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WASHINGTON - The World Health Organization's Director-General should convene "urgently" a meeting of International Health Regulations' Emergency Committee to advise on the emerging Zika pandemic and galvanize global action, say two Georgetown University professors.

DALLAS - Jan. 27, 2016 - A UT Southwestern Medical Center study comparing two types of materials used in abdominal wall hernia repair surgery found no evidence to support the use of costlier biologic mesh versus synthetic mesh.

The findings, reported online today in JAMA Surgery, were based on a comprehensive review of published studies on patient outcomes following surgeries that used the two types of materials.

Dementia (a decline in memory and other mental abilities) is a serious condition, and its prognosis (the likely course of the disease) is marked by progressive loss of cognitive function and complications such as infections and falls. Dementia has no cure, and is increasingly a cause of death in the United States. Heart disease and diabetes, which affect blood vessels and circulation, have similar risk factors to dementia, so it's important for healthcare professionals to understand links between these conditions.

The first females of a scarcely known chameleon species from Northeast Madagascar have been described. Because of lack of genetic data, X-ray micro-computed tomography scans of the chameleon's head were used for species assignment. Regrettably, the habitats of this and many other chameleon species are highly threatened by the ongoing deforestation in Madagascar. The study is published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Could human suicide have evolutionary roots in self-sacrificial behaviors like those seen in species such as honeybees and ants?

A Florida State University researcher who is one of the nation's foremost experts in suicide is trying to find out.

Thomas Joiner, the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology, led a team of researchers in examining scientific knowledge and drawing parallels between suicide in humans and the self-sacrificial behaviors of colony-like -- or eusocial -- species such as shrimp, mole rats and insects.

HOUSTON - (Jan. 27, 2016) - Common coaxial cables could be made 50 percent lighter with a new nanotube-based outer conductor developed by Rice University scientists.

The Rice lab of Professor Matteo Pasquali has developed a coating that could replace the tin-coated copper braid that transmits the signal and shields the cable from electromagnetic interference. The metal braid is the heaviest component in modern coaxial data cables.

The research appears this month in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Evolutionary biologists often debate on whether sexual selection can lead to new species. Most studies have focused on natural selection or, for the few studies that considered sexual selection, on how picky females select mates and drive evolution.

Implantable electronics that can deliver drugs, monitor vital signs and perform other health-related roles are on the horizon. But finding a way to power them remains a challenge. Now scientists have built a flexible nanogenerator out of cellulose, an abundant natural material, that could potentially harvest energy from the body -- its heartbeats, blood flow and other almost imperceptible but constant movements. Their report appears in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

More than 1 in 20 (nearly 3.3 million) children between the ages of 3 and 17 have a dizziness or balance problem, according to an analysis of the first large-scale, nationally representative survey of these problems in U.S. children. Prevalence increases with age, with 7.5 percent of children ages 15-17 and 6.0 percent of children ages 12-14 having any dizziness or balance problem, compared with 3.6 percent of children ages 6-8 and 4.1 percent of children ages 3-5.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Advances in genetic sequencing are uncovering emerging diseases in wildlife that other diagnostic tests can't detect.

In a study led by Duke University, researchers used a technique called whole-transcriptome sequencing to screen for blood-borne diseases in wild lemurs, distant primate cousins to humans.

The animals were found to carry several strains or species of parasites similar to those that cause Lyme disease and other infections in humans.

NEW YORK (January 27, 2016) - WCS announced today that a team of scientists discovered a new species of chameleon in Tanzania.

The brown and green chameleon with scattered blue spots was found in four montane forest patches in the Udzungwa Mountains and Southern Highlands. The species, Kinyongia msuyae, is named for Charles A. Msuya, a pioneer of Tanzanian herpetology who collected the first known specimen attributable to this species and has spent most of his life studying Tanzania's reptiles and amphibians.

According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, effective treatment for depression could go a long way toward improving health status and even preventing death among older adults who also have diabetes.

Fresh, unprocessed cow's milk has a higher content of omega-3 fatty acids than does pasteurized, homogenized or low-fat milk. This factor partly explains why children who consume the unprocessed product are less likely to develop asthma.

Engineered liver tissue could have a range of important uses, from transplants in patients suffering from the organ's failure to pharmaceutical testing. Now scientists report in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry the development of such a tissue, which closely mimics the liver's complicated microstructure and function more effectively than existing models.

During the last century, private companies, as well as illustrious universities, were known for great exploratory research. But those days may soon be a memory if DuPont's recent layoffs are any indication, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. The chemical giant, which announced its merger with Dow in December, has dramatically reduced its basic research unit in response to business demands.