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In the 1970s, Jane Goodall's reports of chimpanzee violence caught the attention of a global audience. Since then, many people have compared chimpanzee intergroup aggression to primitive warfare and have argued that chimpanzee violence is an adaptive strategy that gives the perpetrators an edge. Others have argued that lethal aggression is the consequence of human activities such as provisioning (artificial feeding) by researchers or habitat destruction.

Skeletal dysplasia is a group of rare diseases that afflict skeletal growth through abnormalities in bone and cartilage. Its onset hits at the fetal stage and is caused by genetic mutations. A mutation in the gene encoding fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) has been associated with two types of skeletal dysplasia, thanatophoric dysplasia (TD), a skeletal dysplasia that cause serious respiratory problems at birth and is often lethal, and achondroplasia (ACH), which causes stunted growth and other complications throughout life.

In an analysis of genetic information among more than 87,000 men, a global team of scientists says it has found 23 new genetic variants – common differences in the genetic code -- that increase a man's risk for prostate cancer. The so-called "meta-analysis," believed to be the largest of its kind, has revealed once hidden mutations among men in a broad array of ethnic groups comprising men of European, African, Japanese and Latino ancestry.

Leaving one's job to become an entrepreneur is inarguably risky. But it may not be the fear of risk that makes entrepreneurs more determined to succeed. A new study finds entrepreneurs are also concerned about what they might lose in the transition from steady employment to startup.

In Entrepreneurship and Loss-Aversion in a Winner-Take-All Society, Professor John Morgan at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and co-author Dana Sisak, assistant professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, focused on the powerful impact of loss aversion.

The quest for the ultimate memory device for computing may have just taken an encouraging step forward. Researchers at The City College of New York led by chemist Stephen O'Brien have discovered new complex oxides that exhibit both magnetic and ferroelectric properties.

Combining both properties is very exciting scientifically for the coupling that can occur between them and for the devices that might ultimately be designed, in logic circuits or spintronics. Combining these two properties in a single material, however, has proved difficult until now.

A new study shows that patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) – the same virus associated with both cervical and head and neck cancer – positive oropharyngeal cancer see significantly higher rates of complete response on a post-radiation neck dissection than those with HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer. Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers presented the findings at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's 56th Annual Meeting on Wednesday, September 17.

DALLAS – September 17, 2014 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that the most common variant of the circulating protein apolipoprotein E, called apoE3, helps repair the lining of blood vessels. Individuals with another variant, called apoE4, do not get the benefit of this repair, putting them at higher risk for cardiovascular disease.

The work comes out of the molecular therapeutic laboratory directed by Richard G. Moore, MD, of Women & Infants' Program in Women's Oncology. Entitled "HE4 expression is associated with hormonal elements and mediated by importin-dependent nuclear translocation," the research was recently published in the international science journal Scientific Reports, a Nature publishing group.

Researchers at the Catalan Institute of Oncology-Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (ICO-IDIBELL), led by David Garcia-Molleví have identified 5 genes differentially expressed in normal accompanying cells in colorectal tumors. Analysis of these genes could be used to classify colorectal tumors, predict the evolution of the patient and thus take appropriate clinical decisions to prevent relapses.

Biomarkers

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Mutations in the human retinoblastoma protein gene are a leading cause of eye cancer. Now, Michigan State University scientists have turned to fruit fly eyes to unlock the secrets of this important cancer gene.

In a paper featured on the cover of the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Michigan State University researchers provide the first detailed examination of a set of mutations similar to those present in the human cancer gene, said Irina Pushel, MSU undergraduate and co-author.

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, including Center Director Thomas A. Sellers, Ph.D., M.P.H., Jong Park, Ph.D. and Hui-Yi Lin, Ph.D., have discovered 23 new regions of the genome that influence the risk for developing prostate cancer, according to a study published Sept. 14 in Nature Genetics.

Ageing of insulin-secreting cells is coupled to a progressive decline in signal transduction and insulin release, according to a recent study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The finding, which is published in the journal Diabetes, provides a new molecular mechanism underlying age-related impairment of insulin-producing cells and diabetes.

New research from the Copenhagen Centre for Social Evolution and Yale University offers compelling support for the general evolutionary theory that birth weight and -length can partially predict the likelihood of being diagnosed with mental health disorders such as autism and schizophrenia later in life. The study analyzed medical records of 1.75 million Danish births, and subsequent hospital diagnoses for up to 30 years, and adjusted for almost all other known risk factors. The study is published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, London B.

From the most parched areas of Saudi Arabia to water-scarce areas of the western U.S., the idea of harvesting fog for water is catching on. Now, a novel approach to this process could help meet affected communities' needs for the life-essential resource. Scientists describe their new, highly efficient fog collector, inspired by a shorebird's beak, in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Researchers in Biomedical Informatics at IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) and at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) have recently published a study in eLife showing that RNA called non-coding (IncRNA) plays an important role in the evolution of new proteins, some of which could have important cell functions yet to be discovered.