Body

Antibiotic resistance in children with urinary infections is high and could render some antibiotics ineffective as first-line treatments, warns a study published by The BMJ today.

Antimicrobial resistance is an internationally recognised threat to health. Throughout the world, children are frequent consumers of antibiotics -- and such routine use has been shown to increase the probability of antibiotic resistance in adults with urinary tract infections.

White storks are addicted to junk food and make round-trips of almost 100km to get their fix - according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

In folklore, storks would carry babies to parents around the world. But since the mid 1980s, increasing numbers no longer migrate from Europe to Africa for the winter.

Instead, many live in Spain and Portugal the whole year round - feeding on 'junk food' from landfill sites, which provide an abundant and reliable food supply.

New research, based on data from the 2013-14 Zika outbreak in French Polynesia, further supports the association between Zika virus and microcephaly. The study, published today in The Lancet, estimates that the risk of microcephaly is about 1 for every 100 women infected with Zika virus during the first trimester of pregnancy.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - More than 80 percent of companies use award programs like "Employee of the Month" and "Top Sales Club" to motivate employees and increase performance. While the conventional wisdom is that such awards are cheap and can provide a subtle way to motivate employees, these programs might be reducing firms' overall productivity, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of California, Riverside.

Washington, D.C., March 15, 2016 - Sometimes, distance can lend a new perspective to a problem. For Japanese researchers studying protein crystal growth, that distance was 250 miles up -- the altitude at which the International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth. To better isolate the growth of protein crystals from the effects of gravity, the group of Katsuo Tsukamoto in Tohoku University's Department of Earth and Planetary Science in Sendai, Japan, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency grew crystals in a specially-designed chamber onboard the ISS.

Everyone knows smartphones can be used as calendars, calculators, radios and cameras. But, did you know they can also be used as microscopes that have the potential to save lives?

They are called smartphone microscopes and dermatologists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) think these devices could improve the detection of skin cancer in developing countries.

Would you be willing to spend each night in the company of 300,000 bats -- all in the service of science?

UCLA biologist Kenneth Chapin did just that, for several weeks in 2012 and 2014, while conducting research in darkened caves in Puerto Rico. In addition to bats, the habitats were home to snakes, cockroaches and spiders.

He was studying whip spiders, a poorly understood relative of spiders and scorpions. Unlike other spiders, whip spiders do not build webs, and they have very long claws.

ST. LOUIS -- In a recent paper published in Nature Communications, structural biologists detailed how a new data sharing consortium is helping scientists more quickly share and benefit from findings in their field.

Forest homogenisation results in a lower ecosystem performance. This summarises the findings of an international team of scientists from 29 institutions, including researchers from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), Leipzig University and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv). The scientists were able to demonstrate that species-rich forest stands give rise to a higher number and more varied range of services than those with fewer species. 200 forests across six European countries were investigated as part of the study.

Research shows that bacteria can be beneficial to body processes such as digestion; however, some bacteria housed in the human body may cause disease. These specialized communities of bacteria in the body are known as microbiomes. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered a microbiome in the male reproductive tract in mice that harbors harmful bacteria that may negatively influence reproductive function and health of males. Bacteria found in this specialized microbiome may pass from father to offspring, where it may program later disease risk, such as obesity.

URBANA, Ill. - Plants grown in high-density or crowded populations often put more energy into growth and maintenance than reproduction. For example, flowering may be delayed as plants allocate resources to growing taller and escape competition for light. This sensitivity to crowding stress has been observed in some varieties of sweet corn, but other varieties show higher tolerance, producing high yields even in crowded conditions. A recent University of Illinois and USDA Agricultural Research Service study attempted to uncover the genetic mechanisms of crowding tolerance in sweet corn.

MIAMI--Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science published new findings that suggest the expansion of protected areas into U.S. federal waters would safeguard 100 percent of core home range areas used by three species of sharks tracked in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean.

LA JOLLA, CA - March 15, 2016 - Despite advances in organ transplant medicine in recent decades, about half of all kidney transplant patients still lose their organ to rejection within 10 years.

Now a study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows that genome-wide molecular profiling of kidney biopsies may be a key to catching organ rejection before it's too late. The research demonstrates that acute and chronic kidney rejection--currently believed to be separate diseases--are actually different parts of the arc of the same immune rejection process.

Customers may respond better to social media campaigns and messages from companies that more frequently interact with consumers than companies seen as credible, but less interactive, according to researchers.

In a study, participants who reviewed screenshots of fictitious interactions between companies and consumers on Facebook were significantly more likely to consider content from interactive companies as more informative, said Holly Ott, a doctoral candidate in mass communications, Penn State, and currently assistant professor of communications, Shippensburg University.

A study conducted by the University of Kent's Dr Amy Hinsley and Dr David Roberts, and published by Conservation Biology, represents the first large-scale global survey of wildlife trade via a social-media site, using the orchid trade as a case study.