Body

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Kids who decide to join gangs are more likely to be depressed and suicidal - and these mental health problems only worsen after joining, finds a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University criminologist.

Gang membership is associated with greater levels of depression, as well as a 67 percent increase in suicidal thoughts and a 104 percent increase in suicide attempts.

In contrast to its effect on early complications, surgical skill did not affect postoperative weight loss or resolution of medical conditions at 1 year after laparoscopic gastric bypass, according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery.

Four years ago, the open access journal Nature Conservation was born to address the need for a stronger link between science, policy makers and management in the name of applied biodiversity conservation. Launched by Pensoft, it has been devoted to publishing timely, high-quality and innovative papers with clear practical relevance.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have reduced protein in goldenrod pollen, a key late-season food source for North American bees, a Purdue University study shows.

Researchers found that the overall protein concentration of goldenrod pollen fell about one-third from the onset of the Industrial Revolution to the beginning of the 21st century.

Butterfly monitoring schemes are at the heart of citizen science, with the general public and researchers collaborating to discover how butterfly populations change over time. To develop the concept further, a new paper in the journal Nature Conservation shows how systematically placed, grid-based transects can help schemes by reducing habitat bias.

Smart synthetic skins have the potential to allow robots to touch and sense what's around them, but keeping them powered up and highly sensitive at low cost has been a challenge. Now scientists report in the journal ACS Nano a self-powered, transparent smart skin that is simpler and less costly than many other versions that have been developed.

Polyurethanes in products from cushy sofas to stretchy spandex have made sitting, sleeping and walking more comfortable. But once they have served their purpose, most of the non-degradable materials pile up in landfills. Now scientists report in the journal ACS Macro Letters a potential way to reduce future waste: a chemically recyclable foam made using a new sugar-derived material.

The globally increasing light pollution has negative effects on organisms and entire ecosystems. The consequences are especially hard on nocturnal insects, since their attraction to artificial light sources generally ends fatal. A new study by Swiss zoologists from the Universities of Basel and Zurich now shows that urban moths have learned to avoid light. The journal Biology Letters has published their results.

Elevated levels of lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, brought to light not only the troubles of one city but also broader concerns about the nation's aging water distribution system. As Earth Day approaches, a noted scientist is calling for federal funding to replace deteriorating lead pipes in large swaths of the United States. In an editorial, Jerald Schnoor outlines recommendations on how to address the issue in ACS' Journal of Chemical Education.

The Russian insect researcher Oleg Kosterin and his Japanese colleague Naoto Yokoi have traced the dragonfly in a remote mountainous border region between Cambodia and Laos and named it "Asiagomphus reinhardti". They honour his merits and achievements for the promotion of the international dragonfly research. The dragonfly, about six centimetres long, lives close to mountain streams. So far, only male examples are known: a black body with yellow spots and green eyes. As a larva they live for numerous year dug in the mud bottom.

The cells inside a tumour differ a lot. While some remains "good" and do not cause trouble, others become aggressive and starts to spread to other organ sites. It is very hard to predict which cells become aggressive or not.

Nevertheless, by isolating these aggressive cancer cells in in vivo tests on animals, researchers at The Rockefeller University and the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Bergen (UiB) have discovered a certain protein (PITPNC1) that characterise aggressive cancer cells.

A handful of tiny teeth found in Israel's Negev desert led an international team of researchers to describe a new species of rodent which has been extinct for nearly 18 million years.

The discovery of Sayimys negevensis sheds new light on the likely dispersal route of mammals and other species between Eurasia and Africa in the Early Miocene (23 million to 16 million years ago) and highlights Israel's special paleogeographic position as the lynch-pin of the Levantine corridor connecting Eurasia with North Africa.

While pesticides and pathogens pose clear threats to honey bee health, the need of bee colonies for balanced nutrition is gaining increasing appreciation. As colonies are kept in agricultural areas for crop pollination, they may encounter nutritional deficits when foraging predominantly on one pollen source. In California almond orchards for instance, 1.6 million colonies are kept every year, despite the risk of low floral diversity, which can reduce the life expectancy of bees.

A University of Queensland researcher has made a big step toward the holy grail of biomedical science -- a new form of effective pain relief.

School of Biomedical Sciences researcher Dr Richard Clark said marine snail venom was a well-known and promising source of new pain drugs, but substantial hurdles had restrained progress.

"Translating the venom's toxins into a viable drug has proved difficult," Dr Clark said.

"But now we've been able to identify a core component of one of these conotoxins (toxins from cone snail venom) during laboratory tests.

The unique features and blending characters of a new roundworm species, discovered in India, make the nematode a distinct yet intermediary or connecting link between two supposedly distant genera. The new worm is a hermaphrodite that primarily feeds on bacteria. The study, conducted by a research team from the Aligarh Muslim University, India, led by Dr Qudsia Tahseen, is published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.