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Evidence of wildlife passage, such as tracks, scat, fur, and disturbed surroundings, is a more accurate tool for assessing wildlife conservation status than actual encounters with animals, according to an international team of scientists from six universities, including Virginia Tech, publishing Wednesday (April 13, 2016) in PLOS ONE.

A University of California, Berkeley, study of homeless youth living on the streets of San Francisco found that they have a 10 times higher mortality rate than their peers, mostly due to suicide and substance abuse.

"This population is highly stigmatized. That stigma leads to neglect and, in turn, to increased mortality. All the deaths in this cohort were preventable," said the study's main author, Colette Auerswald, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist who is an associate professor of public health at UC Berkeley. "Stigma kills."

Tsukuba, Japan -- Researchers have been unclear on how bacteria form and release certain extracellular components involved in cell adhesion and multicellular structures that also contribute to antibiotic resistance. However, a recent study from a multinational team of researchers identified a previously unknown phenomenon, explosive cell lysis, as crucial in the production of membrane vesicles and biofilm formation. The study was reported in Nature Communications.

The biggest library of bat sounds has been compiled to identify bats from their calls in Mexico - a country which harbours many of the Earth's species and has one of the highest rates of extinction and habitat loss.

An international team led by scientists from UCL, University of Cambridge and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), developed the reference call library and a new way of classifying calls to quickly and accurately identify and differentiate between bat species.

April 14, 2016, Barcelona, Spain: New research presented today at The International Liver Congress™ 2016 in Barcelona, Spain has uncovered a genetic link that explains why certain people with alcohol dependence are more susceptible to developing severe alcoholic hepatitis.

April 14, 2016, Barcelona, Spain: Findings presented today from a Phase 3 head-to-head study that compared two direct-acting antiviral treatment regimens, demonstrated that the all-oral, once daily combination of elbasvir and grazoprevir was more effective and safer than the combination of sofosbuvir and pegylated interferon with ribavirin, in certain patients with Hepatitis C (HCV).

April 14, 2016, Geneva, Switzerland: A new study fast-tracked for publication today in the Journal of Hepatology has shown that patients with a prior history of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and who have been treated with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for Hepatitis C (HCV) infection have a higher than expected early recurrence rate of their liver cancer than previously thought - with the rate in some subgroups exceeding 40%. The study authors posit that the recurrences could be a result of a weakened immune system following DAA therapy.

Leave it to evolutionary biologists to name a theory from a line in Alice in Wonderland.

In Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

Evolutionary biologists have drawn from the phrase to hypothesize that organisms engage in sexual reproduction to keep pace with an ever-changing world. They contend that male-female mating--factored over generations--produces offspring with enough genetic diversity to resist varied, evolving threats -- from disease to changed climate.

Preauthorization of broad-spectrum antibiotics and prospective review after two or three days of treatment should form the cornerstone of antibiotic stewardship programs to ensure the right drug is prescribed at the right time for the right diagnosis. These are among the numerous recommendations included in new guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

• Statistical analysis suggests Juan Manuel Fangio is the greatest Formula One driver in history
• Teams found to be around six times more important to success than individual drivers - and their importance has increased over time

Juan Manuel Fangio is the greatest Formula One driver of all time, according to new research by the University of Sheffield.

Accountable care organizations that joined the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) when it launched in 2012 achieved modest savings while maintaining or improving performance on measures of quality of patient care in 2013, the first full year of the program, researchers at Harvard Medical School found in the first rigorous examination of this key health care payment reform program. These early adopters lowered spending by 1.4 percent in 2013 relative to a control group of non-ACO providers in the same areas, which represents a $238 million reduction in spending.

Downers Grove, Ill, April 13, 2016 --Being on the lookout for certain features of polyps may help physicians keep a closer eye on patients at risk for colorectal cancer.

Starting at age 50, or earlier with certain risk factors, patients are advised to be screened for colon cancer at regular intervals. Colonoscopy is an effective screening test because it allows doctors to find and view individual polyps (growths), and to remove them before they become cancerous.

A new genus of flea and its five new species have been described in an article in the Journal of Medical Entomology. Four of the species were collected on the island of Sulawesi and the fifth was collected in the Indonesian province of West Papua on the island of New Guinea. The discovery by David K. Mardon and Lance A. Durden provides a window on the history, both prehistoric and recent, of Indonesia and illustrates the importance of scientific collections.

La Jolla, Calif., April 13, 2016-- Scientists at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine and Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have identified a human (host) protein that weakens the immune response to HIV and other viruses. The findings, published today in Cell Host & Microbe, have important implications for improving HIV antiviral therapies, creating effective viral vaccines, and advance a new approach to treat cancer.

A moth caterpillar called the Mexican rice borer (Eoreuma loftini) has taken a heavy toll on sugar cane and rice crops in Texas, and has moved into Louisiana, Florida, and other Gulf Coast states. Now a new article in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management provides information on the biology and life cycle of the pest, and offers suggestions about how to manage them.