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The global pot fishing industry could be having a greater impact on corals, sponges and other species found on the seabed than previously thought, according to new research.

Scientists from the University of Plymouth (UK) attached video cameras to pots used by crab and lobster fishermen off the south coast of England.

As the pots were lowered, and later recovered, they recorded any damage caused to the rocky reefs on the seabed and various ecologically important species which call them home.

The resulting footage showed that of the 18 species observed, 14 suffered damage as the pots were hauled from the seabed.

This included certain species - including pink sea fans, ross coral, Dead Man's Fingers and boring sponges - recognised as indicators of general health in the marine environment.

The findings go against previous thinking around the damage caused by pot fishing to the seabed, with research carried out until now regarding its potential impact as minimal.

Writing in Marine Environmental Research, scientists say they must now be taken into consideration by authorities and fishing communities, and that managers must balance ecology with social and economic considerations to determine what level of impact is acceptable. This is especially important where potting is occurring within MPAs.

Crustacean fisheries are a very valuable component of the UK fishing industry and are particularly important to coastal communities, with 1,342 vessels fishing with pots and traps in 2016 and the majority of them measuring under 10m and operating in inshore waters.

In 2017, total shellfish landings accounted for 38% of all those by UK vessels, with 34,100 tonnes of crab and lobster (worth almost £100million) landed into the UK. Globally, the industry is present in 48 countries which also have multi-use MPAs within their waters.

Dr Sarah Gall, Lecturer in Marine Conservation at the University of Plymouth, led the research as part of her PhD studies. She said: "This is the first study to quantify the true footprint of potting. Despite finding that areas fished with pots were characterised by species indicative of a healthy reef system, we have not seen the greater abundance, species richness and diversity we might have expected. The footage we obtained shows that 25-30% of seabed species were either damaged or dislodged by potting and we have also highlighted particular concerns about some long-lived and slow-growing species. The future management of pot fisheries will need to address these findings on a site by site basis to ensure the long term health of our rocky reef systems and the sustainability of the potting industry."

The study was carried out in partnership with fishermen operating in the Inshore Potting Agreement (IPA) area, which stretches along the South Devon coastline from Plymouth Sound to Start Point. It was funded by the Devon & Severn Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority and the University's own Marine Institute.

It builds on the University's extensive research into the impact of conservation initiatives such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which includes a long-running monitoring programme in Lyme Bay, off the Dorset and Devon coast.

That research has previously shown that restricting the amount of inshore potting for crab and lobster within MPAs can generate a "win-win" for both fishermen and the marine environment.

Dr Emma Sheehan, Associate Professor of Marine Ecology, leads the Lyme Bay Project and is senior author on the current paper. She added: "Our ongoing work in Lyme Bay has shown that smaller fishing communities recognise the importance of preventing damage to the environment in order to secure their livelihoods in the long term. In that respect, this study is crucial because it provides the first evidence of a potentially global issue and those in the industry are integral to addressing it. Through working with conservation and coastal managers, we hope a solution could be reached where the interests of industry and the environment can be balanced."

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (OCTOBER 13, 2020). The authors, two surgeon-researchers from Murayama Medical Center in Tokyo, tested a device that, when attached to everyday eyeglasses, can display fluoroscopic images used for surgical guidance directly to the surgeon. Without such a device, the surgeon must receive this guidance by repeatedly looking across the operating room to a video monitor. The authors found that the eyeglass display device allowed the surgeon to focus on operative tasks more efficiently and resulted in a slightly shorter length of surgery and less exposure to radiation.

Detailed findings of this study can be found in a new article, "Smart glasses display device for fluoroscopically guided minimally invasive spinal instrumentation surgery: a preliminary study," by Keitaro Matsukawa, MD, PhD, and Yoshiyuki Yato, MD, PhD, published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine.

An operating room can be a very crowded place. In addition to surgical equipment and personnel, there are numerous intraoperative support systems, including navigation systems that aid the surgeon in performing complicated surgeries. Navigation systems are particularly important when surgery is minimally invasive. However, their placement in the operating room may not be totally convenient to the surgeon.

Fluoroscopy is a form of medical imaging that produces real-time moving X-ray images that visualize a patient's bone anatomy. In minimally invasive spine surgery, in which the surgical opening is small, fluoroscopy provides the surgeon with a clear view of where and how to affix surgical screws, plates, and other spinal instrumentation.

When fluoroscopy is used, spine surgeons must turn their heads repeatedly to view both the surgical field and the fluoroscopy monitor, which normally stands several feet away from the operating table. This constant movement can be distracting for the surgeon. The authors suggest that it also may cause longer operative times and technical difficulties, and lead to potential errors. The authors hypothesized that wearing a device that displays fluoroscopic images within the surgeon's visual field during insertion and attachment of spinal instrumentation could improve the safety of minimally invasive spine surgery.

To test their hypothesis, the authors performed a pilot prospective randomized study in 20 patients who underwent posterior lumbar interbody fusion at the L5-S1 spinal level. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study on the feasibility of using a wearable display device for fluoroscopically guided, minimally invasive, spinal instrumentation surgery. All surgeries were performed by the same surgeon and, in each case, the percutaneous pedicle screw technique was used.

In 10 cases the surgeon wore glasses with an attached device (picoLinker device, Westunitis) that wirelessly displayed real-time fluoroscopic images within the surgeon's visual field. In the other 10 cases the surgeon wore no display device, but instead frequently consulted the fluoroscopy monitor that was positioned elsewhere in the OR.

To examine whether the wearable display device improved aspects of spine surgery, the authors examined, in each group of patients, the number of times the surgeon's head turned to consult the fluoroscopic video display, the duration of the operation, and the length of time the patient and surgeon were exposed to radiation emitted by the fluoroscope.

The surgeon turned toward the fluoroscopy monitor significantly fewer times while wearing the eyeglass-attached fluoroscopic display device (means ± standard deviations: 0.1 ± 0.31 vs. 82.4 ± 32.5 times; p

After reviewing the results, the authors conclude that an eyeglass-attached fluoroscopic display device "may be a valid option to enhance the surgeon's ability to concentrate on operative tasks by improving ergonomic efficiency during surgery."

When asked about the findings of this study, the authors responded, "We believe the major advantages are 'concentration' and 'information centralization.' The smart glasses display system used as an alternative screen in front of surgeons' eyes allows them to see both the surgical field and information displayed on monitors simultaneously without moving the eyes and head. In addition to fluoroscopic images, a variety of other images, such as those obtained before surgery and those from vital sign monitors, neurophysiological monitors, computer navigation monitors, and endoscopic monitors, can be displayed on the wearable screen. The eyeglass-attached display device can be a great tool to help surgery progress smoothly and safely."

The genus Iris of flowering plants -- named after the Greek rainbow goddess because of the variation in flower color -- comprises over 300 species across the northern hemisphere, some of which are Vulnerable or (Critically) Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Due to the poor fossil record, it is not yet known when irises first originated, but scientists believe the genus is only a few million years old, having its closest living relatives in today's southern Africa.

"We wanted to study the factors influencing and maintaining the outstanding evolutionary divergence in irises, a young but very diverse group. We were especially interested in the evolution of flower color and morphology, because these are key traits for pollinator attraction," says Dr Yuval Sapir from the School of Plant Sciences of Tel Aviv University, Israel, corresponding author of a new study in the open-access journal Frontiers in Plant Science.

Modern Iris species mostly live in (semi-)deserts or mountainous environments, although some specialize in moist or wet habitats. They are typically pollinated by insects, but a few species are visited by birds, and often capable of self-fertilization ("self-compatible"). Their flowers have three upright petals, the "standards", and three hanging sepals, the "falls". Standards and falls aren't always the same color, and can be dark purple, violet, pink, yellow, or white. Their lower parts form a pollination tunnel that contains both the stamens and styles, whose entrance may be marked by a ridge or "crest", part of the falls. Crests are thought to function as guides to lead potential pollinators to the nectar or pollen reward. Falls may also bear a raised hairy area, the "beard", with possibly similar function. Some species don't produce nectar but provide another type of reward for insects: safe shelter inside the flowers, which warm up in the morning. Such species often have a dark "spot" on the falls, which may play a role in increasing or maintaining a higher temperature inside.

Given this diversity, what might the last common ancestor of irises have looked like?

"Here we show that the ancestor of the genus Iris probably had purple flowers, with a crest and a spot on the falls. Its flowers were also likely insect-pollinated, producing nectar as a reward, and self-compatible. From this point onward, rapid evolution created divergence to hundreds of combinations of color, size, and other flower characteristics," says Dr Katarzyna Roguz, a postdoctoral scientist who led the research.

Roguz et al. created a phylogeny or evolutionary tree, based on the similarity in DNA sequence from public databases at six genes -- five from the chloroplast and one from the nucleus -- from 215 species, 10 subspecies, and two varieties of Iris. Each scored for 16 traits related to flower color, reproduction, habitat, and distribution. The phylogeny largely supported the published taxonomy of the genus Iris, divided into seven subgenera (Limniris, Iris, Hermodactyloides, Nepalensis, Pardanthopsis, Scorpiris, Xiphium), with a further division into two and six sections for the largest subgenera, Limniris and Lophiris.

The researchers show that many traits of irises are evolutionary labile -- that is, shifting back-and-forth between alternate states. For example, spots were lost and regained repeatedly, while shifts between purple versus yellow flowers were common. Beards also evolved at least three times independently. While the overwhelming majority of irises remain insect-pollinated, there have been at least two shifts towards bird pollination, followed by several reversals back to insect pollination. Other traits were shown to be more evolutionary stable, for example mating system and the ability to produce nectar, where shifts between the states were few.

"Our results suggest that pollinators are responsible, at least partially, for the evolution of Iris flower shape and that they are still playing a major role in the divergence of species in this genus. Evolution is amazing!" says Sapir.

Volume 11, Issue 26 of Oncotarget reported that Lung cancer is of particular importance, as it is the deadliest cancer worldwide.

In this study, the authors show that high mi R-708 expression is associated with survival rates in lung squamous cell carcinoma patients. mi R-708 also represses PGE2 production by suppressing both COX-2 and mPGES-1 expression in lung cancer cells.

Moreover, mi R-708 decreases proliferation, survival, and migration of lung cancer cells, which can be partially attributed to mi R-708's inhibition of PGE2 signaling.

Lastly, they identify novel mi R-708 predicted targets and possible regulators of mi R-708 expression in lung cancer.

Collectively, these data demonstrate that dysregulated mi R-708 expression contributes to exacerbated PGE2 production, leading to an enhanced pro-tumorigenic phenotype in lung cancer cells.

Dr. Carol S. Lutz from The Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics at Rutgers Biomedical & Health Sciences, New Jersey Medical School, School of Graduate Studies in Newark New Jersey USA said, "Lung cancer is the most common cancer, with more than 2.09 million lung cancer cases worldwide in 2018."

More importantly, lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in the world, with more than 1.79 million lung cancer-related deaths in 2018.

Lung cancer is a collection of several distinct subtypes, with non-small cell lung cancer accounting for 85% of all lung tumors. mi R-708 also indirectly regulates the expression of genes involved in PI3K signaling, cell cycle progression, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and cancer cell stemness.

In this study, the authors aim to decipher novel mi R-708 targets and suggest a solution to the controversy on whether mi R-708 is an oncogenic or tumor-suppressive mi RNA in lung cancer.

The Lutz Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Paper that collectively, their findings suggest further study of mi R-708 in lung cancer.

The data paired with previous studies highlight a potential value for mi R-708 as a diagnostic in differentiating lung tumors, as well as a potential therapeutic intervention, particularly in lung squamous cell carcinomas.

Their work has identified novel tumor-suppressive mi R-708 functions by suppressing oncogenic PGE2 production through targeting of COX-2 and mPGES-1.

"Their work has identified novel tumor-suppressive mi R-708 functions by suppressing oncogenic PGE2 production through targeting of COX-2 and mPGES-1"

These findings could be the foundation for identifying novel mi R-708 targets, as well as regulators of mi R-708 expression in cancer.

Moreover, the study highlights the need to better understand lung cancer biology to improve the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, ultimately aiming to increase positive patient outcomes.

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DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27614

Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27614/text/

Correspondence to - Carol S. Lutz - lutzcs@njms.rutgers.edu

Keywords -
miR-708-5p,
miR-708,
lung cancer,
COX-2,
mPGES-1

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Journal

Oncotarget

DOI

10.18632/oncotarget.27614

BINGHAMTON, NY -- Athletes increasingly relying on a coach over the course of a season may be a sign that they aren't progressing in their development, according to new research from Binghamton University.

On the other hand, inspirational coaches will find that their athletes will become less reliant on them over time.

"Being increasingly needed by your athletes as time goes on is not a good sign," says Chou-Yu Tsai, assistant professor of management in Binghamton University's School of Management. "If your athletes no longer need your leadership and guidance as time goes on, that should be seen as a positive sign that you've helped them in their development."

Tsai, who studies leadership in a number of contexts, including athletics, worked with a research team consisting of San-Fu Kao of National Tsing Hua University and Robert Schinke of Laurentian University. They set out to discover how a coach's leadership style affected athlete evaluations of their competency over time.

The researchers evaluated how nearly 250 Division I collegiate basketball players felt about their coaches at different points over the course of a season. They focused on a coach's ability to enact transformational leadership, or the ability to develop athletes to their full potential.

"Transformational coaches empower their players in ways beyond just playing a sport. They help players develop meaning and instill pride, and encourage them to go above and beyond for the good of the team," said Tsai.

They found that coaches who enacted high transformational leadership had a decrease in perceived coaching competency by their athletes over time. In other words, the more a coach inspired a player to achieve their full potential, the less the athlete relied on their coaching.

In contrast, they found that coaches with low transformational leadership skills had an increase in perceived coaching competency by their athletes over the course of the season. This means that players may rely more on their uninspiring coaches over time.

"If you're not gaining some sort of independence from your coach, you may feel like you need that coach even more," said Tsai. "This probably isn't a good sign."

Tsai said it's important for coaches to understand how their leadership style interacts with player perceptions of them.

"Coaches may incorrectly think they did something wrong if their athletes aren't as reliant on them anymore," said Tsai. "On the contrary, our research indicates that this kind of independence is a sign that you demonstrated good leadership behaviors."

As for how to become a transformational leader, Tsai recommends that coaches focus on the personal development of their athletes.

"Transformational coaches don't want athletes to only become better players. They mentor their athletes and help them become better people as well," said Tsai.

What The Study Did: National survey data were used to look at how common electronic cigarette use is among U.S. adults, if they were current or former smokers and used e-cigarettes to help quit smoking.

Authors: Margaret Mayer, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.20694)

Editor's Note: The article includes funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

When 12-year-old Caitriona Roberts went to her doctor because she was experiencing pain and swelling in her ankle, no one knew quite what was up.

Initially written-off as 'just a sprain' which would go away, she would spend the next six months living in almost constant pain until interventions from a diligent doctor referred her to a specialist who diagnosed juvenile idiopathic arthritis - an autoimmune condition the now 28-year-old has lived with and managed ever since.

Belfast resident Caitriona is not alone in experiencing chronic pain in childhood, which typically increases during puberty. Up to 10% of young people experience disabling chronic pain into early adulthood, with conditions including arthritis, other types of musculoskeletal pain, recurrent abdominal pain, and headaches. Yet, according to the authors of a major new report released today (Tuesday 13 October 23:30), how paediatric pain is recognised, assessed and treated has gone under the radar for too long.

The findings of the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health Commission, the first of its kind ever to address the issue, suggest that much more needs to be done to help young people like Caitriona by making pain matter across society. The research was led by the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Bath, supported by Versus Arthritis and the Mayday Fund, and reflects the views and opinions of multidisciplinary medical professionals, as well as patients, including Caitriona, whose experiences fed into the work.

The report suggests that change in paediatric services over the past 40 years in terms of pain recognition, diagnosis, assessment and management is slow. The last major intervention in the field came in the 1980s when, remarkably, for the first time, it was recognised that babies experienced pain - astonishingly, up until that point, a number of routine and major operations, including for heart surgery, were carried out without anaesthetics. The report speculates that much of what we do (or fail to do) for children in pain today might come to be seen as unwise, unacceptable or unethical in the next 40 years.

In calling for four key goals - to make childhood pain matter, to make it understood, to make it visible and to make it better - the authors argue that there must be widespread recognition that too many children live with pain and that not enough is being done to support them from diagnosis through to management of long-term conditions. These goals range from 'biological' (e.g. medication) to psychological treatment / management (e.g. CBT) and to social support (e.g. better support for parents, schools and careers). Achieving these goals would transform the lives of children for the better they say.

Dr Emma Fisher, Versus Arthritis Career Development Fellow at the University of Bath, who led the work explains: "Among health-care professionals, it is easy to agree that no child should experience pain if that pain can and should be prevented, avoided, or successfully treated. In practice, however, we know there is ample evidence that children frequently experience preventable pain, and that in high-income settings, with advanced health-care systems and highly educated and regulated health professionals, children and young people experience pain that often goes unnoticed, unreported, or is not responded to, across healthcare including in the Emergency Department, post-surgical care, and in tertiary care.

"This really matters, both for those experiencing pain and those around them but also across wider society. We know that chronic pain experienced in childhood is likely to feed through to adulthood and this has long-term health and economic costs associated. This Lancet Child and Adolescent Health Commission is a call to action on funders, researchers and policymakers more broadly to sit up and listen to the fact that too many of our young people are in pain and need help."

Among its many recommendations, the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health Commission calls for an end to children experiencing pain when receiving routine vaccinations, drawing on the findings and recommendations from a seminal study published in 2015. Dr Fisher adds: "For many parents and children, a trip to the doctors for routine inoculations will be a stressful and painful experience. This does not have to be the case - we know how we can make the experience less painful for young people, but we're not doing it. This is just another example of how pain has been accepted as an everyday feature of growing up."

Professor Christopher Eccleston, Director of the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Bath, explains: "In this report we present four transformational goals: to make pain matter, be understood, visible, and better. We need to advance our understanding of pain, especially in paediatrics, and we need to translate our discovery to improve the lives of people in pain. Building on today's Lancet Child and Adolescent Health Commission, we need to find better ways to break out of our silos and work together as researchers, funders and policymakers to make quick and effective progress and ensure that young people like Caitriona have a different and better pain journey."

Caitriona agrees. She has been working with the researchers from Bath, the USA, Canada, Europe, and New Zealand on this report, adding her voice on behalf of a community of young people who are living with pain. She adds: "I think this issue has been swept under the carpet for too long. Still today, over 15 years on from my diagnosis with arthritis, I find people, including medical professionals, unaware of the condition or its effects on my day-to-day life. And when I speak to other young people, I find that sadly, very little seems to have changed in terms of how they experience pain or the support they receive.

"I was lucky. I was diagnosed by an incredible doctor - Dr Rooney - who not only identified my condition after others ignored it, but who worked with me throughout childhood and beyond. She really understood the effects of arthritis on my life, not just the physical ones but the emotional too and she helped me so much: she really deserves an award. Not everyone is as lucky, which is why the issues the report raises are so important."

Having completed two degrees from Queens and Ulster in Northern Ireland, Caitriona now works in law, alongside volunteering for Versus Arthritis helping other young people going through similar diagnoses. "Versus Arthritis were so pivotal in supporting me when I was first diagnosed that it's fantastic to be able to give back and help other young people. Working together and talking as a community we're able to share our experiences and shape interventions like this. And when you can help people in that way, well, there is no better feeling."

Zoe Chivers, Head of Services at Versus Arthritis who co-funded the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health Commission says: "People living with arthritis deal with the dismissal of their condition every day and the Commission findings detail the consequences of this for children in pain.

"Parents tell us about the struggle they have convincing their GP that their child's illness is more than growing pains; we know that the existence of specialist child rheumatology services can make the difference between walking to school or needing a wheelchair. While the focus, attention, and dedication in providing quality services to children is consistently in place for conditions like cancer it's woefully absent for childhood arthritis and chronic pain.

"As a society we need to understand that dismissal of arthritis comes at high price and that adults and children living in pain with the condition should no longer be expected to pay it."

Scientists have created an unprecedented 3-dimensional structural model of a key molecular "machine" known as the BAF complex, which modifies DNA architecture and is frequently mutated in cancer and some other diseases. The researchers, led by Cigall Kadoch, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, have reported the first 3-D structural "picture" of BAF complexes purified directly from human cells in their native states - rather than artificially synthesized in the laboratory -providing an opportunity to spatially map thousands of cancer-associated mutations to specific locations within the complex.

"A 3-D structural model, or 'picture,' of how this complex actually looks inside the nucleus of our cells has remained elusive - until now," says Kadoch. The newly obtained model represents "the most complete picture of the human BAF complex achieved to date," said the investigators, reporting in the journal Cell.

These new findings "provide a critical foundation for understanding human disease-associated mutations in components of the BAF complex, which are present in over 20% of human cancers and in several intellectual disability and neurodevelopomental disorders," the authors said. These insights could help scientists understand how mutations in proteins making up the complex lead to disruption of the normal regulation of DNA and hence the expression of genes in cells, potentially causing cancerous growth of cells to form tumors. Mutations in the BAF complex, for example, are the sole cause of rare childhood cancers such as synovial sarcoma and malignant rhabdoid, and contribute to common cancers such as ovarian and lung cancers.

The BAF complex is "molecular machine," a group of proteins that remodel the way DNA is packaged in cells. It is made up of a dozen protein subunits specified by 29 different genes. Previous attempts to obtain a structural 3-D model of the BAF complex were based on protein molecules recombinantly engineered in the laboratory, "which were unable to recreate the entire complex," says Kadoch. She said she and her colleagues have been trying to solve the 3-D structure of BAF since 2014, their primary goal being a structural model that could help them inform the impact of the mutations and ultimately, help classify mutations based on where they are located on the "picture" of BAF. Extracting BAF complexes from human cells was an enormous challenge: "we devised a new way of purifying these complexes - it took years," she says.

BAF is one of several molecular "machines" that regulate the expression of genes in cells by modifying chromatin, a substance composed of DNA and protein. Chromatin packages the long DNA strand containing genes into more condensed units. A single cell contains hundreds of thousands of chromatin-modifying complexes, of which BAF is one type. Mutations in BAF, while they don't alter the DNA code of genes to cause cancer, disrupt DNA topology and accessibility, leading to aberrant gene expression and the growth of malignant tumors.

Using several powerful new analytic tools in combination, the investigators produced a model of the BAF complex's structure both as an isolated complex and in the form BAF takes when it binds to nucleosomes - spool-like units of chromatin around which DNA segments are wound. Binding to nucleosomes is necessary for BAF complexes to remodel chromatin and influence gene expression. One of the newest and most helpful tools the researchers used to obtain the structure of BAF bound to nucleosomes is called cryo-EM, a form of electron microscopy that can create high-resolution models of molecules in their native environment, and which scientists say is revolutionizing the field of structural biology. The developers of cryo-EM won a Nobel Prize in 2017. In this case, the human BAF complexes were too heterogeneous and flexible for the method to alone produce a high-resolution structure, but when paired with two other methods, known as cross-linking mass-spectrometry and homology modeling, the structural connectivity between the subunits became clearer.

Kadoch and her colleagues report that the BAF complex is made up of three modules which form a "C" shape and grip the nucleosome on opposite sides like a carpenter's C-clamp holds pieces of wood together. They discovered that the two regions of the BAF structure that grip the nucleosome are "hot spots" where cancer-causing mutations frequently occur and used experiments to show how mutations disrupt the normal regulation of chromatin by BAF complexes. The group also found other locations within the complex as to where known cancer mutations, contained in a database known as COSMIC (the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer), structurally "cluster" and resolved their functions.

"Mapping such mutations on the structure of the BAF complex and understanding their functional impact has remained a major, unmet goal of the field at-large for decades," said Kadoch. "This marks the beginning of an era in which we will be able to functionally "group" mutations that define specific tumor features and inform therapeutic opportunities."

Researchers at the Cyber-Physical Systems Group at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in conjunction with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have developed a new model of how information deep in the brain could flow from one network to another and how these neuronal network clusters self-optimize over time. Their work, chronicled in the paper "Network Science Characteristics of Brain-Derived Neuronal Cultures Deciphered From Quantitative Phase Imaging Data," is believed to be the first study to observe this self-optimization phenomenon in in vitro neuronal networks, and counters existing models. Their findings can open new research directions for biologically inspired artificial intelligence, detection of brain cancer and diagnosis and may contribute to or inspire new Parkinson's treatment strategies.

The team examined the structure and evolution of neuronal networks in the brains of mice and rats in order to identify the connectivity patterns. Corresponding author and Electrical and Computing Engineering associate professor Paul Bogdan puts this work in context by explaining how the brain functions in decision-making. He references the brain activity that occurs when someone is perceived to be counting cards. He says the brain might not actually memorize all the card options but rather is "conducting a type of model of uncertainty." The brain, he says is getting considerable information from all the connections the neurons.

The dynamic clustering that is happening in this scenario is enabling the brain to gauge various degrees of uncertainty, get rough probabilistic descriptions and understand what sort of conditions are less likely.

"We observed that the brain's networks have an extraordinary capacity to minimize latency, maximize throughput and maximize robustness while doing all of those in a distributed manner (without a central manager or coordinator)." said Bogdan who holds the Jack Munushian Early Career Chair at the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering. "This means that neuronal networks negotiate with each other and connect to each other in a way that rapidly enhances network performance yet the rules of connecting are unknown."

To Bogdan's surprise, none of the classical mathematical models employed by neuroscience were able to accurately replicate this dynamic emergent connectivity phenomenon. Using multifractal analysis and a novel imaging technique called quantitative phase imagining (QPI) developed by Gabriel Popescu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a co-author on the study, the research team was able to model and analyze this phenomenon with high accuracy.

HEALTH APPLICATIONS

The findings of this research could have a significant impact on the early detection of brain tumors. By having a better topological map of the healthy brain and brain's activities to compare to--it will be easier to early detect structural abnormalities from imaging the dynamic connectivity among neurons in various cognitive tasks without having to do more invasive procedures.

Says co-author Chenzhong Yin, a Ph.D. student in Bogdan's Cyber Physical Systems Group, "Cancer spreads in small groups of cells and cannot be detected by FMRI or other scanning techniques until it's too late."

"But with this method we can train A.I. to detect and even predict diseases early by monitoring and discovering abnormal microscopic interactions between neurons, added Yin.

The researchers are now seeking to perfect their algorithms and imaging tools for use in monitoring these complex neuronal networks live inside a living brain.

This could have additional applications for diseases like Parkinson's, which involves losing the neuronal connections between left and right hemispheres in the brain.

"By placing an imaging device on the brain of a living animal, we can also monitor and observe things like neuronal networks growing and shrinking, how memory and cognition form, if a drug is effective and ultimately how learning happens. We can then begin to design better artificial neural networks that, like the brain, would have the ability to self-optimize."

USE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

"Having this level of accuracy can give us a clearer picture of the inner workings of biological brains and how we can potentially replicate those in artificial brains," Bogdan said.

As humans we have the ability to learn new tasks without forgetting old ones. Artificial neural networks, however, suffer from what is known as the problem of catastrophic forgetting. We see this when we try to teach a robot two successive tasks such as climbing stairs and then turning off the light.

The robot may overwrite the configuration that allowed it to climb the stairs as it shifts toward the optimal state for performing the second task, turning off the light. This happens because deep learning systems rely on massive amounts of training data to master the simplest of tasks.

If we could replicate how the biological brain enables continual learning or our cognitive ability for inductive inference, Bogdan believes, we would be able to teach A.I. multiple tasks without an increase in network capacity.

University of Guam researchers continue to expand knowledge of a unique group of plants called cycads. The world's contemporary cycad plants depend on small insects for pollination services. The Guam team's 2017 discovery of the new Cycadophila samara beetle and its pollination of cycads is now contributing to an international effort to more fully understand the intimate relationship between plant and insect.

The culmination of several decades of research on the subject is enabling a consortium of international scientists to describe the taxonomic relationships among the pollinators and their cycad hosts. The most recent compilation is published in the August issue of the journal Insecta Mundi, published by the Center for Systematic Entomology.

The most important step in biodiversity conservation is to first understand what is out there that is in need of protection, and the ongoing work on cycad pollinators highlights how little is known about the biodiversity of island habitats. How can the insular ecosystems of the islands of Guam and the Philippines be conserved if all of the biological connections that sustain the native organisms are not understood?

"The contributions from Guam expand the efforts of a synergistic team from India, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States," said William Tang, lead author of the article. "The exploratory work of the scientists from the University of Guam has clarified which pollinators provide services to multiple Philippine cycad species."

Mutually dependent organisms equally threatened

The relationships between the insect pollinators and their cycad host plants are what scientists call mutualisms. The adult pollinators must find a male cycad cone in order to participate in regeneration of the next generation. Similarly, the male and female cycad trees must attract the services of the pollinators in order to adequately produce seeds. Neither organism can persist into the future without the other.

In addition to the beetle pollinating the Philippine cycads, the Guam-based work has led to an unexpected discovery that the Guam cycad tree relies on small moths as the pollinators rather than beetles.

"The cycad pollinators in the Philippines are cute little beetles, but the moth pollinator of the Guam cycad looks like something you might want to flatten with a flyswatter," said Benjamin Deloso, University of Guam cycad specialist.

Indeed, Guam's tiny brown moth pollinator largely goes unnoticed while it provides crucial pollination services to ensure the future of the endangered cycad tree.

The Guam team's extensive cycad research has also identified a native beetle stem borer that relies on the native cycad tree for larval food. These two native insect species that depend on the cycad tree in order to regenerate are no less threatened than the plant species.

Lessons learned for conservation

The continuing expansion of knowledge by the University of Guam research is showing how conservation planning should highlight the interplay among all three organisms, not just the cycad species.

The team's progress on cycad pollinators illuminates two phenomena that conservationists are expected to understand as they develop conservation plans.

First, linkages between organisms may break down and stop functioning properly if the population of one of the partners in the mutualism declines. For example, even if the cycad tree population persists in Guam's forests, if the intimate relationship between the tree and the moth pollinators becomes threatened, this may cause a subsequent collapse in the population of both native species.

Second, the concept of co-extinction should inform conservation decisions by honoring the fact when one of the organisms becomes locally extirpated, the second organism will also inadvertently become extirpated.

Global loss of flying insect pollinators

The timing of the new cycad pollinator publication comes at an age when documented global loss of flying insect pollinators is being highlighted as the precursor to an ecological Armageddon. Researchers have found that more than 40% of the world's insect species are at risk of extinction in the near future due to human activity. The value of insect pollination of crops is estimated to be at least $3 billion annually in the United States alone.

"Almost 90% of the world's flowering plants depend on animal pollinators," Deloso said. "Since most of the food crops of the world are flowering plants, the need to conserve the world's pollinators cannot be overstated."

Until a vaccine and/or effective cure for COVID-19 becomes available, battling the current pandemic strongly relies on how well people follow behavioural advice, such as adhering to local restrictions, social distancing rules, and engaging in effective personal hygiene. However, overcoming the relationship between risk perceptions and comparative optimism during the pandemic is a major hurdle for engaging the public in behavioural advice.

In a paper published in the journal Health Expectations, Health Psychologists and Sociologists from King's College London investigated comparative optimism for infection and recovery from COVID-19, and the implications this may have had on following lockdown advice. The study found that during the first lockdown period, most respondents believed that compared to others, they were unlikely to be at risk of COVID-19.

Dr Koula Asimakopoulou, Reader in Health Psychology at King's College London explains: "Comparative optimism is a well-established concept in health risk research, where people believe negative events are more likely to happen to others than themselves. Most people of all genders and ages show comparative optimism for a wide variety of risks, including many health hazards. For example, most people believe that they are less likely than others to be involved in a car accident."

Researchers believe that comparative optimism may have brought out the anecdotally observed, lack of compliance with lockdown guidelines in the UK. Despite public agreement for safety measures, 25% of the inhabitants of some areas admitted breaking lockdown rules. It is thought that people who perceive COVID-19 is less likely to happen to them than others may also believe strict adherence to lockdown restrictions is unnecessary in their case.

Using an online snowball sampling method through social media and anonymous UK surveys, researchers collected data from 645 UK adults during weeks 5-8 of the UK COVID-19 lockdown. The sample was normally distributed in terms of age, and reflected the UK ethnic and disability profile.

"Controllability of COVID-19 risk has been a prominent factor of the UK Government Public Health advice" said Dr Sasha Scambler, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at King's College London. "At the start of the lockdown the Government communication focused on the idea that staying home would have direct positive impacts on curbing COVID-19. The slogans Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives had at their heart the idea that this pandemic was controllable by individuals taking personal action. However, greater perceived controllability of an event enhances the likelihood of greater comparative optimism."

In contrast, participants showed comparative pessimism about COVID-19 infections for the more distant future. They felt that compared to others, they were quite likely to contract the virus in the next year and develop COVID-19 related symptoms, as staying at home would be less possible, plausible or practical.

"These perceptions will have important consequences for people's psychological well-being, and their likelihood of engaging in risk behaviours or responding to further lockdown measures which may soon be upon us", said Dr Asimakopoulou.

"If people continue to believe COVID-19 'will not happen to me' they may be more relaxed about future lockdown advice. We know that one of the factors that fuel comparative optimism is that people think that if a negative event has not happened to them so far, it is unlikely to happen to them in future.

"The implication for potentially walking into a second lockdown is that where people's experience so far may be that they have not been ill with COVID, they are likely to be even more comparatively optimistic than they were in March. Thinking that COVID has not happened to you so far so it is unlikely to happen to you now, can be even more dangerous than it was earlier in the spring."

Empathy for vulnerable people in risk groups motivates us to use face masks and keep our distance, so that we help to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to the study, which has just been published in the journal Psychological Science.

"We show that empathy for the most vulnerable is an important factor, and that it can be used actively to combat the pandemic. I believe that policy makers can use our new knowledge in their efforts to get more people to follow the guidelines - and ultimately save lives," says Stefan Pfattheicher, an associate professor at the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University.

He is heading the study in which researchers have initially tested the relationship between participants' empathy and their attitude to social distancing. They tested this in two questionnaire-based studies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. For example, on a scale from 1 to 5, participants were asked how concerned they are about those who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus. Subsequently, they were asked about the extent to which they themselves avoid social contact due to the coronavirus. The relationship is clear. The higher the degree of empathy, the greater the focus on reducing social contact.

Equally importantly, the study shows that it is possible to induce empathy among people, and thereby also make more people willing to keep social distance and wear face masks.

Real people induce empathy

In two experiments, the researchers tested the differences in participants' willingness to follow the two recommendations, depending on whether they are just informed about the effect of the two initiatives, or whether they are also presented with a vulnerable person. In the two experiments, the participants were presented with people who, each in their own way, have been affected by and suffer from the coronavirus. There were also control groups who only received information about the effect of keeping social distance and wearing face masks. And the conclusion is clear: The participants who received the story about people suffering from the coronavirus reported a higher degree of empathy. And also a greater willingness to physically distance and use face masks.

"Our results suggest that we need stories of real people suffering. It's not enough just to tell us that we must keep a distance and wear a face mask for the sake of vulnerable citizens in general. If we're confronted with a specific person who is vulnerable to COVID-19, it is clear that empathy is strengthened, and that we are more likely to follow the guidelines," says Stefan Pfattheicher.

"Our clear recommendation is that policy makers incorporate this knowledge using empathy in their communication initiatives," says Michael Bang Petersen, a professor at the Department of Political Science, and co-author of the scientific article.

The species richness of zoo and wild animals is reflected in the diversity of infectious agents they harbour. However, our knowledge is sparse and pathogen detection remains challenging. For streptococci, a bacterial family of importance to human and animal health, wildlife research has taken a step forward: A research team led by Kristin Mühldorfer from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and Tobias Eisenberg from the Hessian State Laboratory investigated the causes of severe respiratory disease in peccaries and taxonomically characterised a novel Streptococcus species (Streptococcus catagoni sp. nov.) based on its phenotypic properties and genetic features. The results, published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, contribute to a better understanding and reliable identification of this novel bacterial species.

The family Streptococcaceae consists of bacteria inhabiting the skin and mucous membranes and includes important pathogens. Despite Streptococcus species with a broad host range infecting humans and vertebrates, the family includes bacterial species that seems to be exclusively adapted to certain hosts or habitats, such as Streptococcus castoreus of beavers, Streptococcus didelphis of certain marsupial species or Streptococcus phocae of marine mammals and fish.

In the present paper the authors analysed a previously unknown Streptococcus species that was responsible over two consecutive years for severe disease in a group of Chacoan peccaries (Catagonus wagneri) kept in a zoo. Animals were mainly affected within the first year of life and showed suppurative infections of the upper and lower respiratory tract. At least five peccaries had died from the infection. The novel bacterial species has been named according to its origin as Streptococcus catagoni sp. nov.

„These are the first confirmed cases in Chacoan peccaries", says Dr Kristin Mühldorfer, scientist from the Leibniz-IZW. The Chacoan peccary is an endangered species that shows a continuing decline in its population size. "Unfortunately, we often do not know the impact of infectious diseases on wildlife populations and associated pathogens", says Mühldorfer. The reasons for these deficits include animal species richness, the lack of knowledge of wildlife health and restricted accessibility of wild animals in their habitats.

Novel infectious agents frequently occur in zoo and wild animals but they are often not identified with established test systems and data bases, thereby increasing time and methodical requirements of laboratories considerably. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry provides a good solution because newly created reference spectra enable rapid and reliable bacterial identifications. The data base entries of Streptococcus catagoni were generated at the Chemical and Veterinary Analysis Agency Stuttgart and are available for exchange via the MALDI-TOF MS User Platform.

„We are glad to have established this successful collaboration of the participating institutions which we hope will continue", say Kristin Mühldorfer and Tobias Eisenberg. The microbiologists aim to characterise uncommon bacterial agents, their occurrence in specific hosts and importance for certain wildlife species. Modern approaches to wildlife disease will help to detect pathogens and develop diagnostics to overcome current limitations and support conservation efforts.

At present, the formation of galaxies is difficult to understand without the presence of a ubiquitous, but mysterious component, termed dark matter. Astronomers have measure how much dark matter there is around galaxies, and have found that it varies between 10 and 300 times the quantity of visible matter. However, a few years ago, the discovery of a very diffuse object, named Dragonfly 44, changed this view. It was found that this galaxy has 10,000 times more dark matter than the stars. Taken back by this finding, astronomers have made efforts to see whether this object is really anomalous, or whether something went wrong in the analysis of the observations. Now we have the answer.

An international team led by the Kapteyn Institute of the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), with participation by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL), has found that the total number of globular clusters around Dragonfly 44 and, therefore, the dark matter content, is much less than earlier findings had suggested, which shows that this galaxy is neither unique nor anomalous. The result was recently published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).

The galaxy Dragonfly 44 was discovered in a deep survey of the Coma cluster, a cluster with several thousand galaxies. From the start, the galaxy was considered remarkable by the researchers because the quantity of dark matter they inferred was almost as much as that in the Milky Way, the equivalent of a billion solar masses.

However, instead of containing around a hundred thousand million stars, as has the Milky Way, DF44 has only a hundred million stars, a thousand times fewer. This means that the amount of dark matter was ten thousand times greater than that of its stars. If this had been true, it would have been a unique object, with almost 100 times as much dark matter as that expected from the number of its stars.

Nevertheless, by an exhaustive analysis of the system of globular cluster around Dragonfly 44, the researchers have detected that the total number of globular clusters is only 20, and that the total quantity of dark matter is around 300 times that of the luminous matter, which means that it is not way outside the normal value for this type of galaxies.

"The fact that in our work we found only 20 globular clusters, compared with the 80 previously claimed, reduces drastically the amount of dark matter which the galaxy is believed to contain", explains Ignacio Trujillo, an IAC researcher and a co-author of the article. "Moreover, with the number of globular clusters we found, the amount of dark matter in Dragonfly 44 is in agreement with what is expected for this type of galaxies. The ratio of visible to dark matter is no longer 1 in 10,000 but one in 300", adds Trujillo.

"Dragonfly 44 has been an anomaly all these years that could not be explained with the existing galaxy formation models. Now we know that the previous results were wrong and that DF44 is not extraordinary. It is time to move on", points out Teymoor Saifollahi, researcher at the Kapteyn Institute and the first author of the article.

"Our work shows that this galaxy is not so singular nor unexpected. That way the models of galaxy formation can explain it without the need for modification", says Michael A. Beasley, another IAC researcher, specialist in globular clusters, and a co-author of the article.

The total number of globular clusters is related to the total mass of a galaxy. So, if the number of globular clusters is measured, the quantity of dark matter can be found, especially if the quantity of visible matter is only a small fraction of the total.

"However, we don't have a physical explanation for this relation between the total number of globular clusters and the total mass of the galaxy. This is purely observational knowledge. It could be that it has to do with the quantity of the original gas from which the stars, and the globular clusters themselves, have formed. The more dark matter there is in a galaxy, the more gas it contains", suggests Johan H. Knapen, an IAC researcher and also a co-author of the article.

SPOKANE, Wash. - One in four adults reported a change in alcohol use almost immediately after stay-at-home orders were issued, according to a study of twins led by Washington State University researchers.

The study, published recently in Frontiers in Psychiatry, surveyed more than 900 twin pairs from the Washington State Twin Registry from March 26 to April 5, 2020, just after stay-at-home orders were issued in Washington on March 23. An estimated 14% of survey respondents said they drank more alcohol than the week prior and reported higher levels of stress and anxiety than those who did not drink alcohol and those whose use stayed the same.

"We expected that down the road people might turn to alcohol after the stay-at-home orders were issued, but apparently it happened right off the bat," said Ally Avery, lead author of the study and a scientific operations manager at WSU's Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. "It shows the need to make sure there is more mental health support since it had an impact on people right away."

Surprisingly, the study showed that the 11% who decreased their drinking also had higher levels of stress and anxiety than the groups with no change--suggesting that any change in alcohol use may be associated with mental health issues.

The study did not examine the reasons behind the link between a decrease in drinking and increase in stress and anxiety, but Avery said one possibility is that these were social drinkers who were missing out on after-work happy hours and other occasions where they drank with friends.

The researchers conducted the study with twins so that they could look at whether changes in alcohol use and mental health were mediated by genetic or shared environmental factors since twins raised in the same family share many formative experiences. Twins also have common genetics with fraternal twins sharing approximately half of their genes while identical twins share all of their genes.

In this study, the researchers found that the association between changes in alcohol use, and stress and anxiety were relatively small and confounded by between-family factors and demographic characteristics.

Still the link between the pandemic, alcohol use, and stress and anxiety is concerning, Avery said. The researchers are continuing to survey this group at longer intervals to see if the increased drinking persists and whether it becomes a bigger problem.