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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers have found that increases in unemployment in California during the Great Recession were associated with an increased risk for weight gain among the state's 1.7 million public school students, suggesting that economic troubles could have long-term health consequences for children.

Philadelphia, PA, June 2, 2016 - Basal cell carcinoma is one of the most common cancers and its incidence is increasing worldwide, putting a significant burden on health services. Topical treatments are available for superficial basal cell carcinoma (BCC) but there has a lack of long-term follow-up data to guide treatment decisions.

A new research report appearing in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, opens up the possibility that small electrical currents might activate certain immune cells to jumpstart or speed wound healing. This discovery, made by a team of scientists from the United Kingdom, may be of particular interest to those with illnesses that may cause wounds to heal slowly or not at all.

Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum were the first ones to prove the existence of an olfactory receptor in pigment-producing cells in human skin, the so-called melanocytes. The team headed by Prof Dr Dr Dr habil. Hanns Hatt demonstrated that the violet-like scent Beta-Ionone can activate the receptor.

Together with colleagues from Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the university hospital in Jena, the researchers at Bochum's Department for Cellphysiology reported their findings in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

A new rain frog species has been described from Amazonian Peru and the Amazonian foothills of the Andes. The frog, given the name Pristimantis pluvialis, was found by researchers from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the University of Michigan, and the National University of San Antonio Abad of Cusco in Peru. The discovery is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Inaccessibility and mysticism surrounding the mist-veiled mountains of the central Andes make this region promising to hide treasures. With an area of 2197 km2, most of the Llanganates National Park, Ecuador, is nearly unreachable and is traversed only by foot.

A study of almost 150,000 men from 8 European countries, presented at this year's European Obesity Summit (Gothenburg, 1-4 June) shows that higher body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference are associated with an increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer. This analysis of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) is by Dr Aurora Perez-Cornago, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK, and colleagues.

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (June 2, 2016): New research by the USDA Forest Service reveals the motivations, management activities, future plans, and challenges faced by the nearly 11 million families, individuals, trusts, and estates, referred to as family forest owners. Collectively, family forest ownerships control 286 million acres of forestland, or 36 percent of the nation's forestland. The federal government is the nation's second largest forestland owner with 31 percent.

In an effort to better understand what happens during Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), researchers at Umeå University in Sweden have compared the impact of ALS on the eye and limb muscles. They have focused on specific proteins that are important for muscle-nerve contacts. The eye muscles appear to be better equipped to maintain their muscle-nerve contacts and are thereby less affected.

Genetic diversity is important for plant species to persist in Northern forests that experience human nitrogen inputs. This is one conclusions that Franziska Bandau at Umeå University in Sweden draws.

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants. In Northern forests, nitrogen availability to plants is limited, but plant species growing in these forests are well adapted to the low nitrogen conditions.

Industrialized nations that view wildfire as the enemy have much to learn from people in some parts of the world who have learned to live compatibly with wildfire, says a team of fire research scientists.

The interdisciplinary team say there is much to be learned from these "fire-adaptive communities" and they are calling on policy makers to tap that knowledge, particularly in the wake of global warming.

ROSEMONT, Ill. (June 1, 2016)--Since September 11, 2001, an estimated 60,000 U.S. military service members have been injured in combat during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Nearly 45,000 (75 percent) of all combat injuries are caused by improvised explosive devices, also known as IEDs. Approximately two out of five service members with combat injuries (40 percent) have suffered fractures, traumatic amputations, and injuries to the spine.

More than 50 percent of today's population lives in cities. According to the United Nations Development Programme, that number is predicted to rise to 70 percent by 2050. Growing urbanization increases the overall temperature of a city as buildings, roads, parking lots and other infrastructure absorb heat, creating an urban heat island (UHI). A UHI causes areas like Chicago to be significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas, which threatens urban sustainability and can lead to high mortality rates and scarcity of resources as well as high electricity demands.

Among the major tools of supermarket promotions are coupons, but understanding which types of coupons accomplish the retailer's objectives can be tricky. A field study described in an article appearing in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Retailing can help retailers map the categories and brands they should promote, depending on whether the objective is to increase customer loyalty by rewarding clients for buying brands they are already purchasing or entice them to buy in categories that they are not yet purchasing at the store.

Merchandise returns are expensive for retailers, and yet lenient return policies can boost consumer demand. For retailers seeking guidance on balancing these concerns, an analysis of the impact of various return policies on both purchases and returns, forthcoming in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Retailing, provides a nuanced perspective.