Body

In advance of next week's United Nations climate meeting in Paris, Allen Fawcett et al. highlight the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), in which various countries have put forward their commitments toward emissions reductions. The INDCs will be discussed at the Paris meeting. During past international climate negotiations, one general approach had been to provide some global, overarching rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and to then oblige all countries to exercise them. But, such "top down" approaches have shortcomings.

Stem cells that have been specifically developed for use as clinical therapies are fit for use in patients, an independent study of their genetic make-up suggests.

The research - which focused on human embryonic stem cells - paves the way for clinical trials of cell therapies to treat conditions such as Parkinson's disease, age-related degeneration of the eyes and spinal cord injury.

The study also sets out a cost-effective approach for monitoring the quality of stem cell-based products and newly emerging cell therapies.

• Research highlights non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is most common form of chronic liver disease in children and adolescents in western countries
• Exercise and healthy diet curb liver disease
• Children with liver disease exhibited more restrained eating behaviours and are more likely to exercise than obese children without liver disease

The widespread misuse of skin creams and lotions that contain steroids in India is harmful and out of control, argues an expert in The BMJ this week.

Corticosteroids, also known as steroids, are anti-inflammatory medicines used for a range of conditions. However, these can lead to substantial and permanent damage, especially on thin skin, such as on the face and groin.

only probiotic that had been reported to show any benefit, albeit only for a nutritional outcome, and had been routinely used for several years in Japan.

New research from the University of Birmingham has shown that progesterone supplements in the first trimester of pregnancy do not improve outcomes in women with a history of unexplained recurrent miscarriages.

The findings, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, mark the end of a five year trial and provide a definitive answer to 60 years of uncertainty on the use of progesterone treatment for women with unexplained recurrent losses.

DALLAS, Texas, Nov. 25, 2015 -- Women with diabetes who are exposed to air pollution for long periods may have a much higher risk for heart disease, according to a long-term, nationwide study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

MINNEAPOLIS - The mosquito-borne virus chikungunya may lead to severe brain infection and even death in infants and people over 65, according to a new study that reviewed a chikungunya outbreak on Reunion Island off the coast of Madagascar in 2005-2006. The study is published in the November 25, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Many cases have occurred in the United States in people who acquired the virus while traveling, but the first locally transmitted case in the U.S. occurred in Florida in July.

KANSAS CITY, MO--A particular location in DNA, called the Dlk1-Gtl2 locus, plays a critical role in protecting hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells--a discovery revealing a critical role of metabolic control in adult stem cells, and providing insight for potentially diagnosing and treating cancer, according to researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

Athens, Ga. - Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a model for evaluating a potential new strategy in the fight against drug-resistant diseases.

The strategy would take advantage of parasite refugia--host populations that have not been treated with drugs, thereby serving as "safe zones" where parasites don't develop drug resistance. When parasites from refugia mix with their drug-resistant counterparts in the general population, they could reduce the incidence of drug-resistance overall, which may help prolong a drug's effectiveness.

Nearly 37 million people worldwide are living with HIV. When the virus destroys so many immune cells that the body can't fight off infection, AIDS will develop. The disease took the lives of more than a million people last year.

Scientists have mapped out the genes that keep our cells alive, creating a long-awaited foothold for understanding how our genome works and which genes are crucial in disease like cancer.

A team of Toronto researchers, led by Professor Jason Moffat from the University of Toronto's Donnelly Centre, with a contribution from Stephane Angers from the Faculty of Pharmacy, have switched off, one by one, almost 18,000 genes -- 90 per cent of the entire human genome -- to find the genes that are essential for cell survival.

Scientists extracted DNA from spider webs to identify the web's spider architect and the prey that crossed it, according to this proof-of-concept study published November 25, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Charles C. Y. Xu from the University of Notre Dame and colleagues.

Extinct archosaurs' eggshell porosity may be used as a proxy for predicting covered or exposed nest types, according to a study published November 25, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kohei Tanaka from the University of Calgary and colleagues.

Health services in many countries increasingly rely on prescribed 'psychosocial interventions': treatments that use counselling techniques to tackle mental health issues, behavioural problems such as substance abuse, and assist parents with new or troubled children.

These highly-regarded therapeutic and educational programmes, devised by senior academics and practitioners, are sold commercially to public health services across the world on the basis that they are effective interventions for people in need of support - with the evidence to back them up.