ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Quantum material, frustrated magnets: New experiment reveals clues to their discontent
• Want a quick 3-D copy of something? Camera chip for smartphone provides superfine 3-D resolution
• Ebola virus diagnostic tool developed by physician who worked in Liberia
• Possible progress against Parkinson's and good news for stem cell therapies
• Cancer genes turned off in deadly brain cancer
• California quake risk: Newly discovered link between Calaveras, Hayward faults means potentially larger earthquakes
• Gender difference in moral judgments rooted in emotion, not reasoning, study finds
• Researchers combine common genetic variants, other factors to improve breast cancer risk prediction
• Strength training still advisable in older age
• Science and medicine have 'publication pollution' problem, according to medical ethicist
• Passive exposure to bleach at home linked to higher childhood infection rate
• To improve bicycle safety, crash reports need to capture more data
• HIV spreads like internet malware and should be treated earlier
• Researchers dramatically improve ART adherence for minority persons living with HIV/AIDS
• Efforts to save the rare 'Pinocchio lizard' which was once thought extinct
• Antibacterial enzymes to combat drug-resistant bacterial pathogens developed
• Strong grasp of immune response dynamics will enhance checkpoint blockade
• Deconstructing brain systems involved in memory and spatial skills
• Potential chemoresistance after consuming fatty acid in fish, fish oil

Quantum material, frustrated magnets: New experiment reveals clues to their discontent Posted: 03 Apr 2015 12:07 PM PDT An experiment has revealed an unlikely behavior in a class of materials called frustrated magnets, addressing a long-debated question about the nature of these discontented quantum materials. The work represents a surprising discovery that down the road may suggest new research directions for advanced electronics. The study also someday may help clarify the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity, the frictionless transmission of electricity.

Want a quick 3-D copy of something? Camera chip for smartphone provides superfine 3-D resolution Posted: 03 Apr 2015 12:07 PM PDT Imagine you need to have an almost exact copy of an object. Now imagine that you can just pull your smartphone out of your pocket, take a snapshot with its integrated 3-D imager, send it to your 3-D printer, and within minutes you have reproduced a replica accurate to within microns of the original object. This feat may soon be possible because of a new tiny high-resolution 3-D imager.

Ebola virus diagnostic tool developed by physician who worked in Liberia Posted: 03 Apr 2015 07:42 AM PDT An emergency medicine physician who treated Ebola-infected patients in Liberia last year used his field experience to create a tool to determine the likelihood that patients presenting with Ebola symptoms will actually carry the virus. Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has affected 24,000 persons during the current epidemic, which is the largest recorded outbreak of EVD in history. Over 10,000 people have died in West Africa, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Possible progress against Parkinson's and good news for stem cell therapies Posted: 03 Apr 2015 07:42 AM PDT Researchers have taken an important step toward using the implantation of stem cell-generated neurons as a treatment for Parkinson's disease. Using an FDA approved substance for treating cancer, they were able to grow dopamine-producing neurons derived from embryonic stem cells that remained healthy and functional for as long as 15 months after implantation into mice, restoring motor function without forming tumors.

Cancer genes turned off in deadly brain cancer Posted: 03 Apr 2015 06:59 AM PDT Scientists have identified a small RNA molecule that can suppress cancer-causing genes in mice with glioblastoma mulitforme, a deadly and incurable type of brain tumor. While standard chemotherapy drugs damage DNA to stop cancer cells from reproducing, the new method stops the source that creates those cancer cells. The approach could also potentially be used for gene silencing in other cancers and diseases of genetic origin.

California quake risk: Newly discovered link between Calaveras, Hayward faults means potentially larger earthquakes Posted: 03 Apr 2015 06:59 AM PDT Seismologists have proven that the Hayward and Calaveras faults are essentially the same system, meaning that a rupture on one could trigger a rupture on the other, producing considerably larger quakes than once thought. Researchers have mapped the land at the southern end of the Hayward Fault and found that the creep continued 15 km beyond to merge with the Calaveras Fault, which was thought to be independent.

Gender difference in moral judgments rooted in emotion, not reasoning, study finds Posted: 03 Apr 2015 06:59 AM PDT Men, relative to women, show a stronger preference for utilitarian over deontological judgments, according to a new meta-analysis of 40 studies. This gender difference in moral decisions is caused by stronger emotional aversion to harmful action among women; the study found no evidence for gender differences in the rational evaluation of the outcomes of harmful actions.

Researchers combine common genetic variants, other factors to improve breast cancer risk prediction Posted: 03 Apr 2015 06:59 AM PDT Recent large-scale genomic analyses have uncovered dozens of common genetic variants that are associated with breast cancer. Each variant, however, contributes only a tiny amount to a person's overall risk of developing the disease. Now an international team of researchers has combined 77 of these common genetic variants into a single risk factor that can be used to improve the identification of women with an elevated risk of breast cancer. This factor, known as a polygenic risk score, was built from the genetic data of more than 67,000 women.

Strength training still advisable in older age Posted: 03 Apr 2015 04:34 AM PDT Many over-65-year-olds are frail, or in a preliminary stage of frailty. A new study aims to raise fitness levels and quality of life for older people whose nutritional condition is inadequate. The first results show that regular strength training is particularly beneficial for increasing hand strength, and thus enabling people to live independently, says a researcher.

Science and medicine have 'publication pollution' problem, according to medical ethicist Posted: 03 Apr 2015 04:34 AM PDT The scientific community is facing a 'pollution problem' in academic publishing, one that poses a serious threat to the "trustworthiness, utility, and value of science and medicine," according to one of the country's leading medical ethicists.

Passive exposure to bleach at home linked to higher childhood infection rate Posted: 02 Apr 2015 06:09 PM PDT Passive exposure to bleach in the home is linked to higher rates of childhood respiratory and other infections, suggests new research.

To improve bicycle safety, crash reports need to capture more data Posted: 02 Apr 2015 03:35 PM PDT American researchers are calling upon police in all states to improve their reporting of crashes involving vehicles and bicycles. Currently, details on crashes are handwritten by police on paper and there are few bicycle-relevant codes. The researchers call for police to use electronic tablets with options to gather more bicycle-specific data. Analysis of the data could lead to safer bicycle environments, encouraging more people to cycle.

HIV spreads like internet malware and should be treated earlier Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:17 PM PDT A new model for HIV progression finds that it spreads in a similar way to some computer worms and predicts that early treatment is key to staving off AIDS. HIV specialists and network security experts noticed that the spread of HIV through the body using two methods -- via the bloodstream and directly between cells -- was similar to how some computer worms spread through both the internet and local networks respectively to infect as many computers as possible.

Researchers dramatically improve ART adherence for minority persons living with HIV/AIDS Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:16 PM PDT Up to 60% of persons living with HIV (PLHA) in the U.S. are neither taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) nor well engaged in HIV primary care, with racial/ethnic minorities more likely to experience barriers to engagement along this HIV continuum of care than their White counterparts. In fact, only 30% of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in the United States have achieved "viral suppression," the ultimate goal of HIV treatment. Indeed, PLHA poorly engaged in HIV primary care and/or who are not on ART are at elevated risk for a host of poor outcomes, including more frequent hospitalizations, lower quality of life, and even earlier mortality, and also run a greater risk of transmitting HIV to their partners. Further, poor engagement in HIV care and lack of ART initiation with good adherence are major drivers of high health care costs among PLHA.

Efforts to save the rare 'Pinocchio lizard' which was once thought extinct Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:16 PM PDT A long lizard nose is an important part of their social interactions and a unique aspect of the natural history of this remarkable lizard. Scientists say the more they know about its behavior, the better the chances they have to save it.

Antibacterial enzymes to combat drug-resistant bacterial pathogens developed Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:15 PM PDT By engineering antibacterial enzymes, investigators are using novel strategies to target the prevalent drug-resistant bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. "Antibacterial enzymes, which kill via catalytic mechanisms, represent promising candidates in the fight against drug-resistant microbes," explained the lead researcher. "Staph infections in hospital settings are a serious problem that has gained widespread public attention, and there's an urgent need to address the threat of antibiotic resistance. Using molecular engineering, we are expanding the pool of antibacterial drug candidates and improving their performance."

Strong grasp of immune response dynamics will enhance checkpoint blockade Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:15 PM PDT Spreading the success of cancer immunotherapy beyond those patients currently enjoying powerful, long-term responses to treatment requires greater understanding of the immune response to tumors, two leaders in the field note in a new review.

Deconstructing brain systems involved in memory and spatial skills Posted: 02 Apr 2015 01:13 PM PDT In work that reconciles two competing views of brain structures involved in memory and spatial perception, researchers have conducted experiments that suggest the hippocampus -- a small region in the brain's limbic system -- is dedicated largely to memory formation and not to spatial skills, such as navigation.

Potential chemoresistance after consuming fatty acid in fish, fish oil Posted: 02 Apr 2015 09:13 AM PDT Researchers found that consuming the fish herring and mackerel, as well as three kinds of fish oils, raised blood levels of the fatty acid 16:4(n-3), which experiments in mice suggest may induce resistance to chemotherapy used to treat cancer.

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