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Fires are frequently caused by smoldering cables. Novel sensors now help detect such smoldering fires at an early stage by analyzing the plastic vapors released by overheated insulating cables. Scientists of KIT and Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences have developed these hybrid sensors that combine measurement processes with data evaluation. Their work is reported in the current issue of the Sensors & Transducers Journal.

Considered among the agricultural pests with the greatest economic impact, the tephritid fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are a serious worldwide problem.

Innovative new research led by the University of Exeter has demonstrated how the extraordinary properties of graphene can be exploited to create artificial structures that can be used to control and manipulate electromagnetic radiation over a wide range of wavelengths.

A team of international scientists, led by Professor Geoff Nash from the University of Exeter, have engineered a remarkable new hybrid structure, or metamaterial, that possesses specific characteristics that are not found in natural materials.

Fruit flies mating compatibility studies have been examined by an international team of researchers to assess the usefulness of walk-in field cages in studying the sexual behavior within fruit fly species complexes and recognition of taxonomically misplaced flies. In addition, they have also evaluated the relevant chemical signals during pheromone emission for species discrimination.

Adnan Hodzi from the Institute of Parasitology at the Vetmeduni Vienna is searching for pathogens transmitted by ticks. He is especially interested in wild carnivores (foxes and wolves) which could be a possible reservoir and source of infection for humans and other animals.

In their arduous journey to the egg, sperm 'feel' the heat of the fallopian tube and 'taste' the chemical signals of the ova. But a new Weizmann Institute study published in Scientific Reports shows that sperm actually make quite a bit of use of sensors that have mainly been known to belong to the visual system.

If a sperm, about 46 microns (thousandths of a millimeter) long, were the size of a human being, it would swim several kilometers to reach its destination. Thus, sperm need to be guided by various cues.

B-cell lymphoma is one of the most common cancers derived from the lymphoid system. Lymphomagenesis is often linked to the so-called germinal center reaction. B lymphocytes represent a subgroup of the white blood cells, whose expansion after infection leads to germinal center formation. Within the germinal center, the 'light' zone selects the most highly functional germinal center B cells that have been generated in the 'dark' zone. This zoning leads to an efficient immune response.

The effect of a widespread genetic variant that increases the risk for childhood asthma can be neutralized. A new study shows that young infants are particularly responsive to the positive influence of exposure to farm dust.

Montreal, Nov. 26, 2015 - It may be surprising, but Canadians who live in densely-populated areas where stores, banks, schools and other services are close by do not walk as much as they should. These are the findings of new research, published in the current issue of BMJ Open, by a team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). This cross-sectional analysis of a large sample of Canadians was unique in combining objective measures of physical activity with digital map based measures of walkable neighbourhoods.

CRISPR gene-editing is allowing rapid scientific advances in many fields, including human health and now it has been shown that crop research can also benefit from this latest exciting technology.

In new research appearing in the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology, an international research team led by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem describes a new technique for growing human hepatocytes in the laboratory. This groundbreaking development could help advance a variety of liver-related research and applications, from studying drug toxicity to creating bio-artificial liver support for patients awaiting transplantations.

A collaboration between the University of Cambridge and MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, has led researchers to identify a potentially significant new application for a well-known human enzyme, which may have implications for treating respiratory diseases such as asthma.

What can a rare genetic childhood disease teach us about cancer? Dr. Ayelet Erez of the Weizmann Institute's Biological Regulation Department says: "A single-mutation disease can act as a 'lens.' If we find exactly what malfunctions in the sick child, we can zoom in and understand the role of the same gene among the many genetic changes that accompany cancer." In findings that recently appeared in Nature, Erez and a team of researchers used this approach to reveal how a metabolic cycle that is 'broken' in two childhood diseases gets hijacked to benefit cancer cells.

Most people don't know this, but the cucumbers we buy in the supermarket are purely female - grown from plants which were carefully cross-bred to produce female-only flowers. But while farmers have long known that "femaleness" factors into agricultural success - the greater the percentage of female flowers, the greater the yield of both seeds and fruit - it is only recently that scientists have revealed the molecular basis of plant sex determination.

Mind-body medicine (MBM) is a holistic approach that has the potential to ward off more heart attacks than conventional prevention programs. That is the conclusion reached by Holger Cramer and colleagues in a systematic review and meta-analysis presented in the latest issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2015; 112: 759-67). They show that MBM in cardiac patients has a positive effect on coronary events, atherosclerosis, and high blood pressure.