Culture

Six black-naped terns -- a coastal seabird found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans -- have given researchers a glimpse into how they navigate tropical typhoons.

The research team based in Japan published their analysis on May 30 in Marine Biology, a Springer journal.

"Our goal was to examine the migration characteristics of the black-naped terns from the Okinawa Islands," said paper author Jean-Baptiste Thiebot, project researcher at the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) in Japan. "The bird is listed as vulnerable by Japan's Ministry of Environment."

Thiebot and the team were specifically interested in finding where the birds spend their winters and how they manage to cross the Philippine Sea. The body of water lays just south of Japan, covering an area of two million square miles that suffers from frequent and strong typhoons.

"The birds have to cross the Philippine Sea during the peak of typhoon season," Thiebot said.

The birds nest near Okinawa in mid-May, lay their eggs in June, and the hatchlings are ready to leave the nest near the end of August. The adults then spend September traveling to their wintering sites south of the Philippine Sea -- but, it appears the time and path of travel depends on typhoon season.

The researchers outfitted a total of 20 terns with geographic logging trackers in 2012 and 2017. Of those 20, the researchers were able to collect movement data from two terns from 2012 to 2014 and from four birds from 2017 to 2018.

"The two birds tracked in years of medium-high typhoon activity from 2012 to 2014 seemed to target a stopover area in the northern Philippines several days after a typhoon hit," Thiebot said. "By contrast, in 2017, no strong typhoon hit in August, and the four study birds departed 23.8 days later, but moved significantly quicker with little or no stopover."

Despite when they left the breeding grounds, the birds always arrived in the Indonesian islands south of the Philippine Sea within four days of October 1.

"The terns seemed to adjust the timing and path of their migration according to the level of typhoon activity," Thiebot said. "It is likely that terns respond to the typhoon activity because the storms modify the birds' feeding conditions at the water surface."

The terns may use environmental cues, such as the low infrasound storms emit, to time their migration, according to Thiebot. The researchers plan to record the infrasound levels at the breeding area to test this hypothesis, and they hope to further study the terns' migration across years of typhoon activity to refine their understanding.

Researchers from the University's National Marine Science Centre have demonstrated that imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, can impact the feeding behaviour of prawns in a laboratory environment, leading to nutritional deficiency and reduced flesh quality.

"The sobering thing with this study is that it shows that the exposure of prawns to high concentrations of neonicotinoids can have such a significant impact," said lead author and PhD candidate Peter Butcherine whose study focussed on adult black tiger prawns.

"If they are not well managed, these chemicals have the potential to affect the productivity and sustainability of cultured and capture prawn fisheries."

This latest study builds on Peter's earlier work reviewing the risk of neonicotinoid exposure to the shrimp aquaculture industry where he identified a significant problem with these water-soluble pesticides increasingly being detected in coastal waters worldwide.

Prawns and shrimp are in the same animal phylum (category) as insects and therefore share similarities in the nervous system that is the main target for neonicotinoids, explained Professor Kirsten Benkendorff, co-author and Director of the National Marine Science Centre based at Coffs Harbour.

"This means prawns and shrimp are highly vulnerable if they become exposed to high levels of neonicotinoids, either through contaminated water or feed, which often contains plant-based material," Professor Benkendorff said.

Imidacloprid is an agricultural insecticide used in Australia. Peter's research provides evidence that exposure to imidacloprid, at environmentally-relevant concentrations in food or water, leads to decreased food consumption and a loss of weight, as well as changes in the lipid composition of the flesh.

"This laboratory-based study indicates that cultured and wild prawns could be impacted in areas affected by high levels of neonicotinoid pesticide run-off," Peter said.

Sydney rock oysters are also impacted by imidacloprid, according to the findings of a separate study co-authored by Professor Benkendorff.

"These two studies indicate both crustaceans and molluscs are vulnerable to insecticides, weakening their immune system and leaving them susceptible to disease," Professor Benkendorff said.

Professor Benkendorff said further study is required to understand the range of pesticides in Australian waterways and their impacts on estuarine environments.

"Our research identifies the need for effective management of pesticide use and run-off from intensive agriculture in coastal areas with productive seafood industries," she said.

BEER-SHEVA, Israel...August 24, 2020 - Wastewater containing coronaviruses may be a serious threat, according to a new, global study led by researchers from the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

The new paper, published in Nature Sustainability, by an international collaboration of 35 researchers, evaluates recent studies on coronaviruses in wastewater and previous airborne infectious diseases, including SARS and MERS. The goal is to evaluate potential threats, avenues of research and possible solutions, as well as garner beneficial perspectives for the future.

"There is ample reason to be concerned about how long coronaviruses survive in wastewater and how it impacts natural water sources," says lead author Dr. Edo Bar-Zeev of the BGU Zuckerberg Institute. "Can wastewater contain enough coronaviruses to infect people? The simple truth is that we do not know enough and that needs to be rectified as soon as possible."

Bar-Zeev, and his postdoc student, Anne Bogler, together with other renowned researchers, indicate that sewage leaking into natural watercourses might lead to infection via airborne spray. Similarly, treated wastewater used to fill recreational water facilities, like lakes and rivers, could also become sources of contagion. Lastly, fruits and vegetables irrigated with wastewater that were not properly disinfected could also be an indirect infection route.

The research team recommends immediate, new research to determine the level of potential infection, if any, and how long coronaviruses last in various bodies of water and spray.

"Wastewater treatment plants need to upgrade their treatment protocols and in the near future also advance toward tertiary treatment through micro- and ultra-filtration membranes, which successfully remove viruses," Bar-Zeev and his colleagues say.

At the same time, wastewater can serve as a canary in a coal mine because it can be monitored to track COVID-19 outbreaks. Coronaviruses start showing up in feces before other symptoms like fevers and coughs show up in otherwise asymptomatic people. Regular monitoring, therefore, can give authorities advance warning of hot spots. BGU researchers recently completed a pilot study in Ashkelon, Israel using new methodology to detect and trace the presence of the virus and calculate its concentration to pinpoint emerging COVID-19 hotspots. Other BGU researchers are working on developing water nanofiltration technologies.

The origins of birds and their flight was a major event in the history of life. A wealth of spectacular fossils has demonstrated that birds are theropod dinosaurs, with Pennaraptora being the most relevant subgroup to transition from non-avian dinosaurs to birds. Here we announce the publication of a landmark journal volume on pennaraptoran theropods (Figure 1) edited by HKU Research Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Pittman (Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, Division of Earth and Planetary Science & Department of Earth Sciences) and Prof. Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment (Beijing, China), who both specialise in these animals (see Notes).

Pennaraptora comprises of birds as well as the pennaceous feathered dromaeosaurids ('raptors'), troodontids, scansoriopterygids and oviraptorosaurians (Figures 2 and 3). Fossils and insights from living birds and crocodilians show that many important avian traits originated deep within theropod evolutionary history, accumulating over a significant period of time and portion of the evolutionary tree, often in a complex mosaic way. These traits include 'warm-bloodedness', unique reproductive strategies as well as flight itself. Key features necessary for flight appeared among pennaraptoran theropods including: a long, robust and sideways-facing arm; a refined "flight-ready" brain; and large, vaned flight feathers. Proxies for modern flight capability, modelling work and functional morphology support flight and near-flight capabilities among paravian pennaraptorans, with powered flight evolving independently multiple times.

Breaking new ground in the field

To deepen our understanding of avian and flight origins as well as other important pennaraptoran evolutionary events, the International Pennaraptoran Dinosaur Symposium (IPDS) was held at the University of Hong Kong between March 29 and April 1, 2018, to make substantial advances in our understanding of pennaraptoran palaeobiology and evolution (see Notes). These efforts culminated in a special volume just published in the prestigious journal Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, entitled 'Pennaraptoran Theropod Dinosaurs: Past Progress and New Frontiers', edited by Dr. Pittman and Prof. Xu. "The volume documents past progress, works toward consensus on key unresolved issues, breaks new ground in the field and identifies priority areas for future research", said Dr. Pittman. Asked about who was involved, Prof. Xu replied, "The volume involved 49 experts from more than 10 countries whose views cover much of the current discussion on pennaraptoran palaeobiology and evolution." The volume is made up of 14 chapters organised in three sections:

Section 1. Fossil Record, Systematics, and Biogeography surveys the pennaraptoran fossil record and draws attention to what new discoveries would help to answer pressing questions in the field. It also presents the current state of pennaraptoran evolutionary relationships (Figure 2), providing the context needed to understand pennraptoran evolution. This section includes the first quantitative analysis of the spatial distribution of coelurosaurian theropods through time (palaeobiogeography; Figure 3), which allowed key tectonic drivers of their evolution to be identified.

Section 2. Anatomical Frontiers focuses on recent discoveries in pennaraptoran anatomy, particularly of the hand and head (Figure 4). It explores the implications this knowledge has and will have on our understanding of pennaraptoran palaeobiology and evolution. These discoveries involve a wide range of adopted approaches, including geometric morphometrics, mechanical advantage calculations, and evo-devo approaches as well as the evolutionary context provided in section one.

Section 3. Early Flight Study: Methods, Status, and Frontiers begins by detailing the methods currently available for studying early theropod flight and discusses the priorities to address in future methodological development work. Then recent advances in soft-tissue imaging are married with quantitative methods of early flight study to create a new framework on which to build (Figure 5). This section also covers recent efforts to identify the small pennaraptorans that first took to the skies, what their flight capabilities were and how their flight might have been acquired. A new broader context is proposed for flight behaviour as part of a functional landscape. Wing-assisted incline running (WAIR), a behaviour seen in modern birds that is proposed as an early stage of flight development, is argued as a later innovation based on a study of modern ostriches.

Asked about the significance of the volume, contributor Dr. Daniel J Field of Cambridge University (Department of Earth Sciences) said, "This is a landmark volume that advances our understanding of pennaraptoran dinosaurs and identifies key areas to address in the years ahead." Contributor Dr. T Alexander Dececchi of Mount Marty University (Department of Biology) added, "The volume is of particular interest to dinosaur palaeontologists and ornithologists, but its findings will also excite the general public."

A research team led by neurobiologist Professor Claire Jacob has identified an important mechanism that can be used to control the restoration of myelin sheaths following traumatic injury and in degenerative diseases. With the insights gained, the researchers were able to regenerate damaged myelin sheaths in mice by treating them with the active substance theophylline, thereby restoring their nerve cell function. The groundbreaking findings are the result of research carried out at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Neurons are composed of axons, i.e., long fiber-like extensions that transmit signals to other cells. Many of them are surrounded by a myelin sheath, a thick fatty layer that protects them and helps to transfer stimuli rapidly. Without myelin, the functional capacity of neurons - and therefore of the whole nervous system - is limited and neurons can easily degenerate. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the diseases associated with myelin sheath degradation. MS patients suffer successive episodes of demyelination resulting in a progressive loss of function of their nervous system. Remyelination of the axons can prevent this.

The aim is to restore the axons' protective myelin coating

Intact myelin sheaths are a prerequisite for the healthy functioning of the peripheral and central nervous systems. If the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is damaged, in an accident involving injury to the arms or legs for example, the axons and their myelin sheaths can recover relatively well. "Regeneration of the PNS is quite efficient, although it could be improved," said Professor Claire Jacob, pointing out that even young people do not experience complete regeneration.

However, the central nervous system (CNS) is completely different in this regard as there is no efficient restoration of the axons and therefore of the myelin sheath after a lesion. This means that CNS injuries usually result in permanent paralysis - as in the case of MS when loss of myelin leads to axon degeneration. MS is the most common neurodegenerative disease of the CNS and is attributable to the degradation of the myelin sheath of neurons. The occurrence of successive lesions can cause permanent loss of function of the CNS if myelin sheath restoration is inefficient. The capacity of the body to remyelinate decreases dramatically with age. "In order to promote the restoration of myelin, we need to understand the process that controls the mechanism," emphasized Jacob.

In the recent project, her research group investigated how remyelination occurs in both peripheral and central nervous systems of mice. "First, we wanted to understand the process that blocks remyelination. We subsequently studied how to counteract this blocking effect." The neuroscientists identified a protein called eEF1A1 as a key factor in the process and found that eEF1A1 activated by acetylation prevents the remyelination process, but if eEF1A1 is deactivated by deacetylation, myelin sheaths can be rebuilt. The protein that deacetylates eEF1A1 is the enzyme called histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2).

Theophylline promotes myelin reconstruction in both peripheral and central nervous systems

"Once we understood this process, we decided to try to control it by boosting the HDAC2 activity and its synthesis in cells," said Jacob. This was achieved by using the active substance theophylline, which is also present in tea leaves and has long been used in the treatment of asthma. In a mouse model, the use of theophylline over a period of four days resulted in significant recovery. Restoration of myelin sheaths was particularly impressive in the PNS, where they recovered completely. Regeneration also improved in the CNS, as there was rapid and efficient rebuilding of myelin sheaths in both young and old mice. A low dose of the active substance was sufficient to trigger the improvements - a big plus with regard to the known side effects of theophylline, which occur at higher doses.

"In summary, this study [...] shows that theophylline, by activating HDAC2, promotes eEF1A1 deacetylation, increases [...] remyelination speed and efficiency after lesion of the PNS and CNS, thus appearing as a very promising compound to test in future translational studies to accelerate and promote remyelination after traumatic lesions or in the context of demyelinating disorders," write the authors in their paper published in Nature Communications. Currently, funding for corresponding clinical trials in patients is being sought, while a patent application has already been filed.

Professor Claire Jacob has been researching the development of myelin, axon injuries, and their regeneration for 16 years - previously at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and since October 2018 as head of the Cellular Neurobiology Group at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

University of Sussex quantum physicists have developed an algorithm which helps early quantum computers to perform calculations most efficiently

The team used their model to calculate the expected computational power of early quantum computers

Their research highlights a fundamental advantage of the 'trapped ion' approach over other methods

Quantum physicists at the University of Sussex have created an algorithm that speeds up the rate of calculations in the early quantum computers which are currently being developed. They have created a new way to route the ions - or charged atoms - around the quantum computer to boost the efficiency of the calculations.

The Sussex team have shown how calculations in such a quantum computer can be done most efficiently, by using their new 'routing algorithm'. Their paper "Efficient Qubit Routing for a Globally Connected Trapped Ion Quantum Computer" is published in the journal Advanced Quantum Technologies.

The team working on this project was led by Professor Winfried Hensinger and included Mark Webber, Dr Steven Herbert and Dr Sebastian Weidt. The scientists have created a new algorithm which regulates traffic within the quantum computer just like managing traffic in a busy city. In the trapped ion design the qubits can be physically transported over long distances, so they can easily interact with other qubits. Their new algorithm means that data can flow through the quantum computer without any 'traffic jams'. This in turn gives rise to a more powerful quantum computer.

Quantum computers are expected to be able to solve problems that are too complex for classical computers. Quantum computers use quantum bits (qubits) to process information in a new and powerful way. The particular quantum computer architecture the team analysed first is a 'trapped ion' quantum computer, consisting of silicon microchips with individual charged atoms, or ions, levitating above the surface of the chip. These ions are used to store data, where each ion holds one quantum bit of information. Executing calculations on such a quantum computer involves moving around ions, similar to playing a game of Pacman, and the faster and more efficiently the data (the ions) can be moved around, the more powerful the quantum computer will be.

In the global race to build a large scale quantum computer there are two leading methods, 'superconducting' devices which groups such as IBM and Google focus on, and 'trapped ion' devices which are used by the University of Sussex's Ion Quantum Technology group, and the newly emerged company Universal Quantum, among others.

Superconducting quantum computers have stationary qubits which are typically only able to interact with qubits that are immediately next to each other. Calculations involving distant qubits are done by communicating through a chain of adjacent qubits, a process similar to the telephone game (also referred to as 'Chinese Whispers'), where information is whispered from one person to another along a line of people. In the same way as in the telephone game, the information tends to get more corrupted the longer the chain is. Indeed, the researchers found that this process will limit the computational power of superconducting quantum computers.

In contrast, by deploying their new routing algorithm for their trapped ion architecture, the Sussex scientists have discovered that their quantum computing approach can achieve an impressive level of computational power. 'Quantum Volume' is a new benchmark which is being used to compare the computational power of near term quantum computers. They were able to use Quantum Volume to compare their architecture against a model for superconducting qubits, where they assumed similar levels of errors for both approaches. They found that the trapped-ion approach performed consistently better than the superconducting qubit approach, because their routing algorithm essentially allows qubits to directly interact with many more qubits, which in turn gives rise to a higher expected computational power.

Mark Webber, a doctoral researcher in the Sussex Centre for Quantum technologies, at the University of Sussex, said:

"We can now predict the computational power of the quantum computers we are constructing. Our study indicates a fundamental advantage for trapped ion devices, and the new routing algorithm will allow us to maximize the performance of early quantum computers."

Professor Hensinger, director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies at the University of Sussex said:

"Indeed, this work is yet another stepping stone towards building practical quantum computers that can solve real world problems."

Professor Winfried Hensinger and Dr Sebastian Weidt have recently launched their spin-out company Universal Quantum which aims to build the world's first large scale quantum computer. It has attracted backing from some of the world's most powerful tech investors. The team was the first to publish a blue-print for how to build a large scale trapped ion quantum computer in 2017.

New research by the University of Minnesota and the University of Washington finds that every six additional ICU beds or seven additional non-ICU beds filled by COVID-19 patients leads to one additional COVID-19 death over the following week.

"A spike in hospitalization naturally leads to more deaths, but these deaths may not only come from those who are hospitalized, but also from those who should have been hospitalized but were not," said co-author Anirban Basu, a UW professor of health economics.

Results of the study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, show the impact of ICU bed use remains fairly constant as ICU bed availability changes. These effects are also in line with recent literature estimates for the mortality among COVID-19 patients receiving critical care, that show mortality rates increase as ICUs fill up.

What was surprising, Basu explained, was the effect of non-ICU beds. For additional seven hospitalized patients not in intensive care, one would expect about 0.5 deaths over the next seven days based on general data put out by CDC. However, this new research finds that the total number of COVID-19 deaths actually occurring is much higher.

"This may indicate that constraints in available capacity of non-ICU beds may have a spillover effect to non-hospitalized patients. In fact, the study found that the effect of non-ICU beds rises steadily as more and more non-ICU beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients," said Basu, who is also director of the CHOICE Institute at the UW School of Pharmacy.

For example, when 20% of non-ICU hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients, an additional seven COVID-19 admissions to non-ICU beds will produce two additional COVID-19 deaths over the next seven days.

"Even when, say, 80% of non-ICU beds are still available, a further increase in COVID-19 admissions leads to significantly more numbers of deaths than what we would expect from only the hospitalized patients. This may be because the health care delivery within a hospital is not only driven by hospital beds but also personnel and COVID-specific supplies, which may be stretched thin, and affecting COVID-19 admission policies of the hospitals."

Consequently, Basu said, efforts to "flatten the curve" -- that is, reduce or stop the increase of people infected with the novel coronavirus through public health measures such as mask-wearing and physical distancing -- are more important than simply keeping hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. Failure to flatten the curve, even before hospitals reach capacity, is killing more people than just those who end up in hospital beds.

"These results have very important implications as large numbers of students head back to schools and colleges across the nation and resistance to public health measures continues to stymie efforts to reduce the number of infected," Basu said.

"Our study quantifies the relationship between COVID-19 deaths and COVID-19 hospitalizations using actual data," write the study authors. "These estimates provide a better understanding of the projections of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA especially when states are gearing up to restart economic activities and provide important practice insights for hospitals in terms of assessment of hospital bed and ICU bed capacity and preparedness."

The human microbiota plays an important role in health and well-being by assisting in digestion, producing nutrients, resisting invading pathogens and regulating metabolism and the immune system.

We use antimicrobial (AM) drugs to treat common infections even though they have an immediate effect on microbial diversity and composition.

Most of the studies have earlier focused on faecal (gut) microbiota, but microbes in other niches of the body have also showed importance for human health and well-being.

The Finnish Health in Teens study (Fin-HIT) is a cohort study including over 11 000 Finnish adolescents. In the most recent Fin-HIT study researchers tried to find the associations of lifelong AMs use with saliva microbiota diversity and composition in preadolescents. They used data from 808 randomly selected children in the Fin-HIT cohort with objective register data on AM purchases from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (KELA).

On average, the children had 7.4 AM purchases during their lifespan until on average 12 years. The four most commonly used AMs were amoxicillin (43.7 %), azithromycin (24.9 %), amoxicillin-clavulanate (18.7 %) and phenoxymethylpenicillin (6.8 %).

Researchers showed in the study that frequent use of antimicrobial drugs shifted bacterial profiles in saliva. The frequent use of any AMs affected saliva microbiota.

"Microbial composition differed between high, medium and low users of AMs. These effects are also gender- and AM-dependent," says Sajan Raju, Post Doctoral Researcher at University of Helsinki.

The strongest effect with azithromycin, especially in girls

Azithromycin is used for example to middle ear infections, strep throat and pneumonia. According to the study, azithromycin had the strongest associations to shifts in bacterial profiles: each course decreased the microbiota diversity. This was more strongly observed in girls than in boys.

"Our findings emphasize a concern for high azithromycin use, which substantially impaired the bacterial diversity and affected composition as well," says Raju.

In boys, amoxicillin affected the microbial composition more than in girls. As well as azithromycin, amoxicillin is also widely used to middle ear infections and strep throat. The use of amoxicillin and amoxicillin-clavulanate was associated with the largest decrease in abundance of Rikenellaceae family.

AM use in general was associated with a decrease of Paludibacter and pathways related to amino acid degradations.

Unforeseen health impacts in the future?

The contribution of lifelong AM use on saliva microbiota is unknown and AM use might have unforeseen health impacts in the future.

"It can have health impacts such as inducing obesity or antibiotic resistant bacteria," says Raju.

The majority of children (85 %) in the study were exposed to AMs during the first three years of life.

In the study the researchers could not confirm that the purchased AMs were taken. Neither the dental status of the adolescents was not assessed in the study.

When algae and bacteria with different swimming gaits gather in large groups, their flocking behaviour diminishes, something that may reduce the risk of falling victim to aquatic predators. This finding is presented in an international study led from Lund University in Sweden.

Flocking behaviour arises seemingly spontaneously in a group of independent individuals without a clear leader. This behaviour occurs among many types of organisms, from bacteria to mammals and humans. In a new study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at Lund University examined the flocking behaviour of two different types of microorganism. By studying the backwashes - fluid flows - created around the organisms as they swim, the researchers have been able to find out how they affect each other.

"We have looked at a mixture of two types of swimmers. Those that use 'breaststroke', namely certain types of algae, and those that swim with a 'propeller' behind them, like most bacteria", says Joakim Stenhammar, chemistry researcher at Lund University.

Previous research has shown that microorganisms with the same swimming technique can sense, and are affected by, each other's fluid flows. This means they can move in a synchronised way over long length scales several times faster than an individual bacterium can swim.

However, in the new study the Lund researchers could establish through using computer simulations and theoretical models that this flocking behaviour completely disappears when microorganisms with different swimming styles are mixed.

"Their collective fluid flows then behave as though the individuals could not sense each other's presence. You could say that the microorganisms gain a cloak of invisibility", says Joakim Stenhammar.

The new study is an important piece of the puzzle in understanding how flocking behaviour works in biological systems. Now the work will continue with the study of increasingly detailed models of how actual microorganisms behave. This will enable comparisons between the theoretical results and experimental observations.

"On a biological level there may be advantages from symbiotic ecosystems in which bacteria and algae live together. The suppression of flocking behaviour may reduce the risk of being eaten, as many aquatic predators sense the fluid flows to localise prey", concludes Joakim Stenhammar.

A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, has discovered that strigolactones, a class of novel plant hormones, mediate the fine-tuning of the production plant defensive substances in the stem of plants of the wild tobacco species Nicotiana attenuata. In a cooperative project with partners in China and Korea, they found that strigolactones and their crosstalk with other hormones involved in plant defense were crucial for tobacco plants' ability to tolerate insects that live inside the stem. Plants that are no longer able to produce strigolactones also have altered concentrations of jasmontates and auxins and consequently a reduced resistance against the stem-boring larvae of the weevil Trichobaris mucorea (PLOS Biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000830, August 2020).

Not only animals, but also plants have different hormones that control various processes in the body. One class of these signaling substances that were only recognized as hormones quite recently are strigolactones. In plants, they are involved in shoot formation inhibit further branching of the stem. As scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have now discovered, a change in the signaling pathway of strigolactones influences processes regulated by other plant hormones, and - as a consequence - a plant's defense against herbivores.

Observations from the field and in the glasshouse were the starting point for the investigations. "In the field, we noticed that when the pith-feeding larvae of the weevil Trichobaris mucorea attacked tobacco plants, the stems turn red. In the glasshouse, the stems of transgenic lines impaired in strigolactone biosynthesis and signaling turned red too. Since strigolactones influence branching in plants and the root-shoot junction of a plant is the initial entry place where the weevil larva makes its way into the pith of stem, we wanted to know how these hormones affect weevil resistance in tobacco," said Ming Wang, one of the study leaders.

The red coloring of the stems is caused by anthocynanins, which may also have a defensive function, but are likely involved in the indirect defense of the plants by sending a visual signal to predators of the herbivores. The increased production of the red pigments as well as higher concentrations of other defensive substances, the phenolamides, is due to the increased activity of another group of important plant hormones: the jasmonates. Genetically modified plants that were unable to produce strigolactones, as well as metabolic analyses - i.e. the measurement of the activity of individual metabolic pathways - should now provide information about the role and interaction of the hormones with regard to the resistance to the weevil.

Decreased resistance to stem-boring weevil larvae despite increased jasmonate concentrations

Particularly surprising, however, was the significantly increased concentration of jasmonates in plants in which the strigolactone signaling pathway had been silenced. "The higher levels of jasmonates in the mutants as well as the increased synthesis of the red anthocyanin pigments should have indicated a stronger defense against herbivores. However, plants lacking strigolactones were significantly more susceptible to Trichobaris mucorea attack. Given the commonly-held knowledge that plant defenses are positively regulated by jasmonate signaling, this apparent disconnect was particularly intriguing," first author Suhua Li summarizes important results of the study.

Strigolactone-impaired mutants showed a number of metabolic changes: Apart from an over-accumulation of anthocyanins and phenolamides, the absence of strigolactones also affected the production of nicotine, another important defense substance in tobacco. This work breaks new ground by showing how strigolactone interacts with jasmonate and auxin signaling to provide the particular changes in plant metabolites. The special mixture of these metabolites determine - like a cocktail drug therapy developed against diseases - resistance against the attacking herbivore. The work also provides a higher resolution answer to how strigolactone signaling interacts with particularly variable elements of jasmonate signaling: the JAZ proteins, repressors of the jasmonate signaling pathway.

Studies of plant-insect interactions have so far mainly focused free-living folivores. The weevil Trichobaris mucorea, however, lives "endophytically", i.e. it spends most of its four-month life cycle - the entire larval stage, pupation and the early adult stage before mating - inside the stem of an annual tobacco plant where it feeds on the pith. Apart from the red coloring of the stem, there are hardly any visible signs of an attack by this herbivore from the outside. All you may see is an exit hole in the stem it leaves behind after abandoning its nursery in the already withering plant. However, the relatively long life inside the plant means that the plant has to tolerate this enemy rather than defend itself like against a leaf-feeding insect, which it could fend off with defensive substances.

Defense versus tolerance

The results of the study demonstrate that although strigolactones do not directly regulate defenses against the weevil, they indirectly use the existing hormonal regulatory networks, here via jasmonates and auxins, to produce defensive substances that enable the plant to tolerate this herbivore inside its stem.

"In short, "defenses" damage the herbivores, while "tolerance" traits decrease the damage that herbivore attack causes. It is in the realm of "tolerance" traits that makes the discovery that these hormones fine-tune plant defense via their crosstalk with other hormones, such as jasmonates and auxins, so exciting," says Ian Baldwin, director of the Department of Molecular Ecology where the investigations have been carried out.

The researchers propose that strigolactones in the plant represent a kind of switch between defense against and tolerance of herbivores, a hypothesis that - if confirmed - would also offer new interesting approaches for plant breeding.

The intervertebral discs connect the vertebrae and give the spine its mobility. The disc consists of a cartilaginous fibrous ring and a gelatinous core as a buffer. It has always been assumed that only humans and other mammals have discs. A misconception, as a research team under the leadership of the University of Bonn has now discovered: Even Tyrannosaurus rex could have suffered a slipped disc. The results have now been published in the journal "Scientific Reports".

Present-day snakes and other reptiles do not have intervertebral discs; instead, their vertebrae are connected with so-called ball-and-socket joints. Here, the ball-shaped end surface of a vertebra fits into a cup-shaped depression of the adjacent vertebra, similar to a human hip joint. In-between there is cartilage and synovial fluid to keep the joint mobile. This evolutionary construction is good for today's reptiles, because it prevents the dreaded slipped disc, which is caused by parts of the disc slipping out into the spinal canal.

"I found it hard to believe that ancient reptiles did not have intervertebral discs," says paleontologist Dr. Tanja Wintrich from the Section Paleontology in the Institute of Geosciences of the University of Bonn. She noticed that the vertebrae of most dinosaurs and ancient marine reptiles look very similar to those of humans - that is, they do not have ball-and-socket joints. She therefore wondered whether extinct reptiles had intervertebral discs, but had "replaced" these with ball-and-socket joints in the course of evolution.

Comparison of the vertebrae of dinosaurs with animals still alive today

To this end, the team of researchers led by Tanja Wintrich and with the participation of the University of Cologne and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg as well as researchers from Canada and Russia examined a total of 19 different dinosaurs, other extinct reptiles, and animals still alive today. The researchers concluded that intervertebral discs not only occur in mammals. For these investigations, vertebrae still in connection were analyzed using various methods.

Surprisingly, Dr. Wintrich has now also been able to demonstrate that remnants of cartilage and even other parts of the intervertebral disc are almost always preserved in such ancient specimens, including marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs and dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus. She then traced the evolution of the soft tissues between the vertebrae along the family tree of land animals, which 310 million years ago split into the mammalian line and the dinosaur and bird line.

Intervertebral discs emerged several times during evolution

It was previously unknown that intervertebral discs are a very ancient feature. The findings also show that intervertebral discs evolved several times during evolution in different animals, and were probably replaced by ball-and-socket joints twice in reptiles. "The reason why the intervertebral disc was replaced might be that it is more susceptible to damage than a ball-and-socket joint," says Dr. Wintrich. Nonetheless, mammals have always retained intervertebral discs, repeating the familiar pattern that they are rather limited in their evolutionary flexibility. "This insight is also central to the medical understanding of humans. The human body is not perfect, and its diseases reflect our long evolutionary history," adds paleontologist Prof. Dr. Martin Sander from the University of Bonn.

In terms of research methods, the team drew not only on paleontology, but also on medical anatomy, developmental biology and zoology. Under the microscope, dinosaur bones cut with a rock saw and then ground very thinly provide information comparable to histological sections of fixed and embedded tissue of extant animals. This makes it possible to bridge the long periods of evolution and identify developmental processes. Prof. Sander remarks: "It's truly amazing that the cartilage of the joint and apparently even the disc itself can survive for hundreds of millions of years."

Dr. Wintrich, who now works at the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Bonn, is pleased about the cooperation between the fields that has made this interdisciplinary understanding possible in the first place: "We found that even Tyrannosaurus rex was not protected against slipped discs." Only bird-like predatory dinosaurs then evolved ball-and-socket joints as well and saddle joints, still seen in today's birds. Likewise, such ball-and-socket joints were a decisive advantage for the stability of the spine of the largest dinosaurs, the long-necked dinosaurs.

This bridge between paleontology and medicine is seminal in Germany. The anatomist Prof. Dr. Karl Schilling from the University of Bonn, who was not involved in the new study, reports: "In the USA, in contrast, dinosaur researchers and evolutionary biologists are often closely involved in medical training, especially in anatomy and embryology. This gives young doctors a perspective that is becoming increasingly important in a rapidly changing environment."

August 24, 2020 - As the COVID 19 pandemic continues, business leaders face critical decisions on how to safely reopen and resume operations. A set of general guidelines for Safely Returning America to Work was published by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official journal of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

"Guidance regarding return-to-work decision-making from a worker-safety and medical perspective incorporating the principles of risk, capacity, and tolerance is critical," according to Part I of the ACOEM Guidance Document, providing general guidance for employers reopening amid the challenges of COVID-19. Posted online today, the new document will appear in the journal's September issue.

The guidance was prepared by ACOEM Return to Work (RTW) Work Group under the auspices of the Council on OEM Practice. Topic areas include:

The Context of Returning to Business. Whether they have continued to operate or are transitioning to re-opening, employers must create and communicate clear policies. Occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) physicians can provide "clear routes" to meeting challenges such as COVID 19 screenings, exposure assessments, and RTW clearances. With experience in organizational behavior, OEM specialists can also lend insights into behavioral issues and interpersonal conflicts that may occur during reopening.

Clinical Manifestations of COVID-19. The guidance addresses the now-familiar clinical findings and potential complications of COVID 19, as well as the course of recovery and rehabilitation. OEM physicians can provide advice on the care of workers recovering from illness, including possible work accommodations, as well as the mental health impact of COVID-19.

Developing a Successful RTW Policy. Employers will need to make plans to protect returning employees, including policies for dealing with infected and exposed workers, asymptomatic employees, and screening/surveillance policies. The occupational risk pyramid developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides a basis for assessing exposure risks associated with various job tasks.

Pre-/Re-Opening Actions. The ACOEM guidance outlines the hierarchy of controls for re-opening, emphasizing physical distancing, environmental adaptation, and education strategies. It outlines practical considerations in RTW strategy, including steps to reduce the risk of viral transmission, maintain employee mental health, and protect vulnerable populations. OEM professionals will play key roles in COVID 19 testing and interpretation.

After Opening. Good communication is essential throughout the re-opening process, with an emphasis on safety and monitoring practices. Re-opening plans will be influenced by the course of the pandemic, governmental decisions, and company leadership. Experience from other countries that are further along in reopening may provide important lessons on how to proceed.

RTW After Infection. COVID-19 testing and evaluation will have important implications for RTW after infection. OEM physicians can provide information and support for dealing with issues involving infected or exposed employees. Work-relatedness will take on special importance in workers' compensation cases involving COVID 19.

Industry-Specific Guidance. Different industries face unique challenges in re-opening, and OEM physicians will play an important role in interpreting and applying guidance in various settings. Part II of the ACOEM Guidance Document, to be published later this year, will provide more in-depth information on industry-specific concerns.

As for all articles related to COVID 19, both parts of the ACOEM Guidance Document will be made freely available on the journal website. Online versions will be updated as new information becomes available, including lessons learned from businesses that have successfully reopened.

Click here to read "Safely Returning America to Work Part I: General Guidance for Employers."

Housing programs adopted during the New Deal increased segregation in American cities and towns, creating racial disparities that continue to characterize life in the 21st century, finds a new study by New York University sociologist Jacob Faber.

"New Deal housing policies encouraged racial segregation and their substantial impact on American cities and towns can still be seen today," says Faber, whose research appears in the American Sociological Review.

The findings come weeks after the Trump Administration eliminated a program created in 2015, the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, that was designed to combat racial segregation in suburban housing.

While scholars have long placed blame on the federal government for sowing the seeds of racial inequality thorough segregationist housing policies initially developed during the New Deal and expanded in subsequent decades, there was little empirical evidence connecting these policies to either contemporary patterns of segregation or to changes over time in those patterns.

The American Sociological Review study is the first to estimate the effects of early-20th-century housing policies on subsequent segregation patterns.

Today's practice of American homeownership stems from government programs adopted during the New Deal. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)--and later the Federal Housing Administration and GI Bill--expanded home-buying opportunity, but were marked by segregationist practices.

"Through mechanisms such as redlining, these policies fueled White suburbanization and Black ghettoization, while laying the foundation for the racial wealth gap," explains Faber, an associate professor at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the university's Department of Sociology.

The study examined a century of U.S. census data for more than 650 cities, along with other archival data documenting government redlining practices. The multi-decade investigation showed that cities that were HOLC-appraised became more segregated than those that were not. Notably, the gap emerged during America's suburbanization boom of the 1940s and 1950s and remained through the first decade of the 21st century.

In 2010, Black residents living in HOLC-appraised cities, which include large cities (e.g., New York and Chicago) as well as small towns (e.g., Fairfield, Ala., La Grange, Ill., New London, Ct., Newport News, Va., and Woburn, Mass.), were more isolated from White residents compared to Blacks living in non-appraised cities, such as Elizabeth, NJ. The effect of these programs was much larger among cities and towns in the South, which were slow to adopt fair housing legislation.

"The long-term impact of these policies is a reminder of the intentionality that shaped racial geography in the United States and the scale of intervention that will be required to disrupt the persistence of segregation," observes Faber.

A new two-stage surgical approach for cancer prevention is highly acceptable among premenopausal women at high risk of ovarian cancer, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London.

For women at high risk of ovarian cancer, the standard preventive practice is to offer removal of both the fallopian tubes and ovaries, but the surgery induces menopause in women who have not yet reached this stage of life. Early menopause is associated with side effects like increased risk of heart-disease, osteoporosis, neurocognitive decline and sexual-dysfunction. Hence, some women at high risk of ovarian cancer delay surgery until after they reach menopause. During this period they remain at much higher risk of ovarian cancer.

A proposed alternative is a two-step surgical protocol, which delays the induced menopause caused by the removal of the ovaries. In this protocol, the fallopian tubes are removed as an initial step to offer some risk reduction, and ovary removal is delayed until a later stage when women have reached menopause. This procedure provides some ovarian cancer risk reduction while avoiding detrimental consequences of premature surgically-induced menopause.

69 per cent interested in new surgical option

In the multicentre UK study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and funded by the Rosetrees Trust and Barts Charity, researchers examined the acceptability of the proposed alternative two-step surgical protocol. The 638 study participants were all at increased risk of ovarian cancer; 346 had undergone standard risk reducing surgery, and 337 had not.

Among those who had undergone standard preventive surgery, 9.4 per cent of premenopausal and 1.2 per cent of postmenopausal women regretted their decision. Of premenopausal women who had not undergone standard surgery, 69 per cent found it acceptable to participate in a research study offering the proposed new surgical option. 38 per cent of women who had undergone standard surgery would have potentially (in hindsight) opted for the new two-step operation. The new two-step surgical protocol was particularly acceptable to women concerned about the sexual dysfunction side effects of ovary removal.

Patients sought for clinical trial into new surgery protocol

Lead researcher Professor Ranjit Manchanda from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust said: "Undergoing an operation to prevent ovarian cancer can be a complex decision making process. Although removal of tubes and ovaries prevents ovarian cancer, it can lead to early surgical menopause which has significant detrimental consequences on long-term health. A number of women opt to delay or decline preventive surgery as a result.

"The new two-step operation offers additional options for women (who may have not undergone surgical prevention) to reduce their ovarian cancer risk while avoiding the negative impact of early menopause. Our study shows a large proportion of eligible women wish to consider this. UK women who wish to do so now have the option of joining the PROTECTOR (Preventing Ovarian Cancer through early Excision of Tubes and late Ovarian Removal) study (http://www.protector.org.uk)."

Dr Faiza Gaba from Queen Mary University of London added: "While hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been shown to mitigate some symptoms, it does not appear to alleviate sexual-dysfunction or increase satisfaction levels following standard preventive surgery involving removal of ovaries. However HRT-use in breast cancer unaffected women undergoing premenopausal removal of their ovaries is essential to reduce the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis and neurocognitive decline. The new two-step surgery offers further options to women considering surgical prevention."

Treatments designed around women's individual needs and choices

Dr Vineeth Rajkumar, Head of Research at Rosetrees Trust said: "Rosetrees Trust is delighted to have supported Professor Manchanda's study, which has paved the way for a clinical trial that could make a difference to thousands of women at risk of ovarian cancer."

Victoria King, Director of Grants at Barts Charity added: "Barts Charity is proud to support the PROTECTOR trial, a trial which could make a huge difference to women with increased risk of ovarian cancer. It is hugely important to us that it carries the potential for better informed decision-making for women themselves and treatments designed around women's individual needs and choices."

New York, NY (August 24, 2020) -- Mount Sinai scientists have identified two markers of inflammation that reliably predict the severity of COVID-19 cases and likelihood of survival, providing a foundation for a diagnostic platform and therapeutic targets, according to a study published in Nature Medicine in August.

The researchers studied four proteins known as cytokines that circulate in blood and are commonly associated with infections, and found that two of them, called IL-6 and TNF-α, were able to predict which patients were likely to develop more severe forms of COVID-19 and die. The scientists established that the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in serum, when measured at admission to the hospital, were elevated in patients who fared the worst, a finding that was independent of the patients' other underlying medical conditions, of demographics such as age and sex, and of other standard clinical biomarkers of disease severity such as low blood oxygen saturation and common markers related to inflammation, iron levels, and blood clotting issues.

This study suggests that these cytokines should be monitored in the treatment of COVID-19 patients to help select those who should enter clinical trials and receive specific drugs that can target them, the researchers say.

"We propose that serum IL-6 and TNF-? levels should be considered in the management and treatment of COVID-19 patients to stratify prospective clinical trials, guide resource allocation, and inform therapeutic options," said lead researcher Sacha Gnjatic, PhD, Associate Director of the Human Immune Monitoring Center at Mount Sinai; Associate Professor of Medicine, Oncological Sciences and Pathology, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and a member of the Precision Immunology Institute and The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai. "We also propose that patients with high IL-6 and TNF-? levels should be assessed for combinatorial blockade of pathogenic inflammation in this disease. Drugs blocking these cytokines are either FDA-approved or in clinical trials."

When the pandemic began, Mount Sinai scientists promptly implemented a rapid test to measure the levels of four cytokines associated with pathogenic inflammation, which were suspected to cause severity in COVID-19 patients. In just one month, cytokine blood levels were tested in 1,484 patients upon admission to Mount Sinai Health System's hospitals, and patients were followed for up to 41 days.

Thanks to an emergency authorization from the New York State Department of Health, the test was allowed to be placed in the hospital's electronic medical record system where doctors order standard blood tests and medicines for patients, allowing for the rapid collection of a large amount of samples. Results were available in three hours, leading researchers to believe it could be implemented in a clinical setting to stratify patients and determine treatments in almost real time.

The results from the tests showed that the risk of death in patients with elevated IL-6 or TNF-α was twofold or higher, even when considering other known risk factors. Scientists then validated their predictive model using samples from an additional cohort of 231 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The researchers looked at how various treatments attempted in a subset of these patients affected the cytokines they measured. They found that treatments recently found to benefit COVID-19 patients, such as the antiviral remdesivir or the corticosteroid dexamethasone, could lower the levels of the cytokines.

Based on these results, scientists propose that monitoring COVID-19 patients for these cytokines can help determine their prognosis, and that any treatment should be potentially administered in the context of cytokine measurements, since it affects outcome.

The researchers propose that these findings also call for the use of drugs targeting IL-6 and TNF-α by themselves or combined at the same time, to be tested for their potential benefit based on elevated starting levels.

Monitoring the levels of IL-6 and TNF-a before and during experimental treatments such as anti-cytokine antibodies or corticosteroids will be useful to establish a predictive and prognostic value for these potential biomarkers.