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• Early intervention in dyslexia can narrow achievement gap
• Risk assessment, for the birds
• Researchers give peptides a longer life
• Protecting plants from stealthy diseases
• Obese people need more vitamin E, but actually get less
• First neutrino sightings by MicroBooNE
• Ultrasensitive sensors made from boron-doped graphene
• Researchers reduce inflammation in human cells, a major cause of frailty
• Predicting cancer's growth from few clues
• Research elucidates genetics behind Salmonella's host specificity
• For-profit and community college graduates earn same hiring interest from employers
• 'Inner GPS' study may aid diagnosis of brain diseases
• Structure of tuberculosis enzyme revealed, could offer drug target
• How new hydrogel can facilitate microsurgery
• Cancer cells use secret tunnels to communicate, smuggle cancer signals their neighbors
• Even a little is too much: One junk food snack triggers signals of metabolic disease
• New study uncovers attitudes of African-American children toward overweight peers
• Children's self-esteem already established by age five
• What the [beep]? Infants link new communicative signals to meaning
• Juvenile cowbirds sneak out at night
• Sugar-coated nanoworms not for breakfast in the human immune system
• Researchers are on their way to predicting what side effects you'll experience from a drug
• Less ice, more water in Arctic Ocean by 2050s
• New research opens door to understanding human tonsil cancer
• Making green fuels, no fossils required
• Chopin, Bach used human speech ‘cues’ to express emotion in music
• 90 percent of skin-based viruses represent viral 'dark matter,' scientists reveal
• Deep-sea hydrothermal vents have carbon-removing properties
• Early contact with dogs linked to lower risk of asthma
• Breast cancer: Research identified obstacles to care in Appalachia
• Disk gaps don't always signal planets
• How the Ebola scare stigmatized African immigrants in the US
• Engineers design magnetic cell sensors
• Traveling through space? Don't forget your sleeping pills and skin cream
• World-first 3-D image of a protein involved in cancer spread
• Body odor sets female rhesus monkeys apart
• Another car recalled? Online press can be bad news for rivals
• Plants keep one foot on the brakes
• Buying a new furnace: Will you use your savings or assume more debt?
• Need help with your goals? Eating better may simply mean following the signs
• Increasing vitamin D supplementation in elderly women
• Male, female mice respond differently to inflammation
• Swedish diagnostic method for Alzheimer's becomes international standard
• Northwest's next big earthquake: Source mapped
• Calcium-48's 'neutron skin' thinner than previously thought
• Tissue cartography
• Off-label prescription drug use and adverse drug events
• Does cheering affect the outcome of college hockey games?
• Teen sex talks with parents, especially moms, associated with safer sex
• Pineapple genome offers insight into photosynthesis in drought-tolerant plants
• Bat disease fungus found to be widespread in northeast China
• Study reveals the architecture of the molecular machine that copies DNA
• Breeding higher yielding crops by increasing sugar import into seeds
• Cancer cells hijack glucose, alter immune cells
• Innate immune system modulates severity of multiple sclerosis
• Rapidly acidifying waters pose major threat for Southern Ocean ecosystem
• Eavesdropping on Bering Strait marine mammals
• Aedes japonicus mosquitoes found in western Canada
• Online cognitive behavioral therapy benefits people with depression, anxiety
• Substantial differences in obstetric care for First Nations women in Canada

Early intervention in dyslexia can narrow achievement gap Posted: 02 Nov 2015 03:42 PM PST Data demonstrate marked differences already present in first grade between typical and dyslexic readers.

Risk assessment, for the birds Posted: 02 Nov 2015 03:42 PM PST Every year, backyard songbirds across the United States make an arduous journey to warmer winter climes. They migrate hundreds of miles, occasionally braving tough terrain and nasty weather. Sometimes, they have no place to stop and refuel along the way. A new study focused on the complex factors that determine when these little birds make their journeys.

Researchers give peptides a longer life Posted: 02 Nov 2015 01:41 PM PST A biochemical trick has been developed that can significantly extend the lifespan of peptides, smaller cousins of proteins. The finding opens up new possibilities for creating peptides to treat cancer, infertility and other conditions.

Protecting plants from stealthy diseases Posted: 02 Nov 2015 01:37 PM PST Stealthy diseases sometimes trick plants by hijacking their defense signaling system, which issues an alarm that diverts plant resources for the wrong attack and allows the enemy pathogens to easily overrun plants. A team of international scientists, however, has engineered the receptor for jasmonate, a plant hormone that plays a central role in plant defense, to fend off such stealthy attacks from highly evolved pathogens.

Obese people need more vitamin E, but actually get less Posted: 02 Nov 2015 01:37 PM PST Obese people with metabolic syndrome face an unexpected quandary when it comes to vitamin E -- they need more than normal levels of the vitamin because their weight and other problems are causing increased oxidative stress, but those same problems actually cause their effective use of vitamin E to be reduced.

First neutrino sightings by MicroBooNE Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:38 PM PST The recently commissioned MicroBooNE experiment has reached a major milestone: It detected its first neutrinos on Oct. 15, marking the beginning of detailed studies of these fundamental particles whose properties could be linked to dark matter, matter's dominance over antimatter in the universe and the evolution of the entire cosmos since the Big Bang.

Ultrasensitive sensors made from boron-doped graphene Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:37 PM PST Scientists have developed ultrasensitive gas sensors based on the infusion of boron atoms into the tightly bound matrix of carbon atoms known as graphene.

Researchers reduce inflammation in human cells, a major cause of frailty Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:37 PM PST Chronic inflammation, closely associated with frailty and age-related diseases, is a hallmark of aging. Now researchers have discovered that inhibiting key enzyme pathways reduces inflammation in human cells in culture dishes and decreases inflammation and frailty in aged mice.

Predicting cancer's growth from few clues Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:28 PM PST Duke mathematicians are developing ways to help doctors predict how different cancers are likely to progress when measurements of tumor growth are hard to come by. In a new study, they describe a way to compare common models of tumor growth, using only two time-point measurements of tumor size -- often the maximum available before patients begin treatment. Determining which models work best for different cancers is key to designing optimum treatment strategies.

Research elucidates genetics behind Salmonella's host specificity Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:28 PM PST Using genomic techniques, slight variations in the coding sequence of proteins that bind Salmonella to host cells can determine what type of animal a particular strain infects, new research indicates.

For-profit and community college graduates earn same hiring interest from employers Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:28 PM PST Hiring managers show no preference for hiring people with for-profit college credentials compared to those holding comparable credentials from public community colleges, new research indicates.

'Inner GPS' study may aid diagnosis of brain diseases Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:28 PM PST A new study sheds light on brain cells in our 'inner GPS,' which may improve understanding of memory loss and wandering behavior in people with Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Structure of tuberculosis enzyme revealed, could offer drug target Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:27 PM PST A team of scientists has determined the structures of several important tuberculosis enzymes, which could lead to new drugs for the disease.

How new hydrogel can facilitate microsurgery Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:27 PM PST Skillful surgeons can do amazing things in extremely small places, but finding better ways to suture tiny blood vessels has been an ongoing challenge for even the best. In a new article, several researchers show how a new peptide-based hydrogel could one day make that reconnection process easier to perform and less likely to fail.

Cancer cells use secret tunnels to communicate, smuggle cancer signals their neighbors Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:27 PM PST Cancer cells use previously unknown channels to communicate with one another and with adjacent non-cancerous cells, a new report suggests. The researchers report that an in vitro co-culture system robustly quantifies the transfer of fluorescent proteins between cells and can also compare between various conditions.

Even a little is too much: One junk food snack triggers signals of metabolic disease Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:27 PM PST We hate to ruin Thanksgiving, but a new report suggests that for some people, overindulgence at the dinner table or at snack time is enough to trigger signs of metabolic disease.

New study uncovers attitudes of African-American children toward overweight peers Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:27 PM PST African-American girls show more empathy and are more accepting of overweight peers who can be victims of bullying, new research shows.

Children's self-esteem already established by age five Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:27 PM PST By age 5 children have a sense of self-esteem comparable in strength to that of adults, according to a new study.

What the [beep]? Infants link new communicative signals to meaning Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:27 PM PST Researchers have long known that adults can flexibly find new ways to communicate, for example, using smoke signals or Morse code to communicate at a distance, but a new study is the first to show that this same communicative flexibility is evident even in 6-month-olds.

Juvenile cowbirds sneak out at night Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:26 PM PST A new study explores how a young cowbird, left as an egg in the nest of a different species, grows up to know it's a cowbird and not a warbler, thrush or sparrow.

Sugar-coated nanoworms not for breakfast in the human immune system Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:26 PM PST Nanoparticles could aid diagnosis and treatment of diseases including cancer -- if the immune system would leave them alone. A new study shows that inducing crosslinks on nanoparticle surface sugars lets them escape mouse immune system and identifies remaining culprit for human immune recognition of nanoparticles.

Researchers are on their way to predicting what side effects you'll experience from a drug Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:26 PM PST Researchers have developed a model that could be used to predict a drug's side effects on different patients. The proof of concept study is aimed at determining how different individuals will respond to a drug treatment and could help assess whether a drug is suitable for a particular patient based on measurements taken from the patient's blood.

Less ice, more water in Arctic Ocean by 2050s Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:25 PM PST By the 2050s, parts of the Arctic Ocean once covered by sea ice much of the year will see at least 60 days a year of open water, according to a new modeling study.

New research opens door to understanding human tonsil cancer Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:25 PM PST Researchers have developed a groundbreaking method to identify and separate stem cells that reside in the tonsils. While stem cells in many other body tissues have been well studied, little is known about these stem cells.

Making green fuels, no fossils required Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:25 PM PST Converting solar or wind into carbon-based 'fossil' fuels might seem anything but green, but when you start with carbon dioxide -- which can be dragged out of the air -- it's as green as it gets. The technology that makes it economically feasible isn't available yet, but a recently published paper presents nice step forward in the effort to not just sequester carbon dioxide, but turn it into a useful fuel that is part of a carbon-neutral future.

Chopin, Bach used human speech ‘cues’ to express emotion in music Posted: 02 Nov 2015 11:39 AM PST Music has long been described, anecdotally, as a universal language. This may not be entirely true, but we're one step closer to understanding why humans are so deeply affected by certain melodies and modes.

90 percent of skin-based viruses represent viral 'dark matter,' scientists reveal Posted: 02 Nov 2015 11:37 AM PST Scientists in recent years have made great progress in characterizing the bacterial population that normally lives on human skin and contributes to health and disease. Now researchers have used state-of-the-art techniques to survey the skin's virus population, or "virome." The study reveals that most DNA viruses on healthy human skin are viral "dark matter" that have never been described before. The research also includes the development of a set of virome analysis tools that are now available to researchers for further investigations.

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents have carbon-removing properties Posted: 02 Nov 2015 11:37 AM PST Scientists have determined how hydrothermal vents influence ocean carbon storage. Originally, the researchers thought the vents might be a source of the dissolved organic carbon. Their research showed just the opposite.

Early contact with dogs linked to lower risk of asthma Posted: 02 Nov 2015 11:36 AM PST Scientists have used national register information in more than one million children to study the association of early life contact with dogs and subsequent development of asthma. This question has been studied extensively previously, but conclusive findings have been lacking. The new study showed that children who grew up with dogs had about 15 percent less asthma than children without dogs.

Breast cancer: Research identified obstacles to care in Appalachia Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:16 AM PST Researchers have taken a new approach to understanding why so many breast cancer patients in Appalachia aren't getting the care they need, and their findings are set to change how people view the obstacles to care that beset the region.

Disk gaps don't always signal planets Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:16 AM PST When astronomers study protoplanetary disks of gas and dust that surround young stars, they sometimes spot a dark gap like the Cassini division in Saturn's rings. It has been suggested that any gap must be caused by an unseen planet that formed in the disk and carved out material from its surroundings. However, new research shows that a gap could be a sort of cosmic illusion and not the sign of a hidden planet after all.

How the Ebola scare stigmatized African immigrants in the US Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:15 AM PST A new study finds similarities between how African immigrants were stigmatized during the recent Ebola crisis to how the gay community was stigmatized during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

Engineers design magnetic cell sensors Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:15 AM PST Engineers have designed magnetic protein nanoparticles that can be used to track cells or to monitor interactions within cells. The new "hypermagnetic" protein nanoparticles can be produced within cells, allowing the cells to be imaged or sorted using magnetic techniques. This eliminates the need to tag cells with synthetic particles and allows the particles to sense other molecules inside cells, say the researchers.

Traveling through space? Don't forget your sleeping pills and skin cream Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:15 AM PST A new study is the first-ever examination of the medications used by astronauts on long-duration missions to the International Space Station: the medications they used, the reasons they used them and how well they said the medicines worked were analyzed.

World-first 3-D image of a protein involved in cancer spread Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:12 AM PST Scientific history has been made by determining the first three-dimensional image of a protein linked to the spread of cancer. The 3-D image shows the architecture and intimate atomic-level detail of a bacterial heparanase, an enzyme that degrades a sugar molecule known as heparan sulfate, say scientists.

Body odor sets female rhesus monkeys apart Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:12 AM PST Rhesus monkeys make use of their sense of smell to distinguish between members of their own and other social groups, according to new research. The results revealed that monkeys of both sexes inspected the smell of females from other groups longer than the smell of females of the same group, probably because they were more familiar with the odors of individuals belonging to their own social group. Males and older monkeys were more likely to give the odor samples an inspecting lick than females or younger animals, respectively.

Another car recalled? Online press can be bad news for rivals Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:12 AM PST When Toyota or Chrysler recalls one of its models, the news spreads all over social media, with most consumers bad-mouthing the recalled model. But it turns out that the bad-mouthing is not limited to the offending vehicles. According to a new study, much of the negative chatter extends or "spills over" to rival models, impugning them in the process as well.

Plants keep one foot on the brakes Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:12 AM PST Why would plants use a seemingly inefficient method for controlling starch production? A research team studied the mechanisms controlling the plant production of starch, which is the most common carbohydrate in the human diet and present in large amounts in such staple crops as rice, potatoes and maize. The plant starts making starch as soon as the morning light turns on its photosynthesis and stops when photosynthesis subsides at night.

Buying a new furnace: Will you use your savings or assume more debt? Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:12 AM PST It's getting closer to winter, and all of a sudden you need a new HVAC system that'll cost $5,000. You've got the money in a savings account. Will you spend that money, or pay with a high-interest credit card instead? According to a study, if you have earmarked those savings for a "responsible" purpose, you are probably going to preserve them and pull out the costly plastic.

Need help with your goals? Eating better may simply mean following the signs Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:12 AM PST We all pursue goals. It stands to reason that we meet our goals better when we pursue them consciously. But is that really the case? Perhaps not, according to a forthcoming study that suggests that unconscious goal pursuit can be just as beneficial.

Increasing vitamin D supplementation in elderly women Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:02 AM PST Elderly women should take in more vitamin D than previously recommended during the winter months, suggests a team of researchers in a new report.

Male, female mice respond differently to inflammation Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:02 AM PST New research shows that male and female mice respond differently to inflammation at the cellular level, and suggesting that the inflammatory response in female mice differs from males mice in type and number of white blood cells recruited to the site of inflammation.

Swedish diagnostic method for Alzheimer's becomes international standard Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:01 AM PST Researchers have developed a reference method for standardized measurements that diagnose Alzheimer's disease decades before symptoms appear. The method has now formally been classified as the international reference method, which means that it will be used as the standard in Alzheimer's diagnostics worldwide.

Northwest's next big earthquake: Source mapped Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:01 AM PST The Cascadia Initiative deployed 70 seabed seismometers at 120 sites covering the entire Juan de Fuca plate to record mantle movement relative to the plate. Team members have confirmed what geophysicists expected, but one surprise is that a small appendage called the Gorda Plate moves independently of the Juan de Fuca, apparently too light to influence the mantle flow 100 miles down. This could explain earthquake segmentation at the subduction zone.

Calcium-48's 'neutron skin' thinner than previously thought Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:01 AM PST Scientists used America's most powerful supercomputer, Titan, to compute the neutron distribution and related observables of calcium-48, an isotope with an atomic nucleus consisting of 20 protons and 28 neutrons. Computing the nucleus from first principles revealed that the difference between the radii of neutron and proton distributions (called the 'neutron skin') is considerably smaller than previously thought.

Tissue cartography Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:01 AM PST Today's state-of-the-art optical microscopes produce voluminous three-dimensional data sets that are difficult to analyze. Now, two postdoctoral scholars have developed a means of reducing data size and processing by orders of magnitude.

Off-label prescription drug use and adverse drug events Posted: 02 Nov 2015 10:01 AM PST Off-label use of prescription drugs was associated with adverse drug events in a study of patients in Canada, especially off-label use lacking strong scientific evidence, according to an article.

Does cheering affect the outcome of college hockey games? Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST We all love belting our lungs out at sporting event, hurling insults and encouragements in turn, but does it actually have an effect on either team's performance? A study conducted suggests that no, it probably won't.

Teen sex talks with parents, especially moms, associated with safer sex Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST Risky sexual behavior among adolescents is a serious public health problem because of the risk of sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. Now researchers reveal that talking about sex with parents, especially mothers, had an effect on safer sex behavior among adolescents, especially girls.

Pineapple genome offers insight into photosynthesis in drought-tolerant plants Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST By sequencing its genome, scientists are homing in on the genes and genetic pathways that allow the juicy pineapple plant to thrive in water-limited environments. The new findings, also open a new window on the complicated evolutionary history of grasses like sorghum and rice, which share a distant ancestor with pineapple.

Bat disease fungus found to be widespread in northeast China Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST Bats in northeast China are infected with the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, a deadly disease that has decimated bat populations in North America since it first appeared in upstate New York in 2006. A team of researchers found the fungus in caves where bats hibernate and found bats infected with the fungus.

Study reveals the architecture of the molecular machine that copies DNA Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST Until now, the exact configuration of the replisome, a protein complex that unzips and copies DNA, has been unknown. After taking the first pictures of this complex, researchers were surprised to find it possesses an unexpected, counterintuitive architecture, raising new questions about how it functions.

Breeding higher yielding crops by increasing sugar import into seeds Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST A seed contains both a plant embryo and the sugars necessary to power its growth. The amount of sugars that fill a seed directly determines the seed's size. Until now, a direct link between the biochemistry of the seed-filling processes and crop domestication has remained elusive.

Cancer cells hijack glucose, alter immune cells Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST When cancer cells compete with immune cells for glucose, the cancer wins. As a result, the immune T cells are not healthy and don't have the weapons to kill the cancer. New research findings, report scientists, have potential as a tool to predict ovarian cancer survival, or a marker to predict effectiveness of immune therapy including checkpoint blockade or immune vaccination.

Innate immune system modulates severity of multiple sclerosis Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:57 AM PST Multiple sclerosis, a debilitating neurological disease, is triggered by self-reactive T cells that successfully infiltrate the brain and spinal cord where they launch an aggressive autoimmune attack against myelin, the fatty substance that surrounds and insulates nerve fibers. In their latest study, researchers report that these disease-causing autoimmune T cells are lured into the nervous system by monocytes and macrophages, a subset of immune cells better known as the immune system's cleanup crew.

Rapidly acidifying waters pose major threat for Southern Ocean ecosystem Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:54 AM PST A new study uses a number of Earth System Models to explore how the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and the resulting ocean acidification will affect the Southern Ocean over the next century. The new research finds that for some organisms the onset of such critical conditions will be so abrupt, and the duration of events so long, that adaption may become impossible.

Eavesdropping on Bering Strait marine mammals Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:54 AM PST One way to monitor impacts to the ecosystem is by observing the changes in occurrence or distribution of sea birds and marine mammals. So a team of researchers is 'eavesdropping' on marine mammals within the Arctic to monitor their presence year-round.

Aedes japonicus mosquitoes found in western Canada Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:54 AM PST Canadian entomologists have reported the first appearance of Aedes japonicus -- an invasive, disease-carrying mosquito -- in western Canada. Native to Asia, Ae. japonicus has been widely found in the eastern U.S. and eastern Canada since 1998, and in 2008 it was reported in southern Washington state and northern Oregon. It has also been found in several European countries and New Zealand.

Online cognitive behavioral therapy benefits people with depression, anxiety Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:54 AM PST Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) combined with clinical care has been shown to benefit people with depression, anxiety and emotional distress from illness, according to an evidence-based review.

Substantial differences in obstetric care for First Nations women in Canada Posted: 02 Nov 2015 09:54 AM PST There are substantial differences in obstetric care provided to First Nations women compared with women in the general population, and these differences may contribute to higher infant mortality in First Nations populations, according to new Canadian research.

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