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Just in time for flu season, a new Michigan State University study of "the mother of all pandemics" could offer insight into infection control measures for the flu and other epidemic diseases.

Taking steps from an early age to improve childhood education skills could raise overall population levels of academic achievement by as much as 5%, and reduce socioeconomic inequality in education by 15%, according to international research led by the University of Adelaide.

An international team of scientists have become the first ever researchers to successfully reach temperatures below minus 272.15 degrees Celsius – only just above absolute zero – using magnetic molecules. The physicists and chemists are presenting their new investigation today (22 October 2014) in the scientific journal Nature Communications. It was developed by six scientists from Bielefeld University, the University of Manchester (Great Britain), and the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain).

International trade with agricultural and wood products is an increasingly important driver of tropical deforestation. More than a third of recent deforestation can be tied to production of beef, soy, palm oil and timber. "The trend is clear, the drivers of deforestation have been globalized and commercialized", says assistant professor Martin Persson, Chalmers University of Technology.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana is at the forefront of providing mental health screening and services to juvenile offenders, but more efforts are needed to improve the services provided to detained youths, according to Indiana University School of Medicine research findings published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

A painful inflamed lesion on the oral mucosa, which often seems to be burning at the periphery: every third individual has at one point had such a lesion—an aphthous ulcer. Often they resolve after a brief period of time. In 2% to 10% of patients these lesions are recurrent and require medical treatment. Unfortunately, as Andreas Altenberg and co-authors point out in a current review on the therapy of aphthous ulcers (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111: 665–73), the etiology of these lesions is unclear. Thus aphthous ulcers can only be treated symptomatically.

Boston, MA – A research team led by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has developed and tested a novel nanoparticle platform that efficiently delivers clinically important proteins in vivo in initial proof-of-concept tests. Nanoparticles, which are particles measuring nanometers in size, hold promise for a range of applications, including human therapeutics. The key advantage of the new platform, known as a thermosponge nanoparticle, is that it eliminates the need for harsh solvents, which can damage the very molecules the particles are designed to carry.

(Sacramento, CA): Broad-spectrum prevention that can simultaneously prevent unintended pregnancy along with STIs, including HIV, is on the horizon say experts in a special supplement of the BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The issue features an international assemblage of researchers, funders, developers and advocates who identify the pressing global health rationale for MPTs and present new research and strategies for making the go/no-go funding and research decisions that shape the field.

A review of sentencing following the 2011 English riots has shown that sentences were much harsher than realised at first.

And just as people got caught up in the riots and acted out of character the study, carried out by The University of Manchester and Liverpool John Moores University, found that the courts themselves got caught up in a similar kind of collective hysteria.

Our immune system defends us from harmful bacteria and viruses, but, if left unchecked, the cells that destroy those invaders can turn on the body itself, causing auto-immune diseases like type-1 diabetes or multiple sclerosis. A molecule called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) boosts the body's natural defence against this 'friendly fire', scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, have found.

CHICAGO (October 22, 2014) – New research shows vulnerable patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) who received enhanced oral care from a dentist were at significantly less risk for developing a lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), like ventilator-associated pneumonia, during their stay. The study was published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

CHICAGO (October 22, 2014) – New research found tracking influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel through an automated system increased vaccination compliance and reduced workload burden on human resources and occupational health staff. The study is published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

Drawing blood and testing it is standard practice for many medical diagnostics. As a less painful alternative, scientists are developing skin patches that could one day replace the syringe. In the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry, one team reports they have designed and successfully tested, for the first time, a small skin patch that detected malaria proteins in live mice. It could someday be adapted for use in humans to diagnose other diseases, too.

Bright colours appear on a fruit fly's transparent wings against a dark background as a result of light refraction. Researchers from Lund University in Sweden have now demonstrated that females choose a mate based on the males' hidden wing colours.

"Our experiment shows that this newly-discovered trait is important in female choice in fruit flies, and is the first evidence that wing interference patterns have a biological signalling function between the sexes during sexual selection", said Jessica Abbott, a biologist at Lund University.

BOSTON – It is an intricate network of activity that enables breast cancer cells to move from the primary breast tumor and set up new growths in other parts of the body, a process known as metastasis.

Now a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has identified an unexpected link between a transcription factor known to regulate speech and language development and metastatic colonization of breast cancer.