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(Baltimore, MD) – In a new study published today in the journal Developmental Science (Epub ahead of print), researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Vanderbilt University found that early motor experiences can shape infants' preferences for objects and faces. The study findings demonstrate that providing infants with "sticky mittens" to manipulate toys increases their subsequent interest in faces, suggesting advanced social development.

A possible link between what a mother eats during pregnancy and the risk of her child developing allergies has been identified in new research published in this month's The Journal of Physiology.

The research found that if a mother's diet contains a certain group of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) – such as those found in fish, walnut oil or flaxseed – the baby's gut develops differently. The PUFAs are thought to improve how gut immune cells respond to bacteria and foreign substances, making the baby less likely to suffer from allergies.

Researchers at the University of Toronto have developed a therapy for a potentially deadly type of infection common in catheters, artificial joints and other "in-dwelling" medical devices. Their findings appear in the Open Access Journal PLoS Pathogens on September 8th.

The therapy targets fungal infections, which are hard to treat in such devices because they are composed of biofilms—complex groupings of cells that attach to surfaces. Biofilms, in turn, are coated in a gooey matrix that resists drugs.

AUSTIN, Texas—Flitting among the cool slopes of the Appalachian Mountains is a tiger swallowtail butterfly species that evolved when two other species of swallowtails hybridized long ago, a rarity in the animal world, biologists from The University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University have found.

A new, open-access article (http://bit.ly/qdTehR; DOI: 10.1603/PM10016) in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management describes the biology and ecology profiles of the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura), an insect pest which can reduce soybean yields by $2.4 billion annually if left untreated.

Nearly 50,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with stage III orlocally advanced NSCLC, for which surgery is usually not a viabletreatment option. Optimizing nonsurgical treatment strategies for thesepatients is an ongoing research endeavor. In an article published onlineSeptember 8, 2011 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, RTOGresearchers report that treating patients with concurrent chemotherapyand radiation therapy significantly increased five‑year survival ratescompared with treating patients with radiation therapy upon completionof chemotherapy treatment.

The new limits on hours that physicians-in-training can work will prove costly for U.S teaching hospitals, which will need to spend up to $1.3 billion a year, and possibly more, to effect the changes, a new UCLA study suggests.

On July 1, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the national body charged with overseeing the training of junior doctors as they complete their specialty training, put into effect strict duty-hour limits on interns and medical residents and instituted related changes to the training environment.

A gene responsible for regulating chronic pain, called HCN2, has been identified by scientists at the University of Cambridge.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and EU funded research, published today (09 September) in the journal Science, opens up the possibility of targeting drugs to block the protein produced by the gene in order to combat chronic pain.

San Francisco, CA - Whether chemotherapy is given before or after breast-conserving therapy (BCT) does not have an impact on long-term local-regional outcomes, suggesting treatment success is due more to biologic factors than chemotherapy timing, according to a study by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

With the increasing availability of sophisticated technologies to rapidly diagnose and treat infectious diseases, the duties and the role of clinical laboratory microbiologists, who traditionally perform these tests, could see significant changes in the next few years. That is one of the conclusions of a series of reports published in a special supplement to the September 2011 Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

When diving during their courtship dances, male hummingbirds exceed their usual flight speeds--with birds of at least some hummingbird species reaching their possible maximum speeds during dives. Also, the faster a male hummingbird dives, the louder his fluttering sounds become.

COLUMBUS, Ohio, September 8, 2011 -- For a century, scientists have watched European gypsy moth caterpillars infected with a virus use their last strength to do something that a healthy gypsy moth caterpillar would never do in daylight hours – climb high into a tree and onto a leaf. This behavior in infected caterpillars was so consistent that it inspired the term "Wipfelkrankheit," or "tree top disease," to describe the virus that caused it. For scientists, the question has been how does a virus change its host's behavior?

The way in which plants space out the pores through which they breathe depends on keeping a protein active during stem cell growth, according to John Innes Centre scientists.

Plant pores, called stomata, are essential for life. When they evolved about 400 million years ago, they helped plants conquer the land. Plants absorb carbon dioxide through stomata and release oxygen and water vapour as part of the Earth's carbon and water cycles.

Gypsy moth caterpillars infected with baculovirus forfeit safety and stay in the treetops during the day because a virus gene manipulates their hormones to eat continuously and forego molting, according to entomologists. The caterpillars die where they climb and infect other gypsy moth caterpillars. "Normally, gypsy moth caterpillars are active at night," said Kelli Hoover, professor of entomology, Penn State. "They hide during the day in the soil or bark crevices protected from birds.

Using live but weakened malaria parasites as the basis of a vaccine represents a potentially encouraging anti-malaria strategy, according to results of follow-up animal studies performed after the conclusion of a recent clinical trial in humans. The research was conducted by scientists at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, working in concert with a large team of collaborators. The findings were published online September 8 in Science Express.