Culture

A sulphur-crested cockatoo named Snowball garnered YouTube fame and headlines a decade ago for his uncanny ability to dance to the beat of the Backstreet Boys. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on July 8 are back with new evidence that Snowball isn't limited in his dance moves. Despite a lack of dance training, new videos show that Snowball responds to music with diverse and spontaneous movements using various parts of his body.

The finding is more than an entertaining novelty act. It suggests that dancing to music isn't an arbitrary product of human culture but a response to music that arises when certain cognitive and neural capacities come together in animal brains, the researchers say.

"What's most interesting to us is the sheer diversity of his movements to music," says senior author Aniruddh Patel, a psychologist at Tufts University and Harvard University, noting that Snowball developed those moves--much richer than the head bobbing and foot lifting they'd studied before--without any training.

Patel's earlier study, also published in Current Biology (doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.038), confirmed that Snowball could move to the beat. That was notable in part because dancing is a natural ability in humans that's absent in other primates. Soon after that study, Snowball's owner and an author on the new paper, Irena Schulz, noticed that Snowball was making movements to music she hadn't seen before.

This gave the researchers the chance to study another potential similarity between Snowball's movements and human dancing: diversity in the movements and body parts used when responding to music. To quantify Snowball's movement diversity, Patel's team filmed Snowball grooving to two classic hits of the eighties: "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." They played each of the tunes for him three times for a total of 23 minutes.

At the time, Snowball was 12 years old and had not danced to those songs with anyone other than his owner. During filming, Schulz was in the room shouting an occasional "Good boy." But Snowball was the only one in the room dancing.

To analyze Snowball's movements, the study's first author R. Joanne Jao Keehn, a cognitive neuroscientist and a classically and contemporarily trained dancer, used frame-by-frame analysis with the audio muted. She focused on each "dance movement" or sequence of repeated movements. The movements of interest were clearly intentional, but they weren't an efficient means for Snowball to achieve any plausible external goal.

All told, the video captured Snowball completing a diverse repertoire of 14 dance movements and two composite movements. He bobs, swings, and circles his head around in several different ways, sometimes in coordination with foot lifts or other movements (see video).

Unlike the way humans normally dance, Snowball tended to dance in snippets of about three or four seconds. Each time he heard a particular tune he danced a little differently, a sign of flexibility and perhaps even creativity.

Snowball isn't the first parrot to move to the music, but there has been uncertainty about how such moves are acquired. The researchers propose that the reason humans and parrots share a natural ability to dance may arise from the convergence of five traits: (1) vocal learning, (2) the capacity for nonverbal movement imitation, (3) a tendency to form long-term social bonds, (4) the ability to learn complex sequences of actions, and (5) attentiveness to communicative movements.

For humans, dancing is a form of social interaction. People more often dance with other people than they do alone. Patel says they are currently analyzing data from an experiment designed to find out whether the same is true of Snowball.

Researchers in Japan have identified multiple promising new drug candidates to treat antibiotic-resistant infections, including the superbug MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). The team developed a new technique to enhance the infection-fighting potential of natural chemicals and test them quickly.

In laboratory tests, three of the synthetic molecules that the researchers built are four times more effective at killing bacteria than their natural predecessor, which is itself already an order of magnitude more potent than the current drug used against MRSA, vancomycin.

"Our technique is fast because we can build thousands of new molecules in a single synthesis," said Assistant Professor Hiroaki Itoh from the University of Tokyo Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Researchers first identified the promising new natural antibiotic from a soil sample collected in the subtropical island of Okinawa in southwestern Japan. The antibiotic, called lysocin E, has a unique mechanism of killing bacteria compared to the currently available classes of antibiotics. Even MRSA would be defenseless against it.

Lysocin E has a complex chemical structure that resembles a tambourine: a large ring with 12 short side chains.

The protein building blocks, called amino acids, which form those chains, each contribute to the overall function of the entire molecule. Swapping the naturally occurring amino acids for different ones could enhance the function of the antibiotic.

"We try to find the improvements that natural selection did not make yet," said Itoh.

Researchers focused on four side chains and tested how seven different amino acids might enhance lysocin E's antibacterial activity. All possible combinations of the four side chains and seven amino acids meant that researchers needed to build 2,401 different synthetic versions of modified lysocin E.

Researchers built all 2,401 modified lysocin E simultaneously, one amino acid at a time on top of tiny beads. The beads were divided into seven portions each time researchers reached a part of the molecule where they wanted to vary the amino acid in a side chain. Then all the beads were recombined until researchers reached the location of the next amino acid variation.

"Very few researchers have done this before because many naturally occurring molecules have relatively large and complex structures. This makes them difficult to build synthetically," explained Itoh.

The technique is known as one-bead-one-compound library strategy or split-and-mix synthesis.

Once all 2,401 modified lysocin E were built, researchers tested if they retained the natural version's unique method of killing bacteria. Researchers then removed the molecules from the beads and identified their chemical structures.

Only 22 modified lysocin E were selected for the final round of tests to measure how effective they were at killing six common bacteria in tiny test tubes. Of those, 11 modified lysocin E showed antimicrobial activity better or equal to the original lysocin E.

Researchers will study the three most potent modified lysocin E - defined by the very small amount of drug effective at killing bacteria - to verify their effectiveness at treating infections in nonhuman animal models and to understand the detailed mechanism of how they kill bacteria at such low doses.

"Potentially, our method could be used to find other drug candidates based on promising small protein natural products, including for anti-cancer or anti-virus," said Itoh.

Researchers are confident that their method of synthetically enhancing natural products can increase the speed of early-stage drug discovery, and help maximize the potential of naturally occurring complex molecules.

Besides bacteria, pathogens including HIV (a virus) and malaria (a parasite) are becoming resistant to medications, increasing the potential global health threat of drug resistance. For more information on antibiotic resistance, see the World Health Organization fact sheet:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antibiotic-resistance

Scientists at UPF and the company S-Biomedic have demonstrated the use of living bacteria to modulate skin microbiome composition. In the study, published in Microbiome, mixtures of different skin microbial components have been used to temporarily modulate the composition of recipient skin bacteria for therapeutic or cosmetic purposes.

The human body is host to a complex and rich microbial community, which mainly resides in the skin, in the oral mucosa, and in the gastrointestinal tracts, and has fundamental roles in health and disease. More specifically, the skin is colonized by a large number of microorganisms with a stable composition of species over time. However, skin-associated diseases such as acne vulgaris, eczema, psoriasis, or dandruff are associated with strong and specific microbiome alterations.

The targeted manipulation of the human microbiome may become a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment and study of diseases. The most prominent example of this is the treatment of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Clostridium difficile within the gut microbiome with the help of faecal transplantation. Similarly, manipulation of the skin microbiome entails the promise of novel therapeutic strategies for skin diseases.

Manipulation of the skin microbiome entails the promise of novel therapeutic strategies for skin diseases.

"We are particularly interested in Cutibacterium acnes and its strain diversity, as this bacterium represents a major part of the human skin microbiome, and certain strains are associated with a deviation in the microbiome which probably causes acne vulgaris", states Marc Güell, head of the Translational Synthetic Biology group at the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (DCEXS). "Therefore, we developed and tested an approach to modulate the subpopulation of this species at strain level", adds Güell.

For the study, the researchers prepared probiotic solutions from donor microbiomes and applied them in 18 healthy volunteers aged 22 to 42. Eight different skin areas were defined for application --on the chest and along the spine--, chosen due to their typically high abundance of sebaceous glands.

After a few weeks, the skin microbiome returned to ground state and no adverse effects were detected.

They show that after sequential applications of a donor microbiome, the recipient becomes more similar to the donor microbiome. The level of success depends on the composition of the recipient and donor microbiomes, and the bacterial load applied.

"We observed better results using a multi-strain donor solution with recipient skin rich in a specific Cutibacterium acnes subtype with positive features isolated from healthy individuals", explains Bernhard Paetzold, first author of the study and co-founder and chief scientific officer of S-Biomedic. After a few weeks, the skin microbiome returned to ground state and no adverse effects were detected.

This method opens the possibility of developing probiotic solutions that help human skin to revert diseased microbiome states to healthy ones. "We expect that this methodology could be used to study and modify skin microbial components and have broad implications for future therapies and research in the skin microbiome and related diseases", concludes Marc Güell.

Wind and warmth can improve travel time for the billions of insects worldwide that migrate each year, according to a first-ever radio-tracking study by University of Guelph biologists.

Researchers equipped monarch butterflies and green darner dragonflies with radio transmitters and tracked them through southern Ontario and several northern States to learn how environmental factors affect daytime insect migration.

Learning more about what happens to insects during their physically taxing migration period may help in efforts to conserve them, particularly threatened species, said the researchers.

The study, which was recently published in Biology Letters, found wind and temperature are more important influences than precipitation for bugs on autumn migration flights spanning thousands of kilometres between their breeding and wintering grounds.

As part of their multigenerational migration, monarchs from Canada overwinter in Mexico and green darners travel to the southern United States.

Until recently, their small size has made individual insects hard to track. But it's increasingly critical to do just that, said lead author Samantha Knight.

Insects on the wing play vital roles in pollinating crops and in maintaining ecosystems as both prey and predators.

Threatened by habitat loss, land use changes and global warming, she said, "some 40 per cent of insect species risk extinction, yet we know little about what happens to organisms when they migrate."

Study co-author Prof. Ryan Norris, Department of Integrative Biology, added, "Migration is not an easy period for insects. They are likely pushed to their physiological limits. If we have a way to track and understand what habitats they're using, that goes a long way to understanding what might be causing declines."

As part of the study, researchers captured insects on Ontario's Bruce Peninsula in fall 2015 and 2016 and outfitted them with battery-powered radio transmitters weighing about as much as a raindrop. Those devices emitted signals picked up by an array of telemetry towers across the southern part of the province and into the northern United States.

The team downloaded data from the towers to track individuals' flight distances and speeds.

On average, monarchs flew about 12 kilometres per hour and darners about 16 kilometres per hour. The farthest a monarch travelled in one day was 143 kilometres at 31 km per hour, including windspeed. In a single day, a darner flew 122 kilometres at up to 77 km per hour.

"A darner would get a speeding ticket in Guelph," quipped Norris, adding that insects may fly even farther and faster in single spurts.

To attain their fastest airspeeds, the insects are likely flying high in the atmosphere to take advantage of the wind, although the researchers don't know how high.

"That means insects are migrating over our heads and we don't know it," said Norris.

Unlike birds, insects need a minimum air temperature of about 10-15 C for daytime flight. Monarchs and darners fly faster as it warms up. However, flight is impeded when it gets too hot, said Norris. At temperatures above 23 C - higher than in this new study -- darners have been seen flying slower.

Norris said insects probably have an upper temperature limit for efficient flight, suggesting that global warming might ultimately affect their migration.

The researchers were surprised that rain had no effect on flight speed. Light rain might not have deterred the insects, or they might have made up for lost time after rainfall.

Knight said tracking technology enables researchers to learn more about insect migration under varying conditions. Many species have been studied while breeding and overwintering, but scientists lack information about migration, including human impacts on habitat and feeding en route.

"For insects, land use changes are a major driver of declines in numbers," she said. "If we understand where they're going, we can maybe shed light on land use change impacts during migration."

Ulvan is the principal component of Ulva or "sea lettuce" which causes algal blooms (green tides). Scientists at the Station Biologique de Roscoff (CNRS/Sorbonne Université) and their German and Austrian colleagues have identified a marine bacterium whose enzymatic system can break down ulvan into an energy source or molecules of interest for use by the agrifood or cosmetics industries. Twelve enzymes have thus been discovered and they constitute as many tools that could transform this under-exploited polysaccharide into a renewable resource. This work is published on July 8 in Nature Chemical Biology.

Ulva are edible green macroalgae that are present naturally along our coastlines ("sea lettuce"). These algae can suddenly proliferate because of an excess of nutrients resulting from human activities and cause the deposit of enormous masses on beaches. These phenomena, or green tides, have a detrimental impact on the quality of the environments concerned and on tourism.

However, sea lettuce constitutes a reservoir of biomolecules with promising properties. This is the case for ulvan, the principal monosaccharide found in the cell wall of Ulva. However, the biotechnological exploitation of ulvan is currently hindered by a lack of understanding of its degradation mechanisms.

In this context, an international consortium involving the Laboratoire de Biologie Intégrative des Modèles Marins at the Station Biologique de Roscoff (CNRS/Université Paris-Sorbonne), the Universities of Bremen and Greifswald (in Germany) and Vienna Technical University (Austria) has discovered and characterised the complete degradation pathway for ulvan in the marine flavobacterium Formosa agariphila. In this bacterium, twelve enzymes act sequentially to convert ulvan into fermentable monosaccharides that could serve as a basis for the production of bioethanol. The French team in the consortium focused notably on a particular type of these enzymes, sulfatases, and determined their 3D structures.

As well as the production of energy, these enzymes can also obtain other types of bioactive molecules that are more complex and have a higher added value than simple fermentable monosaccharides. This work therefore opens the way to the biotechnological exploitation of ulvan, particularly by the agrifood and cosmetics industries, transforming a biomass considered as "detrimental" into a sustainable resource.

Bacteria of the Acinetobacter ACB complex, which are frequently acquired in hospital settings, can also be found in beef meat, according to a study led by ISGlobal, an institution supported by "la Caixa" and performed with meat samples from markets in Lima, Peru. Although the isolates were susceptible to most antibiotics, these results suggest that raw meat can act as a reservoir for these pathogenic bacteria.

Among bacteria of the Acinetobacter family, those belonging to the ACB complex (Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-Acinetobacter baumannii) have become a major threat in hospitals, due to their capacity to acquire resistance to multiple antimicrobial drugs and disinfectants and to survive in hospital environments. However, pathogenic Acinetobacter species have also been found in food and food-producing animals, which could represent a reservoir and source of infection for humans.

This study analysed bacteria recovered from 138 meat samples from poultry, swine and beef, randomly picked from six traditional markets in Lima, Peru. The authors obtained 12 Acinetobacter isolates from five different beef samples, sold in two independent markets. All but one belonged to the ACB complex: 9 were Acinetobacter pittii, 1 A. baumannii and 1 was A. dijkshoorniae, a species recently described by the same ISGlobal research group. In fact, this is the first time that the latter is identified in meat samples, or in Peru.

"The identification of bacteria of the ACB group in meat samples is worrying, since these species are usually found in the clinical settings," explains Ignasi Roca, ISGlobal researcher and study coordinator. "Although all of the isolates were susceptible to clinically relevant antibiotics, and their overall prevalence was low, these results suggest that raw meat may represent a reservoir for Acinetobacter transmission to humans," he adds.

The results underscore the fact that many microbes that infect humans can also be transmitted through contaminated food; therefore the need to establish interdisciplinary collaborations between health care for humans, animal health and the environment, an approach known as "One Health."

The impact of interruption of anti-osteoporosis treatment in patients on therapy with bisphosphonates or denosumab is reviewed in a new International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) working group paper 'Fracture risk following intermission of osteoporosis therapy' published in the journal Osteoporosis International.

The widespread practice of recommending one to two year 'drug holidays' arose following concerns that long-term use of bisphosphonates is associated with rare side effects, namely atypical femoral fractures and osteonecrosis of the jaw. However, available evidence suggests that for patients who are at high risk of fracture the risk-benefit ratio is clearly in favour of treatment continuation, with approximately 100 new fragility fractures prevented for each of these adverse events.

Lead author, Prof. Elaine Dennison, of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK, stated: "Our aim was to review the available literature to assess what evidence exists to inform decision making on drug holidays and to identify any indicators that might help clinicians decide whether to continue or discontinue therapy in individual patients."

In general, few studies have fully considered this topic. However, based on the available evidence in prospective and retrospective analyses, the authors found that after stopping bisphosphonate treatment there was higher risk of new non-vertebral fractures in women who had a total hip T-score below -2.5, and the risk of clinical vertebral fractures was approximately double. As well, rapid bone loss occurs following denosumab discontinuation, with the incidence of multiple vertebral fractures around 5%.

Studies that considered long-term continuation did not identify increased fracture risk, and reported only very low rates of adverse skeletal events such as atypical fractures.

Professor Serge Ferrari, co-author and Chair of the IOF Committee of Scientific Advisors added: "This review points to the need for a far more nuanced approach to drug holidays. Osteoporotic fractures can be life-threatening and have a devastating impact on quality of life. Doctors and patients must be aware that, particularly for individuals at high risk, the benefits of staying on treatment clearly outweighs the risk of rare side effects. Furthermore, it is important to understand that bisphosphonates and denosumab are fundamentally different types of treatment which require different approaches as discontinuation of denosumab results in rapid bone loss, at least in subjects not previously exposed to long-lasting bisphosphonates."

IOF President Prof. Cyrus Cooper, co-author, concluded: "The burden of osteoporotic fractures is very high and costly, resulting in disability and loss of independence in millions of older women and men worldwide. The efficacy of proven treatments is well established with fracture reduction in the order of 50% possible. Rather than practicing indiscriminate application of drug holidays, we encourage more informed decision making and appropriate counselling of high-risk patients on the individual benefits of treatment continuation versus cessation."

You often hear it framed in a comic sense, though it's a form of stereotyping, and even prejudice. "You all look alike to me."

To one race, the tired adage implies, people in other races are tough to differentiate from each other. Some call it the "other-race effect."

It's something more than a wince-worthy punchline. New UC Riverside research bears it out, finding we are hard-wired to process-- or not process-- facial differences based on race. And that process occurs in the earliest filters of our thought process.

The research, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, or PNAS, was led by UC Riverside psychologist Brent Hughes. The overriding question posited in the paper: When we observe members of another racial group, are their actual physical distinctions blurred in our mind's eye?

The study participants were 17 white people studying white and black faces on a monitor while lying inside a functional MRI scanner, which identifies changes in brain activity. Some experiments were also conducted outside of the MRI.

Hughes and his team looked at the white participants' high-level visual cortex to see whether it was more tuned in to differences in white faces than black ones. The visual cortex is the first stop for processing impulses from the eyes; the high-level visual cortex specializing in processing faces.

Their findings affirmed previous studies, determining that participants showed a greater tendency to individuate-- recognize differences in--own-race faces, and less for other races. But Hughes' study went further, demonstrating how deep this tendency runs: as far as our earliest sensory processes.

"Our results suggest that biases for other-race faces emerge at some of the earliest stages of sensory perception," Hughes wrote in the paper, entitled "Neural Adaptation to faces reveals racial outgroup homogeneity effects in early perception."

Hughes wrote that the fallout from noticing the differences in members of one own's race but not others is profound. These early perceptions can cascade, affecting downstream beliefs and behaviors. The implications can range from embarrassing to life-changing - think of when the wrong suspect in a crime is selected from a lineup.

"We are much more likely to generalize negative experiences if we see individuals as similar or interchangeable parts of a broad social group," Hughes said.

Previous studies have found the "other-race effect" is found in populations other than whites. But Hughes isn't comfortable extending his findings to assume that black people also "de-individuate" white faces in the high-visual visual cortex. The reason: Majority vs. minority perceptions.

"Members of minority groups wind up being exposed to more members of majority groups than majority members get exposed to minority members," he said. "It could be that exposure to individuals of different groups may help the visual system develop expertise that reduces this effect."

The study shouldn't be interpreted as a pass for "you all look the same to me," Hughes said.

"These effects are not uncontrollable," he said. "These race biases in perception are malleable and subject to individual motivations and goals. In this sense, attitudes, motives and goals can be shaping visual perceptual processes."

Researchers at LSTM, along with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and the University Medical Center Utrecht have looked at the impact of the natural microbial flora or microbiota in the nose and viral co-infection on pneumococcal acquisition in healthy adults.

Streptococcus pneumoniae or pneumococcus is the main bacterial pathogen involved in pneumonia, a respiratory tract infection and major global heath problem, accounting for more deaths in children under five than any other infection. In a paper published today in the journal Nature Communications the team, using the unique Experimental Human Pneumococcal Challenge model developed at LSTM, studied the relationship between the microorganisms present in the nose, viral co-infection using live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV)and pneumococcal carriage. Using molecular techniques, the team discovered that the equilibrium between the microbes in the nose and the host has an impact on pneumococcal acquisition and density, in particular when combined with a viral co-infection. The microbial flora also appeared to have an effect on replication of the virus itself.

LSTM's Professor Daniela Ferreira, co-senior author on the paper said: "We knew relatively little about the relationship between viral infections and the microbiota. Our model helped us to establish a link between baseline microbiota and colonisation with the bacteria which causes pneumonia and shows the way that it is apparently altered with the introduction of a viral pathogen."

Utilizing the model developed at LSTM the team were able to test this by safely inoculating live bacteria in combination with a live virus in the form of the readily available nasal vaccine for influenza.

Professor Debby Bogaert, University of Edinburgh, is also co-senior author on the paper. She said: "using this sophisticated human challenge model, we were for the first time able to identify that different constellations of microbes in the nose are associated with more or less inflammation, viral replication and pneumococcal carriage receptiveness".

Especially, identification of specific microbiota constellations which appear to control viral and bacterial acquisition, and mediate inflammation and infection, might help the design of new preventive or therapeutic strategies for respiratory infections in the future.

China is an example of a country that suffers severe damage caused by high-impact weather and accompanying floods and mudslides. Dual-polarization (dual-pol) radars, first developed in the United States in the late 1970s, have been extensively used for monitoring and nowcasting these high-impact weather events. Dual-pol parameters contain a rich amount of microphysical information on these heavy precipitation systems, according to Prof. Kun Zhao, Director of the Joint Center for Atmospheric Radar Research of the CMA/NJU, and Vice Dean of the School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University.

In recent years, with the advent of dual-pol radar technologies in China, dozens of dual-pol radars have been developed by universities, research institutes, and weather observatories. China's nationwide radar network is currently being upgraded to dual-pol capability.

Professor Zhao is the lead author of a study recently published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. that reviews dual-polarization radar research and applications in China. The paper is included in a special issue on the National Report (2011-2018) to the International Union on Geophysics and Geodesy (IUGG) Centennial by the China National Committee for IAMAS.

"To date, the data collected from these dual-pol radars in China have been used and analyzed to improve understanding of precipitation microphysics as well as quantitative precipitation estimation and forecasting in China", says Prof. Zhao.

To improve the data quality and mitigate the interference of non-meteorological objects, scientists and engineers in China have developed extensive approaches for data quality control of dual-pol radars, including calibration, attenuation correction, calculation of specific differential phase shift, and identification and removal of non-meteorological echoes to improve raindrop size distribution retrieval, hydrometeor classification, and quantitative precipitation estimation in China. Scientists have also sought to use dual-pol radar data to validate the microphysical parameterization and initialization of numerical models and assimilate dual-pol data into numerical models.

Emerging technology includes phased array radar and multiple frequency radar. Phased array dual-pol radars have also been utilized in weather surveillances in China. The temporal resolution of radar scans has dramatically increased. We can sample the 3D information of weather systems in less than two minutes. "However, the H- and V-polarized beam matching off the broadside affecting dual-pol measurements remains a challenge for radar engineers", says Prof. Zhao. "Multi-frequency dual-pol radars provide information on the sizes of hydrometeors based on the wavelength dependence of the Mie scattering effect."

Professor Zhao is confident that these two types of technologies will mature in the next decade and make significant contributions to the future of radar meteorology.

TORONTO, July 4, 2019 - More than 20 million people develop heart disease globally each year, but there is only one cardiac rehab spot for every 12 of those patients to prevent another heart event, according to new research from York University. A global audit and survey of cardiac rehab conducted in York University's Faculty of Health showed that cardiac rehab is available in only half of the world's countries, and the programs that do exist can only serve 1.65 million patients, leaving a gap of over 18 million patients in need.

This first-ever audit and survey was undertaken through the International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. Heart disease is a chronic condition;  cardiac rehabilitation provides heart attack patients structured exercise, risk factor management, as well as education and counselling to optimize their quality of life. Previous research has shown cardiac rehab reduces cardiovascular death and re-hospitalization by 20 percent.

Two papers reporting on the global audit and survey were published in the journal EClinicalMedicine of the Lancet family today, quantifying how much rehab capacity exists in relation to need in every country, and the quality of programs in countries where it exists. Sherry Grace, professor in the Faculty of Health at York University was the senior investigator on the studies, with lead authors Turk-Adawi of Qatar University and Marta Supervia of Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital.

"Almost half of countries around the globe have absolutely no cardiac rehab," said Grace. "People are dying unnecessarily without these programs."

The goal of the first study was to establish availability of cardiac rehab and capacity to serve patients globally. The global team of 58 investigators established that cardiac rehab programs were available in 55 percent of the approximately 200 countries in the world. Researchers then surveyed all of the almost 6,000 programs and got responses from 93 of the 111 countries with rehab. Programs reported treating fewer than expected patients every year, due primarily to lack of resources.

Previously-published data from this study shows that while Canada ranks among the best in the world for program capacity, cardiac rehab is only available in the provinces, with no programs in the Territories. Overall, there is only one cardiac rehab spot for every 4.5 heart attack patients each year nationally. While Ontario has the most programs, the unmet need for cardiac rehab is greatest there.

Africa and South-East Asia are the regions in the greatest need for more programs. India, China and Russia were the countries in greatest need; each needs millions more rehab spots to treat the average number of patients that develop heart disease each year currently, and unfortunately, that number is expected to grow.

The second study presented the results of the first-ever survey of the cardiac rehab programs worldwide that exist, to find out the nature of services delivered, such as types of patients served, number and types of healthcare professionals on the rehab teams, and services delivered. This study found cardiac rehab programs are of high quality where they are available, and often treat patients with chronic conditions other than heart disease.

The results showed that the existing programs generally met international standards, offering an average of nine out of the 11 recommended core components, but this varied by region. There was inconsistent delivery of interventions for tobacco cessation, managing stress and supporting return-to-work; the situation is the same in Canada. Programs were staffed by an average of 6 staff to deliver these components, generally comprising exercise professionals, nurses, dietitians and physicians.

Researchers say advocacy is needed for more programs that are reimbursed by public healthcare systems or private healthcare insurance. "Increased capacity could be also be achieved by delivering more unsupervised programs - for example by exploiting technology through home-based cardiac rehabilitation, which was offered in only 38 countries. Delivery in these settings is just as effective at reducing death in heart patients," says Grace.

Japan -- From peacocks to butterflies and betta fish, mother nature never disappoints when it colors the males of a species. Which makes sense, in species with traditional sex roles, males are more involved in competing for mates, leading females to be choosier in their selection. As a result, males evolve to display even flashier and attractive ornaments.

These color changes also happen in many primates. For example, both male and female Japanese macaques display changing red skin coloration. But in new research published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology a team from Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute propose that female red skin color acts as a 'badge' of their social status and not -- as previously thought -- of fertility.

First author Lucie Rigaill explains that though female primates also display colorful traits, little is actually known about their role in mating.

Previous studies in other primates such as rhesus macaques and mandrills have shown a link between red skin color variation and ovulation or fertility. Female Japanese macaques have also been observed to acquire 'redder faces', linked to variation in sex hormone levels, leading researchers to assume that darker/redder faces are a sign of mating availability in the species.

"Our research is about better understating human sexuality by studying the evolutionary and biological roots of primate sexual communication," explains Rigaill.

To determine if changes in skin color actually signals ovulation timing or probability of conception, the team collected face and hindquarters coloration data along with the hormone levels of selected female macaques during the winter mating season.

"We were astonished to find that, contrary to what we originally thought, changes in female skin color did not actually indicate the ovulation period! Skin color was not correlated to fertility either," continues Rigaill. "It even gets more surprising! Females of higher-social status had darker/redder hindquarters, something only reported in male primate populations until now."

Altogether, female red skin color may play a more complex role in Japanese macaques than previously thought, and in fact possibly more involved in signaling social attributes than fertility.

"We suggest that female red skin coloration acts as a 'badge' of social rank, where higher ranked females have darker/redder hindquarters," Rigaill explains. "Intriguingly, females don't show precise behavioral or coloration changes until the beginning of pregnancy, outlining a larger picture of the sexual signaling in this species: females seem to conceal ovulation but signal pregnancy."

The team is excited to have more evidence that mate choice, sexual competition, and mating strategies are dynamic and is expressed by both sexes, and are looking to expand their understanding of the evolution of sexual communication in other primate species.

Cancer research is a field that has been especially dependent on public funding. The National Cancer Institute (NCI), an independent institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was established in 1937 to provide for, foster and coordinate research relating to cancer. As the largest funder of cancer research in the world, it has spent an estimate of more than USD 100 billion on research and treatment. New screening, diagnosis, and treatment methods in consonance with groundbreaking pathogenetic discoveries in the oncologic field, mainly in the form of oncogene and cancer metabolism research, have led to an overall decrease of the cancer death rate by a quarter since 1975. Concerns have come to light in the past ten years surrounding the current funding system of the NIH. Criticisms encompass systematic disincentivizing of funding for transformative research, the grant mechanism's lack of predictive ability, and gender and racial biases.

Raphael Zingg, Assistant Professor at Waseda University, analyzed a set of 100,000 cancer-related patents aggregated by the US Patent and Trademark Office within the framework of the Cancer Moonshot Task Force. The study shows that the direct impact of the NIH on cancer-related inventions shifted over the years. A decline in number and share of federally funded inventions is followed by a decrease in the technological impact of those patents. These various pieces of the puzzle mirror a conservative funding strategy, rather than a high-risks high-rewards one.

Configuring grant review criteria might be a first step to strengthen the impact of funded research. Should the NIH lower its barriers for risky projects by specifying that is seeks to encourage research with potential practical impact in its criteria, reviewers might factor in the higher likelihood of failure of such ventures. Translating biological discoveries into clinical applications can further be strengthened by reinforcing targeted initiatives at the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health level. In order to re-engineer translational science, a flagship initiative of the NIH was to launch Clinical and Translational Science Awards in 2005. Establishing translational cancer research as a field attractive for private investments can also be a way to complement public funds, and to help to close the gap from bench-to-bedside.

According to a new study by researchers from the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, poor men's future outlooks are much shorter that poor women's. Poor men also experience more profound worthlessness than women do.

The researchers concluded that even when men are poor and unemployed, their recognition and role is tied to work, money, and markets. Women, however, have more means to attain a sense of worth outside the economic realm.

In the study, the researchers analyzed 50 written autobiographical accounts of poverty by 25 Finnish women and 25 Finnish men aged 28-57 years submitted to a writing competition. The participants were informed that their texts would be used also for research purposes.

"Male respondents tended to think that being active generated value. Women's futures were generally defined by waiting for something better and raising children," says researcher Reetta Siukola from the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare.

According to the accounts, motherhood brings with it an acknowledged position in society. Therefore, women respondents did not see unemployment as detrimental to them, as men seemed to do.

The analysed texts cover retrospective stories about childhood as well as descriptions of current poverty.

"The worst thing about living on a low income is that you feel your dignity diminishing with every penny you do not have in contrast with those who have them in abundance. The most important concern is finding your way and maintaining a healthy state of mind, where you can be as you are, whatever your financial situation," one respondent wrote.

In the stories, hopeful future expectations and recognition often emerged together, and hopeless future expectations and experiences of unrecognition were likewise paired.

The researchers also found that the social security bureaucracy, that the Finnish welfare state leans heavily on, was often described as a source of worthlessness.

"Professionals and officials often turned a deaf ear to people's experiences, even though the writers felt they would have been able to express sympathy for people in subjectively unfair situations. The writers' accounts described experiences of being left voiceless and unrecognized," says researcher Minna Kukkonen from the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare.

Social security practices and public attitudes combined with financial shortage eroded experiences of dignity for both men and women, and left respondents prone to exclusion. To avoid stigma and shame, many respondents reported withdrawing from social relations.

Findings from outside the social security system, however, revealed that loneliness was heavily reported by male respondents.

"Men may feel left alone if they are not able to perform the sole permitted gender contract of a salaried worker and a family supporter. Meanwhile women have more room to move between social motherhood and the working woman," says research manager Anna-Maria Isola.

Have you ever tried to stay away from fast food, but found hard-to-ignore signals that represent its availability - like neon lights and ads - are everywhere?

If you're stressed, tired or otherwise straining your brain power, you may find it harder to ignore cues in the environment that signal something rewarding.

That's what a UNSW Sydney experiment by a group of psychologists - published today in high-impact journal Psychological Science - has shown.

"We knew already that participants find it hard to ignore cues that signal a large reward," says study lead Dr Poppy Watson at UNSW.

But this experiment showed - for the first time - that ignoring these cues became harder as soon as participants had to perform a task while also holding other information in their memory.

"We have a set of control resources that are guiding us and helping us suppress these unwanted signals of reward. But when those resources are taxed, these become more and more difficult to ignore."

Up until now, researchers didn't know whether people's general inability to ignore reward cues is just something we have no control over or whether we do use our executive control processes to constantly work against distractions. But now it's become clear that the latter is the case - although unfortunately this resource is limited.

Executive control is a term for all cognitive processes that allow us to pay attention, organise our life, focus, and regulate our emotions.

"Now that we have evidence that executive control processes are playing an important role in suppressing attention towards unwanted signals of reward, we can begin to look at the possibility of strengthening executive control as a possible treatment avenue for situations like addiction," says Dr Watson.

In the experiment, participants looked at a screen that contained various shapes including a colourful circle. They were told they could earn money if they successfully located and looked at the diamond shape, but that if they looked at the coloured circle - the distractor - they would not receive the money.

They were also told that the presence of a blue circle meant they'd gain a higher amount of money (if they completed the diamond task) than the presence of an orange circle. The scientists then used eye tracking to measure where on the screen participants were looking.

"To manipulate the ability of participants to control their attention resources, we asked them to do this task under conditions of both high memory load and low memory load," Dr Watson says.

In the high-memory load version of the experiment, participants were asked to memorise a sequence of numbers in addition to locating the diamond, meaning they had fewer attention resources available to focus on the diamond task.

"Study participants found it really difficult to stop themselves from looking at cues that represented the level of reward - the coloured circles - even though they were paid to try and ignore them," Dr Watson says.

"Crucially, the circles became harder to ignore when people were asked to also memorise numbers: under high memory load, participants looked at the coloured circle associated with the high reward around 50% of the time, even though this was entirely counterproductive."

Limited resources

The findings demonstrate that people need full access to cognitive control processes to try and suppress unwanted signals of reward in the environment.

"This is especially relevant for circumstances where people are trying to ignore cues and improve their behaviour, e.g. consuming less alcohol or fast food," says Dr Watson.

"There's this strong known link between where your attention is and what you eventually do, so if you find it hard to focus your attention away from reward cues, it's even harder to act accordingly.

Stress

That also explains why people might find it harder to focus on dieting or beating an addiction if they are under a lot of stress.

"Constant worrying or stress is the equivalent to the high-memory load scenario of our experiment, impacting on people's ability to use their executive control resources in a way that's helping them manage unwanted cues in the environment."

Dr Watson advises people to try and be strategic about exposure to cues.

"If you are under a lot of cognitive pressure (stress, or tiredness) you should really try and avoid situations where you'll be tempted by signals. You need to be in the right frame of mind to be in a situation where you can stop yourself from getting distracted and going down a path where you don't want to go," she says.

Treatment

The researchers now want to look at how executive control can be strengthened - and if that presents an opportunity for situations like drug rehab.

"Our research suggests that if you strengthen executive control you should have better outcomes. Some studies have already demonstrated that training executive control can reduce the likelihood that you will eat chocolate or drink alcohol.

"And in the clinic, training attentional focus away from pictures of alcohol towards soft drinks has been shown to reduce relapse in alcoholic patients," Dr Watson says.

"However, the exact mechanisms of how this works are still unclear and we need more research to figure out how exactly we can use executive control to our advantage."