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Children with asthma have a higher likelihood of also suffering from anxiety and depression, and when all three conditions are present, patients are almost twice as likely as those with asthma alone to seek care in the Emergency Room.

ER visits are frequently avoidable and sometimes unnecessary, say researchers at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals who led the study, publishing Sept. 25, 2019 in the journal Pediatrics. The visits, together with hospital stays that may follow, account for 61.7 percent of all asthma-related expenditures for U.S. children, according to the National Medical Expenditure Survey.

In their study of more than 65,000 children and youth with asthma, ages 6 to 21, the UCSF researchers found that the 7.7 percent of participants with both depression and anxiety had a rate of 28 ER visits per 100 child years, controlling for age, gender, insurance type and other chronic illnesses. This is almost twice the rate -- 16 ER visits per 100 child years -- of those without depression and anxiety.

For asthma patients who just had depression, the rate was lower, with 22 visits per 100 child years, and for those asthma patients who just had anxiety, the rate was 19 visits per 100 child years.

"Asthma self-management is complex, requiring recognition of symptoms, adherence to medication and avoidance of triggers," said first author Naomi Bardach, MD, MAS, of the UCSF Department of Pediatrics and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies.

"The symptoms of anxiety and depression can make it more challenging to follow treatment, leading to more ER visits," she said. "There also may be a greater tendency to use the ER for supportive services, even in the absence of a serious asthma attack."

The authors noted that anxiety and depression are more common in children with asthma. In their study, 11.2 percent had anxiety and 5.8 percent had depression, versus 7.1 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, for children ages 3 to 17, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To qualify for the study, the 65,342 participants had to have had asthma-related doctor visits or hospitalizations, or prior use of preventive medications with an asthma-related doctor visit. They were identified with anxiety and depression if they had at least one inpatient, outpatient or ER visit for either condition.

Shortness of Breath, Rapid Heartbeat and Chest Pain May Result from Ambiguous Causes

"The study highlights a population of children and youth who may benefit from more intensive care coordination," said Bardach. "This may mean more careful counseling to improve medication compliance and symptom recognition. It may also mean improved mental health care for children in whom untreated depression or anxiety may hinder asthma self-management."

In some children with asthma, depression and anxiety, it can be difficult to tease out which symptom is attributed to which condition, said senior author Michael Cabana, MD, MPH, formerly of UCSF and currently with Children's Hospital at Montefiore. "Children with these conditions may seek care not only for asthma attacks, but for symptoms like shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat and chest pain, of which the causes may be ambiguous."

The research results confirm studies in adults with asthma who also had depression and anxiety. This group of patients was also found to have a higher likelihood of visits to the ER, urgent care clinics and unscheduled visits with their providers, compared to adults with asthma alone.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Ocean-based actions have greater potential to fill in gaps in climate change mitigation than previously appreciated, an Oregon State University scientist and two co-authors explain in a paper published today in Science.

The article by OSU distinguished professor Jane Lubchenco and her collaborators aims to connect the dots between two new international reports, one highlighting the devastating impact of climate change on the ocean, the other an analysis of ocean-related solutions to climate change.

The paper by Lubchenco and the reports by the International Panel on Climate Change, issued today in Monaco and New York, and the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, released Tuesday in New York at a meeting Lubchenco presided over, are among the key elements of international Climate Week.

Climate Week began Sept. 20 and includes marches and other activities around the world, with a focus on the United Nations and other sites in New York.

The key takeaway of the reports and the paper, Lubchenco said, is that we can now think of the ocean as a source of solutions, not just a victim of climate change. It is clear that the ocean has been bearing the brunt of climate change to date, but untapped ocean-related approaches to fighting climate change could play a large role in capping climate change at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial Age levels as called for in the 2016 Paris Agreement.

Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees would maintain substantial proportions of ecosystems while also benefiting health and economies, scientists say.

"The IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere paints a gloomy picture of the impacts of climate change on the ocean, ocean ecosystems and people, and an even more dismal portrayal of what is in store unless we get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions rapidly," said Lubchenco, a marine ecologist in the OSU College of Science and a former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "But the new analysis conducted for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy concludes that ocean-based activities have significant potential to help us actually reach the 1.5-degree Celsius target by 2050 - much greater potential than anyone realized."

Lubchenco, one of the world's most highly cited ecologists with expertise in the ocean, climate change and interactions between the environment and human well-being, was not directly involved in writing the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.

She is, though, among the scheduled speakers today in New York at a press briefing, an event being called "Blue Leaders: Call to Action on Ocean and Climate." Other speakers include heads of state and 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

This week's other key report, the one organized by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, analyzes five categories of ocean-based activities to evaluate their potential to reduce, sequester and store emissions.

The categories are ocean-based renewable energy; ocean-based transport; protecting and restoring marine ecosystems (especially "blue carbon" ecosystems like mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass beds); shifting diets to include more protein from seafood and less land-animal protein; and storing carbon in the seabed.

"The report concludes that the first four of those can be deployed right away, but seabed carbon storage will require additional research," said Lubchenco, who co-chaired the expert group that advises the panel and oversaw the report. "Combined, there is the potential for ocean-based activities to provide as much as 21% of the emission reductions needed to achieve the 1.5-degree target by 2050. That means in addition to the options for reducing emissions that we already knew about, we now have some new and powerful tools to deploy."

The High Level Panel features 14 heads of state who work together to adopt and promote policies and practices associated with a sustainable ocean economy. Led by the leaders of Norway and Palau, the panel also has representation from Portugal, Ghana, Namibia, Kenya, Chile, Mexico, Jamaica, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, Fiji and Australia.

"Collectively, those nations represent 30% of the world's coastlines and ocean territories, 20% of the fisheries' catches, and 20% of the shipping," Lubchenco said. "This report is the first from the group; 16 others will follow."

Along with its report, the High Level Panel also released a Call to Ocean-Based Climate Action, challenging nations, businesses and society in general to adopt or promote activities that will help achieve the 1.5-degree goal.

The call includes six types of actions: investing in nature-based climate solutions; harnessing ocean-based renewable energy; decarbonizing ocean industries; securing sustainable food for the future; advancing the deployment of carbon capture and storage; and expanding ocean observation and research.

"The report from the International Panel on Climate Change basically says, 'the problem is bad and likely to get much worse unless we act'; the High Level Panel report says, 'here's what we can do, it will matter, and take hope,'" Lubchenco said. "Our paper in Science aims to connect the dots between those two."

The Earth has already warmed by 1 degree Celsius, sea levels have risen more than 8 inches since 1880, Arctic sea ice is declining at the fastest rate in 1,500 years, and extreme weather events are becoming more common and damaging.

The actions the High Level Panel calls for are "ambitious," Lubchenco said, "but we argue that they are necessary, could pay major dividends toward closing the emissions gap in coming decades, and achieve other co-benefits along the way."

Joining Lubchenco as co-authors are Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the University of Queensland and Eliza Northrop of the World Resources Institute. They write that for "far too long, the ocean has been mostly absent from policy discussions about reducing carbon emissions and meeting the challenges of climate change. Ocean-based actions provide increased hope that reaching the Paris Agreement of 1.5 degrees C might be possible, along with addressing other societal challenges."

Lubchenco served as an undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere within the Obama administration and later as the State Department's first science envoy for the ocean.

In 2018, she received the Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Board, and in 2017, she received the National Academy of Sciences' most prestigious award, the Public Welfare Medal.

She is also a MacArthur Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 25, 2019 - The research community is increasingly recognizing video as more than just a medium to disseminate scientific findings after a study's conclusion. A powerful tool, film can engage study participants and become an integral part of the scientific process, when deployed thoughtfully.

To guide this emerging practice, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health scientists performed the first review of studies on use of film in public health research, reporting their findings in the journal Qualitative Health Research.

"Film can add a powerful dimension to public health research with its ability to capture nuance in opinions, emotions and spaces that often are beyond the scope of more traditional methods, such as multiple-choice surveys," said lead author Sara Baumann, Ph.D., postdoctoral researcher at Pitt Public Health. "But our review also raises some important ethical and logistical challenges that must be considered."

Baumann and senior author Jessica Burke, Ph.D., professor and associate chair of Pitt Public Health's Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, have been using video in their research for several years, through a method they developed called "collaborative filmmaking." Their technique uses filmmaking to engage participants throughout all stages of the research process. Participants collaborate with researchers to create short films about the research question, analyze the films in partnership with the researchers and then work as a team to determine the best way to share the findings, such as a community screening.

To learn more about the use of film in public health research, the authors identified 20 peer-reviewed public health studies incorporating the use of film that described opportunities and challenges. The most common research topic was adolescent health, with 40% of the studies focusing on it, followed by mental health, environment and neighborhood effects on health, asthma, and immigrant and refugee health.

Strengths of using film for public health research were:

Providing uniquely detailed descriptions of behavior, interactions and environment.

Capturing "insider" perspectives and cultural practices.

Increasing the level of comfort of the participants through a multimedia presentation of information, rather than only text and numeric data.

Empowering participants to express themselves in ways comfortable to them.

Disseminating study results through video to more easily advocate for change.

Notable challenges to consider when using film in public health research include:

Determining and protecting the level of privacy desired by the participants.

Appropriately crediting the participants if they want recognition for their role in the film's creation.

Acknowledging that participants may filter and present themselves in ways they deem more socially acceptable on film than they would without a camera.

Analyzing film content can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Obtaining and operating film equipment may be a barrier to the researcher and the participant -- for example, one study involved participants with leprosy who could not easily manipulate the cameras with their hands.

"These issues are generally not insurmountable, and our findings can guide the use of film in public health research, which naturally will accelerate collaboration and best practices to address these challenges," Burke said. "Film is not new to research -- it's been used in sociology, education, criminology and psychology studies -- we're overdue to embrace creativity and harness it for public health research."

People - or more specifically just Swedes - are more like chimpanzees than previously known. This is indicated in a genetic mapping of one thousand Swedish individuals, where new DNA sequences that should be included in the reference genome have been identified. The study is published today in the scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

In so-called whole genome sequencing, surveys are made of the total genome of an individual. It is still relatively rare in healthcare today, but it occurs at an increasing rate, for example in order to make an accurate diagnosis in the case of a rare disease. A genetic mapping of an individual is routinely compared to a so-called reference genome, a description of the human genome that is considered to be "standard". In such a comparison, approximately 5 million deviations are normally found. Most are without any major significance, but some of them can cause disease or disabilities.

Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet have re-analysed the whole genome for one thousand Swedish individuals in the SweGen cohort studied in collaboration with Uppsala University and for each one circled the sections that do not match the reference genome. In the next stage, the researchers have analysed this particular non-matching genome. This work entailed the identification of 61 000 DNA sequences, which is a volume equivalent to approximately one whole chromosome. These new sequences, which are not included in today's reference genome, affected more than 80 genes, of which a dozen are linked to various diseases.

The researchers then went on to further analyse these new sequences. They were compared to the genome library available for chimpanzees, for the African population as well as for Icelanders. As it turns out, this work paid off - it turned out that these new sequences, identified in one thousand Swedish individuals, are largely found in all of these populations. This means that they are very old and that they are well distributed in the human population.

"The non-identified genetic material that we have not previously been able to match against the reference library during whole genome sequencing, proved to be normal variants of our genome, in many cases ancient," says Jesper Eisfeldt, Civil Engineer specialising in biotechnology and PhD student in the Rare Diseases research group at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery at Karolinska Institutet. "This shows that the human genome is more heterogeneous than previously known and as a result we need to update our reference genome. But it also shows that we are more like the chimpanzee than we previously thought and that more in-depth studies of the chimp's genome are necessary in order to understand human genetic diversity."

Fish has been a predominant and high-quality protein and oil source in the human diet since ancient times. A new study by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Zinman Institute of Archaeology and the Oranim Academic College examined traditional fish preparation employed by fisherfolk in Panama and Egypt, revealing patterns of modifications to the fishes' skeletons, which are comparable to those found among fish remains recovered in archaeological sites.

Despite its relevance as a nutritious food for coastal populations and its importance for trade with inland communities, archaeologists have little insight into the methods used for the long-term processing and preservation of fish in the past. This drew Richard Cooke, STRI staff archaeologist, and Irit Zohar, curator of biological collections at Oranim Academic College and researcher at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, to document the traditional methods currently practiced by fisherfolk in the coastal populations around Parita Bay in central Pacific Panama and at Nabek Oasis in southern Sinai-Egypt. Through participant observations, imaging of the preparation methods employed and measurements of the fish species processed, they reached several conclusions.

"We discovered that in most cases, archaeologists and historians would find it very difficult to identify a fish-processing site, since most of the discarded remains are either thrown to the water or consumed by local animals," Cooke said.

They also found that three main preparation techniques prevail in today's fishing communities, regardless of their geographic location, and that fish-body size influences which method is applied. In addition, these traditional techniques leave behind particular bone fragmentation patterns that mirror those found among fish remains in archaeological sites, suggesting that ancient humans were using the same three methods that are still in use today.

"This study provides a powerful model for identifying fish butchering and preservation methods at archaeological sites around the world, and at many time periods," Zohar said. "It also vouches for the universality of human behavior for the long-term preservation of fishes of different kinds and sizes, ensuring a range of nutritious and healthful dietary resources for communities located far from the bounties of the oceans."

Lastly, their results reveal the antiquity of traditional butchering methods practiced in coastal sites, which resemble those observed in Egyptian reliefs from over 4,000 years ago.

"Studying modern ethnographic examples contributes to our understanding of fish preservation techniques used by ancient humans for long-term storage," Cooke said. "Our findings demonstrate the need to further document traditional fishing methods and fish procurement, before these methods disappear."

In the arms race between predators and prey, each evolves more and more sophisticated ways of catching or escaping from the other. Rachel Page, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Ximena Bernal, associate professor at Purdue University, review in Functional Ecology how bats use both private and social information to attack their prey.

"Bats are an exciting group to study because they have evolved so many different hunting strategies," said Page. "In this review, we look broadly across bats worldwide to investigate the patterns and processes underlying the sensory and cognitive adaptations bats have evolved to successfully hunt their prey."

Bats hunting in open spaces, high above the forest or over water, depend primarily on their echolocation systems. When they receive an echo from a prey, they produce more and more frequent signals--producing what is called a feeding buzz--as they go in for the kill. In contrast, bats that hunt in more enclosed, cluttered spaces often cannot use echolocation alone to find their prey. The echoes that bounce off vegetation are difficult to distinguish from the echoes of the prey. These bats are very good at listening for sounds emitted by prey.

Bats from New Zealand, which forage up to 40% of the time hunting on the forest floor, listen for movement and use their sense of smell to detect prey in the leaf litter. Vampire bats are able to recognize the sounds of a specific individual's breathing pattern, returning to feed on the same blood night after night. Desert-dwelling long-eared bats listen for the sounds made by scorpions as they move through the environment, and use these sounds to pinpoint their prey.

"Searching for prey takes a lot of time and energy, but one of the amazing things that bats do to minimize search effort is to eavesdrop on prey as they communicate--and also to eavesdrop on other bats to find out where they are catching prey," said Bernal.

As male túngara frogs call, hoping to attract a mate, fringe-lipped bats perceive the mating calls as a dinner bell. Katydids also call to attract mates. Different bat species respond to different katydid calls, divvying up available food. And like the frogs, some moths also form groups of singing males to attract females--and end up attracting bats at the same time.

Bats observe other bats as they hunt, paying special attention to locations where bats are making feeding buzzes, indicating abundant patches of prey. Bats tend to have hearing abilities that match their hunting strategies. Bats relying purely on echolocation to find food tend to emit loud, far-reaching echolocation calls and have smaller ears, while gleaners have large ears, lower-frequency hearing and produce quieter echolocation calls. No matter which hunting strategy they use or where they hunt, bats seem to be adept at learning from one another. Not only do they learn from their own species, they also learn from other bat species.

"We are puzzled as we look at bat family trees to see where different hunting strategies have arisen as bats evolve," said Page. "If so many bat species have low-frequency hearing and can thus detect prey mating signals, and these mating signals are excellent beacons of high density prey patches, why aren't more bat species taking advantage of these loud, conspicuous signals?"

"Despite the fact that bats are an excellent group to learn about the sensory adaptations of predators, the vast majority of bats are poorly studied," said Bernal. "Perhaps more research will help us to understand how predation strategies evolved. These are the questions that will drive new generations of students to keep looking for answers."

For every question about bird poop, uric acid appears to be the answer.

Why are bird droppings so hard to remove from buildings? Uric acid.

Why are they white and pasty? Uric acid.

Why are they corrosive to car paint and metal structures? Uric acid.

These answers are based on the prevailing wisdom that ranks uric acid as the primary ingredient in bird “poop,” which is comprised mostly of urine. (Birds release both solid and liquid waste at the same time. The white substance is the urine).

But according to Nick Crouch, a scientist at The University of Texas at Austin, uric acid can’t be the answer. That’s because there is no uric acid in excreted bird urine.

And after analyzing the excretions from six different bird species – from the Great Horned Owl to the humble chicken – he’s pretty positive of that statement.

“It was easy to tell that what we had and that it was not uric acid,” Crouch said.

The results were published in the Journal of Ornithology in August 2019. The study’s co-authors are Julia Clarke, a professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences, where Crouch is currently a postdoctoral researcher, and Vincent Lynch a chemist and research scientist at the UT College of Natural Science.

Crouch studies bird evolution and biodiversity – the chemistry of bird waste is not his usual research wheelhouse. However, Crouch decided to investigate the uric acid question after a conversation in 2018 with the late Jackson School Professor Bob Folk, who claimed that bird waste didn’t contain uric acid.

“Sometimes you just get presented with a really weird question and you want to know the answer,” Crouch said. “That was this – I had no idea if [Folk] was right or wrong beforehand, but I was really interested to have a look.”

Folk had looked into the question himself in the 1960s and found no sign of the substance in samples collected in 17 species.

“Bob folk was a creative and boundary pushing scientist who primarily was interested in rocks,” Clarke said. “It is a testament to his limitless creativity that he took on what he referred to as his ‘bird paper’”

Folk published a paper in 1969 describing the X-ray diffraction workup and solubility tests that comprised his analysis. But his work was challenged by a 1971 paper that found evidence for uric acid in waste from Budgies, a type of parrot, using the same sort of X-ray diffraction analysis used by Folk.

Crouch said that he thought that running the analyses again using modern technology could help settle the question. Although X-ray diffraction hasn’t changed much over the past 50 years, the technology for analyzing its results – which consist of distinctive scattering patterns created when X-rays are deflected by different chemicals present in a substance – has become much more accurate and accessible over the decades.

As for the samples themselves, most came fresh from birds kept at the Austin Zoo, while the chicken waste sample came from a backyard flock owned by Crouch’s neighbors. All together, the samples covered a good swath of bird diversity – including species from the three major groupings of birds, a variety of diets and flightless species. But none of the samples produced an X-ray diffraction pattern consistent with uric acid. The analysis found ammonium urate, struvite and two unknown compounds.

Based on findings from other research, Crouch said that the substances are probably the result of bacteria inside the bird’s gut breaking down uric acid before it is excreted. Research conducted by other scientists having identified a diverse array of bacteria inside the digestive organs of birds that do just that.

Sushma Reddy, an associate professor and the Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology at the University of Minnesota, said she was surprised by the research findings and thinks they will spur more research into bird physiology.

“It goes against the old doctrine that we learn,” Reddy said. “It’s pretty incredible that we live in this time where we can reanalyze with incredible technologies these things that we took for granted.”

Crouch said that this research opens the door to new research questions, from the power of the bird microbiome to identifying the two unknown substances. He said that most of all, it shows the value of taking the time to question conventional wisdom.

“I had no idea I was going to work on bird pee,” Crouch said, “but I find myself with so many new questions about the avian microbiome, which shows how our research can take us in unexpected and exciting directions.”

AMHERST, Mass. - This week, representatives of 195 member governments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are meeting at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco with dozens of climate scientists who have prepared a draft "Summary for Policymakers" of their "Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC)."

University of Massachusetts Amherst climate scientist Robert DeConto, a lead author and contributor to the report, is in Monaco for the four-day working plenary session and will be available for reporters and media to discuss findings after it is final. The IPCC is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations dedicated to providing the world with an objective, scientific view of climate change, its natural, political and economic impacts and risks, and possible response options. 

As one of  the world's leading experts on modeling polar ice sheets, sea-level rise and ocean response to climate change, DeConto serves as lead author of the Special Report's Chapter 4, "Sea Level Rise and Implications for Low Lying Islands, Coasts and Communities," and a contributing author to Chapter 3, "Polar Regions."

Over the four-day plenary session on Sept. 20-23 that spilled over into the early morning hours of today, IPCC members and scientists have gone through the draft summary for policymakers line by line. Their efforts will culminate in the adoption of a final version to be presented to the world in a live-streamed press conference on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 11 a.m. local time in Monaco, which is 5 a.m. Eastern.

DeConto, who cannot speak about findings in the draft report until the final version is released, describes it in general as "a summary for policy makers of our report with hard-hitting bullet points that we scientists feel need to be considered by policy makers. They'll receive the considered opinions on the evidence from hundreds of scientists charged with assessing the science since previous reports were published, and we'll update them on what we consider the state-of-the-art knowledge on climate today."

Without revealing specifics, he says he expects sea-level rise to receive a great deal of attention as a result of this report because it already affects so many millions of people around the world, and its impact is growing.

"We hear more and more every day about how sea-level rise is accelerating and it's going to keep rising," DeConto notes. "There are different scenarios available for the future, and the projections vary between low-carbon-emission versus high-carbon-emission future in terms of sea-level rise. We can provide that basic information to policymakers."

To prepare for the plenary session just ending, over the past two years DeConto and colleagues from around the world compiled and assessed the evidence published in peer-reviewed journals since the last IPCC report was issued in 2015 on such topics as "High Mountain Areas," "Changing Ocean, Marine Ecosystems and Dependent Communities," and "Extremes, Abrupt Changes and Managing Risks," in addition to the chapters on polar regions and sea-level rise.

More than 100 scientists from over 30 countries have been assessing the latest scientific knowledge for the SROCC about the physical science basis and impacts of climate change on ocean, coastal, polar and mountain ecosystems, and the human communities that depend on them, including an assessment of vulnerabilities and capacities for adaptation. Options for achieving climate-resilient development pathways have been presented and discussed, as well, organizers say.

There are no scales for weighing black holes. Yet astrophysicists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have devised a new way for indirectly measuring the mass of a black hole, while also confirming its existence. They tested the new method, reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, on the Messier 87 active galaxy.

Active galactic nuclei are among the brightest and most mysterious objects in space. A galaxy is deemed active if it produces a thin long beam of matter and energy directed outward. Known as a relativistic jet, this phenomenon cannot be accounted for by the stars in the galaxy. The current consensus is that the jets are produced by some kind of "motors," termed galactic nuclei. While their nature is poorly understood, researchers believe that a spinning black hole could power an active galaxy.

Messier 87 in the Virgo constellation is an active galaxy that is closest to Earth, and also the one best studied. It has been observed on a regular basis since 1781, when it was first discovered as a nebula. It took some time before astronomers realized that it was a galaxy, and its optical jet -- discovered in 1918 -- was the first one ever to be observed.

The structure of the Messier 87 jet has been meticulously studied, with its plasma jet velocities mapped and the temperature and particle number density near the jet measured. The jet's boundary has been studied in such fine detail that researchers discovered it was inhomogeneous along its length, changing its shape from parabolic to conical. Originally discovered as an isolated case, this effect was later confirmed for a dozen other galaxies, though M87 remains the clearest example of the phenomenon.

The sheer bulk of observations allow for testing hypotheses regarding the structure of active galaxies, including the relation between the jet shape break and the black hole's gravitational influence. Jet behavior and the existence of the supermassive black hole are two sides of the same coin: The former can be explained in terms of the latter while theoretical models of black holes are tested via jet observations.

Astrophysicists exploited the fact that the jet boundary is made up of segments of two distinct curves and used the distance between the core and the break of the jet, together with the jet's width, to indirectly measure the black hole mass and spin. To that end, MIPT scientists developed a method that combines a theoretical model, computer calculations, and telescope observations.

The researchers are trying to describe the jet as a flow of magnetized fluid. In this case, the shape of the jet is determined by the electromagnetic field in it, which in turn depends on various factors, such as the speed and charge of jet particles, the electric current within the jet, and the rate at which the black hole accretes matter. A complex interplay between these characteristics and physical phenomena gives rise to the observed break.

There is a theoretical model that predicts the break, so the team could determine which black hole mass results in the model reproducing the observed shape of the jet. This provided a new model for black hole mass estimation, a new measurement method, and a confirmation of the hypotheses underlying the theoretical model.

"The new independent method for estimation of black hole mass and spin is the key result of our work. Even though its accuracy is comparable to that of the existing methods, it has an advantage in that it brings us closer to the end goal. Namely, refining the parameters of the core 'motor' to deeper understand its nature," said Elena Nokhrina, the lead author of the paper and deputy head of the MIPT laboratory involved in the study.

The cells of our immune system constantly communicate with one another by exchanging complex protein molecules. A team led by researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now revealed how dedicated cellular control proteins, referred to as chaperones, detect immature immune signaling proteins and prevent them from leaving the cell.

The body's defenses systems have to react quickly whenever pathogens enter the organism. Intruders are identified by white blood cells which pass on the information to other immune cells. Information is transmitted via secreted signaling proteins, the interleukins, which dock onto the matching receptors on the recipient cells and for example make the target cells divide and release antibodies.

Quality control holds back immature signaling molecules

Researchers from TUM, the Helmholtz Zentrum München and Stanford University have, by studying interleukin 23, been able to show how cells ensure that the interleukin signalling proteins are built correctly. "Intensive research is currently devoted to Interleukin 23, not only because of its central role in the defense against pathogens, but also because it can trigger autoimmune diseases," says Matthias Feige, Professor for Cellular Protein Biochemistry at TUM and head of the research project.

Interleukin 23 is composed of two proteins, which have to combine in the cell to form an active complex in order to be able to trigger the desired signals. As the scientists have demonstrated in their study, molecules referred to as chaperones retain one part of the interleukin known as IL23-alpha in the cell until it has been incorporated into the complete complex. This way the cell makes sure that it does not secrete any unpaired IL23-alpha and thus controls the biosynthesis of this important interleukin and accordingly of the messages it sends. Chaperones are molecular protein machines that ensure that other proteins are built correctly.

"We were able to show that unbound IL23-alpha has chemical bonds which are prone to interaction with chaperones," Feige explains. In the completed interleukin 23 these bonds are closed, so that the chaperon no longer is able to interact and hence the complete molecule can leave the cell.

Targeted interventions in immune cell communication

Since normally isolated IL23-alpha is not present outside of the cell, it was not clear whether it could influence the immune system by itself. The researchers were able to test this with a slightly modified version of the molecule created in the laboratory, which was based on computer-aided design. In this new molecule variant, the bonds which could have connected to the chaperone were closed.

"The modified molecules can leave the cell freely," says Susanne Meier, first author of the study. "They then dock to the same receptors as the complete interleukin 23 and trigger a similar but weaker reaction." Accordingly, IL23-alpha can be made a functional signalling protein by molecular engineering, which allows it to bypass the cell's quality control systems.

"It is possible that the engineered IL23-alpha can interact with even further receptors in immune cells and influence them in an as yet unknown manner," Feige says. "That is one of the next questions we will investigate." The results may serve as the basis for future drugs that use engineered interleukins to modulate the immune system in a desired manner.

"Keep your eyes on the road."

With the recent advances in vehicle-assisted safety technology and in-car displays, this old adage has a new meaning, thanks to two new applications of eye-tracking technology developed by researchers at the University of Missouri.

Designing a better collision avoidance warning

Observing how someone's eyes change -- specifically the pupil -- while they respond to an alert given by a vehicle collision avoidance warning could one day help scientists design safer systems.

"Prior to a crash, drivers can be easily distracted by an alert from a collision avoidance warning -- a popular feature in new vehicles -- and we feel this could be a growing problem in distraction-related vehicle crashes," said Jung Hyup Kim, an assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering in the MU College of Engineering. "Therefore, a two-way communication channel needs to exist between a driver and a vehicle. For instance, if a driver is aware of a possible crash, then the vehicle does not have to warn the driver as much. However, if a vehicle provides an alert that, by itself, creates a distraction, it could also cause a crash."

Kim and Xiaonan Yang, a graduate student at MU, watched how people's pupils changed in response to their physical reactions to a collision avoidance warning by a vehicle-assisted safety system. Researchers believe they have enough data to begin the next step of developing a two-way communication model.

Evaluating rear-end accidents from a driver's perspective

A person's pupil could also help scientists find a way to decrease distracted driving crashes through a first-hand perspective into a driver's behavior, according to Kim and Rui Tang, a graduate student at MU. Using a driving simulator at the MU College of Engineering, the researchers evaluated a driver's physical behavior in real-time by focusing on the driver's eyes as the crash happened.

"We saw the size of a person's pupil changed depending on the behavioral response to the severity of the accident," Kim said. "Now, we want to take that data, find common patterns and build a model to test how we could help decrease distracted-driving crashes."

An international research team including scientists from the University of Cologne, Germany, numerous Iranian universities and the University of Sydney, Australia, has shown that today's Iranian population is composed of partially highly heterogeneous ethnic groups, exhibiting a high degree of genetic variation. In many cases, their source goes back many thousands of years. The results, obtained from the first genome-wide genetic characterization of the Iranian population by this team, appeared in PLOS Genetics under the title 'Distinct genetic variation and heterogeneity of the Iranian population'.

In this project, initiated by Professor Michael Nothnagel from the Cologne Center for Genomics (CCG) at the University of Cologne and Professor Hossein Najmabadi from the Genetics Research Center (GRC) at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science in Tehran, their groups cooperated with numerous other universities in Iran, while Professor Barbara Helwing from Sydney provided expertise on Iran's historical background.

The researchers analysed the genetic data of 1,021 volunteers whose parents and grandparents identified themselves as belonging to one of eleven selected Iranian ethnic groups, including large groups such as Iranian Persians and Azeri, but also smaller ones like Arabs, Baluchi, Gilaki and Kurds. These volunteers were sampled all over Iran. They found out that Iranian Persians and Kurds, for example, exhibit high in-group genetic variation which is larger than that of, for example, Germans. However, the entire gene pool has remained largely unchanged over at least the past 5,000 years, but probably rather the past 10,000 years. To put this in perspective: Today's German population has likely retained only about 10 to 20 percent of the genetic constitution of the hunters and gatherers who populated western and central Europe 10,000 years ago. Furthermore, Britons and North Italians are genetically more similar than some ethnic groups in Iran. 'This was somewhat surprising,' Michael Nothnagel said. 'Until recently, many scientists had assumed genetic variation across present-day Iranians to be rather homogeneous.'

In addition, the authors put the genomic data they collected in relation to published data from other living human populations and from almost 800 excavated specimens originating from individuals who lived in the region and beyond thousands of years ago. Michael Nothnagel remarked: 'The genetic information from Iran is particularly valuable because it fills a void of population-representative, genome-wide data for a large population in an important region of the world.' The generated data sets and the patterns they reveal will be valuable for follow-up research on rare and common genetic diseases and help to elucidate past migration movements.

Iran has been at the crossroads of migrations since modern humans' dispersal out of Africa and played an important cultural and political role in Western and Central Asia in the past millennia. However, despite its size, geographic location and past cultural influence, the country has largely been a blind spot for human population genetic studies, resulting in sparse genetic information on the population.

In the past millennia, Iran has repeatedly received migratory influx: Indo-European language speakers settled there, Arabs entered the lands in the 7th century, and later Turkic-speaking people from Central Asia joined the population. As a result, today's Iranian population comprises numerous ethnic, religious and linguistic groups that admixed to various degrees.

For example, while Iranian Kurds show strong genetic overlaps with Persians, Lurs and other groups, indicating a common background and little admixture at most, Persian Gulf Islanders appear to have repeatedly received an influx of groups from outside Iran. 'This is consistent with historical reports of ongoing sea trade over the past millennia,' said Nothnagel. 'Also, some groups adopted the languages of newly arrived groups. This shows that the latter did not simply displace local populations, but rather mixed with them.' Combining archaeological finings with the latest technologies in genome characterization, the study provided systematic evidence of these migration and settlement patterns.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), is the most common childhood cancer. Children with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) are 10 to 20 times more likely to develop ALL than children without Down syndrome. Historically, children with Down syndrome and ALL had more complications from treatment and a poorer outcome. However, outcomes are improving as we learn more about ALL in Down syndrome and how to best provide treatment and supportive care.

At Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Karen R. Rabin and Dr. Philip J. Lupo have been investigating the genetic underpinnings of why there is higher risk of ALL in Down syndrome.

"Children with Down syndrome stand out to me as a subpopulation within ALL that is still a little bit of a mystery. We don't understand why they have an increased risk of leukemia, although this has been recognized since the 1950s," said Rabin, associate professor of pediatric hematology and oncology and member of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine.

Although there have been a number of ideas to explain this mystery, the jury is still out. In this study, Rabin, Lupo and their colleagues uncovered new clues that hint at explanations for this unsolved mystery.

"We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) that enabled us to look for genetic differences between children with Down syndrome and children with Down syndrome with ALL that might explain the increased susceptibility to ALL in Down syndrome," said Rabin, who also is director of the Leukemia Program at Texas Children's Hospital. "The reasoning was that if we found cases of Down syndrome/ALL with a higher percentage of certain gene variants that were not present in children with Down syndrome who did not have ALL, then we could infer that those genetic variants may be important for developing ALL."

It was a long project. To conduct a GWAS type of study the researchers needed to assemble a large number of cases and controls. It took several years, but finally they put together about 500 cases (Down syndrome/ALL) and over 1000 controls (Down syndrome/no-ALL). They achieved these numbers thanks to collaborations with groups from other institutions.

The results

Previous GWAS studies had looked into the genetic variants that increase the risk of ALL in the general childhood population (children who do not have Down syndrome). These studies had identified several genes associated with a higher risk of ALL.

"We found four genetic variants that were strongly associated with ALL risk in children with Down syndrome. While these genes have been previously identified in studies of ALL among children without Down syndrome, the effects were much stronger in our study," said Lupo, associate professor of pediatric hematology and oncology and member of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor. He also is the director of the Childhood Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Program at Texas Children's Hospital.

The researchers took a closer look into two of these genes. They found, for instance, that children with Down syndrome carrying a particular variant of the CDKN2A gene have a 1.7 times higher risk of developing ALL than children without Down syndrome who carry the same variant.

"There is something about having the Down syndrome genetic background that changes the effect of that genetic variant," Rabin said.

The second gene that stood out to the researchers was IKZF1.They looked into the function of this gene, which is known to be involved in the development of B cells, a type of immune cell that typically transforms into leukemic cells in ALL.

They discovered new aspects about this gene that had not been described before. For instance, in the lab the researchers studied the effect of reducing the expression of the IKZF1 gene in cells derived from individuals with or without Down syndrome. They found that reducing IKZF1 expression resulted in significantly higher proliferation rates in Down syndrome than non-Down syndrome cells. One characteristic of cancer cells is their higher proliferation rate, therefore these results suggest a mechanism by which changes in IKZF1 expression may contribute to developing ALL.

Although there is still much to learn, the researchers are optimistic.

"Our findings give us clues to explain why these genes seem to be important for causing leukemia in children with Down syndrome. Having a better understanding of this medical mystery can help us develop tests to identify children who have a higher risk of developing leukemia, and to uncover cellular pathways with the potential of becoming targets for treatment," Rabin said.

"Our findings will serve as the framework for future assessments that we hope will improve outcomes among these children, and have led to a new study funded by the NIH to further explore the role of genetics on ALL risk in children with Down syndrome," Lupo said.

Sponges form an extensive animal phylum with over 7,500 species worldwide, which occur in a wide range of habitats in the ocean. A special feature of this animal phylum is their ability to filter seawater, through which these organisms obtain their food. In doing so, certain sponge species can move up to 24,000 litres through their body per day. The surrounding seawater contains a wide range of viruses - on average, one millilitre of water contains 10 million viruses. The filter-feeding lifestyle of sponges combined with the rich proliferation of viruses in the ocean therefore might suggest that marine sponges may have a similar viral composition as the surrounding water.

Researchers from the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1182 "Origin and Function of Metaorganisms" at Kiel University (CAU) and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel have now surprisingly shown that sponges possess a very specific viral sequence signature (i.e., virome), which is remarkably unique even for the individuals of a given species. Certain bacteriophages - i.e. viruses that attack bacteria - are further able to modulate the host immune system and thus protect bacterial symbionts from being digested. While viruses are typically known for their pathogenic properties, the new research findings now also demonstrate a positive influence of bacteriophages on the interaction of host organisms with bacteria. The results were obtained through international cooperation between three countries, including researchers at the universities of Würzburg, Barcelona and Utrecht. The study published today in the renowned journal Cell Host & Microbe thus sheds new light on the symbiosis between multicellular organisms and their microbial communities, which may be regulated by bacteriophages in a tripartite relationship.

An unexplored microcosm

In order to analyse the composition of the viral community of sponges, the researchers examined four different sponge species from a defined location in the Mediterranean Sea. In each case, they compared numerous individuals and different tissues of the same species with each other. "Contrary to our original assumption, each sponge individual has its own unique virome even when living right next to each other". Therefore, no two sponges are alike with regard to their viral community," summarised Martin T. Jahn, a doctoral researcher at GEOMAR and early career researcher at the CRC 1182. "The composition of the virome is thus not primarily determined by the environment or the exposure of the tissue to the surrounding water, but is rather defined by internal factors," said the first author of the study, who collaborated with other early career researchers from four working groups at the CRC 1182.

Notably, the viruses discovered in sponges were largely unknown. "We have found almost 500 new genera of viruses in our samples," emphasised Jahn. "These viruses are completely new, and possibly only occur in sponge, and nowhere else in nature," said Jahn. This order of magnitude shows that the study of viral diversity is only just beginning.

The animal host, bacteria and phages interact with each other

The observed differences between the viral communities of sponges and those from seawater provoked the question whether sponge viruses have specific functions. The researcher team investigated the viral gene inventories and discovered genes which are similar to those of multicellular organisms, where they are responsible for interactions of certain proteins. "This surprising result awakened our special interest," said Ute Hentschel Humeida, CRC 1182 member and professor of marine microbiology at GEOMAR. "We wanted to understand why the bacteriophages have a gene encoding a protein, which we would rather expect in multicellular organisms", continued Hentschel Humeida.

In order to investigate the role of this so-called ANKp protein, they examined its impact in a model system: they expressed the protein in the bacterium Escherichia coli and investigated its effect on certain scavenger cells (macrophages) that occur in the immune system of vertebrates. The result points to a central role of the ANKp protein: it caused E. coli to be significantly less destroyed by the scavenger cells. Strikingly, the protein apparently enables the bacteriophages to interact with the animal host in that it downregulates the host's immune response, thereby protecting the bacteria from being digested. Therefore, the scientists suggest that bacteriophages are part of a tripartite interaction of host organism, bacteria and bacteriophages, where they provide mechanisms for maintaining symbiotic co-existence.

Extension of the symbiosis concept?

The researchers at the CRC 1182 interpret the new results as a novel and important contribution of bacteriophages to the symbioses of multicellular host organisms and their microbial partners. "We suspect that bacteriophages are major players in the interaction between multicellular host organisms - including humans - and bacteria," summarised Martin T. Jahn. "Viral proteins such as ANKp may even enable this interplay of hosts and bacteria in the first place, because they allow the bacteria to evade the immune system of the host," continued Jahn. "The fundamental concept of symbiosis can therefore be understood as an interaction between three parties," concluded Hentschel Humeida. In the future, Hentschel Humeida and team will further investigate this hypothesis, which is of central importance for metaorganism research, and confirm the functional participation of bacteriophages in host-microbe symbioses.

SALT LAKE CITY - Everyone is a mutant but some are prone to diverge more than others, report scientists at University of Utah Health.

At birth, children typically have 70 new genetic mutations compared to their parents (out of the 6 billion letters that make both parental copies of DNA sequence). A new study published in eLife shows that number varies dramatically with some people being born with twice as many mutations as others, and that characteristic runs in families.

That difference is based largely on two influences. One is the age of a child's parents. A child born to a father who is 35 years old will likely have more mutations than a sibling born to the same father at 25.

"The number of mutations we pass on to the next generation increases with parental age," said Thomas Sasani, lead author of the study and a graduate student in human genetics at U of U Health. Previous studies have demonstrated the phenomenon, also confirmed by this study.

Another difference is that the effects of parental age on mutation rates differ considerably among families -- much more than had been previously appreciated. In one family, a child may have two additional mutations compared to a sibling born when their parents were ten years younger. Two siblings born ten years apart to a different set of parents may vary by more than 30 mutations.

"This shows that we as parents are not all equal in this regard," said Aaron Quinlan, PhD, senior author of the study. He is also a professor of human genetics at U of U health and associate director of the Utah Center for Genetic Discovery. "Some of us pass on more mutations than others and this is an important source of genetic novelty and genetic disease."

Impacts of new mutations depend on where they land in our DNA, and on the passage of time. On occasion the genetic changes cause serious disease, but the majority occur in parts of our genetic code that don't have obvious effects on human health.

And even though new changes make up a small fraction of the overall DNA sequence, they add up with each subsequent generation. Increasing the so-called mutation load could potentially make individuals more susceptible to illness, said Sasani. It remains to be determined whether factors that impact the mutation rate increase the likelihood for certain diseases.

Although the majority of new mutations originally arise in fathers' sperm, not all do. One in five mutations come from mothers' eggs, and increasing age does not drive as many new mutations in moms as it does in dads. Further, it's estimated that one in ten new mutations seen in children come from neither parent. Instead, they arise anew in the embryo soon after fertilization.

The new insights were found by performing whole genome sequencing and genetic analysis on 603 individuals from 33 three-generation families from Utah, the largest study of its kind. The families were part of the Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH) consortium that were central to many key investigations that formed a modern understanding of human genetics. The large size of the Utah CEPH families, which had as many as 16 children over a span of 27 years, made them well-suited for this new investigation.

It's surprising that the Utah CEPH families have a large range in the number of mutations they accumulate, says Quinlan. That's because the families are similar in many ways. They are all of European ancestry, live within the same geographic region, and likely have similar lifestyles and environmental exposures.

"We don't know what's driving the variability," he says, but reasons that it stems from a combination of genetics, environment, and exposure to mutagens. Given that these influences differ widely across the globe, Quinlan hypothesizes that "variability in mutation rates worldwide must be much, much larger."