those with persistent bipolar symptoms. The report from a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, also finds evidence that the presence of conduct disorder, in combination with bipolar disorder, may be the strongest influence on the risk of smoking and substance use disorder.
Psychopaths feel fear but see no danger Researchers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Radboud University Nijmegen found proof that psychopathic individuals can feel fear, but have trouble in the automatic detection and responsivity to threat. For many decades fear has been put forth as a hallmark feature of psychopathy, the impairments in which would lead to bold risk-taking behavior. Sylco Hoppenbrouwers (VU Amsterdam), Erik Bulten and Inti Brazil (Radboud University) reviewed theoretical and empirical brain and behavioral data pertaining to fear and psychopathy and found that psychopathic individuals have trouble detecting threats. There was however little evidence that the conscious experience of fear was affected, indicating that the experience of fear may not be completely impaired in psychopathy. It's the first study to provide empirical evidence that the automatic and conscious processes can be independently affected within one psychiatric disorder.
	Towards better treatment of cystitis Every year, millions of people are treated for cystitis, but despite its prevalence, the disease is still a scientific mystery. Now a research team from University of Southern Denmark has succeeded in identifying how the bacteria responsible for the disease cause the disease to develop. This is a cause for optimism that more effective treatment methods can be developed.
	Caffeine and its analogues revert memory deficits by normalizing stress responses in the brain A study published in the journal Scientific Reports from Nature publishing group, describes the mechanism by which caffeine counteracts age-related cognitive deficits in animals.
Pets and children are a potential source of C. difficile in the community Household transmission of Clostridium difficile to pets and children may be a source of community-associated C. difficile infections according to findings from a new study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. The study found that patients with this bacteria can colonize or infect household contacts following or during treatment for an infection.
	Children with asthma attacks triggered by colds less responsive to standard treatment The results of a study conducted by Dr. Francine Ducharme, Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Montreal, published in the medical journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, confirm that respiratory viral detection, not child's age, explains the high rate of hospitalization for asthma attacks in children under six.
Transplanted bone marrow-derived cells reduce recurrent miscarriage in mice In a study focusing on the role of self-donated (autologous) bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in placental vascular development, researchers in Japan have discovered that when transplanted into pregnant mice, EPCs can contribute to better blood vessel growth that helps in forming "normalized" placental vascularization, leading, in turn, to reduced recurrent miscarriages by providing a healthier fetal environment during gestation.
Singapore Zika cases surge to 82 The number of Zika cases in Singapore has surged to 82, the government said Tuesday, as the mosquito-fighting effort continued in a bid to curb the spread of the disease.
	Peers, public perception influence firefighters against safety equipment Analysis by a team from Drexel University found that firefighters may shun safety gear due to the pressure of living up to their risk-taker image.
Friends are no better than strangers in accurately identifying emotion in emails A recent study by researchers at Chatham University in the journal Human Communication Research, found that friends are no better at interpreting correct emotional intent in emails than complete strangers.
	'Morning people' self-sabotage less at night, night owls' less at sunrise A study by psychological researchers at Indiana University shows that people are more likely to undermine their performance at stressful tasks when they're operating at "peak capacity" based on their preferred time of the day.
Study shows that children at home did not prompt parents to test for radon, secondhand smoke A University of Louisville School of Nursing researcher has found that the presence of children in the home did not motivate parents to test and mitigate for radon and secondhand tobacco smoke, both of which cause lung cancer. The findings highlight a need to raise awareness on these exposure risks and their long-term impact on children.
	Addiction cravings may get their start deep in the right side of the brain If you really want a drink right now, the source of your craving may be a pea-sized structure deep inside the right side of your brain, according to scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Haiti fights losing battle against cholera Plastic-sheeted cots for men, women and children are crammed side by side in a former hangar. At the cholera treatment center in the Haitian city of Carrefour, the sick have no privacy.
	Researchers discover a drug for a tropical disease Researchers at the University of Georgia are working to find the fastest way possible to treat and cure human African trypanosomiasis, long referred to as sleeping sickness. By working to improve chemical entities already tested in human clinical trials, they hope to have a faster route to field studies to treat the disease using drugs that can be administered orally to patients.
	How the 'police' of the cell world deal with 'intruders' and the 'injured' The job of policing the microenvironment around our cells is carried out by macrophages. Macrophages are the 'guards' that patrol most tissues of the body - poised to engulf infections or destroy and repair damaged tissue.
Increased complications after 2011 Ohio abortion law Women who had medication abortions were more likely to require additional interventions following implementation of an Ohio law that required abortion providers to adhere to an outdated protocol, according to a study published by Ushma Upadhyay from the University of California, San Francisco, US, and colleagues in PLOS Medicine.
	UAB biomarker outperforms current gold standard to detect brain shunt infections In a study of children with brain shunts at Children's of Alabama, a University of Alabama at Birmingham investigational biomarker outperformed the current "gold standard" test for detecting bacterial infections in the shunts.
Road map for addressing ethical concerns tied to research on human-animal embryos A new bioethical framework for addressing concerns surrounding potentially revolutionary research on human-animal embryos is publishing on Aug. 30, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
Written 'report card' decreases dentists' antibiotic prescriptions Dentists are less likely to prescribe antibiotics after they receive a personalised report detailing their past prescription rates, according to a randomised controlled trial of UK dentists published in PLOS Medicine, by Linda Young, NHS Education for Scotland, UK, Jan Clarkson, University of Dundee and Craig Ramsay, Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, and colleagues.
	Non-addictive painkiller shows promise in animal trials (HealthDay)—Preliminary research in monkeys suggests that a new medication might be able to provide pain relief similar to opioid drugs such as OxyContin, but without the same potential for addiction or serious side effects.
	Caregiver well-being linked to quality of cancer patient care (HealthDay)—Informal caregiver well-being is associated with patient-perceived quality of care (QOC), according to a study published online Aug. 29 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
	CABG plus optimal medical therapy best in T2DM and CAD (HealthDay)—For patients with type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD), coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) plus optimal medical therapy (OMT) is superior to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) plus OMT, according to a study published in the Sept. 6 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
	Older MI survivors have high event risk over long term (HealthDay)—Older myocardial infarction (MI) survivors have long-term elevated risks of mortality and cardiovascular events, according to a study published online Aug. 26 in Cardiovascular Therapeutics.
	Maintaining body weight linked to reduced costs in T2DM (HealthDay)—For patients with type 2 diabetes, maintaining body weight is associated with a reduction in medical care costs, while weight gain is associated with variable cost increases depending on the hemoglobin A1C level, according to a study published online Aug. 25 in Diabetes Care.
Younger heart attack survivors may face premature heart disease death For patients age 50 and younger, the risk of premature death after a heart attack has dropped significantly, but their risk is still almost twice as high when compared to the general population, largely due to heart disease and other smoking-related diseases, according to new research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.
Older patients feel they have little say in choosing dialysis, study says Starting dialysis treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) should be a shared decision made by an informed patient based on discussions with a physician and family members. However, many older dialysis patients say they feel voiceless in the decision-making process and are unaware of more conservative management approaches that could help them avoid initiating a treatment that reduces their quality of life, according to a study led by Tufts University researchers.
	Inconsistent guidelines for screening transplant recipients at higher cancer risk People who have received organ transplants are at higher risk of developing and dying of cancer than the general population. Yet a new study has found cancer screening guidelines for this group are inconsistent as is the use of these guidelines.
	Smokers more prone to bowel condition relapses, study suggests Smoking is strongly linked to relapse of a serious bowel condition, research has confirmed.
	Researchers identify neural factors that predict adolescent alcohol use Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified 34 neural factors that predict adolescent alcohol consumption. The list, based upon complex algorithms analyzing data from neuropsychological testing and neuroimaging studies, was significantly more accurate —approximately 74 percent—than demographic information alone.
	Stem cell breakthrough unlocks mysteries associated with inherited heart condition Using advanced stem cell technology, scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have created a model of a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)—an excessive thickening of the heart that is associated with a number of rare and common illnesses, some of which have a strong genetic component. The stem cell lines scientists created in the lab, which are believed to closely resemble human heart tissue, have already yielded insights into unexpected disease mechanisms, including the involvement of cells that have never before been linked to pathogenesis in a human stem-cell model of HCM. The research was published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.
A plus-size challenge to S.Korea's beauty 'norm' In a country with beauty ideals that pre-makeover Barbie would struggle to meet, South Korean plus-size model Vivian Geeyang Kim is facing down online trolls in her defiant campaign to persuade curvy women they have nothing to be ashamed of.
40 Virginia cases of Hepatitis A now linked to smoothies Virginia health officials say there are now 40 confirmed cases of Hepatitis A that are connected to frozen strawberries used at Tropical Smoothie Cafe locations across the state, up from 28 cases less than a week ago.
Nonhuman primate research integral to search for future cures Research in nonhuman primates (NHP) has led to some of the most significant medical advancements known today and will be essential to continued biomedical progress, according to the new white paper "The Critical Role of Nonhuman Primates in Medical Research." Experts from the American Physiological Society (APS) contributed to the development of the report along with experts from the American Academy of Neurology, American Transplant Foundation, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Society for Neuroscience, American Society for Microbiology, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Endocrine Society and Foundation for Biomedical Research.
REVERSE II trial decision rule helps identify women who can safely discontinue anticoagulants A clinical decision rule (CDR) that can be applied to women after a first, unprovoked venous thromboembolism (VTE) was able to identify those with a low-risk of recurrence who could safely discontinue anticoagulant therapy, researchers reported at ESC Congress 2016.
Pancreatic cancer trial to make tumours more sensitive to treatment Cancer Research UK (CRUK) launches a first-of-its-kind pancreatic cancer clinical trial to make cancer cells more responsive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with University of Glasgow researcher Professor Jeff Evans as the chief investigator.
A new anticoagulant option before cardioversion Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who need anticoagulation before undergoing electrical correction of their abnormal heartbeat (cardioversion) may benefit from treatment with edoxoban - a non-vitamin K antagonist (VKA) oral anticoagulant (NOAC), according to results of the ENSURE-AF trial.
Hospital, hepatitis C outbreak victims reach settlement Trinity Health and its hospital in Minot have agreed in principal on a legal settlement with 21 victims of the largest hepatitis C outbreak in recent U.S. history, though Trinity's legal fight with a nursing home where most people were sickened will continue.
Affordable Care Act has improved access to health care, but disparities persist Coral Gables, Fla. August 30, 2016 The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has substantially decreased the number of uninsured Americans and improved access to health care, though insurance affordability and disparities by geography, race/ethnicity, and income persist. In addition, changes brought on by the ACA will no doubt impact state and federal budgets. These are just some of the findings revealed in nearly 100 studies, dating back to 2010, pertaining to the ACA. All are pooled together in a research paper, soon to be published in Health Services Research, authored by professors at the University of Miami School of Business Administration and the Florida Atlantic University College of Business.
Transplantation with human placental stem cells improves diabetes complications in rats In an effort to determine if stem cell therapy can prevent or improve a condition called "diabetic foot" caused by poor blood flow in patients with diabetes, a team of researchers in China has found that transplanting human placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into rats modeled with diabetes can affect blood vessel growth, potentially improving blood flow and preventing critical limb ischemia (CLI), a condition that results in diabetic foot and frequently leads to amputation.
Botulinum neurotoxin in plastic surgery—what's the evidence for effectiveness? Botox and other botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) products are widely known for their use in treating facial wrinkles—but they can also be used to treat a wide range of non-cosmetic problems. Eight conditions with good evidence of effective treatment with BoNT are identified in a special review in the August issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Plastic surgery seeks to help women gain leadership positions and break through the 'plastic ceiling' While some progress has been made, further work is needed to achieve more equitable representation of women plastic surgeons in leadership roles, according to a special topic paper in the September issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Novartis wins US OK for biosimilar version of Amgen's Enbrel U.S. regulators have approved the first near-copy of Enbrel, drugmaker Amgen's pricey biologic medicine for treating rheumatoid arthritis and other immune system disorders.

Other Sciences news

	New species of pterosaur discovered in Patagonia Scientists today announced the discovery of a new species of pterosaur from the Patagonia region of South America. The cranial remains were in an excellent state of preservation and belonged to a new species of pterosaur from the Early Jurassic. The researchers have named this new species 'Allkauren koi' from the native Tehuelche word 'all' for 'brain', and 'karuen' for 'ancient'.
	Statistical study offers evidence of warning signs before Neolithic community collapse (Phys.org)—A trio of researchers, two with the University of Maryland and the other with University College London has found that early Neolithic communities exhibited warning signs before collapsing. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sean Downey, W. Randall Haas, Jr. and Stephen Shennan describe the statistical analysis they conducted on data that has been collected through prior efforts from Neolithic communities that existed approximately 9,000 years ago and what they learned as a result.
	Reconstructing the sixth century plague from a victim Before the infamous Black Death, the first great plague epidemic was the Justinian plague, which, over the course of two centuries, wiped out up to an estimated 50 million (15 percent) of the world's population throughout the Byzantine Empire—and may have helped speed the decline of the eastern Roman Empire.
	Researchers map the gentrification effects of transportation projects on low-income communities A team of researchers at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs has created an interactive mapping tool to help community leaders better understand the effects of new light-rail and subway projects and related developments—especially on low-income communities.
Income and wealth inequality make recessions worse, research reveals "The Great Recession is the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. If you can't make an argument that inequality matters for the severity of this downturn, then it's unlikely to matter much for smaller recessions, or for normal times."
	Single women with personal wealth more likely to become entrepreneurs than men A new economic study by the University of Stirling and Royal Holloway, University of London has found evidence that there is a big difference in cash flow problems faced by men and women in the UK. They found single women face more severe constraints to their incomings and outgoings, but that those single women whose personal wealth increases unexpectedly through an inheritance are more likely to start a new business than their male counterparts.
Creative mathematical tasks contribute to deeper learning in mathematics Working with creative mathematical tasks is important for pupils both to reflect on mathematics as well as for their subsequent test results. Being faced with creative tasks during exercise has evident effects on all pupils, both on weak and high performers. This according to studies at Umeå University in Sweden.

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