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Papers delivered at three conferences in the US and Europe this summer report on new research at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering studying interactions of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with bubble-blowing robots.

The preliminary studies, by Professor Maja Matarić and PhD student David Feil-Seifer of the USC Interaction Laboratory, confirm what has been widely reported anecdotally: that ASD children in many cases interact more easily with mechanical devices than with humans.

Volunteering for environmental protection activities can be physically and mentally sustaining for older people, according to the latest issue of Public Policy & Aging Report (PPAR). In fact, this demographic group is in a unique position to have a noticeable impact on its surroundings.

INDIANAPOLIS – Although a growing body of research supports a link between effective communication and patient, family and physician satisfaction, doctors, including oncologists and other specialists who frequently care for terminal patients, do not routinely receive training in end-of-life conversations during medical school, residency training, or after they start to practice medicine.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Proven combinations of medicines and the introduction of new anti-arthritis drugs have significantly improved the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to guidelines issued by the American College of Rheumatology and co-authored by physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Lead author Kenneth Saag, M.D., M.Sc., a professor in the UAB Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, said the new guidelines update strategies for treating RA with the goal of preventing joint damage and disability.

BOZEMAN – Montana State University microbiologist Matthew Fields spends his days studying a microscopic world that most people take for granted.

Fields studies the physiology and behavior of microbes – the tiny organisms that have inhabited virtually every square inch of the earth's surface for the past four billion years.

"Microbes have global impact," Fields said. "They grow fast and in large numbers, and there is always power in numbers."

TORONTO, ON. – Environmental factors can transform the ratio of females to males in plant populations according to new research out of the University of Toronto.

WASHINGTON -- Millions of people each day rely on transit, yet few urban area emergency plans have focused on its role in an emergency evacuation, says a new report from the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board. Transit systems could play a significant role in transporting carless and special needs populations in times of emergency, but these groups are inadequately addressed in most local emergency plans and evacuating them could easily exceed limited transit resources.

Whether a painless, portable device that uses electrical current rather than X-ray to look for breast cancer could be an alternative to traditional mammograms is under study at the Medical College of Georgia.

MCG is one of 20 centers internationally and the only place in Georgia studying new technology developed by Z-Tech Inc., to compare traditional mammograms with impedence scanning, a technique based on evidence that electrical current passes through cancerous tissue differently than through normal tissue.

Plants undergo stress because of lack of water, due to the heat or the cold or to excess of light. A research team from the University of the Basque Country have analysed the substances that are triggered in plants to protect themselves, with the goal of choosing the species that is best suited to the environment during reforestation under adverse environmental conditions.

CHICAGO -- Why do patients with gastric or pancreatic cancer live longer when they are treated at cancer centers or high-volume hospitals than patients treated at low-volume or community hospitals?

New research from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine found that cancer patients have more lymph nodes examined for the spread of their disease if they are treated at hospitals performing more cancer surgeries or those designated as comprehensive cancer centers.

The polymer researchers at the GKSS Research Centre in Geesthacht (Germany) expected about 30 scientists to attend the kick-off meeting of the new EU project HARCANA (High Aspect Ratio for Carbon-based Nanocomposites). New kinds of plastic-based nanocomposites could be used to develop lightweight materials that would increase the mechanical stability of materials and add electrical or magnetic properties, for example.

Blue Light and Hydrogen Peroxide May Effectively Treat Biofilms That Cause Cavities and Gum Disease

Blue light commonly used by dentists to cure resin fillings and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) combined may be capable of reaching and treating bacteria in deep layers of biofilms that can cause cavities and gingivitis. The researchers from Hebrew University, Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel and the University of California San Francisco report their findings in the July 2008 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

ST. LOUIS – For patients with head and neck cancer, accurately determining how advanced the cancer is and detecting secondary cancers usually means undergoing numerous tests – until now. New Saint Louis University research has found that the PET-CT scanner can be used as a stand-alone tool to detect secondary cancers, which occur in 5 to 10 percent of head and neck cancer patients.

ST. LOUIS – Unnecessary biopsies could be a thing of the past for patients undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer. New Saint Louis University research found that when nuclear medicine clinicians and treating physicians work together to interpret PET-CT scan results, the accuracy dramatically improves, sparring patients unnecessary pain and suffering.

Researchers have discovered that a frog that lives near noisy springs in central China can tune its ears to different sound frequencies, much like the tuner on a radio can shift from one frequency to another. It is the only known example of an animal that can actively select what frequencies it hears, the researchers say.