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Presently, the moon does not have an internal magnetic field as it can be observed on Earth. However, there are localized regions on its surface up to several hundred kilometers in size where a very strong magnetic field prevails. This has been shown by measurements on rocks from the Apollo missions. Since then, research has puzzled about the origin of these magnetic spots. One theory is that they are in some way remnants of an ancient core magnetic field. Possibly similar to what can still be observed on Earth today. Here, the core consists of molten and solid iron and its rotation generates the earth's magnetic field. Why the inner field of the Moon has extinguished at some point remains a subject of research.

Another long discussed theory about the local magnetic spots of the moon suggests that they are the result of magnetization processes caused by impacts of massive bodies on the moon surface. A study recently published in the journal Science Advances now shows, that the Moon must have had an internal core dynamo in the past. The researchers came to their conclusion by disproving this second theory with the help of complex computer simulations. It is the result of a large international cooperation between MIT, GFZ-Potsdam, UCLA, the University of Potsdam, the University of Michigan and the Australian Curtin University.

The second thesis was supported among other things by the fact that large and strong magnetic spots were found on the other side of the moon, exactly opposite large lunar craters. Their origin was assumed to be as follows: Because the Moon - unlike the Earth - has no atmosphere to protect it from meteorites and asteroids, such massive bodies can hit it with full force and pulverize and ionize material on its surface. A cloud of charged particles, also called plasma, created in this way flows around the Moon, compresses the magnetic solar wind present in space and thus strengthens its magnetic field. At the same time, the solar wind induces a magnetic field in the moon itself. At the surface opposite the impact, all these fields are amplified and create the observed magnetism in the crustal rock.

Using the examples of some well-known Moon craters as the one we regard as its "right eye", the researchers have now simulated the impact including the plasma formation, the propagation of the plasma around the moon and the course of the field induced in the moon's interior. Using software that was originally developed for space physics and space weather applications, they simulated very different impact scenarios. In this way, the scientists were able to show that the amplification of the magnetic fields due to collisions and ejected material alone was not sufficient to generate the large field strengths as originally estimated and measured on the moon: The resulting magnetic field is a thousand times weaker than necessary to explain the observations. This does not mean, however, that these effects do not exist; they are only comparatively weak. In particular, the simulations showed that the field amplification by the plasma cloud on the rear side of the impact is more likely to occur above the crust, and that the magnetic field inside the moon loses much of its energy via dissipation due to turbulence in the mantle and crust.

"How exactly the magnetic spots were formed still requires more research. But now it is clear that at some point in time an internal magnetic field of the Moon had to be present for this to happen," says Yuri Shprits, Professor at the University of Potsdam and head of the Magnetospheric Physics Section at GFZ-Potsdam. "In addition, this study can help us to better understand the nature of the dynamo-generated magnetic field and the dynamo process on Earth, the outer planets and exoplanets".

A rapid and simple method for testing the efficacy of antibacterial drugs on infectious microbes has been developed and validated by a team of Penn State researchers.

Antimicrobial resistant infection is one of the major threats to human health globally, causing 2.5 million infections and 35,000 deaths annually, with the potential to grow to 10 million deaths annually by 2050 without improved techniques for detection and treatment.

Several rapid testing techniques have been developed, but they do not live up to the reliability of the gold standard technology, which requires 18 to 24 hours for reliable results. In many cases, patients need to be treated with antibiotics in a crisis, leading clinicians to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics that may actually lead to greater drug resistance or unacceptable side effects.

"Compared to other methods of detection, our method does not require complex systems and measurement setups," says Aida Ebrahimi, assistant professor of electrical engineering and a senior author on a paper recently posted online in the journal ACS Sensors. "Its simplicity and low cost are among the advantages and coupling our technology to machine learning makes the accuracy of our method comparable to the gold standard method and much better than other rapid methods."

The team tested their method against three strains of bacteria, including a resistant strain, to prove its effectiveness in the lab. Upon further development and validation with a broader range of pathogens and antibiotics, their method can allow physicians to prescribe the minimum dosage of the necessary drug, called the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in a timely fashion.

A phenomenon that other tests fail to account for is that bacteria may initially appear to be dead, but then can revive and multiply after many hours. The team's technology, augmented by machine learning, can predict whether the bacteria will revive or are actually dead, which is critical for accurate determination of the MIC value.

Their technique is called dynamic laser speckle imaging.

"The main advantages of our method are the speed and simplicity," explained Zhiwen Liu, professor of electrical engineering and the second corresponding author. You shine a laser beam on the sample and get all of these light scattering speckles. We can then capture these images and subject them to machine learning analysis. We capture a series of images over time, which is the dynamic part. If the bacteria are alive, you are going to get some motion, such as a small vibration or a little movement. You can get reliable, predictive results quickly, for example within one hour."

In addition to the immediate benefits provided to the patient, the lower concentration of drugs entering the water supply translates to less pollution to the environment, he says.

"One of the exciting aspects of this research has been its multidisciplinary nature. As an electrical engineer, I find it quite fascinating to work on designing and developing an optical diagnostic system as well as performing microbiology assays," said Keren Zhou, the co-lead first author on the paper and a doctoral student in electrical engineering.

His co-lead author, doctoral student Chen Zhou, added, "We plan to further develop our technique to a low-cost and portable platform, which would be especially beneficial for resource-limited settings."

(Vienna, 15 October 2020) Poverty is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Globally, one out of every 10 people lives in extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.90 per day. Many of them live in rural areas where the poverty rate is 17.2 per cent - more than three times higher than in urban areas. If current trends continue, the number of hungry people will reach 840 million or one ninth of the world's population by 2030 according to the World Food Programme.

Poverty eradication has therefore found a place at the top of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. "End poverty in all its forms everywhere" is the first Goal of this Agenda, which is supported by all 193 UN member states. The international community is now stepping up efforts to achieve this goal, especially in response to the severe setback caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The zoonotic nature of the Covid-19 virus has also illustrated the urgency to reduce human pressure on nature.

One way to relieve this pressure and alleviate poverty is to recognize and further optimize the critical role of forests and trees as allies in the fight against poverty. In the long run, losing forests means losing this fight. This is the central finding of a new global assessment report entitled "Forests, Trees and the Eradication of Poverty: Potential and Limitations".

The report will be launched online on Thursday, 15 October 2020, at 4-5:30 pm CEST, two days ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, one day ahead of World Food Day, and on the International Day of Rural Women. All these official days underscore the urgent need for action.

The study consolidates available scientific evidence on the wide range of contributions forests and trees outside forests make to curbing poverty and on the effectiveness of diverse forest management policies, programs, technologies and strategies. It does so based on an understanding of poverty not only in terms of money but also as an obstacle that keeps people from attaining a certain level of well-being and participating fully in society.

"This global assessment comes at a critical time. More extreme weather events associated with climate change, widening inequality, and the spread of infectious diseases, among others, are making an already insecure situation worse for the poor. It is therefore essential to review the role of forests in development in general, and in achieving poverty eradication, in particular." says Hiroto Mitsugi, Assistant Director-General, FAO, and Chair of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests.

A core group of 21 internationally renowned experts from different parts of the world and different scientific backgrounds have worked together for almost two years on the Global Forest Expert Panel (GFEP) on Forests and Poverty. The Panel, chaired by Professor Daniel C. Miller of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States, and led by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), is an initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) chaired by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Professor Miller says, "Forests and trees are critical to the well-being of many of the world's poor people who have been able to harness the goods and services they provide to manage and mitigate risk, especially in the face of crises. To secure and improve this important function, we need to adequately protect, manage and restore forests and to make forests and trees more central in policy decisionmaking."

"Our global assessment examines a variety of policy and management measures implemented by governments, civil society organizations, and the private sector for their potential and limitations to alleviate poverty. While there is no one size fits all solution, we have found that some of the strongest evidence for poverty reduction comes from agroforestry systems, community forest management, ecotourism, and forest producer organisations, among others," Professor Miller explains.

However, benefits and costs from forests and trees to human well-being are unevenly distributed. In many forest and wildlife-rich countries in Africa, for example, timber and tourism are major contributors to national economic accounts, but the benefits may not accrue at the local level - and, worse, local communities may bear the cost of these activities through environmental degradation and restricted access to protected areas.

There are several studies that show that protected areas can reduce poverty, particularly where ecotourism opportunities exist (e.g. in Costa Rica and Thailand) and where local people are involved as stakeholders. However, it is often those who are better off who are more likely to benefit, thus exacerbating local income inequalities.

Much case study evidence also points to clear benefits for the poor derived from community forestry management (CFM), although its potential has not been realised in most countries. Nepal is an exception as its CFM program is considered one of the most successful of its kind in the world. And yet, even there the benefits of CFM are unequally distributed among households, with poor and low caste households benefitting less than more well-off households.

Producer organisations are another relatively successful option to help forest producers overcome challenges such as market access. For example, in Burkina Faso's largely female-dominated shea nut value chain 76% of surveyed women noted improvements in their financial situation as a result of their participation in shea producer groups. A shea union has helped to build many members' social capital and strengthen cohesion even as social divisions along lines of gender, age and ethnicity still affect processes of inclusion and exclusion along this important forest product value chain.

Vanilla production in Madagascar is an example of how agroforestry can provide a pathway out of poverty. Approximately 80% of the world's vanilla is produced in Madagascar, largely in the north-eastern Sava region. There, agroforestry systems focusing on vanilla have become the main source of income for many farmers. However, benefits generally arise from contracts with vanilla exporters or collectors and thus are concentrated among smallholders able to obtain those contracts. Female-headed households, for example, are much less likely to get contracts because of their significant social disadvantages.

Thus, a key finding of the global assessment is that the poor are rarely able to capture the bulk of benefits from forests even as forest and trees are often vital in terms of subsistence. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic has driven thousands of people back to rural areas and has cut remittances. The full range of its effects on forests and rural livelihoods remains to be seen.

LONDON, ON - Lawson Health Research Institute and the Centre of Excellence on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are partnering with a population at high risk of mental illness - Canadian Veterans and spouses of Canadian Veterans - to study how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through online surveys, the project will hear directly from Veterans and their spouses to assess the pandemic's effects on their wellbeing over time. The team hopes results can be used by health care workers and policymakers to support Veterans and their families during both the current pandemic and future public health emergencies.

"With concerns about COVID-19 infection and drastic changes to everyday life, the pandemic is taking a toll on the health of Canadians," explains Dr. Don Richardson, Lawson Associate Scientist and Director of the MacDonald Franklin Operational Stress Injury (OSI) Research Centre. "And it may be particularly distressing for those vulnerable to mental illness."

Population studies show that Canadian Veterans are at double the risk of mental illness when compared to the rest of the population. They experience higher rates of depression, anxiety and loneliness. Spouses of Canadian Veterans are also at higher risk of distress, sometimes undertaking significant caregiving responsibilities that lead to less independence.

"It's currently unknown how the pandemic will impact Veterans and their spouses, but it could result in particularly serious outcomes," says Dr. Anthony Nazarov, Associate Scientist at Lawson and the MacDonald Franklin OSI Research Centre. "We want to hear from all Canadian Veterans and their spouses, whether they're doing well or not and whether they're seeking care or not."

The study aims to recruit 1,000 Canadian Veterans and 250 spouses of Canadian Veterans. Participants will complete online surveys, available in both English and French, once every three months for a total of 18 months. They will be asked questions about their psychological, social, family-related and physical wellbeing, and any relevant changes to their lifestyle and health care treatment.

"Veterans who regularly access health care services could encounter significant changes, including a move to virtual care appointments. This could lead to increased caregiving responsibilities for spouses," says Dr. Nazarov. "Given the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, these changes may persist well into the future, mandating a thorough assessment of patient satisfaction and treatment outcomes."

The team hopes results can be used to support the wellness of Veterans and their families during public health emergencies. This includes providing health care professionals and policymakers with information to guide emergency preparedness policies and health care delivery models. They hope results can also be used to recognize early signs of distress in order to target with early interventions.

"We are seeking to understand the impact of COVID-19 on Veterans and their families to identify if this global pandemic is leading to psychological distress or triggering historical traumas," says Dr. Patrick Smith, CEO of the Centre of Excellence on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. "The Centre's primary goal is to increase Canadian expertise related to military and Veteran mental health, suicide prevention and substance use disorders. This study can help us understand if the pandemic is having debilitating and life-altering effects, and help us address a potential mental health crisis."

Interested Canadian Veterans and spouses of Canadian Veterans can learn more about the study at http://www.veteransurvey.ca.

Both seasonal migration and the maintenance and use of an effective immune system come with substantial metabolic costs and are responsible for high levels of oxidative stress. How do animals cope in a situation when energy is limited and both costly body functions are needed? A team of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) investigated whether and how the immune response changes between pre-migration and migration seasons in the Nathusius pipistrelle bat. They confirmed that migratory bats favour the energetically "cheaper" non-cellular (humoral) immunity during an immune challenge and selectively suppress cellular immune responses. Thereby, bats save energy much needed for their annual migration. The results are published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.

The team of scientists around Christian C. Voigt, head of the Department of Evolutionary Ecology of the Leibniz-IZW, and Gábor Á. Czirják, senior scientist at the Department of Wildlife Diseases of the Leibniz-IZW, assessed the activity of several branches of the immune system of the Nathusius pipistrelle bat before and during migration. The seasonal journey of a 7 g Nathusius pipistrelle is energy-intensive since they fly more than 2.000 km during their annual journeys between the Baltic countries and southern France, and the metabolic turnover during flying is an order of magnitude higher than the basal metabolic rate . "It seems likely that bats will have to trade some body functions such as the immune response against the high cost of flight during migration", Voigt says. In order to verify this conjecture and to elucidate how the immune system is configured during this pivotal time of the year, the team measured the cellular and humoral response of the innate immune system (relative neutrophil numbers and haptoglobin concentration, respectively) and the cellular response of adaptive immunity (relative lymphocyte numbers) before and during migration. They compared baseline levels of these immune parameters and studied them in response to an antigen challenge.

"Our results confirm significant differences between the two periods. We conclude that this species of bat pays attention to the energy requirements of the different branches of immunity when switching from pre-migratory to the migratory season", Voigt explains. Before migration the cellular response of the innate immune response was significantly higher than during migration, whereas the humoral response of the same immune branch was dominant during the migration period. "The Nathusius pipistrelle responds with a strong humoral immune response to a challenge mimicking a bacterial infection. This response is more pronounced during migration, while there is no activation of the cellular response in such a situation", adds Czirják. When the animals embark on their strenuous journeys they reduce the cellular immune response, which is more energy-demanding than the humoral response. With this strategy the Nathusius pipistrelle might save energy during migration.

"The open question is whether or not the focus on humoral immunity during the migration period puts bats at some risk", Voigt says. "It is possible that they are more susceptible to certain pathogens while migrating if bats cannot mount an adequate cellular immune response." These and other related questions are now the topic of further immunological research by the bat research group at the Leibniz-IZW.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., October 15, 2020 - Synthego, the genome engineering company, has collaborated with The Krogan Lab, a world-renowned scientific research unit at the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), to deliver multiple CRISPR-based engineered cell lines to accelerate the study of potential treatment targets for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease. In a study published in Science, the consortium of researchers used Synthego-engineered cells targeting more than 300 genes that the virus interacts with inside a human cell.

"Utilizing Synthego's industry-leading CRISPR-based genome engineering platform was essential in accelerating our research at QBI's Coronavirus Research Group," said Dr. Krogan, a professor at UCSF, Director of QBI, and a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. "The precision and reproducibility of CRISPR were key to helping us study how SARS-CoV-2 affects cellular pathways and ultimately causes disease, enhancing our validation of promising therapeutic targets that may offer broad protection against infection from coronaviruses."

In this collaboration, Synthego joined academic and private sector scientists from UCSF, QBI's Coronavirus Research Group (QCRG), Gladstone Institutes, EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in Cambridge, England, Georgia Institute of Technology, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, Institut Pasteur in Paris, University of Freiburg in Germany, and University of Sheffield in the UK.

Inspired by UCSF's Nature publication, "A SARS-CoV-2 Protein Interaction Map Reveals Targets for Drug-Repurposing," Synthego extended its expertise and platform technologies to validate the targets identified in the study by editing genes individually and as a series. This approach revealed which genes and cellular pathways are essential for the virus to infect and or grow inside human cells through infectivity analysis.

"Contributing to the critical work of an international team of almost 200 researchers from 14 leading institutions in six countries has been a tremendous honor," said Kevin Holden, a co-author of the study and head of Science at Synthego. "Recent publications, combined with our upcoming World CRISPR Day, highlight our growing scientific expertise and leadership in applying the latest genome engineering platform innovations to advancing life sciences research and clinical development."

Dr. Krogan will be speaking in greater detail about the Science study and the collaborative effort at Synthego's upcoming World CRISPR Day symposium, which will also feature a keynote address from Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.

After months of technology-based communication enforced by COVID-19, many of us are missing a "live" human voice. But we're not the only ones -- a new study reveals that cows also prefer a face-to-face chat. The research, published in Frontiers in Psychology, discovers that cows are actually more relaxed when spoken to directly by a live human, rather than when listening to a recorded voice via a loudspeaker.

"Cattle like stroking in combination with gentle talking," says Annika Lange of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria. "In scientific contexts, a recording of a human voice speaking gently could be used to relax the animals, because it can be difficult to repeat the same phrases in the same way during experiments."

Using a recorded voice means conditions are as similar as possible in each trial, following a concept known as "standardization" -- an important principle of scientific experimentation. However, the team of scientists wanted to find out if cows respond differently to the sound of recorded voices compared to a human talking directly to them. "Our study suggests that live talking is more relaxing for our animals than a recording of a human voice", Lange says. "Interactions may be less positive when they become artificial through standardization".

The team worked with a herd of 28 cattle, comparing the benefits of either stroking the animals while playing a recording of an experimenter's voice, or stroking while speaking to the animals directly. After monitoring the animals' responses during the experiments, they found live talking was the best mood enhancer for their bovine friends.

Heart rate variability was higher when cattle were spoken to directly, indicating they were enjoying themselves. After this treatment, heart rates were lower than after listening to a recorded voice, showing that the animals were more relaxed following the live chat.

How does a chilled cow behave? "When relaxed and enjoying the interaction, the animals will often stretch out their necks as they do when they groom each other," says Lange. "Additionally, it is thought that ear positions may indicate mood: hanging ears and low ear positions appear to be linked to relaxation."

The experiment included only one herd and one playback recording. Lange calls for further research to see if results are also valid for different herds and situations, such as with cows that are more fearful of humans. This will help in further studies on the improvement of cattle-human relationships, an important aspect of animal welfare.

Plans to release a virus to reduce numbers of invasive Common Carp in Australia are unlikely to work and should be dropped, researchers say.

Australian Government scientists have asked for approval to release Koi Herpesvirus (KHV) into the continent's largest freshwater supply to kill non-native carp.

The new study, by the University of Exeter and the University of East Anglia, demonstrates that Common Carp would evolve resistance to the virus and carp numbers would soon recover.

Carp can cause ecological damage in large numbers by uprooting vegetation and increasing sediment in the water, with significant knock-on effects for other species in the ecosystem.

This means control is required - but the study says releasing KHV is not the answer.

"Viral biocontrol is highly questionable and, as our study shows, it is unlikely to reduce carp numbers in the long term," said Dr Jackie Lighten, of the University of Exeter.

"Our modelling shows that even under the most optimal conditions for biocontrol, populations quickly recover.

"Releasing KHV carries significant risks to human and ecosystem health, which likely outweigh the benefits, and we have previously urged further detailed research to avoid an unnecessary ecological catastrophe.

"Based on our findings, we believe the plan to control Australia's carp with KHV is dead in the water."

Dr Lighten previously argued in the Australian Senate that the country's National Carp Control Program (NCCP) was omitting key areas of research from its work.

A key component of this is computer simulation modelling to assess if the virus would effectively kill the fish in light of the genetic component of resistance to KHV, which resides in the global carp population.

Dr Katie Mintram, of the University of Exeter, said: "Modelling the epidemiology of proposed viral releases is essential for risk assessment and estimation of likely outcomes.

"We built a simulation model which allowed us to examine realistic interactions among carp, virus and disease resistance, to estimate how long it would take carp populations to recover even if 95% of them were wiped out.

"We show that the biological characteristics of the carp, including their rapid breeding rates, allow infected populations to recover rapidly with individuals that are KHV resistant."

The authors modelled a "best-case scenario" for the virus to eradicate carp - but the carp population still evolved resistance, making future outbreaks of the virus ineffective.

"The modelling strategy that we took is a very powerful way to assess how disease can spread among individuals within a population," said Professor Cock van Oosterhout, of the University of East Anglia.

"It's an 'Individual Based Model', which is similar to those used by scientists around the world to understand and prevent the spread of Covid-19.

"It is widely accepted as the current gold standard in projecting disease outcomes but, worryingly, the NCCP chose to ignore this approach.

"Also, they didn't model the impact of disease resistance, which is crucial in understanding the epidemiology of infectious disease."

KHV appeared in European aquaculture (fish farming) facilities in the late 1990s and rapidly spread around the world, resulting in the deaths of millions of carp.

Common Carp are among the world's most farmed fish for food, popular pets (Koi) and a prized fish for recreational angling. KHV has caused millions of dollars of damage worldwide.

Dr Lighten said: "We recommend that the Australian Government takes bold steps to significantly improve the health of its waterways, rather than releasing a potentially catastrophic virus into its ecosystems.

"Freshwater is in desperate shortage in large parts of Australia, so the first step must be to reduce the amount of water extracted for thirsty crops such as cotton.

"This would help to restore habitat for native species, thereby reducing habitat for carp.

"Proper governance is what's needed, rather than giving an unhealthy and fragile ecosystem a foreign virus, which could significantly tip the balance out of favour for native species."

Dr Lighten added: "If the current global Covid-19 pandemic has reminded of anything, it's that viruses are hard to predict and manage.

"It is madness that the release of a high pathogenic virus is being considered as one of the first steps to restore a damaged and fragile ecosystem.

"This is even more so, considering that very little progress has been made in reducing the volume of water extracted from the Murray-Darling Basin, which should be primary in restoring river health over releasing a pathogen that could have significant ecological repercussions."

Russian propaganda is hitting its mark on social media -- generating strong partisan reactions that may help intensify political divisions -- but Facebook users are less apt to press the "like" button on content when they learn that it is part of a foreign propaganda campaign, according to a new RAND Corporation report.

Researchers say that Russia is using political memes to polarize Americans, particularly those at the extreme ends of the political spectrum who typically like and share content that aligns with their political views at higher rates than others.

But a unique RAND study that exposed these hyper-partisan news consumers to potential interventions suggests that most are open to reconsidering their initial response to a Russian meme after its source is revealed to them.

"Left- and right-wing audiences are particular targets of Russian propaganda efforts, so they naturally have a big reaction because the propaganda speaks to them," said Todd Helmus, the study's lead author and a senior behavioral scientist at RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group. "A big reaction also means a lot of room for improvement in terms of learning how to think critically about the source of a particular news item, and the consequences of passing it along to others."

The RAND report is the third of a four-part series intended to help policymakers and the public understand -- and mitigate -- the threat of online foreign interference in national, state and local elections.

The latest study used a randomized controlled trial of more than 1,500 Facebook users to understand how people react emotionally to Russian propaganda -- specifically, memes that Russia used in the 2016 U.S. election cycle -- and whether media literacy content or labeling the source of a meme could help prevent the spread, and thus influence, of Russian propaganda on social media platforms.

The study may be the first to test the impact of media literacy and labeling interventions on audience reactions to actual Russian propaganda memes.

Researchers asked participants about their consumption of news and categorized them into five groups. They found that two of the groups react in the strongest and most partisan way to Russian memes.

The first of those two groups is the "Partisan Left," who lean left politically and most often received their news from the New York Times. They also are least likely to believe that COVID-19 is a conspiracy. The second is "Partisan Right," who lean right politically and get their news from Fox News or politically far-right outlets. They are the group most likely to believe that COVID-19 is a conspiracy.

People in these two groups also are the most likely to change their minds about liking a meme if the meme is revealed to be from a Russian source, according to the study.

Among members of the Partisan Right group, exposure to a short media literacy video reduced the number of likes for pro-U.S. and politically right-leaning Russian content. The video also reduced likes of pro-USA themed Russian content among all study participants. The media literacy video had no significant effect on likes associated with left-leaning Russian content.

While it is difficult to assess whether revealing the source of memes is a feasible mechanism for helping people recognize propaganda, researchers say there may be immense value in developing a third-party software plug-in that could unmask the source of state-sponsored content.

RAND researchers recommend educating Americans about the presence of Russian propaganda and encouraging them to be highly suspicious of sources and their intent. An example of a Russian meme, with directions on how to refute it, could help inoculate Americans against propaganda.

Additionally, researchers point to technological media literacy interventions as a promising way to reduce the impact of Russian propaganda.

"Media literacy interventions that can be placed on phones or other devices have the potential to help people think through the way they interact with news or media content," Helmus said.

This research was sponsored by the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

The first report in the RAND series concluded that the main goal of foreign interference is to paralyze the American political process by driving people to extreme positions that make it ever more difficult to reach consensus. The second report concluded that coordinated efforts on Twitter to interfere in the current U.S. presidential election may have worked in favor of President Trump, and against the candidacy of Vice President Biden.

The report, "Russian Propaganda Hits Its Mark: Experimentally Testing the Impact of Russian Propaganda and Counter-Interventions," is available at http://www.rand.org. Other authors of the study are James V. Marrone, Marek N. Posard and Danielle Schlang.

The RAND National Security Research Division conducts research and analysis on defense and national security topics for the U.S. and allied defense, foreign policy, homeland security, and intelligence communities and foundations and other non-governmental organizations that support defense and national security analysis.

Two new studies from the University of Melbourne will help the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built to uncover galaxies never before seen by humanity.

The papers are published in The Astrophysical Journal and the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and show that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch late next year, will reveal hidden galaxies.

Powerful lights called 'quasars' are the brightest objects in the universe. Powered by supermassive black holes up to a trillion times the mass of our Sun, they outshine entire galaxies of billions of stars.

Simulations led by Science PhD candidate, Madeline Marshall, show that while even NASA's Hubble Space Telescope can't see galaxies currently hidden by these quasars, the James Webb Telescope will be able to get past the glare.

"Webb will open up the opportunity to observe these very distant host galaxies for the first time," said Ms Marshall, who conducted her research at the ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D).

"That can help us answer questions like: How can black holes grow so big so fast? Is there a relationship between the mass of the galaxy and the mass of the black hole, like we see in the nearby universe?"

Although quasars are known to reside at the centers of galaxies, it has been difficult to tell what those galaxies are like and how they compare to galaxies without quasars.

"Ultimately, Webb's observations should provide new insights into these extreme systems," said ASTRO 3D co-author Stuart Wyithe of the University of Melbourne.

"The data it gathers will help us understand how a black hole could grow to weigh a billion times as much as our Sun in just a billion years. These big black holes shouldn't exist so early because there hasn't been enough time for them to grow so massive."

The University of Melbourne team collaborated with researchers from the US, China, Germany, and The Netherlands to use the Hubble Space Telescope to try to observe these galaxies.

They then used a state-of-the-art computer simulation called BlueTides, which was developed by a team led by ASTRO 3D distinguished visitor, Tiziana Di Matteo, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US.

"BlueTides is designed to study the formation and evolution of galaxies and quasars in the first billion years of the universe's history," said Yueying Ni of Carnegie Mellon University, who ran the BlueTides simulation.

"Its large cosmic volume and high spatial resolution enables us to study those rare quasar hosts on a statistical basis."

The team used these simulations to determine what Webb's cameras would see if the observatory studied these distant systems. They found that distinguishing the host galaxy from the quasar would be possible, although still challenging due to the galaxy's small size on the sky.

They also found that the galaxies hosting quasars tended to be smaller than average, spanning only about 1/30 the diameter of the Milky Way despite containing almost as much mass as our galaxy.

"The host galaxies are surprisingly tiny compared to the average galaxy at that point in time," said Ms Marshall.

Oncotarget Volume 11, Issue 29 reported that Immunosuppressive chemoresistance is a major burden in lung cancer.

Recent data reveal that long noncoding RNAs present in the lung tumor microenvironment are implicated in chemoresistant-related immune deregulation, and metastasis but their exact pathogenic role is still unknown.

In this study, the Oncotarget authors investigate the role of lncRNA PCAT-1 in chemoresistant immunosuppression and its involvement in tumor stroma remodeling. Findings reveal PCAT-1 to regulate Kras-related lung chemoresistance through increased expression of the immunosuppressive micrornas miR-182/miR217 in lung tissues, thus promoting a pre-metastatic niche formation and a subsequent increase in lung metastatic burden.

Subsequent PCAT-1 knockdown impaired CAF-mediated stromal activation, and reversed chemoresistance and tumor growth in vivo.

Overall, these findings demonstrate the versatile roles of PCAT-1 in sustaining lung immunosuppressive neoplasia through tumor microenvironment remodeling and provide new opportunities for effective metastasis inhibition, especially in chemoresistant tumors.

"Overall, these findings demonstrate the versatile roles of PCAT-1 in sustaining lung immunosuppressive neoplasia through tumor microenvironment remodeling and provide new opportunities for effective metastasis inhibition, especially in chemoresistant tumors"

Dr. Savvas Petanidis from The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as well as the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University said, "Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths and despite extensive research efforts, the survival rate of lung cancer patients remains significantly low."

Emerging evidence indicates that lncRNAs present in the lung tumor microenvironment promote tumor growth through cancer cell remodeling that favors immunosuppressive metastasis.

These decisive tumor propagating effects of lncRNA permit tumor cells to bypass immune surveillance and reduce T-cell infiltration into tumor, limiting the clinical benefits of immune checkpoint therapies.

Fibroblasts which play a key role in this mechanism, constitute most of the stromal cells in tumor tissues, secrete a wide spectrum of chemokines or cytokines to the tumor microenvironment, thus promoting growth, invasion, angiogenesis.

Furthermore, fibroblast-derived exosomes induce cancer stem cell expression that contributes to altered tumor metabolism and emergence of chemoresistance in tumor microenvironment.

In this study the authors characterize for the first time the role of lncRNA PCAT-1 in Kras-related lung chemoresistance and its role in tumor stroma remodeling via immunosuppressive miR-182/miR217 expression and fibroblast differentiation.

"In this study the authors characterize for the first time the role of lncRNA PCAT-1 in Kras-related lung chemoresistance and its role in tumor stroma remodeling via immunosuppressive miR-182/miR217 expression and fibroblast differentiation"

The Petanidis Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Paper that "our findings reveal for the first time the key role of lncRNA PCAT-1 in regulating Kras-related lung chemoresistance and its role in tumor stroma remodeling via immunosuppressive miR-182/miR217 expression. Aberrant expression of PCAT-1 in the tumor microenvironment triggers fibroblast differentiation which negative regulates p27/CDK6 by inducing G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and AMPK augmentation, contributing to a tumor-favoring metabolic status. Our findings highlight the crucial relationship between CAFs and PCAT-1 which establish a CD133/SOX2-related stem cell phenotype and promote cancer cell chemoresistance. Decoding these molecular mechanisms and their impact in chemotherapy induction is essential for introducing novel immune-based strategies to restore and maintain antitumor immunity in chemoresistant metastasis."

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DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27675

Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27675/text/

Correspondence to - Savvas Petanidis - spetanid@auth.gr

Keywords -
PCAT-1,
miR-182,
immunosuppression,
Kras,
miR-217

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DOI

10.18632/oncotarget.27675

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- During the pandemic, the amount of screen time for many people working and learning from home as well as binge-watching TV has sharply increased. New research finds that wearing blue-light glasses just before sleeping can lead to a better night's sleep and contribute to a better day's work to follow.

"We found that wearing blue-light-filtering glasses is an effective intervention to improve sleep, work engagement, task performance and organizational citizenship behavior, and reduced counterproductive work behavior," said Cristiano L. Guarana, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. "Wearing blue-light-filtering glasses creates a form of physiologic darkness, thus improving both sleep quantity and quality."

Most of the technology we commonly use -- such as computer screens, smartphones and tablets -- emits blue light, which past research has found can disrupt sleep. Workers have become more dependent on these devices, especially as we navigate remote work and school during the coronavirus pandemic.

The media have recently reported on the benefits of blue-light glasses for those spending a lot of time in front of a computer screen. This new research extends understanding of the circadian rhythm, a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.

"In general, the effects of wearing blue-light-filtering glasses were stronger for 'night owls' than for 'morning larks,' said Guarana, who previously has studied how lack of sleep affects business decisions, relationships and other behaviors in organizations. "Owls tend to have sleep periods later in the day, whereas larks tend to have sleep periods early in the day.

"Although most of us can benefit from reducing our exposure to blue light, owl employees seem to benefit more because they encounter greater misalignments between their internal clock and the externally controlled work time. Our model highlights how and when wearing blue-light-filtering glasses can help employees to live and work better."

The findings appear in the paper, "The Effects of Blue-Light Filtration on Sleep and Work Outcomes," published online by the Journal of Applied Psychology. Guarana is the corresponding author; his co-authors are Christopher Barnes and Wei Jee Ong of the University of Washington.

The research found that daily engagement and performance of tasks may be related to more underlying biological processes such as the circadian process.

"Our research pushes the chronotype literature to consider the relationship between the timing of circadian processes and employees' performance," the researchers wrote.

A good night's sleep not only benefits workers; it also helps their employers' bottom lines.

"This study provides evidence of a very cost-effective means of improving employee sleep and work outcomes, and the implied return on investment is gigantic," said Barnes, professor of management and the Evert McCabe Endowed Fellow at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. "I personally do not know of any other interventions that would be that powerful at that low of a cost."

Across two studies, researcher collected data from 63 company managers and 67 call center representatives at Brazil-based offices for a U.S. multinational financial firm and measured task performance from clients. Participants were randomly chosen to test glasses that filtered blue light or those that were placebo glasses.

"Employees are often required to work early mornings, which may lead to a misalignment between their internal clock and the externally controlled work time," the researchers said, adding that their analyses showed a general pattern that blue-light filtration can have a cumulative effect on key performance variables, at least in the short term.

"Blue-light exposure should also be of concern to organizations," Guarana said. "The ubiquity of the phenomenon suggests that control of blue-light exposure may be a viable first step for organizations to protect the circadian cycles of their employees from disruption."

PHILADELPHIA (October 12, 2020) - Smell loss is a frequently reported symptom of COVID-19 but reports of prevalence vary from study-to-study and range from 5% to 98%. With such a wide range of estimates, it is difficult to prioritize its importance for testing and treatment.

Investigators, led by the Monell Chemical Senses Center, determined in part why the reports vary so much. They reviewed existing research to determine whether the studies that used direct measures versus self-report of smell loss could explain the range of estimates. They found that with direct measures, about 77% of COVID-19 patients had smell loss versus only 44% with self-report.

Direct measures of smell ability involve having patients smell and report on actual odorants, whereas self-report methods include obtaining data through patient questionnaires, interviews, or electronic health records. Direct measures are objective whereas self-report are subjective measures of a person's experience.

"Objective measures are a more sensitive method to identify smell loss related to COVID-19," said first author Mackenzie E. Hannum, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Monell.

On the other hand, subjective measures, "while expedient during the early stages of the pandemic, underestimate the true prevalence of smell loss," said Vicente A. Ramirez, a doctoral student at the University of California, Merced and Monell summer intern. Drs. Hannum and Ramirez are both investigators in the lab of senior author Danielle R. Reed, PhD, Associate Director at Monell.

Their research suggests subjective methodologies underestimate the true prevalence of loss of smell and that smell loss may be an effective screening method for early COVID-19 detection. The team published their findings in Chemical Senses, which is available as an open-access paper.

In addition, the team created a web resource that tracks the publication of COVID-19 and smell loss reports, which is updated weekly. (Please be patient when accessing the portal, the page takes a moment to load.) As of mid-October 2020, the online portal contains 118 studies of smell loss with close to 44,000, and this number grows daily.

The disparity between the reported prevalence of loss of smell in objective and subjective methods calls for further examination of the consequences of self-report. "Measuring people for smell loss may become as routine as measuring body temperature for fever" said Reed.

Coauthor Paule Joseph, PhD, a clinician at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) adds, "measurement of smell should be a part of all COVID-19 clinical exams and is a valuable screening tool."

Researchers do not yet have a clear picture of the trajectory of COVID-19-induced smell loss; the team found varied reports among the studies they analyzed. Several studies reported significant improvements quickly after the onset of symptoms. However, other studies said that many patients still had not returned to a normal sense of smell more than two weeks after the beginning of smell loss.

Dietary supplementation of fatty acids produced from microalgae have wide-reaching health benefits for humans, including the ability to reduce obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease, preventing hair loss, and assisting wounds to heal.

However, its widespread development has been hampered by the current limits of bioimaging tools needed to allow easy, rapid and non-invasive evaluation of lipid conditions within microalgae.

A novel protocol to detect lipid production in microalgae has been discovered at Flinders University by Mohsinul Reza, a PhD student under the supervision of Professors Jian Qin and Youhong Tang.

The study - "Understanding the lipid production mechanism in Euglena gracilis with a fast-response AIEgen bioprobe, DPAS" published by Materials Chemistry Frontiers, DOI: 10.1039/D0QM00621A) - details the development of a novel protocol by using a novel aggregation induced emission (AIE) fluorescent bioprobe to detect the production of lipid drops from microalgae.

Mr Reza has discovered the optimal condition to maximise the production of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid such as omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in Euglena gracilis - a species of lipid-producing microalgae that can biosynthesise multiple beneficiary compounds as food supplements for human health.

"This technique enables us to visualise the distribution and quantity of lipid drops in live algae on a confocal microscope," says Professor Jian Qin. "This new method could screen the capacity of lipid droplet production in other algal species that have the potential as a source to produce healthy food for humans."

The new technique improves on traditional fluorescent probes currently used for lipid imaging, which often suffer from reduced photostability and difficulties in dye acquisition techniques that limits their usage for microscopic imaging.

The new bioprobe DPAS (a lipid-specific AIE fluorogen that is synthesised from very cheap materials) could surpass the performances of the traditional fluorophore for lipid droplets staining in terms of photostability, rapid and easy sample preparation techniques.

This new technique significantly eases the lipid study in this algal cell type. This fluorescent probe is also biocompatible and suitable for multicolour imaging that broadens the horizon of this dye for biological studies.

The researchers also observed cultural conditions that can produce higher amount of health beneficiary fatty acids, which suggests that promising bio-functional compounds could be available from culturing Euglena gracilis microalgae in the applied conditions.

In details, the researchers tested five different treatments and analysed the results using DPAS and BODIPY (a well-known staining probe) to compare the results. They found that the presence of organic carbon in the form of glucose and deprivation of nitrogen and calcium from the algal culture enhanced lipid production in a dark condition.