Culture

Slower growing broiler chickens are healthier and have more fun than conventional breeds of birds, new evidence from an independent commercial scale farm trial has shown. The study carried out by researchers from FAI Farms, the University of Bristol and The Norwegian University of Life Sciences, is published today [16 September], in Scientific Reports.

The majority of broilers produced for consumption are so called conventional, fast-growing breeds. This study is the first to highlight the welfare differences between fast and slower growing broilers in a commercial setting utilising a comprehensive suite of positive and negative welfare indictors. The authors conclude that, while there are benefits of providing chickens with more space - by slightly lowering the animal density, changing to a slower growing breed results in much better health and more positive experiences for these birds.

Annie Rayner, FAI's lead researcher, said: "Broilers are motivated to perform a range of positive behaviours. These positive behaviours create positive experiences, resulting in enjoyment or pleasure. Displaying positive behaviours improves an animal's quality of life. Our seminal study found slow growing birds to have better health and perform more positive behaviours than conventional fast growing broilers. A shift away from fast-growing breeds would provide the most significant improvement for the lives of the 142 million chickens produced in Europe every week".

Dr Siobhan Mullan, Senior Research Fellow in Animal Welfare at the Bristol Vet School, added: "This first independent commercial scale trial provides robust evidence of the health and welfare benefits of slower growing breeds of chicken. We hope that it will help to drive changes in supply chains and large companies to bring about real improvements to chicken welfare."

The NGO-backed European Chicken Commitment (ECC) has attracted widespread attention from commercial broiler production with several major brands already having signed up - including KFC, Nestle, M&S and Nando's. This study set out to interrogate the commercial welfare implications of two critical aspects of the commitment - a move to slower growing breeds and lowering the stocking density.

The commercial-scale farm trial explored a comprehensive suite of positive and negative welfare indicators in four production systems varying in stocking density and breed. One slower growing breed (the slowest) was stocked at a planned maximum density of 30 kg/m2, a second slower growing breed at planned densities of 30 kg/m2 and 34 kg/m2, and the welfare outcomes were compared to those of a standard fast-growing breed stocked at 34kg/m2.

At the lower density, the slowest growing breed was found to have slightly better welfare than the other slower growing breed - as indicated by lower mortality, fewer rejections at processing and better walking ability. Differences in welfare of the slower growing breed stocked at two densities were small. However, prominent differences were found between the standard fast-growing birds stocked at 34kg/m2 and birds in the three other systems. The standard birds experienced poorer health as indicated by higher levels of mortality, hock burn and pododermatitis as well as greater rejections at processing. Furthermore, the conventional birds showed less perching on enrichment bales as well as fewer positive 'play' and 'exploration' behaviours.

Professor Ruth Newberry and Dr Judit Vas at The Norwegian University of Life Sciences Faculty of Biosciences point to the importance of including indicators of positive experiences in animal welfare studies. "Until recently, play was hardly ever mentioned in studies of chickens. We found that, when you walk through a commercial flock, you just have to turn around and look behind you to see chickens frolicking in your footsteps. This was especially the case in the slower growing flocks."

The California Channel Islands are renowned for their archaeological, biological and paleontological significance and richness, containing some of the most important early human sites in North America. This importance is only growing with new excavation, chemical, and biomolecular techniques, expanding our vision of this dynamic ecosystem and its enduring importance to humans and wildlife alike. 

Today, a team of researchers from the University of Oklahoma, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the University of Oregon and others report the first occurrence of the extinct giant short-faced bear, Arctodus simus, from the California Channel Islands. This fearsome beast - weighing by some estimates 2,000 lbs. - once roamed diverse environments from Alaska to Mexico, but has never been found in such an isolated island context. While this is not the first strange mammal to be found on the California Channel Islands, which was once home to a pygmy mammoth and a giant mouse, it is the first case of a potentially native megafaunal carnivore, which would challenge previous models of colonization and evolution of the islands's biodiversity.

This little bone, excavated in 1996, was long assumed to be from a seal, but experts suggested that it was from a bear - the first and only bear ever recorded for California's Channel Islands.

"Found in a stratum dated to over 13,000 years ago, the bone posed a significant mystery," said Jon Erlandson, a University of Oregon professor who has directed investigations at Daisy Cave since the 1990s. Was it from a large grizzly or black bear? The specimen rested safely in Erlandson's lab for more than 20 years. 

In 2016, the toe bone arrived at the Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology & Microbiome Research at the University of Oklahoma.

"From the moment I heard this could be a unique specimen, I handled it with extra care. I remember having a hard time cutting the bone piece out; it was such a rigid, morphologically well-preserved sample, thanks to the cave's environment. Luckily, its DNA was well-preserved, too," said Nihan Dagtas, who successfully extracted amplifiable DNA at the world-class clean room facility of LMAMR.

In parallel, the specimen was analyzed for ancient bone proteins (collagen) at the University of Manchester in the UK, producing chemical fingerprints that most closely matched a reference of the spectacled bear from South America- - the only living relative of the short-faced bear. These two independent molecular analyses, combined with traditional morphological evidence of the shape and size of the toe, confirmed its identity as belonging, unexpectedly, to a giant short-faced bear. 

Torben Rick, who participated in the Daisy Cave excavations and is now at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, was excited to apply a suite of new, minimally destructive technologies (aDNA, proteomics, etc.) to help resolve the questions surrounding this mysterious bone. "When the results came back that this was a short-faced bear dated to roughly 17,000 years ago, we were all really intrigued about the implications for island biogeography and ecology," said Rick.

Researchers were puzzled at first - what was a giant short-faced bear doing so far away from its known range on the California mainland? They developed a set of hypotheses to test whether it arrived at the island before or after death, and weighed the evidence.

If the bear died on the island, it might imply that a native population of short-faced bears swam to the islands and evolved over thousands of years alongside the pygmy mammoths. Or did a single individual swim to the island in search of a snack? The researchers suggest that a "pre mortem" arrival of the toe was unlikely, as it is the only specimen from the species ever found on the islands, and bears that die in caves are usually found intact. 

Then, researchers turned to a "post mortem" hypothesis: the toe was brought to the island by something or someone. "A human transport of the toe bone seems unlikely given its age and excellent preservation, but numerous animals - condors, eagles, seagulls, and others - are known to scavenge and transport bones and shells in coastal areas," Erlandson said.

The research team suggests that the most likely mode of transport was by wing. Chemical analyses known as stable isotopes indicate that this bear was feeding opportunistically on marine mammal carcasses, perhaps putting it at the right time and right place for its own carcass to eventually be scavenged by a bird, such as a California Condor or bald eagle. 

"We were able to integrate interdisciplinary toolkits, including morphology, ancient DNA, collagen fingerprinting, radiocarbon dating and stable isotopes, to develop a robust hypothesis testing framework allowing us to explore the origins of this mysterious bone," said Courtney Hofman, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, co-director of LMAMR, and senior author of the study. 

Despite once being so widespread, there is significant debate over the ecology and behavior of short-faced bears, and available data are sparse. Previous studies relying on tooth shape and cavities suggested that short-faced bears from Los Angeles' famed La Brea Tar Pits ate large amounts of carbohydrates, whereas other studies using stable isotopes suggested the species relied on animal protein in Alaska and Canada. Surprisingly, this toe was the first specimen to test dietary hypotheses in the same way in California.

"This little toe helped us lay the groundwork for addressing some big questions in paleontology," notes Alexis Mychajliw, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oklahoma, research associate at the La Brea Tar Pits, and lead author of the study. "Southern California was packed with large carnivores 17,000 years ago, and it's possible that the opportunistic use of marine resources helped short-faced bears survive some tough competition. That is, until climates changed, and humans arrived."

Primary forests are forests without any signs of past human use and where ecological processes are not disrupted by human influence. These forests are of outstanding ecological value. They are an irreplaceable part of our natural heritage and critical for conserving forest biodiversity. In Europe, where millennia of land use have transformed forested landscapes, very few such primary forests remain, and these are mostly found in remote and relatively unproductive areas.

Even if scarce and irreplaceable, many of these forests are not legally protected and continue to be logged in Europe. The newly released 'EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030' explicitly recognizes the intrinsic value of primary and old-growth forests and the need to protect them. The question is: Which areas should be prioritised?

An international assessment of primary forest status

A research team of scientists from 28 institutions led by Dr Francesco Sabatini (iDiv; MLU) and Prof Tobias Kuemmerle (HU) has now presented the very first assessment of the conservation status of primary forests in Europe. With the help of a large spatial database on where the last primary forests in Europe are found - a database that took over five years to create - the team was able to tackle three crucial questions: 1) Are the remaining primary forests representative of Europe's forest types? 2) Where are these forests sufficiently protected? And: Where are so few primary forests left that forest restoration is needed?

Conservation challenges and opportunities in Europe

"While many primary forests are in fact well protected, we also found many regions where they are not - particularly where primary forests are still common," said lead author Sabatini. "And in some cases, the level of protection is inadequate to ensure these forests will be conserved in the long term."

The study also highlights that remaining primary forests are unevenly distributed across Europe. "Some regions, particularly in Scandinavia and Finland as well as Eastern Europe, still have many primary forests. But often those countries do not realize how unique their forests are at the European scale and how important it is to protect them," explained Prof Tobias Kuemmerle (HU), senior author of the study. "At the same time, we were shocked to see that there are many natural forests in Europe without any remains of primary forest at all, particularly in Western Europe."

Primary forests in Europe are in a perilous state

Overall, the study shows Europe's primary forests are in a perilous state and their long-term protection should be a top priority. Where no primary forests are left, forest restoration is the only option. "Restoring forests to resemble and function like primary forests will take a long time, but it is attractive because such forests will not only benefit biodiversity but also store a lot of carbon and, therefore, help mitigate climate change," said Kuemmerle. "The good news is that there is a wide range of opportunities to restore primary forests even within existing protected areas, which means that restoration efforts would not necessarily require reducing the area of forests used for timber production."

Expanding Europe's protected forest areas by 1% is enough

The researchers have calculated that even an expansion of the protected areas by only about 1% would suffice to protect most remaining primary forests in Europe. This corresponds to only two or three thousandths of the total European land area.

"Now is the time to be ambitious. There is a lot of momentum for forest conservation and restoration in Europe," said Sabatini, referring to the EU's recently released 'Biodiversity Strategy for 2030'. "The new strategy explicitly recognizes the irreplaceable value of primary forests. Our study provides a foundation for putting this strategy into practice."

The lead author received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 658876.

People who have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are up to twice as likely to develop dementia later in life, according to a new study by UCL researchers.

The research, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, is the first meta-analysis of global evidence on PTSD and dementia risk.

For the study, the researchers analysed findings from 13 studies conducted on four continents, including data from a total of 1,693,678 people, investigating whether a PTSD diagnosis was associated with increased risk of dementia up to 17 years later.

By pooling data from eight of the studies, the researchers found that people with PTSD faced a 61% higher risk of dementia. Analysing data from two studies that used different methods, they found that PTSD was associated with double the odds of developing dementia.*

Dementia risk among people who have had PTSD was higher in the general population compared to veterans, as in the general population people with a PTSD diagnosis were more than twice as likely to develop dementia. The researchers say this may point to an effect of treating PTSD: veterans are typically more likely to receive treatment for PTSD (at least in the countries the studies were conducted), so the findings suggest that treating PTSD may reduce subsequent dementia risk.

Senior author Dr Vasiliki Orgeta (UCL Psychiatry) said: "Our study provides important new evidence of how traumatic experiences can impact brain health, and how the long-term effects of trauma may impact the brain in many ways increasing vulnerability to cognitive decline and dementia.

"A lot of people with PTSD don't access treatment, sometimes due to a lack of mental health care capacity but also because of stigma which often keeps people away from seeking help. We now have more evidence of how traumatic experiences and accessing treatment could have a long-lasting impact for individuals and influence future risk of developing dementia."

The researchers say the risk could be higher than the studies suggest, as PTSD also increases the likelihood of developing other known dementia risk factors, such as depression, social isolation, or elevated alcohol intake. Most of the studies adjusted for some of these factors, so the overall findings might underestimate the true cost of PTSD.

It remains unclear how PTSD raises dementia risk, but the researchers say it may be related to hypervigilance and recurrent re-experiencing of trauma, contributing to threat and stress-related activity in the brain, while withdrawal from social life may reduce cognitive reserve and resilience.

The study's first author, Mia Maria Günak, led the research as part of her MSc dissertation in Dr Orgeta's lab at UCL. She commented: "Our findings add to a growing body of evidence that dementia can sometimes be prevented by addressing risk factors throughout an individual's life course.

"Here we have identified an additional group of people who face an elevated risk of dementia, who may benefit from further mental health support."

Dr Orgeta added: "PTSD, which appears to be common among people who have been hospitalised with Covid-19, remains an underdiagnosed, undertreated, and under researched mental health condition, yet it can have serious long-term consequences. As our study has shown, PTSD impacts our brain health by increasing vulnerability to dementia. An important question is how, and whether we could learn from these findings to develop preventative treatments for those with elevated risk."

The researchers were supported by the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre and the Alzheimer's Society.

This research is the latest in a series of UCL-led studies investigating how modifiable factors across the lifespan can affect dementia risk, including a major review and meta-analysis of 12 risk factors such as lack of education, hearing loss, and smoking, as well as other recent studies on how repetitive negative thinking and living alone can increase dementia risk.

* Eight studies used hazard ratios to estimate the impact of PTSD on dementia risk, while two others used odds ratios, so they were pooled separately. Three other studies were included in the meta-analyses but were not part of the pooled data.

Durham, NC - Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) hold promise in the field of regenerative medicine for how they give rise to every other cell type in the body and for their ability to propagate indefinitely. Their potential, however, is hampered by the body's tendency to reject any "allogeneic" cells or tissue, which means that the cells come from a donor other than the patient. This rejection is due to the body's immune system labeling the cells as "foreign invaders" and setting in motion a series of strategies intended to ward off what it deems an attack -- leaving researchers scrambling for a way around this protective measure.

A paper released today in STEM CELLS details a method that might provide the answer. The authors report on how they genetically edited out a key set of proteins found on the surface of the hPSCs that are the targets of immune rejection, basically rendering them invisible to the body's immune system.

The multi-institutional research team was led by Xiaoqing Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., and Lin Ma, Ph.D., from the Tongji University School of Medicine. "What we have done is taken advantage of the non-classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules, which encode the main targets of allograft rejection, to construct hypoimmunogenic hPSCs," Dr. Zhang said. "Our strategy not only ameliorates the body's main immune-rejection weapons -- T cells (especially CD8+ Ts), natural killer (NK) cells and antigen-presenting cells -- but also attenuates cell contact-triggered cell killing and immunogenicity of the allograft environment."

The work grew out of their knowledge that the HLA-G family is one of the most prominently expressed HLA class I molecules in the placenta, with the job of protecting fetal tissue from the mother's immune system. "It's a remarkable example of immune accommodation in mammals," Dr. Zhang explained. "So we engineered hPSCs using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology for beta-2 microglobulin (?2m) knock out, or for biallelic knock-in of HLA-G1 within the endogenous ?2m loci. Elimination of the surface expression of the HLA proteins protected the hPSCs from cytotoxicity mediated by the CD8+ T and NK cells. The lack of surface expression also resulted in missing-self recognition and aberrant NK cell activation."

Dr. Jan Nolta, Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS, said, "the development of this method to shelter pluripotent stem cell derivatives from the immune system is a "game-changer" in the field. If this innovative technique can next be carried forward to clinical trials it could mean that recipients of the cells would need no immune suppression. We are very happy to publish this novel and potentially paradigm-shifting research."

Dr. Ma added, "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report that engineered β2m- HLA-G5 proteins are soluble, secretable and can efficiently protect donor cells from immune responses. This not only provides a novel strategy to generate hypoimmunogenic human cells for allografting, but also sheds light on the role of HLA-G in immune tolerance during pregnancy and organ transplantation."

The next step, the two say, will be to address any safety concerns with the engineered cells, including whether they have a higher risk of growing tumors given their capability to escape immune surveillance. "Introducing a controllable suicide gene might provide an efficient way to remove the risk," Dr. Ma said. "If all goes well, the engineered hPSCs could serve as an unlimited cell source for generating universally compatible 'off-the-shelf' cell grafts in the future."

PULLMAN, Wash. - Researchers in recent years have demonstrated the health benefits of soy, linking its consumption to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer and improved bone health.

Now, WSU researchers are hoping to use the health benefits of the popular legume to improve post-operative treatment of bone cancer.

Reporting in the journal, Acta Biomaterialia, graduate student Naboneeta Sarkar and Professor Susmita Bose in WSU's School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering showed that the slow release of soy-based chemical compounds from a 3D-printed bone-like scaffold resulted in a reduction in bone cancer cells while building up healthy cells and reducing harmful inflammation.

"There is not much research in this area of natural medicinal compounds in biomedical devices," Bose said. "Using these natural medicines, one can make a difference to human health with very minimal or no side effects, although a critical issue remains composition control."

Although rare, osteosarcoma occurs most often in children and young adults. Despite medical advances, patients with osteosarcoma and metastatic bone cancer experience a high rate of recurrence, and osteosarcoma is second leading cause of cancer death in children.

Treatment involves surgery to remove the tumor as well as pre- and post-operative chemotherapy. Large areas of bone need to be removed and repaired, and patients often experience a significant amount of inflammation during bone reconstruction, which slows healing. High doses of chemotherapy before and after surgery can also have harmful side effects.

Researchers would like to develop gentler treatment options, especially after surgery when patients are trying to recover from bone damage at the same time that they are taking harsh drugs to suppress tumor growth. Bose's team has been studying bone tissue engineering as an alternative strategy to repair the bone, using materials science principles and advanced manufacturing techniques to develop effective biomedical devices.

As part of this study, the researchers used 3D printing to make patient-specific, bone-like scaffolds that included three soy compounds and then slowly released the compounds into samples containing bone cancer as well as healthy bone cells. Soybeans contain isoflavones, plant-derived estrogens that have been shown to impede cancer cell growth for many types of cancer without being toxic to normal cells. Isoflavones have also been shown to improve bone health and possibly prevent osteoporosis.

One of the soybean compounds caused a 90% reduction in bone cancer cell viability in their samples after 11 days. Two other soy compounds, meanwhile, significantly improved the growth of healthy bone cells. Furthermore, using the soy compounds in animal models also reduced inflammation, which could benefit bone health as well as overall recovery.

"These results advance our understanding in providing therapeutic approaches in using synthetic bone grafts as a drug delivery vehicle," Bose said.

The researchers are continuing the unique area of research, studying the specific pathways of the genetic expression of natural compounds and the benefits of integrating them in biomedical technology. More detailed long-term studies are needed, using animal research as well as other malignant cells, she said.

The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Initial findings reported by the Arizona COVID-19 Genomics Union (ACGU) suggest that following Arizona's first reported case of COVID-19 in late January, the state experienced no subsequent cases that went undetected and was COVID-free until at least 11 distinct incursions occurred between mid-February and early April.

The published results appear in the scientific journal mBio.

Faculty at Northern Arizona University (NAU), the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, University of Arizona (UArizona) and Arizona State University (ASU) launched the ACGU in early April with the express purpose of tracking the causative agent of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2: how it evolves and how it spreads into, within and out of Arizona.

The ACGU sequenced the SARS-CoV-2 genomes in as many virus-positive patient samples in Arizona as possible, and working with Arizona's public health officials, applied the results toward statewide efforts to test and track patients, as well as provide guidance for Arizona public policy makers.

Quick action by ASU and Maricopa County public health officials, ACGU scientists agree, likely kept the first identified COVID-19 patient in Arizona -- a student who had just returned from Hubei, the Chinese province where the disease originated -- from igniting an outbreak, and prevented Arizona from becoming an early epicenter for the contagion.

"This is a great example of how a rapid and thorough public health response can be successful in preventing the spread of this disease," said Paul Keim, ACGU co-founder and director, NAU Regents' Professor of Biological Sciences and Cowden Endowed Chair in Microbiology and Executive Director of NAU's Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI). Seven additional PMI scientists also contributed to this study as co-first authors or co-authors.

"Similar steps could be taken when shaping future efforts to reopen businesses and schools, even though the virus continues to circulate and people remain susceptible," added Keim, who is also a Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of TGen's Pathogen and Microbiome Division.

Michael Worobey, an ACGU co-founder and the head of University of Arizona's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, agrees.

"It's a combination of the patient doing the right things to isolate himself and be aware that he possibly had this disease, and public health officials doing all the right things. Stopping an incursion of COVID-19 was a victory for the state of Arizona," Worobey said.

This bought Arizona valuable time for preparedness efforts. The first reported case of "community" transmission occurred in Arizona in early March descended from the Washington state outbreak that was discovered in February. More than 80 percent of the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from Arizona COVID-19 cases descended from at least 11 separate lineages that were initially circulating widely in Europe, and by travel have since dominated the outbreak throughout the U.S. None of the observed transmission clusters are epidemiologically linked to the original travel-related case in the Arizona, suggesting successful early isolation and quarantine.

The ACGU uses state-of-the-art sequencers, custom computational analysis workflows and supercomputers to determine the sequence of the virus's RNA genome, which is just under 30,000 bases long. In contrast, there are nearly 3 billion bases in the human genome, which determine traits as simple as eye and hair color, and as complex as an individual's propensity for cancer and other disease.

TGen has so far sequenced SARS-CoV-2 genomes from almost 3,000 COVID-19 positive samples for the ACGU, and additional sequencing was performed at ASU and UA, from among the more than 200,000 positive cases in Arizona, making it one of the most robust such efforts in the nation. ACGU receives Arizona samples collected by state, county, tribal and private healthcare systems.

With the massive amount of data generated through the genomic sequencing, even the most advanced computing resources would not be able to keep pace; custom software was developed to support the ACGU work. Greg Caporaso, NAU Associate Professor of Biology and Director of PMI's Center for Applied Microbiome Science, observed, "Integrating the SARS-CoV-2 genomes sequenced from patients in Arizona with those sequenced around the world required us to work quickly to develop new software to support our work. Our new software allows us to identify a highly informative subset of the globally available genomes to analyze, which make the analysis more computationally tractable while retaining information that is essential for contextualizing the Arizona sequences." Caporaso's team has released the new software under an open source license, which is free for all use as a contribution to global coronavirus research; see this paper describing the software.

ACGU scientists take advantage of small changes or mutations in the virus' genome, which naturally occur over time as the virus reproduces, to track the spread of the virus. By comparing mutations observed in Arizona to those present in strains circulating across the globe, they can determine when and from where the virus has been introduced to Arizona.

Crystal Hepp, NAU Assistant Professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems and Assistant Director of PMI, noted, "The rate that mutations accumulate in the virus or viral population can be used as a 'molecular clock' to understand when it arrived in Arizona and to further estimate the magnitude of the outbreak." The ACGU researchers found that the majority of Arizona sequences are represented by two lineages -- and several sub-lineages -- most of which were likely introduced through domestic travel, but with some evidence for international importation.

Jason Ladner, NAU Assistant Professor of Biology and Assistant Director of PMI, used similar analysis on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. He said, "evolutionary analysis of disease outbreaks is one of the most important tools for understanding the origins of new viruses, like this novel coronavirus. Applying this technology to Arizona gives us local insights into how the disease has been spreading and what interventions will likely be most beneficial to control the spread of the virus."

"Through the ACGU, we are harnessing expertise in virology, genomics, evolution and bioinformatics from throughout Arizona in order to rapidly distill these genomic data into actionable insights that can complement the state's public health response," Keim said. "These results demonstrate the power of public health contact tracing and self-isolation following a positive test for stemming the tide of infections moving forward."

David Engelthaler, Director of TGen North in Flagstaff, which includes the institute's infectious disease branch, said the initial ACGU findings show how each community, each state is writing its own story for what is happening in the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We need to understand all of those plot lines that have led to where we are now," said Engelthaler, an ACGU co-founder. "Once this disease was detected in Arizona on Jan. 26, public health immediately jumped in to make sure that all contacts were identified, samples were collected and the patient was watched very closely for the next couple of weeks to make sure there were not any more cases."

In the coming months, he said, it will be necessary to track COVID-19 outbreaks and build epidemiological walls around each case, especially for those most at risk: persons older than 65, those in long-term care facilities, prisons and those with pre-existing health problems.

"When you don't have eyes on this, when you don't have contact tracing, then it can really easily move from person-to-person," Engelthaler said. "It's really useful for public policy makers to be making locally-informed decisions."

Efrem Lim, a virologist who leads the ASU team, said the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence data can give health care providers and public policy makers an edge in fighting the pandemic.

"Tracking the transmission of the virus and its mutations ensures that therapeutics and vaccines being developed are on the right course," said Lim, an assistant professor at ASU's Biodesign Institute. "We now have a handle on what the SARS-CoV-2 virus in our communities looks like at the sequence level."

Small bivalved crustacean ostracods are the most abundant fossil arthropods since the Ordovician and play an important role in paleoenvironmental reconstruction and evolutionary biology.

The vast majority of fossil ostracods are represented by calcified shells, and their soft parts, which can provide invaluable information about ancient ostracod autoecology, are extremely rare.

Recently, Dr. WANG He and Prof. WANG Bo, from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), and their collaborators presented exceptionally well-preserved ostracods with soft parts (appendages and reproductive organs) from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber (~100 million years old), which revealed sexual intercourse of ostracods.

The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Sept. 15.

The ostracod assemblage in the amber is composed of 39 individuals in one amber piece and includes males, females and juveniles.

X-ray micro-computed tomography was used to obtain high-resolution three-dimensional images of their soft parts. The micro-CT reconstruction provided direct evidence of the male clasper, sperm pumps (Zenker organs), hemipenes, eggs and female seminal receptacles containing giant sperm.

This is the first time that giant ostracod sperm was found in Cretaceous ostracod fossils; its length was at least one-third of the body length of the ostracod. This discovery is also the earliest known animal sperm record, and approximately 50-million years older than the previous oldest fossil records of animal sperm.

Analyses of the fossil and extant ostracods show that during sexual reproduction, the male used its sexually dimorphic fifth limb, which has hook-like endopods, to grasp a female while introducing its hemipenes into the female's paired vaginas. The male's pair of Zenker organs then transferred the exceptionally long but immotile sperm via the male hemipenes into the female.

The Zenker organ is readily identified in extant cypridoidean ostracods as a large, spiny, sclerotized part of the deferent sperm duct. Muscle fibers alongside the organ connect the numerous spines, which are often arranged in a number of whorls that are taxonomically characteristic at the family level.

Once in the female, the sperm are pushed up the two long sperm canals, each ending in a sac-like seminal receptacle for sperm storage; there, they finally become motile, arrange themselves into a more organized assemblage and fertilize eggs during the process of oviposition.

Research reveals that the repertoire of reproduction behavior in ostracods, which is associated with considerable morphological adaptations, has remained unchanged over at least 100 million years - a paramount example of evolutionary stasis.

The appearance of a complex reproductive mechanism involving giant sperm improved mating success and may have been an important contributor to the late Mesozoic explosive radiation of the superfamily Cypridoidea, which today includes the vast majority of nonmarine ostracod species.

The ASF pathogen is a virus which infects domestic pigs and wild boar and which leads to a severe, often lethal, disease in these animals. It is transferred via direct contact or with excretions from infected animals, or through ticks. The ASF virus is endemic to infected wild animals in Africa, but there have also repeatedly been outbreaks in southern Europe. The pathogen has been spreading north-westwards since 2007 from Georgia through Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. Cases of ASF have been registered in wild boar along with outbreaks in domestic pigs in the Baltic states since 2014. The virus has also been detected in Romania, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. In September 2018, the pathogen was also found in wild boars in Belgium and thus for the first time in Western Europe. On 10 September 2020, the ASF virus has been detected for the first time in Germany in a wild boar in Brandenburg.

The pathogen is very stable and can remain infectious in food over several months. If unheated food or food scraps from infected animals are fed to non-infected animals, the virus can therefore spread to previously ASF-free regions, thus infecting domestic pig herds too.

Although the ASF virus does not pose a hazard or a risk to humans, the meat of domestic pigs and wild boar should always be prepared under hygienic conditions, just like all other raw meats, as it can also contain other pathogens, advises the BfR. It should be kept refrigerated and prepared separately from other foods before cooking. When heating, a core temperature of 70 degrees Celsius or higher should be reached in the meat for at least two minutes, the BfR recommends.

The BfR has compiled some frequently asked questions about ASF for further information. They can be downloaded on the BfR website:

https://www.bfr.bund.de/en/frequently_asked_questions_about_african_swine_fever__asf_-205379.html

Cell therapy for cardiac regeneration, while promising, has been hampered by issues with long-term survival of the transplanted cells. Now, a technique that combines three different types of cells in a 3D cluster could improve its efficacy in reducing scar tissue and improving cardiac function after a heart attack.

Called CardioCluster, the bioengineering technique was developed by Megan Monsanto, a recent doctoral candidate who worked with Mark Sussman, distinguished professor of biology at the San Diego State University Heart Institute. They found there is strength in numbers, even in cell therapy.

Their research shows the cell clusters improve heart function because they have much better retention rates compared to single cell injections -- the clusters persisted inside the heart walls of mice models for as long as five months after transplantation, a significant advancement.

As a master's student in bioengineering at SDSU, Monsanto became very interested in tissue culture of cells for cardiac research. This led her to Sussman, a molecular biologist and longtime principal investigator at the institute.

When she learned about the challenges in getting injected cells to persist and survive inside the heart walls, she came up with the idea of a 3D cluster of cells that would interact with each other and stick together. But even she was surprised at how long they survived as a cluster.

"At 20 weeks we were still able to see the cells," Monsanto said. "Our design takes advantage of the inherent beneficial attributes of three distinct cardiac cell types, each known to possess beneficial properties that blunt heart disease in their own unique way."

The cluster combination she arrived at after extensive research comprises mesenchymal stem cells which help communicate and support other cells, endothelial progenitor cells which line the insides of blood vessels, and cardiac interstitial cells which are key to forming cardiac tissue. The study was published in Nature Communications in August.

Working in the Sussman lab with human heart cells surgically implanted into the hearts of immune-compromised mice, she genetically modified the transplanted cells to express a fluorescent tag to enable tracking. Each cell type has a different tag or color, so weeks later when she tracked them, all three color tags were consistently found by confocal microscopy imaging.

One reason for their high rates of retention and longevity is that they were cultured together before injection, and this familiarity maximizes cell-to-cell interaction.

"When you need to go into a bad neighborhood, it's better to go with some friends," Sussman explained. "Since these cells talk to each other, they support each other when they enter the hostile environment of the damaged heart."

CardioClusters closely mimic the natural environment within the human body much better than 2D cultured single cells that are easily pumped out of the heart. Their larger surface area as a cluster helps with retention.

"The tougher cells naturally go to the outside while protecting the slower growing cells in the center," Sussman said. "The cells seem to know what to do and they spontaneously figured out how to assemble within the cluster."

When Monsanto subjected the cluster cells to stress tests, the outer cells survived better. But when tested separately, about 50% of the cardiac interstitial cells died.

Each cell type within the cluster plays a specific role - the mesenchymal stem cells are the glue, the cardiac interstitial cells are the brain, and the endothelial progenitor cells are the highway on which nutrients travel which keeps the cluster alive, she explained.

The clusters can be modified and optimized for different needs, and cell ratios can be tweaked, which will form the next step in their research.

"While there are many who are skeptical of cardiac cell therapy, it's important to try innovative approaches like CardioClusters to build upon what we have learned and improve outcomes rather than becoming frustrated and giving up," Sussman said.

"For more than a decade, a major limitation of cell therapy has been that the cells don't stick around so the effectiveness of treatment is lost. With this approach, we get significantly better recovery and repair, and we are able to see the cells months later, which is groundbreaking."

The Wnt signalling pathway has been studied for decades, still it holds surprises in store. Bon-Kyoung Koo, group leader at IMBA - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Tadasuke Tsukiyama at the Hokkaido University have now uncovered a new and unexpected role for a key component of the Wnt pathway, Casein Kinase-1, in regulating the pathway at the plasma membrane. This is the result of a study published today in Nature Communications, and broadens our understanding of the regulatory loops controlling the Wnt pathway, a pathway associated with stem cell maintenance, cell proliferation and cancer.

In the Wnt pathway, Casein Kinase-1 is well-known as a part of the destruction complex. In the steady-state, when no Wnt signal is present, this complex destines the downstream mediator ?-catenin for constant degradation. When a Wnt signal reaches the cell, the Wnt receptor Frizzled inhibits the destruction complex. This allows ??-catenin to enter the nucleus, where it sets downstream responses in motion.

Casein Kinase-1 responsible for phosphoswitch of RNF43

In the newly published study, Tadasuke Tsukiyama and Bon-Kyoung Koo find that Casein Kinase-1 also regulates Wnt signalling at the plasma membrane. At the plasma membrane, the ubiquitin ligase RNF43 marks the Wnt receptor Frizzled for degradation, effectively shutting off the Wnt signalling pathway. The researchers discovered that Casein Kinase-1 triggers the switch for RNF43: When Casein Kinase-1 phosphorylates RNF43, RNF43 is activated and marks Frizzled with ubiquitin for degradation. When Casein Kinase-1 does not phosphorylate RNF43, RNF43 is inactive and signalling via Frizzled can continue. "We find that Casein Kinase-1 has an essential function in activating RNF43. With our work, we are effectively reintroducing Casein Kinase-1 to the field, defining a new role for this well-known regulator", Bon-Kyoung Koo explains.

This new understanding could lead to a novel approach for reining the Wnt pathway in cancer cells. Tsukiyama and Koo found that a mutation in RNF43's extracellular domain interrupts its function in negative feedback regulation, the tumour suppressor function of RNF43. This mutation changes RNF43 into an oncogenic form that abnormally enhances Wnt signalling. The researchers found that mimicking the phosphorylation, by adding negatively charged residues to the mutant RNF43, can revert it back to a functional tumour suppressor. With this mimicked phosphoswitch, the mutant RNF43 was again able to inhibit Frizzled. "Some patients carry a mutation in RNF43's extracellular domain. We hope that, once we know how to mimic phosphorylation in cells, this phosphorylation would revive the RNF43 tumour suppressor, enabling it to again control the Wnt pathway", Bon-Kyoung Koo adds.

Rupert Seidl (Professor of Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management in Mountain Landscapes at TUM) and his colleague Cornelius Senf (lead author of the study) for the first time produced a high-resolution map of all openings in the canopy of European forests. They have analyzed more than 30,000 satellite images and identified more than 36 million areas where large trees have given way to open spaces of young trees. This corresponds to a loss of the canopy in 17 percent of the European forests in 30 years.

The reasons for the canopy openings range from regulated wood use to wind storms and forest fires. The team also found that the size of the canopy openings varied widely from area to area.

For example, Sweden has the largest canopy openings (averaging almost two hectares) while Portugal has the highest number of canopy openings. Switzerland has the smallest openings with just 0.6 hectares on average (which is smaller than a soccer field) while the average size opening in Germany is 0.7 hectares and in Italy 0.75 hectares. The largest opening documented by the researchers is in Spain, where a single fire in 2012 burned 17,000 hectares.

Chance for tree generation adapted to climate change

The novel map the team has created also makes it possible to describe changes in forest conditions. The researchers have found, for example, that throughout Europe forests have become more open and the frequency of forests being interrupted by open spaces has increased. In addition, the openings themselves on average have increased in size primarily due to wind storms and forest fires in recent years.

In such areas, however, the tendency is that more trees are surviving due to the availability of seed material. This, in turn, promotes the recovery of forests after a disturbance and can be seen as an indication of the increase in low-intensity forestry in Europe, where only single trees or crops of trees are taken rather than clear cutting large areas.

Therefore, despite the major changes in Europe's forests, the researchers see positive developments. As Cornelius Senf has said, "In most cases, new, young trees grow up after a loss of the old stand." However, he goes on to say: "To understand where forests may be at risk of irreversible damage, we need a baseline as a reference. This is provided by the newly created map."

Professor Rupert Seidl adds: "The new maps help us to understand how Europe's forests are changing. After all, increasing opening in the canopy pose a risk to the forest, but also other opportunities for new generations of trees that are better adapted to climate change to establish themselves. Among other things, the maps can help to identify areas where regeneration needs to be promoted through targeted planting or where the forests can rejuvenate themselves. In this way, the forest can be made fit for climate change - a task that, especially in the last two years, has gained in urgency."

A new study has shown HGV drivers drive much more safely when there are cameras in their cabs monitoring their behaviour.

Computer scientists and driving psychologists from the University of Nottingham analysed data collected before and after the installation of unobtrusive cameras in the cabs of Heavy Good Vehicles (HGV) and found there is a significant reduction of risky driving behaviours with camera monitoring, and that this is even more effective when coupled with coaching. Their findings have been published in Accident Analysis and Prevention Journal.

Driving errors and violations are the leading determinants of road safety and this research highlights the importance of understanding the safety implications of risky driving styles and the extent of the influence of driver-monitoring technologies in improving driving behaviour.

The researchers analysed the largest dataset ever undertaken for this type of research looking at 669 HGVs for the longest period of time ever investigated - June 2017 to August 2019. They analysed three safety critical telematics incidents - harsh braking, harsh cornering and over speeding incidents. The research was split into cameras with and without the addition of coaching.

The data showed that monitoring and educating drivers with coaching about the risk and consequence of their driving styles has a significantly greater effect in reducing driving errors, with this intervention reducing harsh-braking by 16%, over-speeding by 34% and harsh-cornering by 31%. Without the coaching these percentages dropped to 4%, 28% and -13%.

The research also showed that weather or seasonal changes can influence HGV risky driving behaviours with highest rates of driving incidents observed during spring and summer seasons. This is likely due to the vast majority of families taking their summer holidays at this time, thereby creating busier roads and tailgating.

Jimiama Mosima Mafeni Mase, PhD researcher with the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Nottingham who conducted the research under the supervision of Dr Grazziela Figueredo, Dr Peter Chapman and Dr Mercedes Torres Torres, said: "As drivers are made aware of their monitoring especially with the use of cameras, they become conscious and improve their driving behaviours. With the affordability of in-vehicle cameras, the government can enforce policies that enables all HGV companies to install cameras in their vehicles for safety purposes. We are aware of the privacy concerns with collecting and storing videos of drivers, however, experts in data privacy can guide decision makers on how to efficiently implement such policies. In addition, decision makers can provide incentives to encourage frequent coaching of HGV drivers using the videos collected during monitoring as educating drivers has shown to significantly improve their driving styles".

We observed that driving violations such as over speeding are harder to monitor with cameras and may require other factors or methods to detect their causes. Therefore, more multidisciplinary research and collaboration is required between computer scientists, psychologists and human factor specialists to develop more advanced driver assistance systems that can incorporate more information such as external factors and drivers' affective states to accurately detect the cause of incidents or risky driving behaviours."

Grazziela Figueredo, lead supervisor added: "This large-scale study is really significant in showing how important monitoring and coaching is in changing driving behaviour. With further support from policy makers and HGV companies the findings from this research could be an important step in improving the safety of our roads."

Increasingly, everyday activities and services are shifting online, making the ability to use the internet an essential skill. The current COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of digital connectivity, especially for older and vulnerable adults, for their continued contact with family and friends. Digital Ambassadors, a Singapore Government initiative to ensure all Singaporeans have access to the fundamental digital tools, helps older adults learn how to use technological tools.

Analysing data from almost 4,000 older Singaporeans who took part in a national survey conducted by Duke-NUS' Centre for Ageing Research & Education (CARE) in 2016-2017, the team found that one in 15 respondents had difficulties using the internet because of poor health. And 57 per cent did not use the internet because of other reasons.

"Our findings suggest that health-related difficulties are relevant in understanding the digital divide between the young and the old. Concurrent with optimising the health of older persons, policymakers should consider supporting research and development into assistive technology and design aimed at helping older internet users overcome health-related difficulty in internet use," said Assistant Professor Rahul Malhotra, Head of Research of Duke-NUS' CARE. Asst Prof Malhotra is also a faculty at the Duke-NUS' Health Services and Systems Research Programme.

The study, which was published in The Gerontologist, found that those who were male, were less educated, and those who had limitations in instrumental activities of daily living such as using the phone and doing housework, were more likely to face challenges in using internet due to poor health. The team also found that those of higher age, females, with less education, and residing in low-income housing were more likely to not use the internet for non-health-related reasons.

"In this study, we were not able to identify the specific obstacles faced by those not using the internet for non-health-related reasons. But hurdles such as the lack of digital literacy and the cost of devices and internet service provision likely play a role," said Asst Prof Malhotra.

A particularly concerning finding of the study, relevant in the current time when safe distancing is a new norm for preventing the spread of COVID-19 infections, was that health-related difficulties in internet use created additional barriers to online communication between older adults and their family and friends, and poor social connections and support. Cumulatively, this resulted in a lower quality of life for older adults.

"Health-related difficulties in using the internet matter, because it means that teaching digital skills and offering cheap internet access to seniors may not fully address the digital divide. Online communication tools are thought to benefit seniors with physical limitations, since it does not require travel. Unfortunately for some seniors, health issues stand in the way of even their internet use. Providing social support to these older adults through non-digital means thus remains key, even as we work towards identifying and minimising health-related difficulties in internet use," said Assistant Professor Shannon Ang, from Sociology, NTU Singapore.

"Singapore is addressing ageing as a prioritised national agenda by studying trends and implications, and recommending solutions. This collaborative study on the ability of the elderly to use the internet shows that it is imperative to help older adults who rely on the internet to stay socially connected, which will aid in their ability to maintain a high overall quality of life as they age," said Professor Patrick Casey, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS.

In future work, the research team plans to gain a deeper understanding of the specific health problems that directly lead to difficulty in internet use among older adults. These may include poor vision and loss of fine motor skills.

The data is from the Transitions in Health, Employment, Social engagement and Inter-Generational transfers in Singapore Study, Wave 1 (THE SIGNS Study-I), a large population-based survey of older Singaporeans conducted in 2016-2017, by Duke-NUS' CARE with support from the Ministry of Health, Singapore.

In a recently published study, researchers from the Turku Bioscience Centre at the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University in Finland monitored the production of new proteins as they were produced by the cells' protein building machinery, the ribosome.

They found that in the skin cells obtained from the forearm of Parkinson's patients, translation of RNA into protein was reduced compared to cells from healthy donors of a similar age. The reason for this was an enzyme called LRRK2 which was more active in patient cells compared to cells from healthy donors.

"These results are interesting because LRRK2 is thought to contribute to Parkinson's disease, but precisely how, it is not yet known," says lead author Eleanor Coffey, the lead author of the article.

"Although drug programmes developing LRRK2 inhibitors for treating Parkinson's are already underway, it is still important to understand what LRRK2 is doing in cells that may contribute to the disease," adds first author of the study Prasannakumar Deshpande.

Once common pesticide helped unravel the mechanism

When the researchers added LRRK2 inhibitor drugs to the patient samples, they found that the synthesis of new proteins returned to control levels. They next used the pesticide rotenone, exposure to which induces Parkinson's-like symptoms in humans, to model Parkinson's disease in rodent brain cells. They found that rotenone repressed protein synthesis and caused the axons of dopamine-producing nerve cells, which also die in Parkinson's, to waste away.

Both effects were reversed when treated with LRRK2 inhibitor drugs. Moreover, in mice lacking the gene for LRRK2, protein synthesis was increased in nerve cells.

"These data identify a critical role for LRRK2 in the control of the process that converts genetic code into protein," tells Coffey.

To understand how LRRK2 reduced protein synthesis, researchers examined a brain region called the substantia nigra, which is affected in Parkinson's disease. In rats exposed to rotenone, they found that controllers of protein synthesis acquired "phosphate marks" which signal protein synthesis to stop. One such mark was particularly prominent in patient skin cells. The authors were able to show that LRRK2 inhibitor drug reversed these marks and allowed the cell to resume making new proteins.

Reduced protein synthesis might be an indicator for Parkinson's disease

"It is significant in this study that we found no evidence of decreased protein synthesis in individuals with multiple system atrophy, a movement disorder that is symptomatically difficult to distinguish from Parkinson's disease, but with distinct etiology and prognosis," Coffey explains.

This suggests that a reduction in the synthesis of certain proteins are specific to Parkinson's disease and could be used as a biomarker readout. Also, as patients aged and the disease progressed, the repression of protein synthesis was more notable, adds Deshpande. This did not happen in healthy individuals. Analysing the repression of the synthesis of certain proteins will provide a means to monitor disease progression.

Early detection may help treatment

The research group is now examining hundreds of patient samples to determine which group of downregulated proteins shows the best discriminating power to identify Parkinson's disease and if it can be used to detect Parkinson's before motor symptoms appear.

"If such a signature can be found, it could help improve clinical trial outcome by providing a tool for patient stratification. If successful, this would help accelerate the development of better treatments for Parkinson's disease patients," summarises Coffey.

The study was carried out on samples from individuals from Finland and the United States. The work was done in collaboration with Drs Valtteri Kaasinen and Sirkku Peltonen at Turku University Hospital and Prof. Peter James at Åbo Akademi University.