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Current U.S. policies on using drones for targeted killing are characterized by ambiguities in interpretations of international law and too many generalities, despite recent efforts by the Obama administration to clarify the policies, a new RAND Corporation report finds.

The report outlines an approach that would provide greater clarity, specificity and consistency in U.S. international legal policies involving the use of long-range armed drones in targeted killing.

(Thursday, 8 September 2016: Oslo) Prisons provide one of the most significant opportunities to drive down the prevalence of hepatitis C, and help reach global WHO elimination goals, says new research presented at the 5th International Symposium on Hepatitis Care in Substance Users today.

An acceleration in obesity among young teenagers could be explained by a 12-year-long study which found that the number of calories they burn while at rest drops suddenly in puberty.

This week in the journal Nature, a team of researchers from UppsalaUniversity in Sweden, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)in France and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom showsthat fossils of the 360 million-year-old tetrapod Acanthostega, one ofthe iconic transitional forms between fishes and land animals, are notadults but all juveniles. This conclusion, which is based onhigh-resolution synchrotron X-ray scans of fossil limb bones performedat the ESRF sheds new light on the life cycle of Acanthostega and theso-called conquest of land by tetrapods.

A study in mice combining two inhibitor drugs for treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has revealed potential for not only stopping the disease completely, but also significantly lowering the cost for treatment. CML is a cancer of the white blood cells accounting for 20 percent of adult leukemia.

The study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was led by Michael Andreeff, M.D., professor, and Bing Carter, Ph.D., professor, both of the department of Leukemia. Findings were published in the Sept. 7 online issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Boston, MA - Patients who had major surgery at high-quality hospitals in the U.S. cost Medicare less than those who had surgery at low-quality hospitals according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The difference in Medicare spending was driven primarily by the cost of care in the weeks following surgery.

The study will appear online Wednesday, September 7, 2016 in Health Affairs.

Oral contraceptives are the most commonly used contraceptive method in the United States. Forty-one percent of unintended pregnancies are estimated to occur in women using contraception inconsistently. When the pill is not taken as prescribed, or usage is stopped, the likelihood of unintended pregnancies increases, and patient surveys suggest that higher out-of pocket spending for contraceptives may contribute to inconsistent use.

To understand the complexity of cell membranes, scientists count on a panoply of technological tools that allow them to analyze microscopic images. A multidisciplinary team from VIB-KU Leuven has just added an important one to the list: 'QuASIMoDOH' is the first technique to study changes in these membranes that may be, for example, caused by cancer or neurodegenerative diseases. The method and its impact on the research community will be published in the upcoming issue of the leading scientific journal PLOS Computational Biology.

Graphene has been hailed as a wonder material since it was first made more than a decade ago. It's showing up in an increasing number of products, including coatings, sports equipment and even light bulbs. Now scientists are one step closer to making graphene audio speakers for mobile devices. They report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces a simple way to fabricate once-elusive thermoacoustic speakers using the ultra-thin material.

For many people, there's nothing more satisfying than a hot, spicy meal. But some research has suggested that capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their kick, might cause cancer. Now researchers show in mouse studies that the pungent compound in ginger, 6-ginergol, could counteract capsaicin's potentially harmful effects. In combination with the capsaicin, 6-gingerol could lower the risk of cancer, they say. The study appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Countless microorganisms live in the intestinal tract. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have been able to demonstrate that intestinal bacteria also play a role in determining the strength of anaphylactic reactions to food allergens. The scientists present their results at the annual convention of the European Society for Dermatological Research (ESDR), which is hosted by and at TUM this year.

Want to help mitigate global climate change? Grow some veggies.

Turning lawn into a vegetable garden can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study by UC Santa Barbara research professor David Cleveland.

Using a lifecycle assessment model, Cleveland and his students demonstrated that greenhouse gas emissions can be cut by 2 kilograms for every kilo of homegrown vegetable when compared to the store-bought counterpart. The group's findings appear in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning.

Montreal, September 7, 2016 -- Hearing loss, brittle bones, sagging skin, a deteriorating mind: these are just some of the issues associated with growing old. For millennia, humans have fought the process of aging using everything from fountains of youth to pricey face creams, all to no avail. But a group of Montreal-based researchers is coming ever closer to achieving healthy longevity -- armed with the power of science.

Sexually active transgender youth have pregnancy rates similar to their non-transgender peers--dispelling the notion that trans youth are less at risk for pregnancy, according to new UBC research.

In the first study of its kind, researchers used data from the 2014 Canadian Transgender Youth Health Survey, focusing on a subset of 540 youth aged 14-25 who had previously had sex. They found that five per cent (26) had been involved in a pregnancy at least once - comparable to B.C.'s pregnancy rate of about five per cent among sexually active young people.

PRINCETON, N.J.--After years of environmental destruction, China has spent billions of dollars on the world's largest reforestation program, converting a combined area nearly the size of New York and Pennsylvania back to forest.