Culture

Part of being classified as one of 86 public institutions in the Very High Research Activity (R1) category by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education means attracting some of the best and brightest researchers around the world to come to Texas Tech University.

That also means identifying and recruiting some of the top young research-oriented minds to come to campus as undergraduates or graduate students. Julia Kagiliery could be one of those.

Before she gets to college, however, the junior from Jacksonville, Florida, already is getting a taste of what it is like to be an accomplished, published researcher through her work with Texas Tech faculty member David Weindorf. Together, along with the help of other researchers across the U.S., they have published a paper in the International Journal of Coal Geology where they combined optical and X-ray methods to quantify lignite sulfur content in coal.

"It is absolutely amazing to be publishing so young," said Kagiliery, a 16-year-old honors student at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville. "I think young people are often dismissed because of their age in all fields of study. There is some sort of belief that young people, especially young women, are less qualified for projects like this.

"I am so thankful for all the people that helped me in this project, because they really believed in me. This is a really special thing for me, and it serves as a testament to the power of hard work and tenacity. Dr. Weindorf always says, 'You have greatness within you, know it, grow it, show it.'"

Weindorf, an associate vice president in the Office of Research & Innovation and a professor and BL Allen Endowed Chair of Pedology in the Department of Plant and Soil Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, saw Kagiliery's passion for research and her drive to succeed when she first reached out to him about a previous high school science project.

"My research team and I have been working with proximal-sensor application development for well over a decade," Weindorf said. "We are widely considered international authorities in such analysis. The lignite project has been one that I've had on my mind for several years, but I had never had the right opportunities develop to bring it to fruition.

"Truthfully, this type of research is highly novel."

As a sophomore, for her high school science fair, Kagiliery conducted a study on the phytoremediation of soil contaminated with motor oil by examining the sea oats that grow along the beach. It was a project inspired by her love of the beach and her recollection of the damage done to Florida's beaches in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill.

It was through this project that she connected with Weindorf, having read his paper on petroleum detection in Alabama in connection with the Deepwater Horizon spill. She flew to Lubbock to work with Weindorf and the visible near infrared (VisNIR) spectroscopy technique of proximal sensing.

It was during this time the two began discussing other sensors that could be used and other materials that could be tested. Given Weindorf's work in proximal sensor application and the lignite project that had yet to be developed, using the techniques on coal became the natural fit.

The project examined novel ways to determine the sulfur content of lignite coal, using VisNIR as well as portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) spectrometry and optical sensors such as NixPro, all of which are relatively new and display data in different ways, but that Weindorf says are rapidly gaining acceptance worldwide for a number of applications.

But before any lignite coal examination could be performed, the samples had to be gathered.

Weindorf contacted colleagues in North Dakota to gain access to active coal mines and began assembling a team of researchers to assist in the project, including plant and soil science doctoral candidate Autumn Acre and senior Cynthia Jordan.

Kagiliery and the others took samples from four different mines in North Dakota and collected 250 samples over a two-day period. Utilizing the laboratory of Eric C. Brevik at Dickinson State University in Dickinson, North Dakota, Kagiliery ground, dried, labeled and sub-sampled each sample, shipping a few grams of each sample to the lab of collaborator Nicholas Jelinski at the University of Minnesota and the rest to Weindorf's lab at Texas Tech.

A few weeks later, Kagiliery flew to Lubbock where she spent the next two days scanning every sample with the VisNIR, the NixPro and the PXRF, trying to discover which one, or which combination of methods, can best predict the sulfur content of the lignite coal.

In creating a model to determine sulfur content utilizing all the tools, Kagiliery used 75 percent of the samples to calibrate the model and the remaining 25 percent to check the model's accuracy. She worked side by side with Somsubhra Chakraborty of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, one of Weindorf's closes collaborators, to evaluate several different statistical models for using the collected data.

From all the data gathered and analyzed, it was determined that a combination of the NixPro optical sensor and the PXRF data were the most successful in predicting the sulfur content of the lignite coal, at about 85 percent accuracy, better than either sensor by itself.

Accurately determining the sulfur content of coal has huge environmental impacts, as burning coal containing abundant sulfur creates sulfur dioxide, which leads to acid rain.

"In parts of the country with limited buffering capacity, this can quickly acidify soil, surface water, etc., causing substantive environmental damage," Weindorf said. "What our research has shown is that a field-portable, hand-held instrument has the capability to accurately measure the sulfur content in lignite coal. While our project was conducted in a laboratory to carefully control all variables for scientific study, the equipment used is field-portable and easily could be adapted for field use. Thus, the use of such technology in real time for rapid analysis of coal, in active mines, seems plausible."

Kagiliery will enter college in two years already with a leg up on her classmates - in fact, ahead of most of her peers in the U.S. She is a published scientific researcher.

This project appears to be just the beginning. She continues to collaborate with Weindorf on ideas for future projects by utilizing their versatility to examine problems both in the distance and close to home.

"I've always known that I wanted to go into science, but that goal has always felt so far away," Kagiliery said. "I never really put much thought into what being a scientist actually looked like. This experience has shown me what it's like to do real science, and that I don't have to wait until I've graduated to start making an impact.

"This certainly has shifted my career goals to be more research- and publication-based. It also has introduced me to a new field of science. I always knew I enjoyed chemistry and biology from my classes at school and textbooks, but I've found a recent love of environmental science. It's certainly opened my eyes to the depth and possibilities of my future."

As for where those possibilities might lie collegiately?

"My past teachers and Dr. Weindorf have taught me about the value of people in my education," Kagiliery said. "When I think about how I got to be the researcher and student that I am, I am struck by the people who have supported and encouraged me along the way. Dr. Weindorf has been one of the most influential people for me in that respect. I am looking forward to continuing my research, wherever it takes me, including Texas Tech. As a junior, I still have some time to consider my options, but Texas Tech is high on my list."

The cover for issue 65 of Oncotarget features Figure 7, "EGFR activated cases compared to pathway markers," by Kucherlapati, et al.

Molecular subtypes based on copy number, DNA methylation, and mRNA expression had variable proliferation levels, the highest correlating with decreased survival.

Significantly, results suggest EGFR over expression and activation are early alterations that likely stall the replication complex through PCNA phosphorylation creating replication stress responsible for DNA damage response and further mutation, but does not promote increased proliferation itself.

Dr. Melanie Haas Kucherlapati from the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA as well as the Department of Medicine, Division of Genetics at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, USA said, "It is well established that cancer is the result of accumulated genetic changes to tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes, and that these changes lead to uncontrolled cellular proliferation."

This study focuses on genomic and transcriptional changes to proliferation genes across a LUAD cohort created by The Cancer Genome Atlas, previously subtyped by them on the basis of copy number, DNA methylation, and mRNA expression.

The initial part of this study finds that subtype 2, 3, and 6 cases have highest expression of replication components and subtypes 1, 4, and 5 lowest; subtypes with highest expression have decreased survival.

The second part of this study unexpectedly found that levels of EGFR expression overall were inversely proportional to the expression levels of multiple other important proliferation factors across the TCGA LUAD cohort.

Among the group CLPTM1L, PBXIP1, and URGCP like EGFR while showing increased expression over the EGFR cohort, inversely correlated with the expression of multiple key replication proteins over total LUAD. YKT6, KLHL7, FAM220A, and VOPP1 also had increased expression over the EGFR cohort but directly correlated with high expression of multiple proliferation genes.

The Kucherlapati Research Team concluded that, when EGFR activated cases do metastasize, they target the brain at a much higher rate that non-EGFR activated cases.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Romantic partners aren't always honest about money in their relationships, but when does hiding purchases, debt and savings constitute "financial infidelity"? Research by professors at four universities, including Indiana University, defines the concept and provides a means for predicting its occurrence within relationships.

"Love, Lies and Money: Financial Infidelity in Romantic Relationships," forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Research, is the first systematic investigation of financial infidelity in committed romantic relationships.

The professors define financial infidelity as "engaging in any financial behavior that is expected to be disapproved of by one's romantic partner and intentionally failing to disclose this behavior to them." It involves both the financial "act" and the subsequent concealment.

It differs from secret consumption and merely hiding spending because it involves a broader set of financial behaviors, including seemingly "positive" actions such as saving extra income in a personal bank account.

"Financial infidelity has the potential to be as harmful for relationship health and longevity as sexual infidelity, as conflicts over money are also a primary reason for divorce," said co-author Jenny Olson, assistant professor of marketing at the IU Kelley School of Business. "Given the role that finances play in the health of relationships, consumers benefit from being aware of financial infidelity and its consequences."

Growing in popularity is financial therapy, which combines finance with emotional support to help individuals and couples think, feel and behave with money to improve their overall well-being, make logical spending decisions and face financial challenges.

"An understanding of financial infidelity can benefit financial services companies and advisors, clinical therapists and relationship counselors, all of whom play a role in promoting consumer well-being," Olson said. "If couples seek professional financial advice, they must be willing to openly discuss their spending and savings habits, debts and financial goals. It is clear that financial infidelity is a barrier to effective planning, as well as to a healthy relationship."

The researchers developed a "financial infidelity scale (FI-Scale)" using a dozen lab and field tests. Key findings included:

Whether the financial act is expected to elicit any level of disapproval was more important than the degree of disapproval.

Consumers more prone to financial infidelity exhibited a stronger preference for secretive purchase options, such as using a personal credit card versus a jointly held card, and cash over credit.

A preference for ambiguous packaging and shopping at inconspicuous stores.

A greater likelihood of concealing financial information from their partner in a mobile banking app.

Each choice is relevant to marketers. The prevalence of financial infidelity among consumers and variations along the FI-Scale affect purchasing decisions. It is important that companies be aware of certain consumer segments that may be prone to financial infidelity and thus affect their bottom lines.

For example, the trend of businesses going "cash-free" may affect retailers such as beauty salons and gift shops because of the use of cash to disguise purchases. Consumers strategically using cash may be less willing to make purchases only for their pleasure or personal wants.

Researchers from the University of Southern California, Columbia, London Business School, George Washington University, University of Colorado-Boulder, and University of California Irvine published a provocative new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the relatively narrow impact of consumer research and suggests ways to change that situation.

The study, forthcoming in the March 2020 issue of the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Creating Boundary-Breaking Marketing-Relevant Consumer Research" and is authored by Deborah J. MacInnis, Vicki G. Morwitz, Simona Botti, Donna Hoffman, Robert V. Kozinets, Donald R. Lehmann, John G. Lynch, Jr., and Cornelia Pechmann.

Consumption and consumer behavior are interwoven into contemporary society. Therefore, marketers, journalists, policymakers, and members of the public all have a stake in the topics that consumer researchers study. So why is it that most consumer research has a relatively narrow impact on these marketplace stakeholders as well as on academics in other disciplines? Specifically, consumer researchers tend to cite scholars in other fields (e.g., psychology, anthropology, sociology) far more than scholars in other fields cite scholarly consumer research. Similarly, most business practitioners turn to accessible, business-related popular writers before they seek the advice of consumer researchers. In the policy realm, consumer researchers' influence is often dwarfed by that of economists, psychologists, and legal professionals.

The relatively narrow impact of consumer research is not due to a lack of talent or commitment of individual researchers, the quality or rigor of the work, or its potential to offer insights. Rather, a new article in the Journal of Marketing argues that consumer researchers handicap themselves by adhering to implicit boundaries or defaults about what they study, why they study it, and how they communicate their findings. Adhering to such defaults can limit their thinking, the knowledge they produce, how they execute research, and the range of stakeholders they reach with their findings.

As a consequence of these implicit boundaries, and despite its interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder potential, consumer research is often perceived to lack significance. This practically means that instead of research contributing to business or society at large, impact is often limited to other closely related academics who study the same topics. This research team urges consumer researchers to break these boundaries in order to broaden their impact, lest they become irrelevant to non-academic marketing stakeholders and cede influence to non-marketing academic disciplines.

Why should and how does one engage in boundary-breaking marketing-relevant consumer research? This article offers answers to this question. It begins by presenting a conceptual framework that distinguishes the implicit boundaries that characterize most researchers' choices about marketing-relevant consumer research from boundary-breaking alternatives. The researchers then provide guidance to the ambitious consumer researcher seeking to contribute in this way. The authors note that a key way consumer researchers limit their influence has to do with why the research is done in the first place. Rather than attempting to influence like-minded academics in marketing and consumer research, the authors make the case for why and how to influence academics in other disciplines, as well as industry, government and nongovernmental organizations trying to help protect consumers, and society more broadly. Rather than relying so heavily on other academic articles for idea generation, the authors argue for looking outward for generating the ideas to be tested, and looking to emerging real-world phenomena. The authors argue that an important way that consumer researchers can contribute new and general theory is by explaining observations from these emerging real-world phenomena in terms of very general and basic concepts that have not yet been recognized by academic and practitioner experts.

The authors describe five published articles that exemplify boundary-breaking marketing-relevant consumer research. These articles have offered fresh and novel insights for academics in marketing and related disciplines. They also have had tangible and significant effects on other relevant marketplace stakeholders, including business, government, and society. Concrete lessons from these cases are provided to guide authors. Additional strategies designed to help researchers, faculty members who train Ph.D. students, and other gatekeepers identify actions that can facilitate and accelerate boundary-breaking consumer research are also described. This guidance is intended to both facilitate boundary-breaking consumer research and reduce the perception that the field's disciplinary norms and instructional practices make it too risky to have broader impact on stakeholders outside of academic marketing and consumer research.

"Cephalopods were the first intelligent animals on the planet."

This quote from Dr. Sydney Brenner, molecular geneticist and one of the founders of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), highlights the burgeoning scientific interest in cephalopods like cuttlefish, octopuses, and squid. These creatures are lauded for their complex nervous systems and intricate behavior - but scientists still know relatively little about them.

Now, researchers in OIST's Molecular Genetics Unit, in collaboration with a researcher from Australia, have identified a new species of bobtail squid inhabiting Okinawa's waters - dubbed Euprymna brenneri in honor of the late Dr. Brenner, who passed away earlier this year. The scientists' findings, published in Communications Biology, highlight the rich biodiversity in the seas near Okinawa, and may shed light on the genes, behavior, and development of bobtail squid.

"Our research strives to understand how these animals' complicated brains work," said Gustavo Sanchez, lead author of the study. "We're also compelled to explore why there is such a wide variety of species off the coast of Okinawa."

Finding and classifying a new species

Bobtails have unique features from true squid, including their rounded or "bobbed" posteriors, earning them the nickname "dumpling squid." In fact, they are actually more closely related to cuttlefish. Bobtails can be raised in the laboratory, making them useful as model for studying cephalopod development, genetics, and behavior. Scientists have also observed advanced behaviors like associative learning and inherited personality and fitness traits in bobtails.

For the present study, the researchers scoured the Ryukyan archipelago for bobtails, searching in shallow waters. They found three different types of egg masses and two distinct adult bobtails.

By studying the DNA and RNA expression, or transcriptomes, in 42 different individuals across 10 species, the researchers matched the adults with their corresponding egg types and identified one of them as Euprymna parva, which was previously miscategorized as a different genus. One egg mass lacked a corresponding adult; by DNA it appeared to be distantly related to a different species found in Australia and East Timor, Euprymna pardalota.

One Ryukyuan type of bobtail remained. In addition to sequencing its transcriptome, the scientists closely analyzed its morphology; Jeff Jolly observed distinctive patterns of suckers on its arms and tentacles. The researchers enlisted the help of systematist Dr. Amanda Reid, from the Australian Museum in Sydney, to carefully look over the species and formally describe them.

From their analyses, the scientists confirmed they had found a new species, which they named Euprymna brenneri. This species is the eleventh known in the Euprymna genus and will be useful in future phylogenetic and comparative studies, the researchers said.

"Sydney Brenner was a mentor and a friend. It is an honor to name this new species after him as a small reminder of his importance in creating the field of molecular biology, and more broadly his efforts to foster the development of science in Okinawa, Singapore, and around the world," said Daniel Rokhsar, head of the Molecular Genetics Unit at OIST.

In addition to phylogeny, the scientists are interested in the bobtail squid's symbiotic relationship with the Vibrio fischeri bacteria that populate a pouch-like organ on the squid's underside. Bobtails conceal themselves under the sand throughout the day, then emerge at night to hunt. They use the bacteria, which glow, to help them camouflage and achieve more successful predation in the dark.

"There's a complicated choreography between the bacteria and squid," said Dr. Oleg Simakov, a co-author of the study. "If we can understand this relationship, we think the bobtail could be a useful model organism for host-microbe interactions."

Moving forward, the researchers hope to discover more about the rich diversity of cephalopods off the shores of Okinawa, and to further explore the relationships between different bobtail species.

The scientists compared taste and aroma of different breads baked in close cooperation with an artisan baker and a miller using flour from old as well as modern wheat varieties. In the journal Food Research International the research team now also describes how it can predict not only the taste but also other characteristics of bread using molecular biological approaches.

Wheat is one of the world's most important agricultural crops. In recent decades, new varieties have been cultivated. Not only are they considerably higher yielding than the older varieties but also less susceptible to pests and changing climatic conditions. In addition to that, their baking characteristics have also been improved.

In the past, the aroma (i.e. smell and taste) of bread baked from wheat flour was never important and therefore not considered during breeding, cultivation, nor was it a decisive factor in trade. One of the reasons for that is that analysing the aroma of different breads is time consuming. A comprehensive study has now examined the aroma potential of various old (i.e. released before 2000) and modern wheat varieties using molecular biology methods to predict the aroma.

The study shows how science can successfully be part of and contribute to the value chain: Several institutes at HHU and the University of Hohenheim worked on this research project alongside researchers from Zurich University of Applied Sciences, the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Molecular Plant Physiology in Golm as well as the Beck bakery in Römerstein, Stelzenmühle mill in Bad Wurzach and the District Agricultural Office (Kreislandwirtschaftsamt) in Münsingen.

80 breads for science

To be able to compare the different aromas of a total of 40 varieties of wheat, the research team produced doughs from each variety, always using the same recipe, which were then baked. To determine whether potential differences in aroma are attributable to the respective wheat variety or to the location where that particular type of wheat was grown, two breads were baked from each variety: one with wheat grown in Gatersleben and one with wheat grown in Stuttgart-Hohenheim.

The doughs and breads were first compared based on external parameters (dough elasticity, bread size). Test persons next assessed the smell and taste of the breads following a pre-determined procedure. First the testers described in general terms how aromatic - or bland - the bread tasted. In a second step, a detailed assessment was made using the so-called 'Wäderswiler Aromarad'.

Differences in aroma depend on wheat variety and cultivation location

"I am often told that modern varieties produce blander breads than older varieties," explains Extraordinary Professor Dr Friedrich Longin from the University of Hohenheim. "We were able to prove that this is not the case. Some of both the old and the modern varieties produced very tasty breads. It is fascinating how the breads differ in taste and aroma depending on the wheat variety we used."

Master baker Heiner Beck from Römerstein baked and tasted all of the breads: "I have made and tasted a lot of breads from different wheat varieties in my time. But I'm surprised by how the breads from the different wheat varieties differ in terms of shape, aroma and even colour."

Another noteworthy finding is that the soil in which the wheat was grown has almost as much influence on the baking result and the taste of the bread as the wheat variety used. This reflects varying soil properties as well as different nutritional and mineral contents of the soils, all of which influence the composition of the wheat grains.

Molecular biological methods make it possible to predict bread quality

"A key aspect of our study is that we have found methods based on molecular markers and the metabolite profiles of the flours which can be used to predict the quality of bread", highlights Professor Dr Benjamin Stich from the Institute of Quantitative Genetics and Genomics of Plants at HHU. Together with the MPI, the HHU researchers determined the metabolic products found in the flour and carried out the statistical analysis to predict the bread characteristics.

This new method brings with it a decisive advantage for plant breeding: In order to breed a new wheat variety to be eventually put on the market, very large numbers of plants - several thousand per year - are regularly produced, all of which must be analysed to determine their properties. "It would be much too expensive and time consuming to make breads from all of those plants and to taste them all", explains Stich. With the new method, however, the grower can very quickly distinguish the plants that produce better-quality breads. This way, the number of plants to be included in a final baking test can be reduced considerably.

December 11, 2019 -- Results of a new study suggest that over the past decade (2005-2017), the prevalence of cannabis use in the United States has increased among persons with and without depression, though the increase is significantly more rapid among those with depression. At the same time, the perception of risks associated with cannabis use have declined overall, and the decline has been more rapid among those with depression. The findings, which are published in Addiction, come from a survey-based study of 728,691 persons aged 12 years or older.

In 2017, cannabis use was approximately twice as common among those with depression. Perception of risks associated with cannabis use has appeared to act as a barrier to cannabis use in the general population.

"The prevalence of cannabis use among those with depression who perceived no risk associated with regular use was much higher than among those who perceived significant risk associated with use -- 39 percent versus 1.6 percent, respectively," said corresponding author Renee Goodwin, PhD, of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and The City University of New York. "With increasing legalization in the U.S., previous studies have shown that perception of risk associated with use is declining overall. The results of this study show that this decline is even more rapid among this vulnerable population: those with depression."

In 2017, the prevalence of past month cannabis use was 19 percent among those with depression and 9 percent among those without depression. Daily cannabis use was common among 7 percent of those with depression and among 3 percent of those without it.

Certain groups appeared more vulnerable to use. For instance, nearly one third of young adults (30 percent) aged 18 to 25 with depression reported past 30-day use. "As brain development is ongoing until at least age 25, and young persons with depression are especially vulnerable, this is a group who may need attention in terms of prevention and intervention," noted Goodwin.

"Depression is not generally a condition for which medicinal cannabis is prescribed, and it is not clear why recreational use would occur disproportionately among those with depression," observed Goodwin. "It is conceivable that cannabis may be increasingly used in an attempt to self-medicate depression in states where it is legal for recreational use."

One of the tests that almost every patient must face before a surgery or other health intervention is an electrocardiogram. To perform this screening, medical doctors traditionally use a set of electrodes, which are able to record the electrical activity of the heart. The question is: what happens when the signal is much smaller, for instance, when you want to hear the beat of small clusters of cells or groups of cells within tissues?

Scientists have been addressing this issue for years, since solving this drawback may pave the way in drug development and screening. Of equal importance, the development of these techniques together with the use of pluripotent stem cell derivatives opens the door not only to immediate applications in the cardiac field, but in other important areas of research, as the neural field.

Now, experts at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), in collaboration with the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), have achieved a new milestone. By developing a bio-platform that integrates in its core an organic electronic device called Electrolyte Gated Organic Field Effect Transistor (EGOFETs), researchers have been able to monitor the electrical signal of cells and micro-tissues during long periods of time. The work is the result of a fruitful multidisciplinary collaboration between an organic electronic devices team (led by Dr. Marta Mas-Torrent from ICMAB), a bioengineering team (led by UB Professor Gabriel Gomila at IBEC) and a stem-cell tissue engineering team (led by ICREA Research Professor Núria Montserrat at IBEC), with the collaboration on instrumentation development from Dr. Tobias Cramer, from the University of Bologna in Italy.

"It was amazing to see how the electrophysiological platform developed with seeded cardiac cells was functional for several weeks without degrading its performance. This capability opens endless applications in biology and biomedicine."

Dr. Adrica Kyndiah, first author of the paper and researcher at IBEC.

Printed and flexible transistors were fabricated by the group of Dr. Marta Mas-Torrent at ICMAB-CSIC. Then the surface of the EGOFET, and the full platform, was adapted to interface the cardiac cell clusters derived from human pluripotent stem cells for long time periods (several weeks). According to the authors of the paper published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, the main advantage of using such EGOFETs for bioelectronics recording is three-fold:

First of all, EGOFETs are made of an organic material on a mechanically flexible substrate, they are biocompatible in nature and show a robust performance when operated in physiological environment. Secondly, a transistor offers intrinsic signal amplification without the use of external amplifiers as compared to conventional electrodes thus resulting in high signal to noise ratio. And third, it operates at low voltages preventing cell damage or unintentional cell excitation.

Researchers at IBEC not only tested the device on cardiac cells and cardiac micro-tissues, but also investigated the effect of two well-known drugs affecting cardiac performance. Thus, screening of new compounds in cardiomyocytes and other pluripotent stem-cell derived electrical cells (such as neurons) would be now possible. This advance in turn would result in the reduction in the use of animal models for these applications.

According to the multidisciplinary team, the results are a proof of concept work, which could be extended from in vitro study towards in vivo recordings of organs and tissues and to implantable devices to monitor health.

A drug used to treat high blood pressure may alleviate anxiety induced by long-term heavy alcohol use, and also halt the damage such drinking can cause to the brain's ability to grow new cells, research at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) shows.

The findings, from a study conducted in adult mice, have been published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

Principal investigator and QUT neuroscientist, Professor Selena Bartlett, said the results add further evidence that the drug, pindolol, could be beneficial in treating alcohol use disorders.

"This is a drug that is inexpensive and already available in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia," she said. "It's a beta-blocker that is prescribed for high blood pressure, angina and heart arrhythmias.

"We have been studying it for a number of years and have already shown in animal models that it reduces alcohol intake when there is long-term consumption.

"In this latest study, we investigated the drug's effect on other alcohol associated issues - anxiety and neurogenesis.

"Long-term and heavy drinking can cause anxiety disorders, and people's anxiety can worsen when alcohol is withdrawn, and alcohol abuse can also reduce neurogenesis, which is the process by which new neurons (cells) are formed in the brain.

"We showed that pindolol reduced alcohol-associated anxiety-like behaviour in mice and also alleviated the damaging effects of alcohol consumption on newly formed and immature brain cells."

Professor Bartlett said repurposing drugs like pindolol was a way to fast-track new treatments to manage alcohol dependence, binge-drinking and addiction, which are significant and complex problems both in Australia and globally. The costs to society of alcohol-related problems in Australia in 2010 was estimated at more than $14 billion, including costs to the health system and lost productivity.

"The next step is to conduct clinical trials with pindolol and we have started discussions with a medical specialist to progress that," Professor Bartlett said.

Co-investigators with Professor Bartlett in the study are QUT postdoctoral research fellow Dr Arnauld Belmer, Dr Omkar Patkar (previously a QUT research fellow), QUT PhD researcher Kate Beecher, and Dr Angela Jacques, who recently completed her PhD.

Key study findings:

pindolol reduced the anxiety-like behaviour of mice when alcohol was withdrawn after 12 weeks of binge-like consumption

two weeks of daily pindolol treatment at the end of 18 weeks' alcohol consumption restored damage the alcohol caused to new and immature neurons (cells) in the hippocampus, the primary brain site for new neuron production

the drug acts on the receptors for serotonin, the 'feel-good' nerve cell chemical and neurotransmitter, and noradrenaline, which is involved in the body's 'fight or flight' response

The tropical disease Leishmaniasis is being tackled by catching female sand flies who carry the parasite that causes the disease.

Scientists led by Professors Orin Courtenay of Warwick University and Gordon Hamilton of Lancaster University, developed the concept as part of a £2.5M project funded by The Wellcome Trust and published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

There are now plans to commercialise the research which involves using male pheromones to attract female sand flies towards insecticide-treated areas.

Globally over 350 million people are at risk of infection from Leishmaniasis, with an estimated 300,000 cases annually, and approximately 4,500 deaths each year in Brazil alone. Children under the age of 15 are disproportionately affected.

Visceral Leishmaniasis, affects the internal organs and is fatal if untreated as there is no human vaccine for the disease. In Latin America, Europe, and parts of central and East Asia, the Leishmaniasis parasite is transmitted from infected dogs by sand flies when they bite people.

In Brazil, dogs are euthanized if they are found to be infected, but which has not impacted on controlling transmission. Insecticide-impregnated dog collars is an alternative to protect the dogs but these are too expensive for many people and protective coverage is patchy.

The beneficial effects of this "lure-and-kill" method reduced female sand flies by 49% compared with 43% for the insecticide-collar only.

The method works as the male sand fly vector produces a pheromone that attracts blood-seek females to mating aggregations. We developed a synthetic copy of the pheromone which was put into slow-release dispensers and co-located with pyrethroid insecticide outside resident houses, which kill the parasite transmitting vectors.

The insecticide-collars have been shown by the Warwick researchers to reduce human visceral Leishmaniasis by 50%

Professor Orin Courtenay from the School of Life Sciences and Zeeman Institute at the University of Warwick comments:

"The beneficial effects of the lure-and-kill method were most noticeable by reducing confirmed infection incidence and clinical parasite loads in dogs by about 50%, and in reducing sand fly abundance.

"Our approach will be a lot less expensive and gives just as good a result as the insecticide collar."

Professor Hamilton said: "We wanted to develop a less costly method to trap large amounts of sand flies to reduce the number of infected dogs which in turn act as a source of infection for people."

The researchers introduced a sachet of the male sand fly pheromone to attract female flies to chicken sheds already sprayed with insecticide.

"This killed a large number of the sand flies".

The next stage is to work with industry to synthesize the pheromone in bulk ready for use in affected areas.

The level of public concern about climate change has risen significantly in recent years. The Fridays for Future movement enjoys broad political and public support, but this has so far not translated into tangible changes. The Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, has now published a resource - the Futuring Tool - and a more comprehensive Policy Brief aimed at decision-makers who want to make climate protection a guiding principle of their work.

"The world is waking up to the need to increase ambition on climate change. This tool can help us address both climate action and engagement with young people by looking at our decision-making processes and showing how they can be reformed," explains author Elizabeth Dirth. Her work integrates theoretical and practical insights: A social and political scientist by training, Dirth has spent the last seven years working on sustainability-related issues in research institutes and non-governmental organisations. She is also the co-founder of the Scottish youth organisation 2050 Climate Group.

There are two versions of the futuring tool: one geared to policymakers and one aimed at NGOs and businesses. "Giving a young person a microphone will not solve the climate crisis. We can amplify the voices of young people over and over again, but at some point we must actually start doing things differently," emphasises Dirth. The tool describes processes that can help to ensure more just future-making and guides readers step-by-step through the task of selecting measures that are appropriate to their particular contexts.

The Policy Brief delves deeper into the concept that is at the heart of both publications: just future-making. Here Dirth proposes three core principles that decision-makers should heed:

Integration: Policymakers should consider context-appropriate methods to integrate the future into decision-making. This could take place through the introduction of new elements into existing processes, such as additional budget scrutiny, as well as reforming the remits of already existing bodies or processes.

Participation: Policymakers should utilise participatory processes to inform and guide their decisions. This could be in the form of youth-specialised participatory processes, or broader, society-wide pro-cesses such as citizens' assemblies.

Imagination: Policymakers should use creative and imaginative exercises to engage with the future in order to build a new collective cultural imagination. A new collective cultural imagination is necessary to bring us out of the fossil-fuel age. Exercises like visioning and back-casting, as well as other experimental and creative practices, have an important role to play here.

The publications are aimed at governments, policymakers and other local, national, and international organisations that want to respond meaningfully to the demands of the Fridays for Future movement and ensure climate justice for future generations. The author is happy to provide further support and advice on request. Please contact Ms Dirth at elizabeth.dirth@iass-potsdam.de.

Several years ago, Maya archaeologists from the University of Bonn found the bones of about 20 people at the bottom of a water reservoir in the former Maya city of Uxul, in what is now Mexico. They had apparently been killed and dismembered about 1,400 years ago. Did these victims come from Uxul or other regions of the Maya Area? Dr. Nicolaus Seefeld, who heads the project that is funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation at the University of Bonn, is now one step further: A strontium isotope analysis by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) showed that some of the dead grew up at least 95 miles (150 kilometers) from Uxul.

Strontium is ingested with food and stored like calcium in bones and teeth. The isotope ratios of strontium vary in rocks and soils, which is why different regions on earth have their own characteristic signatures. "As the development of tooth enamel is completed in early childhood, the strontium isotope ratio indicates the region where a person grew up," says Dr. Nicolaus Seefeld, who heads a project at the University of Bonn on the mass grave of Uxul and the role of ritualized violence in Maya society.

Together with researchers from the Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory of the Geophysics Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Seefeld took tiny samples of tooth enamel from a total of 13 individuals early this summer. "Unfortunately it was not possible to examine the strontium isotope ratio of the remaining individuals, because the teeth were too decayed and the result would have been distorted," reports Seefeld.

The victims apparently had a high social status

The results of the isotope analysis show that most of the victims grew up at least 95 miles (150 kilometers) from Uxul in the southern lowlands, in what is now Guatemala. "However, at least one adult and also one infant were local residents from Uxul," says the researcher. They were apparently mostly people of high social status, as eight of the individuals had elaborate jade tooth jewelry or engravings in their incisors.

In 2013, Seefeld was investigating the water supply system of the former Maya city of Uxul when he discovered a well, in which the remains of about 20 people had been buried during the seventh century AD. The excavations of this mass grave were carried out as part of the Uxul archaeological project by the Department for the Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn, which was headed by Prof. Dr. Nikolai Grube during the research period from 2009 to 2015. The investigations of the mass grave have been under the leadership of Dr. Seefeld and funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation since January 2018.

Detailed investigations revealed that, in addition to at least 14 men and one woman, the mass grave contained the remains of several adolescents and an 18-month-old infant. Nearly all the bones showed marks of cuts and injuries by stone blades. Their regular distribution clearly shows that the individuals had been systematically and deliberately dismembered. The victims were killed and decapitated outside the water reservoir, then dismembered and the body parts placed at the bottom of the reservoir.

Heat marks on the bones showed that the bodies were exposed to fire - presumably so that skin and muscles could be removed more easily. However, there were no human bite marks on the bones that would indicate cannibalism. After dismemberment, body parts that were originally connected were deliberately placed as far apart from each other as possible. "This clearly demonstrates the desire to destroy the physical unity of the individuals," says Seefeld.

Killing and dismemberment as a demonstration of power

The latest results of the strontium isotope analysis and the anthropological investigations now allow more precise conclusions about the identity of the victims and the possible reasons for the killings. It is known from pictorial representations of ritual violence of the Classic Maya that the beheading and dismemberment of humans mostly occurred in the context of armed conflicts. These representations often show victorious rulers who chose to take the elites of the defeated city as prisoners of war and later publicly humiliate and kill them. "The documented actions in Uxul should therefore not be regarded as a mere expression of cruelty or brutality, but as a demonstration of power," says Seefeld.

The most plausible explanation for the current evidence is that the majority of the victims were prisoners of war from a city in the southern Maya lowlands, who were defeated in a military confrontation with Uxul. These formerly powerful individuals were then brought to Uxul and killed. Seefeld recently presented his findings at the Archaeological Conference of Central Germany in Halle and at the conference "Investigadores de la Cultura Maya" in Campeche in Mexico.

AURORA, Colo. (Dec. 11, 2019) - A major study conducted by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) Network into whether high doses of vitamin D can improve health outcomes for critically ill patients has concluded that such supplements do not reduce mortality or improve other non-fatal outcomes.

The results of the Vitamin D to Improve Outcomes by Leveraging Early Treatment (VIOLET) study, which included contributions from over 200 researchers at 44 academic medical centers, are published in the online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The lead author of the article is Adit Ginde, MD, MPH, professor and vice chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

For this study, Ginde and Daniel Talmor, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care & Pain Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, served as co-chairs of the protocol committee for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) PETAL Network.

"The VIOLET study did not show benefit from vitamin D supplementation in this population of critically ill patients" said Ginde. "However, the study gives us a model to intervene in the earliest stage of critical illness, which will yield improved care and better health for our patients in the future."

In this case, the researchers sought to determine whether vitamin D supplementation could reduce morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. A deficiency of vitamin D is a common risk factor for worse outcomes in critically ill patients. While vitamin D is most known for strong bone formation, it also helps to fight infections, is a potent anti-inflammatory agent, and is essential for lung development and function.

"We wanted to study whether rapidly correcting vitamin D deficiency could improve outcomes for patients with critical illness," Talmor said. "Previous studies suggested that this treatment might reduce mortality, so we wanted to definitively show whether high doses of vitamin D could reduce all-cause, all-location 90-day mortality in those critically ill patients."

In this study, the NHLBI PETAL Network conducted a controlled study of patients who needed admission into intensive care units. Among those cases, patients had pneumonia, sepsis, shock, respiratory failure, and other critical conditions.

"This is the kind of important question that the PETAL network was designed to answer efficiently," said James Kiley, PhD, director of the Division of Lung Diseases at the NHLBI. "This trial could not have been performed without the successful collaboration between emergency medicine and critical care that the PETAL network facilitated."

From April 2017 through July 2018, 2,624 patients at 44 hospitals consented to participate in the study. Of those, 1,360 screened as vitamin D deficient and ultimately 1,078 were included in the final analysis. About half received vitamin D and half received a placebo, and the vitamin D group achieved rapid correction of vitamin D deficiency in the blood. Patients were followed for 90 days, and researchers found no difference in mortality rates, hospital length of stay, or time on mechanical ventilation between the two groups.

"While we hoped that vitamin D supplementation might prove beneficial to critically ill patients, our large study does not support early testing for or treatment of vitamin D deficiency in those patients," Ginde said.

The study simulated Chernobyl-levels of radiation exposure in a laboratory to investigate the impacts it may be having on insects inhabiting the exclusion zone. Although it has been previously found that bumblebees are sensitive to radiation, few studies have investigated the effects on their fitness. The dose rates of radiation in which negative effects occur are also uncertain.

Jessica Burrows, who will be presenting the research at the conference, said: "An increase in nectar consumption for an individual bee could have important ecological consequences, as bees may need to spend more time foraging to collect nectar for their individual needs. As a result, the growth of bumblebee colonies may be impaired if fewer resources are available for the developing brood; this might reduce the number of bees in the ecosystem."

A reduction in bees in the environment would then impair pollinator ecosystem services, causing wider impacts on the environment. Jessica Burrows added: "Further work is needed within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to understand the impacts of chronic low-dose exposure on the wider ecosystem. There has been little work conducted on the effects of radiation on flowering plant species."

Although the Chernobyl exclusion zone is often thought of as a barren wasteland, in the years since the 1986 nuclear accident it has become a biodiverse habitat, home to dozens of charismatic species such as wolves and brown bears. Previous work at Stirling University has also revealed that pollinators are quite abundant in the area. It's thought this increase in biodiversity has been driven by the absence of humans.

However, the landscape still delivers low-dose rates of radiation to organisms that inhabit the area and the ecological consequences of this remain unclear. Jessica Burrows describes the modern day exclusion zone as a "living laboratory in which to study the impacts of radiation as an environmental stressor". She explains that "Whilst we know about how radiation affects some organisms at Chernobyl, one big challenge is to work out how multispecies ecosystems respond to this type of chronic radiation stress and whether evolutionary responses have occurred in the species that live there."

To test the effects of sub-lethal doses of radiation on bumblebees, the researchers used a caesium source that exposed the bees to radiation levels comparable to those found in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. They were able measure the amount of nectar consumed by weighing feeding tubes, and the bees' metabolic rates by measuring the rate they produced carbon dioxide.

On further research, Jessica said: "We would like to develop the work conducted here to understand if the effects recorded for metabolic rate and appetite in bumblebees could be found in other species. This will allow us to understand if this is a general effect of low dose radiation exposure, or if it is a unique effect on just bumblebees."

Using a laboratory setting as a proxy for the Chernobyl exclusion zone meant that the authors could safely replicate the levels of radiation found there. However, not all conditions could be replicated perfectly. Jessica explained that: "In the controlled environment bees were supplied with everything they could require for survival, including plentiful nectar so they didn't have to forage as they would naturally.

"In nature bumblebees would have to fly long distances to forage for pollen and nectar from flowers. We suspect that the effects of radiation exposure might be stronger under these natural conditions in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone."

Jessica Burrows will present the research on Thirsday 12 December 2019 at the British Ecological Society annual meeting. The conference will bring together 1,200 ecologists from more than 40 countries to discuss the latest research.

WASHINGTON - A U.S. Naval Research Laboratory-built camera mounted on the NASA Parker Solar Probe revealed an asteroid dust trail that has eluded astronomers for decades.

Karl Battams, a computational scientist in NRL's Space Science Division, discussed the results from the camera called Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) on Dec. 11 during a NASA press conference.

WISPR enabled researchers to identify the dust cloud trailing the orbit of the asteroid 3200 Phaethon.

"This is why NRL's heliospheric imagers are so ground-breaking," Battams said. "They allow you to see near-Sun outflows massively fainter than the Sun itself, which would otherwise blind our cameras. And in this case, you can also see solar system objects extremely close to the Sun, which most telescopes cannot do."

He said the trail is best seen near the Sun where 3200 Phaethon's dust is more densely packed, making WISPR a vital tool for scientists.

The data captured by WISPR determined the asteroid dust trail weighs an estimated billion tons, and measures more than 14 million miles long. The findings raise questions about the trail's origin.

"Something catastrophic happened to Phaethon a couple of thousand years ago and created the Geminid Meteor shower," Battams said. "There's no way the asteroid is anywhere near active enough when it is near the Sun to produce the mass of dust we are seeing, so we are confident that WISPR is seeing part of the Geminid meteor stream."

WISPR, designed, developed and led by NRL, records visible-light images of the solar corona and solar outflow in two overlapping cameras, which together cover more than 100-degrees angular width from the Sun.

Understanding how the solar environment behaves is important to the Navy and Marine Corps because when the solar winds reach Earth, they can affect GPS, spacecraft operations, and ground-based power grids.

WISPR and the Parker Solar Probe will continue to orbit the Sun for the next five years.