Culture

People who think dogs are exceptionally intelligent are barking up the wrong tree, new research shows.

Scientists reviewed evidence that compared the brain power of dogs with other domestic animals, other social hunters and other carnivorans (an order including animals such as dogs, wolves, bears, lions and hyenas).

The researchers, from the University of Exeter and Canterbury Christ Church University, found the cognitive abilities of dogs were at least matched by several species in each of these groups.

The study examined more than 300 papers on the intelligence of dogs and other animals, and found several cases of "over interpretation" in favour of dogs' abilities.

"During our work it seemed to us that many studies in dog cognition research set out to 'prove' how clever dogs are," said Professor Stephen Lea, of the University of Exeter.

"They are often compared to chimpanzees and whenever dogs 'win', this gets added to their reputation as something exceptional.

"Yet in each and every case we found other valid comparison species that do at least as well as dogs do in those tasks."

The review focussed on sensory cognition, physical cognition, spatial cognition, social cognition and self-awareness.

"Taking all three groups (domestic animals, social hunters and carnivorans) into account, dog cognition does not look exceptional," said Dr Britta Osthaus, of Canterbury Christ Church University.

"We are doing dogs no favour by expecting too much of them. Dogs are dogs, and we need to take their needs and true abilities into account when considering how we treat them."

New Rochelle, NY, October 1, 2018--Researchers used continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to assess the effects of adding dapagliflozin to a regimen of either metformin or insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and found significant reductions in mean glucose and other glycemic factors, with greater improvements seen in patients taking metformin compared to insulin. The design and results of this trial are published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT) website.

CGM was used to determine daily variations in glucose during the week before patients received dapagliflozin and during the last week of treatment. Dapagliflozin is a U.S. FDA-approved inhibitor of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) and by blocking SGLT2 it increases urinary glucose excretion and improves glucose control. CGM was able to show the effects of adding dapagliflozin to either metformin or insulin in terms of overall mean glucose concentration, fasting plasma glucose, postprandial glucose, time spent in the target glucose range, and glucose variability.

The article entitled "Effects of Dapagliflozin on 24-Hour Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial," was coauthored by Robert Henry, MD, University of California San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues from UC San Diego School of Medicine, Integrated Medical Development (Princeton Junction, NJ), Medpace (Cincinnati, OH), and AstraZeneca (Fort Washington, PA).

"["As we move beyond A1c to measure glucose control, the use of CGM is becoming more important especially in insulin-requiring patients with diabetes. Time in range (TIR) and other metrics to measure glucose variability may closely relate with a patient's overall glucose control," says DTT Editor-in-Chief Satish Garg, MD, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver (Aurora). "Henry and colleagues emphasize the importance of adding an SGLT2 inhibitor on different metrics of glucose control as measured by CGM."

For those in the habit of getting their neck adjusted by a chiropractor, the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center has interesting information to know about: High velocity neck manipulation has been shown to result in stress on the eye and lead to spotty vision.

The risk is rare, but one that Yannis Paulus, M.D., a retina specialist at Kellogg, reports on in the American Journal of Ophthalmology Case Reports.

The energetic thrusts and rotations sometimes performed in high-velocity neck manipulation have been linked to damage to the blood vessels in the retina. Resulting abnormal bleeding inside the eye may also cause vision loss.

This was the case for a 59-year-old woman who experienced a "tadpole" shaped spot in her vision while driving home from a chiropractor visit -- with her sight worsening the next day. She had just received cervical spine manipulation using the high-velocity technique to help with her headaches.

The woman's vision returned to normal in about two weeks without treatment.

She was referred to Kellogg Eye Center by her optometrist who co-authored the case report.

Because the cells of the retina are so sensitive, even small injuries to the blood vessels can translate to vision problems.

That's why Paulus encourages patients to report their alternative medicine pursuits -- and for physicians to actively listen and inform them of possible related side effects.

Risks from chiropractic treatment

Cardiovascular experts have been outspoken about health risks of chiropractic treatment.

High-velocity neck manipulation has been associated with a certain type of stroke, or vertebral artery dissection, which led the American Heart Association to issue a warning statement in 2014.

The short, rapid movements of neck manipulation may cause a small tear in the artery walls in the neck. The artery wall injury can result in a stroke if a blood clot forms at the site and later breaks free to block a blood vessel in the brain.

Eye problems can follow, including double vision or central retinal artery occlusion, a blockage of the artery carrying oxygen to the nerve cells in the retina at the back of the eye.

But the case at Kellogg suggests a new complication: direct damage to structures in the eye due to the force of neck adjustments.

It's the first case report of chiropractic care leading to multiple preretinal hemorrhages, authors say.

Other possible complications are disrupting the vitreous humor -- the clear, gel-like substance that fills the eye between the lens and the retina.

The high-velocity technique may have induced a posterior vitreous detachment, or PVD, which occurs when the vitreous humor pulls away from the retina.

No specific treatment is needed for PVD. Most patients no longer notice flashes in their vision after three months and "floaters" tend to improve, according to the American Society of Retina Specialists.

Complications from PVD are rare but can be serious and in some cases require urgent treatment such as laser treatment to seal the retinal tear or surgery for a retinal detachment.

Although the connection to chiropractic care is considered a temporal association, the timing of the patient's eye symptoms following the chiropractic visit is hard to ignore.

Paulus didn't rule out future chiropractic visits for the patient but notes that "her chiropractor may need to modify techniques used during her visits."

MONTRÉAL (29 September 2018)--Two new studies released this week shine a spotlight on men's bone health which is often overshadowed by the focus on osteoporosis and fracture risk in women. The findings are being presented at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 2018 Annual Meeting in Montréal, the premier scientific meeting in the world on bone, mineral and musculoskeletal science.

Canadian researchers found that men had a three-fold higher risk of sustaining a secondary fracture within one year of a first fracture compared to those who did not, while the risk for women with a prior fracture was only 1.8 times higher compared to women without one. The large and long-term study looked at the risk of subsequent fractures at the hip, spine, forearm and the upper arm in 17,721 men and 57, 783 women over 50 years of age in Canada over a period of 25 years (1989-2006). Suzanne Morin, M.D., M. Sc., FRCPC, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine, McGill University and her colleagues found that while the risk of secondary fracture was elevated in both men and women during that time period, it was highest in the first three years following a prior fracture.

"These results underscore the importance of timely recognition of fracture events especially in men, a population in whom secondary prevention is under-implemented, "said Morin. "This tells us we should be focusing on anti-fracture strategies early after the fracture event."

Another study presented by researchers from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study is the first to show the relationship between different levels of physical activity and bone strength in older men. While numerous studies have shown the effects of exercise in women, this study evaluated nearly 1,000 older men (with a mean age of 84) and their time spent doing exercise vs. those that were sedentary. Researchers found that those that spent more time engaged in at least moderate physical activity (including housework and some sports such as walking, golf, soft ball, and tai-chi) and those with greater total activity over a period of seven years had higher bone strength measures with resultant lower risk of fracture.

"Older men are at a higher risk of life altering fractures. This was a breakthrough to finally have data to show that physical activity among men late in life was related to bone strength and fracture risk, therefore showing that remaining active over the life-course could reduce the risk of these fractures," said Lisa Langsetmo, Ph.D., M.Sc., Senior Research Associate, University of Minnesota.

"These two studies really show the importance of gains in bone mass for both men and women and how bone health and risk of osteoporosis is not just an issue for women," said Michael Econs, M.D., ASBMR Council President and endocrinology and metabolism specialist and professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. "We need to be vigilant in sharing the benefits of building bone mass for men living longer and who are twice as likely to die within the first year of a hip fracture compared to women."

NEW YORK -- The Fourth CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival, to be held in New York, Sept. 30-Oct. 3, will feature cutting-edge research studies from around the world that endeavor to answer urgent questions in the field of cancer immunotherapy to advance progress more rapidly for patients.

Cancer immunotherapeutics work by unleashing the power of a patient's immune system to fight cancer the way it fights pathogens like viruses and bacteria. Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as pembrolizumab and nivolumab, as well as CAR T-cell therapy, have revolutionized cancer care in recent years by yielding dramatic, durable responses in patients who previously had few treatment options. However, such responses are seen in only a fraction of patients, and many patients develop resistance to these treatments. There is a need for continued research and innovation so that more patients may benefit from the promise of cancer immunotherapy.

"We have made extraordinary progress in cancer immunotherapy in the past decade -- the number of immunotherapeutics increased almost five-fold and the number of cancer types that can be treated by at least one immunotherapeutic more than tripled," said AACR President Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, co-chair of this year's conference and deputy director of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University. "As research expands our knowledge of the immune system and how it interacts with cancer cells, we will see a lot more progress in immunotherapy, with new approaches to treatment that will increase the number of patients who benefit."

A media luncheon will take place on Monday, Oct. 1, at 1 p.m. ET featuring cancer immunotherapy experts who will discuss these areas of research interest and other themes from the meeting. Reporters interested in attending remotely can watch live at https://youtu.be/9G_ufP3LEjg.

Several presentations at the conference also address these issues.

Who responds to immune checkpoint inhibitors, and why?

Developing new approaches in identifying responders and non-responders to immune checkpoint inhibitors can help determine who should receive these drugs and who should receive alternate treatment.

One study that utilized big data and genomic analysis to identify new patients who may respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors is Abstract B085, "High mutation burden and response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in angiosarcomas of the scalp and face," to be presented by Corrie Painter, PhD, from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard during Poster Session B on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

What can be done to improve response rates and overcome resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors?

Immune checkpoint inhibitors improve outcomes for only a subset of cancer patients, and many see their cancers stop responding to treatment. The following abstracts are examples of work that is being done to address these issues:

-Roberta Zappasodi, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, will present Abstract A225/PR1, "Mechanistic rationale to combine GITR agonism with PD-1 blockade in cancer patients," during Poster Session A and Session 1: Regulating T Cells and Their Response to Cancer on Sunday, Sept. 30. This study investigates a new combination treatment that may help counteract resistance.

-Elizabeth Evans, PhD, Vaccinex, Inc., will present Abstract A068/PR10, "Reprogramming myeloid cells in TME with pepinemab, first-in-class semaphorin 4D MAb, enhances combination immunotherapy," during Poster Session A on Sunday, Sept. 30 and Session 5: Novel Vaccine Platforms and Combinations on Tuesday, Oct. 2. This pre-clinical research evaluates the mechanisms behind a new therapeutic's ability to bolster the activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors as these combinations are being investigated in several clinical trials.

-Stephen Schoenberger, PhD, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, will present Abstract B090/PR12, "Functional identification and therapeutic targeting of tumor neoantigens," during Poster Session B and Session 6: Mutational Analysis and Predicting Response to Immunotherapy on Tuesday, Oct. 2. The technology described in this study may eventually help identify a broader array of tumor-specific neoantigens, which is important for the development of personalized cancer vaccines and cellular immunotherapies.

In addition, this year's recipient of the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Tumor Immunology, Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, will deliver a lecture titled "From the clinic to the lab: Investigating response and resistance mechanisms to immune checkpoint therapy," Sunday, Sept. 30, at 2:15 p.m. ET.

What novel immunotherapies are on the horizon for cancer patients?

Besides immune checkpoint inhibitors and CAR T-cell therapy, researchers are investigating other ways to unleash the immune system against cancer. These two abstracts are examples of new approaches to cancer immunotherapy that are being tested in early-phase clinical trials:

-Jay Berzofsky, MD, PhD, Vaccine Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, will present Abstract A004, "HER2 cancer vaccine phase I clinical trial shows clinical benefit in 54% of evaluable patients," during Poster Session A on Sunday, Sept. 30. According to these trial results, treatment with a HER2-targeted therapeutic cancer vaccine provided clinical benefit to several patients with metastatic HER2-positive cancers who had not previously been treated with a HER2-targeted therapeutic.

-Filip Janku, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, will present Abstract A011, "First-in-man clinical trial of intratumoral injection of Clostridium novyi-NT spores in patients with treatment-refractory advanced solid tumors: safety, activity, and immune responses," during Poster Session A on Sunday, Sept. 30. This trial demonstrated that the use of bacterial Clostridium novyi-NT spores as an injectable monotherapy had manageable toxicities and showed early clinical efficacy in patients with treatment-refractory solid tumor malignancies.

The scientific program will feature talks from more than 50 leaders in the field, and attract more than 1,200 attendees from academia, industry, and the advocacy community. A full program is available here: http://www.cancerimmunotherapyconference.org/program-of-events/. All abstracts are available through the conference app: http://www.cancerimmunotherapyconference.org/abstracts/.

A team of eye specialists at The University of Nottingham has made another novel discovery that could help to improve the success of corneal transplants for patients whose sight has been affected by disease.

The research, published in the October edition of the American Journal of Ophthalmology, has shed light on a characteristic of a thin membrane called the Descemets membrane which can cause difficulties for surgeons performing the intricate Descemets membrane transplant procedure.

The study was led by Harminder Dua, Professor of Ophthalmology, and colleagues in the University's Division of Clinical Neuroscience - the same team which was the first to discover a new layer of the cornea Pre-Descemets layer, also known as the Dua's layer.

Professor Dua said: "This work has demonstrated a clear structural uniqueness of the pre-Descemets layer (Dua's layer) and has also answered a puzzling surgical question on the reason why the Descemets membrane rolls in one direction, when peeled off the donor eye. This understanding will pave the way to develop strategies to unroll it during transplantation, with minimal damage to the cells it supports."

The Descemet membrane, named after the French doctor who discovered it in the late 18th century, is found between the pre-Descemets layer (Dua's layer) and the endothelial layer in the back of the cornea, which is responsible for pumping out excess fluid and keeping the cornea dehydrated enough to maintain clear vision.

In some diseases such as Fuchs Dystrophy or following cataract surgery, the endothelial cells and Descemet membrane are damaged, causing the cornea to become waterlogged and the vision to become clouded. Over time, the vision deteriorates and, if left untreated, can lead to loss of sight.

To cure this problem, patients may be offered one of several types of corneal transplant in which all or different parts of the damaged cornea are removed and replaced with healthy tissue from a donor.

In Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK), the damaged Descemet membrane is scraped away and replaced with a donated Descemet membrane. When the membrane is separated from other layers of the cornea to prepare it for transplant it curls into a cigar-shaped roll which makes it easier to insert into the cornea via a small incision but once in place is extremely tricky to unfurl. During the manipulation of the rolled tissue, sensitive endothelial cells which coat the outside of the membrane may become damaged, reducing the success of the transplant.

In Pre-Descemet endothelial keratoplasty (PDEK), the Descemet membrane is transplanted while attached to another layer, the pre-Descemet layer - also known as Dua's layer after it was discovered by Professor Harminder Dua in 2013 and recently endorsed as the Dua-Fine layer by the American Association of Ocular Oncologists and Pathologists. It has been found that while there is still a roll, it is not as pronounced because the pre-Descemets or Dua's layer stabilises the Descemet layer acting as a kind of splint.

Ophthalmologists have long observed that the Descemet membrane will only roll in one direction, leaving the endothelial cells on the outside of the curl, but have been puzzled about why this occurs.

The Nottingham research has revealed for the first time that the direction of the roll is governed by the content and distribution of elastin - elastic-like fibres within the membrane.

Using 31 corneal discs earmarked for research purposes through the National Health Service's Manchester Eye Bank, they measured the elastin content the Descemet membrane, the pre-Descemet membrane, the stroma and other sites of the cornea.

They also looked at whether treating the Descemet membrane with an enzyme that digests elastin had any effect on the rolling up of the tissue and whether removing endothelial cells had any impact on this behaviour.

The found that the pre-Descemet layer had the highest elastin content of all the tissues studied but that the elastin was evenly distributed across the tissue.

However, when they came to study the Descemet membrane they found that the elastin was concentrated in a band across its front which was causing the membrane to roll up.

The study also found that the removal of the endothelial cells from the membrane made no difference to the direction of rolling proving that it was the elastin and not the cells that were responsible for the characteristic unidirectional rolling.

Treating the Descemet membrane with the enzyme reversed the rolling effect and was associated with the degradation or disappearance of elastin in the membrane.

The results are significant as it shows that enzymes could potentially be used to weaken the rolling of the tissue, making it much easier for surgeons to successfully implant it into the cornea while reducing the potential damage to the endothelial cells which are so important in helping to regulate the fluid content of the cornea.

NEW YORK -- A phase I clinical trial investigating the use of bacterial Clostridium novyi-NT spores as an injectable monotherapy had manageable toxicities and showed early clinical efficacy in patients with treatment-refractory solid tumor malignancies, according to data presented at the Fourth CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival, held Sept. 30-Oct. 3.

"Even after a single injection of this bacterial therapy, we see biological and, in some patients, clinically meaningful activity," said Filip Janku, MD, PhD, associate professor at the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Clinical Trial Program), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. "This strategy is feasible, has manageable adverse effects, and could be clinically meaningful in patients with few therapeutic options."

While prior anticancer therapies have utilized bacteria, these treatments can cause infection and severe side effects, explained Janku. C. novyi-NT is an attenuated bacterium that requires a hypoxic environment, a feature of cancerous lesions, to survive and proliferate and therefore does not affect healthy cells, he noted. "By exploiting the inherent differences between healthy and cancerous tissue, C. novyi-NT represents a very precise anticancer therapeutic that can specifically attack a patient's cancer," Janku said.

Janku and colleagues evaluated the intratumoral injection of C. novyi-NT spores in an open-label, first-in-human study. Between November 2013 and April 2017, the researchers enrolled 24 patients with treatment-refractory solid tumors, with 15 patients having sarcoma, seven patients having diverse carcinoma, and two patients having melanoma.

Tumors were injected with a single dose of C. novyi-NT ranging from 10,000 to 3 million spores. Two patients treated with 3 million spores displayed dose-limiting toxicities of grade 4 sepsis and/or grade 4 gas gangrene; the maximum tolerated dose was therefore determined to be 1 million spores.

Of the 22 evaluable patients, 21 had stable disease as measured by RECIST for the injected lesion, with tumor shrinkage of greater than 10 percent observed in 23 percent of patients. When both injected and uninjected lesions were included, the stable disease rate was 86 percent.

Janku noted that RECIST criteria may not accurately capture the results of this trial. "When we inject the tumor, the cells within it die and become necrotic while the remaining tissue becomes inflamed, making the lesion larger in size than the original tumor. Because of this, evaluation via RECIST does not accurately reflect the reduction in tumor burden in these patients."

Janku and colleagues also evaluated the germination of the bacterial spores through clinical and radiological methods. Of the 24 patients enrolled in the trial, tumors from 46 percent displayed spore germination and resultant tumor cell lysis.

"Despite the absence of clinical signs of germination in some patients, we saw improved tumor-specific immune responses through the increased secretion of T-cell cytokines and increased presence of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in injected tumors," noted Janku. "From these preliminary results, it appears that C. novyi-NT is able to activate the immune response besides causing tumor destruction."

Because C. novyi-NT elicits an innate immune response, Janku believes that this therapy will be synergistic with checkpoint inhibition. The results from this study have led to the initiation of a phase I clinical trial investigating the combination of C. novyi-NT with pembrolizumab (Keytruda).

"We were extremely encouraged by the results of this trial, especially in patients with advanced sarcomas, where immunotherapy hasn't proven very efficacious," Janku said. "This bacteriolytic strategy has the potential to be clinically meaningful, especially in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, for patients with advanced solid tumors."

Limitations of this study include a short follow-up time for some patients, as many entered into other clinical trials if they became available.

The University of Central Florida is selling Martian dirt, $20 a kilogram plus shipping.

This is not fake news. A team of UCF astrophysicists has developed a scientifically based, standardized method for creating Martian and asteroid soil known as simulants.

The team published its findings this month in the journal Icarus.

"The simulant is useful for research as we look to go to Mars," said Physics Professor Dan Britt, a member of UCF's Planetary Sciences Group. "If we are going to go, we'll need food, water and other essentials. As we are developing solutions, we need a way to test how these ideas will fare."

For example, scientists looking for ways to grow food on Mars - cue the Martian movie - need to test their techniques on soil that most closely resembles the stuff on Mars.

"You wouldn't want to discover that your method didn't work when we are actually there," Britt said. "What would you do then? It takes years to get there."

UCF's formula is based on the chemical signature of the soils on Mars collected by the Curiosity rover. Britt built two calibration targets that were part of Curiosity rover. Researchers currently use simulants that aren't standardized, so any experiment can't be compared to another in an apples-to-apples kind of way, Britt said.

As a geologist and a physicist, he knows his dirt. Like a recipe, the ingredients can be mixed in different ways to mimic soil from various objects, including asteroids and planets. And because the formula is based on scientific methods and is published for all to use, even those not ordering through UCF can create dirt that can be used for experiments, which reduces the uncertainty level.

Kevin Cannon, the paper's lead author and a post-doctoral researcher who works with Britt at UCF, says there are different types of soil on Mars and on asteroids. On Earth, for example, we have black sand, white sand, clay and topsoil to name a few. On other worlds, you might find carbon-rich soils, clay-rich soils and salt-rich soils, he added.

"With this technique, we can produce many variations," Cannon said. "Most of the minerals we need are found on Earth although some are very difficult to obtain."

Cannon is in Montana to collect ingredients for a moon simulant this week. Moon and asteroid materials are rare and expensive on Earth since they arrived via meteorites in small amounts. That's why asteroid and moon simulants are also on the list of items that can be ordered. The UCF team can mimic most ingredients and will substitute for any potentially harmful materials. All simulants produced in the lab, meet NASA's safety standards.

Britt and Cannon believe there is a market for the simulant. At $20 a kilogram, plus shipping, it may be easier to send UCF an order, than to try and make it in labs across the nation.

The team already has about 30 pending orders, including one from Kennedy Space Center for half a ton.

"I expect we will see significant learning happening from access to this material," Britt said.

Cannon believes it will help accelerate the drive to explore our solar system as demonstrated by investments already being made by Space X, Blue Origin and other private companies.

For Cody Schultz, a mechanical engineering senior, getting to work on the experimental soil has been "very cool."

"For someone who has always loved space science, this is the ultimate cool," he said. "And the experience is fantastic in terms of the real world ... out-of-this-world experience."

Many people with acne are negatively impacted by perceived social stigma around the skin condition, a new study from University of Limerick (UL), Ireland, has found.

A survey of 271 acne sufferers has revealed that their own negative perceptions of how society views their appearance is associated with higher psychological distress levels and further physical symptoms such as sleep disturbance, headaches and gastrointestinal problems.

Females in the study reported greater impairment of life quality and more symptoms than males. Acne severity was significantly correlated with health-related quality of life and psychological distress.

UL researchers Dr Aisling O'Donnell and Jamie Davern conducted the study to investigate whether acne sufferers' perceptions of stigmatisation significantly predicts psychological and physical health outcomes; specifically health-related quality of life, psychological distress, and somatic symptoms.

"We know from previous research that many acne sufferers experience negative feelings about their condition, but we have never before been able to draw such a direct link between quality of life and perception of social stigma around acne," said Dr O'Donnell of the Department of Psychology and Centre for Social Issues Research at UL.

Survey respondents who perceived high levels of acne stigma also reported higher levels of psychological distress, anxiety and depression as well as somatic conditions such as respiratory illness.

"The findings of this study echo previous research showing that individuals with visible physical distinctions, which are viewed negatively by society, can experience impaired psychological and physical well-being as a result," Dr O'Donnell continued.

According to the article's lead author, PhD student Jamie Davern, a lack of representation of people with acne in popular culture can increase the perceived stigma around the condition.

"Like many physical attributes that are stigmatised, acne is not well represented in popular culture, advertising or social media. This can lead people with acne to feel that they are 'not normal' and therefore negatively viewed by others. Online campaigns like #freethepimple and the recent 'acne-positive' movement emerging on social media is an encouraging development for people of all ages that are affected by acne," he explained.

Although adolescents are most commonly afflicted by acne, the condition has been reported to affect 10.8% of children between the ages of 5-13 years and 12.7% of adults aged over 59.

"Importantly, the findings provide further support for the comparatively limited amount of studies investigating physical health problems experienced by acne sufferers. This is important information for clinicians dealing with acne conditions. It's also useful for those who are close to acne sufferers. The wider negative impacts some acne sufferers experience are very challenging and require sensitivity and support," Mr Davern concluded.

Perhaps inspired by the annual 3 to 5 million cases of severe influenza worldwide, the Guinness World Record organization is advertising for individuals or organizations to attempt a record for the most people getting a flu awareness lesson at once. Meanwhile, a smaller group of people is making a more focused attempt to learn about lots of flu proteins. Andrea C. Becker at the University of Freiburg and her colleagues in Germany and Switzerland investigated the effect of the flu-causing virus, influenza A, on three lung-derived cell lines and published their results in the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.

The study quantified virus-induced changes in protein levels and found that a majority of the changes are cell-line specific. More specifically, they quantified the protein levels of 70 percent of the roughly 7,000 proteins they could detect using a mass spectrometry-based isotope labeling approach known as SILAC. Influenza infection of lung cells changed the overall abundance of only a few proteins, mostly related to immunity, but SILAC comparisons showed that the virus changes the cellular location of many proteins. In particular, the authors detected an increase in viral and ribosomal proteins in the autophagosome, which they linked to a reduction in successful autophagy, suggesting that the virus may hijack autophagosomes, perhaps using the compartments for viral protein translation.

Students who are chronically absent from school often perform poorly academically, and are more likely to be delinquent, drop out, or engage in other high-risk behaviors. New research identified a common way to define absenteeism and classified youth's absenteeism based on degree. The study found that interventions for youth with the highest rates of absenteeism were more successful than those for youth with fewer absences.

Conducted by researchers at the University of Nebraska, the study appears in Justice Evaluation Journal, a publication of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

"It's been difficult to evaluate programs that aim to reduce absenteeism since there are so many differences in how absenteeism is measured," explains Anne Hobbs, director of the Juvenile Justice Institute at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and the study's lead author. "We identified a common way to define absenteeism across programs and then evaluated programs that address a range of absence levels. This can help us determine when to intervene, how to respond, and to whom interventions should be directed."

As part of a statewide evaluation in Nebraska to assess the effectiveness of programs in reducing absenteeism, the study looked at 12 programs in 137 schools and involved 1,606 children and adolescents. Youth in the study ranged from 5 to 18 years old and were from a range of races and ethnicities, though the majority of students were White.

Researchers defined absenteeism as all types of absences (not just truancy), categorized it into eight types, and classified absences as both excused and unexcused. They established a common measurement system and common definitions for each type of absence statewide. The researchers also created a common data entry system that each program could access, mapped attendance codes to each category of absence, and provided programs with technical assistance on using the new system.

Youth were grouped into tiers based on their rates of absenteeism: Youth in Tier 1A missed less than 5% of required school, those in Tier 1B missed 6-10%, those in Tier 2 missed 11-19%, and those in Tier 3 missed 20% or more. With the data gathered using this approach, the study evaluated programs that served a range of youth spanning early intervention to those involved with the courts. It also examined whether classifying youth (by tier) explained improvements in attendance, taking into account age, race, gender, school, and program.

For youth who took part in programs to reduce absenteeism, the study found that youth with the highest rates of absenteeism--both excused and unexcused--had the most improvements in reducing absenteeism, while youth with fewer absences did not improve significantly. The school the youth attended also played a role, though it wasn't clear what school characteristic--size, way of handling absences, or climate--had the most impact.

The study also found that Black youth, American Indian youth, youth classified as Other, and older youth were significantly more likely to be classified in Tier 3 (that is, missing 20% or more of required school) than in other tiers; White and Hispanic youth were distributed more evenly across the tiers. In addition, males were more likely to be referred to intervention programs earlier (at Tier 1) than females.

"Using common measurements for absenteeism and common definitions makes it easier to compare attendance patterns and the success of programs within different schools, school districts, and states where measurement of attendance may vary," suggests Lindsey Wylie, research coordinator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who coauthored the study.

Vitamin B supplements have a protective effect on kidney function in children and adolescents with type-1 diabetes, according to research presented today at the 57th Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting. These findings indicate that simple supplementation of vitamin B complex may protect against the development and progression of kidney disease in children with diabetes, which could promote improved health and quality of life in adulthood.

Type-1 diabetes is a life-long disease in which the body does not make enough insulin to regulate blood glucose levels. The condition is usually diagnosed in childhood and can lead to serious and debilitating complications, including diabetic kidney disease. This common complication develops over many years, but has no symptoms in the early stages, so if undetected can necessitate long-term, intensive or expensive treatments, and lead to earlier death in adulthood. Vitamin B deficiency is associated with an increased risk of kidney damage and is often observed in children and adults with type-1 diabetes. However, whether supplements can improve blood glucose regulation or kidney function in vitamin B deficient type-1 diabetic children had not yet been fully investigated.

In this study by Prof Nancy Samir Elbarbary and colleagues at Ain Shams University in Cairo, 80 vitamin B12-deficient, type-1 diabetics, aged 12-18 years, with early signs of diabetic kidney disease were given either vitamin B supplements or no treatment, over a 12-week period. After 12 weeks, the children given vitamin B supplements showed significant changes in several blood markers that overall indicated improvements in their blood glucose regulation and kidney function.

Prof Elbarbary states, "After 12 weeks of vitamin B complex supplementation in children and adolescents with diabetic kidney disease, we detected lower levels of markers that indicate poor kidney function, suggesting that it had a protective effect and could slow progression of the disease."

Prof Elbarbary, comments, "Although the best strategy for treating diabetic kidney disease is prevention, for example through better blood glucose control and maintenance of healthy blood pressure, a normal lipid profile and a healthy body weight, the long-term duration of diabetes still increases the risk of developing kidney disease. So, these findings suggest vitamin B supplementation, in addition to traditional angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor therapy may be a simple, safe and cost-effective strategy for early protection of kidney function, which may improve the long-term quality of life for type-1 diabetes patients."

Although Prof Elbarbary also cautions, "This was a relatively small study and these findings still need to be confirmed in larger, multicentre randomised trials to verify the role of vitamin B complex supplementation in treating early diabetic kidney disease over longer periods of time, but these early results are a promising start."

Infections with Salmonella bacteria, often caused by eating or handling undercooked meat or eggs, affect about 100 million people a year worldwide. The suffering the infection causes - abdominal cramps, fever and diarrhea - is the result of an extremely precise set of molecular interactions between the bacterium and the infected human's cells. In a new study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers at Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute report some of the details of how Salmonella shuts down an immune pathway after infection.

When a pathogen like Salmonella enterica infects a cell, the cell activates a series of signals, culminating in certain genes being turned on to activate protective immune responses. One group of proteins that turn on immune-related genes is known as the NF-?B transcription factors. Salmonella, however, produces its own set of proteins that stop this from happening.

"These (bacterial proteins) function as a molecular pair of scissors, cutting up NF-kappaB transcription factors and thereby sabotaging the infected cells' immune response," said Teresa Thurston, the investigator at Imperial who oversaw the work.

These sabotage proteins, collectively called zinc metalloprotease effector proteins, act surprisingly delicately for saboteurs. In the human cells that Salmonella enterica infects, there are five different types of NF-kappaB proteins, but the Salmonella effectors cut up only three of them, leaving the other two untouched.

"The interaction between the host and the pathogen is very complex," Thurston said. "So what I think this selectivity means is that (the bacterial proteins) are able to affect a particular arm of the immune response while keeping other arms untouched. And, in that way, they're really fine-tuning the host immune response rather than having a blanket bomb-out effect."

Thurston's team, led by graduate student Elliott Jennings, wanted to understand how these bacterial proteins were able to behave so accurately on a molecular level. To do so, the team produced a detailed 3-D structure of one of them, both alone and in complex with a human NF-kappaB protein.

They found a sophisticated mechanism of molecular sabotage. The NF-kappaB transcription factors do their job of turning on immune system genes by binding to DNA at specific locations. The Salmonella effector proteins take on the approximate shape and electrical charge of the DNA backbone, essentially tricking NF-kappaB proteins to stick to them instead; once this happens, the Salmonella protein cuts up the NF-kappaB protein.

The precision with which this occurs - targeting only three out of five NF-kappaB proteins - is strongly determined by the way the bacterial effectors interact with a single amino acid in the targeted NF-kappaB proteins.

"With a single change in the amino acid sequence, we could create a target that could no longer be cut," Thurston said. "Also vice versa: After changing just one amino acid, (the effector) was then able to cleave a protein that was not normally targeted."

In other words, the bacterial proteins distinguish between the human proteins based on just one specific amino acid.

Together, these findings contribute to a complex picture of how Salmonella runs roughshod over its human host by carefully breaking key molecules in immune signaling pathways.

"Maybe once we have a complete picture of how bacteria get one over their hosts, we can shift the balance in favor of the host," Thurston said. "In the case of Salmonella infection, this could be important, as many of the fatalities are associated with immune-compromised patients."

PULLMAN, Wash. - Researchers at Washington State University have developed an implantable, biofuel-powered sensor that runs on sugar and can monitor a body's biological signals to detect, prevent and diagnose diseases.

A cross-disciplinary research team led by Subhanshu Gupta, assistant professor in WSU's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, developed the unique sensor, which, enabled by the biofuel cell, harvests glucose from body fluids to run.

The research team has demonstrated a unique integration of the biofuel cell with electronics to process physiological and biochemical signals with high sensitivity.

Their work recently was published in the IEEE Transactions of Circuits and Systems journal.

Professors Su Ha and Alla Kostyukova from the Gene and Linda School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, led design of the biofuel cell.

Many popular sensors for disease detection are either watches, which need to be recharged, or patches that are worn on the skin, which are superficial and can't be embedded. The sensor developed by the WSU team could also remove the need to prick a finger for testing of certain diseases, such as diabetes.

"The human body carries a lot of fuel in its bodily fluids through blood glucose or lactate around the skin and mouth," said Gupta. "Using a biofuel cell opens the door to using the body as potential fuel."

The electronics in the sensor use state-of-the-art design and fabrication to consume only a few microwatts of power while being highly sensitive. Coupling these electronics with the biofuel cell makes it more efficient than traditional battery-powered devices, said Gupta. Since it relies on body glucose, the sensor's electronics can be powered indefinitely. So, for instance, the sensor could run on sugar produced just under the skin.

Unlike commonly used lithium-ion batteries, the biofuel cell is also completely non-toxic, making it more promising as an implant for people, he said. It is also more stable and sensitive than conventional biofuel cells.

The researchers say their sensor could be manufactured cheaply through mass production, by leveraging economies of scale.

While the sensors have been tested in the lab, the researchers are hoping to test and demonstrate them in blood capillaries, which will require regulatory approval. The researchers are also working on further improving and increasing the power output of their biofuel cell.

"This brings together the technology for making a biofuel cell with our sophisticated electronics," said Gupta. "It's a very good marriage that could work for many future applications."

URBANA, Ill. - Crop yield predictions are a key driver of regional economy and financial markets, impacting nearly the entire agricultural supply chain. That's why economists, agricultural researchers, government agencies, and private companies are working to improve the accuracy of these predictions.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report forecasts end-of-season yield based on real-time farmer surveys and analysis from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and it's considered by many to be the gold standard for yield predictions. But researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a new method that outperforms the USDA's WASDE estimations, in a scientifically rigorous and reproducible way.

"Using seasonal forecasts and satellite data, we developed a very advanced yield prediction system for both the national and county levels. Our research demonstrates that we can do better than the USDA's real-time estimation," says Kaiyu Guan, principal investigator on the Geophysical Research Letters study, and assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES) at U of I and Blue Waters professor at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

Guan and his colleagues are not the first to use satellite data to try to predict crop yield, but their combined use of seasonal climate prediction, along with crop growth information from satellite imagery, is unique.

The study evaluated end-of-season accuracy of individual and combined data sources as compared with the national maize yield forecast in the monthly USDA WASDE reports.

"Compared with using historical climate information for the unknown future, which is what most previous research is based on, using seasonal climate prediction from the NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction gave better forecasting performance, especially in reducing the uncertainties," says Bin Peng, the lead author of this study and postdoctoral research associate in NRES and NCSA.

Guan adds, "But if we only use seasonal climate prediction data - temperature, rainfall, and vapor pressure deficit - our predictions were no better than the USDA's. It was only when we added the satellite data that we started to see the improvement. That's a clear indication that satellite data is extremely useful in this case."

The new approach allows more accurate end-of-season predictions to be made earlier in the season. At the end of the growing season, when the corn harvest is complete, it is possible to look back and evaluate the accuracy of each previous month's prediction. Between 2010 and 2016, for example, the WASDE report for June was off, on average, by 17.66 bushels per acre. For the same time frame, Guan and Peng's system was only off by 12.75 bushels per acre. In August, WASDE was off by an average of 5.63 bushels per acre, whereas Guan and Peng's system got the number down to 4.37.

"Improving our ability to predict crop yield is really important for many applications. Farmers want to know this information because it's directly related to the price they can expect. Economic forecasting and commodity market prices for corn and soybean hinge on this information. Also logistics: Grain companies need to find out which places are producing grain and how much. Do they have the capacity to collect and process it? Crop insurance depends on this information, too. It's a problem that has lots of practical meaning," Guan says.

"The new system is implemented on Blue Waters, one of the most advanced supercomputers in the U.S.," says Peng. "We need a high-performance computing facility like Blue Waters to process the huge amount of seasonal climate prediction and satellite data."