Diagnostic strategy developed by Brazilian researchers can also be used to distinguish MS from neuromyelitis optica, another demyelinating disorder. The two diseases have similar symptoms but must be treated differently.

In recent decades, cassava yields in Asia have increased dramatically and industry is growing bitter varieties for starch, biofuels and a variety of other ingredients. In Southeast Asia, only sugarcane and rice surpass cassava in total tonnage produced. Some 8 million farmers from India to China depend on the crop for food and income.

In contrast with China and other countries where the disease spread slowly, in Brazil more than 300 people started the epidemic. Most were passengers flying in from Italy.

The oceans help buffer the Earth from climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and heat at the surface and transporting it to the deep ocean. Using data from two open-ocean research programs at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, new research published in Nature Climate Change indicates the North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water, an upper ocean water mass, is shrinking in a changing climate and becoming a less efficient sink for heat and carbon dioxide.

As rural masses migrate to urban areas, populations grow, and people work toward better living standards, global food system sustainability pays a high price, according to a new scientific analysis spanning low- to high-income countries. The study shows that only one major global driver --international trade -- appears to have a net positive effect on global food systems sustainability. Other major drivers (population growth, urbanization, lifestyle change, changes in land use) seem to have negative effects.

Study by researchers at Brazil's National Disaster Surveillance and Early Warning Center (CEMADEN) also shows a rise in the number of consecutive dry days, suggesting that extreme rainfall events are concentrated in shorter, more widely spaced periods.

Developed by researchers at the Butantan Institute (Brazil) and Boston Children's Hospital, part of the Harvard Medical School (USA), the innovation is capable of providing protection against all serotypes of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae.

The study was conducted in Brazil and mapped the genes that are activated when mice resistant to Leishmania are infected. Molecules involved in the signaling pathway responsible for combating the parasite can serve as biomarkers for the evaluation of prognosis.