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Mice exposed to cigarette smoke suffer from a type of bowel inflammation resembling Crohn’s disease, reports a study in Frontiers in Immunology Mice exposed to cigarette smoke suffer from a type of bowel inflammation resembling Crohn’s disease — By Conn Hastings Researchers in South Korea find that exposing mice to cigarette smoke results in colitis, an inflammation of the colon. The study, published in Frontiers in Immunology, identifies a specific white blood cell and an inflammatory protein that are responsible for the effect....

The highly-colored frogs are also called strawberry poison-dart frogs, sometimes used to poison the tips of blowpipe darts by indigenous people in Central America. The frogs live and reproduce in a variety of lowland and forest habitats. The call of male strawberry frogs improves their chances of securing a mate more than their color – By Conn Hastings, Science Writer – Choosing a mate is a delicate and complex process across the natural world, and strawberry frogs are no exception....

The respiratory systems of Atlantic salmon function normally despite them carrying a virus that infects red blood cells; Frontiers in Physiology The respiratory systems of Atlantic salmon function normally despite them carrying a virus that infects red blood cells — by University of British Columbia The respiratory systems of Atlantic salmon function normally even when carrying large loads of piscine orthoreovirus (PRV), new UBC research has found. “We didn’t find significant harm to the fish’s respiratory physiology despite the virus replicating to a load equal to, if not higher, than those seen naturally in wild or farmed fish” said Yangfan Zhang, a PhD student in UBC’s faculty of land and food systems and lead author of the study published in Frontiers in Physiology....

Brand new speciality section on Astrostatistics focusing on a rapidly developing field of research that only started in the 1990s. The rise of Big Data has shifted the focus of astrophysics from being object-driven to a data-driven science leading to the emergence of astrostatistics. Our new speciality section on Astrostatistics in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform to this rapidly developing field of research that only started in the 1990s....

Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Rosalind Franklin. As Science enthusiasts trickled in for Frontiers’ first ever Pub Science Meetup on 14 June, we wrote down our name and favorite scientist. Mine is Alfred Wegener, the guy who looked at a map of the earth and thought to himself, Africa and South America look suspiciously like they might have been joined at one point. And thus was born the theory of continental drift....

European outdoor workers are at great risk of developing non-melanoma skin cancer – so great that statistically speaking, in long-term outdoor workers, some 75-90% will develop the disease over their life time. While the numbers are startling, so is the lack of awareness of the situation. Ironically this lack of awareness is especially prevalent among outdoor workers, i.e. the people most at risk of developing non-melanoma skin cancer as a result of their occupational sun exposure....

Open access society journal the Spanish Journal of Soil Science (SJSS) has chosen Frontiers as its first commercial publishing partner. Open access society journal the Spanish Journal of Soil Science (SJSS) has chosen Frontiers as its first commercial publishing partner. The agreement will see the SJSS move from a self-publishing model into a new operational phase, using Frontiers’ best-in-class technology and infrastructure to facilitate growth. The agreement with Frontiers will take effect from April this year....

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer A new randomized controlled trial showed that participants who daily ate 57g almonds over four weeks had a 69% higher level of the beneficial oxylipin molecule 12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic acid in their blood after a 90 minute session of eccentric exercise than control volunteers. In contrast, they had a 40% lower level of the mildly toxic 9,10-Dihydroxy-12-octadecenoic acid in their blood after exercise than control participants. The authors conclude that daily consumption of almonds changes the metabolism to recover faster after strenuous exercise....

Under the terms of the Sweden Open Access Publishing Framework Agreement, Mälardalen University (Mälardalens högskola) will cover Article Publishing Fees for eligible authors in any of the Frontiers journals. Eligible authors are corresponding authors of a given article who meet the funding criteria of Mälardalen University. To submit your article under this institutional agreement, it is recommended you submit with an email domain affiliated to your institution. When submitting your article, please select ‘Mälardalen University’ as the institutional payer in the invoice section....

It is with great pleasure that Frontiers in Psychology welcomes Professor Julie Dockrell as the new Specialty Chief Editor of Educational Psychology. It is with great pleasure that Frontiers in Psychology welcomes Professor Julie Dockrell as the new Specialty Chief Editor of Educational Psychology. She joins Dr Douglas F. Kauffman, Specialty Chief Editor of the section for the past eight years, at the helm of this prominent branch of the journal....

Dynamic Perturbations of the T-Cell Receptor Repertoire in Chronic HIV Infection and following Antiretroviral Therapy James M. Heather*, Katharine Best, Theres Oakes, Eleanor R. Gray, Jennifer K. Roe, Niclas Thomas, Nir Friedman, Mahdad Noursadeghi and Benny Chain Tolerogenic IDO+ Dendritic Cells Are Induced by PD-1-Expressing Mast Cells Cecilia Pessoa Rodrigues, Ana Carolina Franco Ferreira, Mariana Pereira Pinho, Cristiano Jacob de Moraes, Patrícia Cruz Bergami-Santos and Jose Alexandre Marzagao Barbuto* Redefining Myeloid Cell Subsets in Murine Spleen Ying-Ying Hey, Jonathan K....

by Conn Hastings, Frontiers Science Writer By relaxing flexed muscles in your foot, you can reduce the ability of your hands to respond to stimulation known as excitability, a study published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found. Although this result might sound bizarre, movement in one limb interfering with movement in another is something you have probably discovered yourself. Anyone who has ever tried to rub their head while patting their belly can confirm this – failing at that wasn’t your fault either, although it was pretty humorous....

Meet Michiel Dijkstra, from the Frontiers Press Office. Before coming to us, he did a PhD on social evolution at the University of Copenhagen, and worked as a postdoc at McGill University and the University of Lausanne. Entirely coincidentally, he picked as his personal favorite a paper from Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Read the paper: http://fron.tiers.in/go/8R17QF Otero-Bravo A and Sabree ZL (2015) Inside or out? Possible genomic consequences of extracellular transmission of crypt-dwelling stinkbug mutualists....

Predators eavesdrop on insect-plant interactions, while plants backstab the insects they attract, recent research shows — By Mark Wartenberg Predators interfere in interactions which they are not a direct part of, potentially contributing to the natural selection of certain insects and certain plant diseases, according to a commentary by Jürgen Gross, PhD., published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. The secret language of the Earth’s ecosystem involves a multitude of players that populate the playing field and occupy different rungs on the food chain....

Distinctive changes in brain activity in binge-drinking college students may be an early marker of brain damage, reports a study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. Distinctive changes in brain activity in binge-drinking college students may be an early marker of brain damage. — By Conn Hastings A study of young binge-drinking college students published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience found distinctive changes in their brain activity. These changes, which are similar to those seen in the brains of adult chronic alcoholics, may indicate delayed brain development and be an early sign of brain damage....

Genitourinary Surgery is a new specialty section available through the community-run open-access journal Frontiers in Surgery . The new section Genitourinary Surgery is led by Specialty Chief Editor Prof Felix KH Chun from the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. This section focuses on all aspects of the surgical treatment of the genitourinary tracts, encompassing treatment of malignancies, stone diseases, benign prostate hyperplasia as well as reconstructive and functional surgery. Special attention is given to novel minimally invasive surgical techniques as well as technical improvements including radiologic/radio-therapeutic techniques and focal therapy approaches....

Frontiers in Applied Mathematics celebrates Pi Day. Frontiers wishes you all a happy Pi Day! Here in Lausanne we are celebrating in style. But why does this number deserve a celebration? Well, it would be too simple to say that pi is the just the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Being an irrational number, pi keeps on going, forever. This, among other things, means that pi, within its string of decimals, contains every single other number....

Words whose form is linked to their meaning are critical to effective language learning in young children, finds a study in Frontiers in Communication. Words whose form is linked to their meaning are critical to effective language learning in young children. — By Marcus Banks New research on vocabulary acquisition in the first years of a child’s life highlights the importance of iconic words in early language learning. The connection between the form of most words and their meanings is arbitrary....

Landmark Open Access Publishing Framework Agreement signed between Frontiers, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) & University of Vienna Under a landmark fully transparent Open Access Publishing Framework Agreement signed today between Frontiers, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the University of Vienna, Austrian researchers affiliated with or funded by these institutions can now publish their articles in Frontiers’ open access journals through a simplified process that covers article processing charges. In addition to a national discount and centralized invoicing process, the signatory institutions benefit from transparent, comprehensive reporting on expenditures and research outputs at an institutional and national level....

Major depression is associated with a reduced number of cells in the brain that support neuron function: Frontiers in Psychiatry New research linking major depression to a reduced number of cells in the brain that support neuron function, brings hope for targeted treatment options By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour, science writer Major depressive disorder is a significant medical condition that leads to a variety of serious emotional and physical problems. New research further highlights the potential implication of astrocytes in depression....