Culture

A program established by investigators from the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MIT and Harvard is addressing the persistently elevated risk of HIV infection among young women in South Africa from two angles - first, investigating biological factors that modulate infection risk along with the early immunologic events following viral exposure, and second, alleviating the socioeconomic factors that limit opportunities for young women, the group at greatest risk of infection in the region of the world hardest hit by the HIV epidemic. Members of the Ragon Institute team report on the first five years of the FRESH program in a commentary published in Science Immunology.

"The South African government's antiretroviral treatment program has enabled a return to near normal life expectancy for those who have become infected, but rates of new infections among young women continue almost unchecked," says Krista Dong, MD, of the Ragon Institute and the Division of Infectious Diseases at MGH, FRESH program leader and a co-author of the report. "Gender inequality results in disempowerment - including a lack of means for women to protect themselves from infection - and economic dependence. It is estimated that 5,000 young women in South Africa become infected every week. Performing medical research in such vulnerable populations requires special considerations to ensure participants' safety and well-being, so we sought to address major non-HIV-related challenges facing these young women while conducting research aimed at developing an effective HIV vaccine."

Launched in December 2012, the FRESH study was established in a shopping mall in the Umlazi township of KwaZulu-Natal, a South African province that has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. The location was chosen because of the reluctance of many South Africans to visit clinics unless they are seriously ill due to stigma associated with typical HIV testing and treatment sites. The program enrolls young women ages 18 to 23 - not in school, unemployed, HIV-negative and sexually active - in groups of 30 per month to create peer support groups.

Participants visit the clinic twice a week to participate in sessions ranging from self-esteem, relationships and gender-based violence, and HIV prevention and treatment to career development, computer training and starting a small business. Participants undergo HIV testing at each visit, with more comprehensive blood and cervical-vaginal sampling every three months. Initially, antiretroviral treatment was not provided at the time a new infection was detected but was only started after a participants' CD4 count dropped below 350, following the treatment guideline for South Africa at the time. Approval was granted 18 months into the program to start treatment immediately after an infection was detected. Most recently, FRESH has begun to offer pre-exposure prophylaxis or 'PrEP' - antiretroviral drug treatment given to prevent HIV infection - which is not yet being provided by the South African government.

Among the more than 1,000 women who have completed the 9- to 12-month program, more than 85 percent have been placed in jobs or internships, started their own small businesses or returned to school. Some have become the primary breadwinners for their households. Although the rate of new infections among FRESH participants has remained consistent since the program launched, the investigators recognize that the behavioral changes that can impact HIV risk will require sustained improvement in career and educational opportunities for the women and a resultant shift in cultural norms.

Basic research arising from the FRESH study has identified biologic factors that may contribute to a higher risk of HIV infection among South African woman - including the composition of the bacterial microbiome in the genital tract among local women, a high incidence of other sexually transmitted infections, and hormonal levels related to either a commonly used contraceptive or the natural fluctuations of the menstrual cycle.

The ability to study HIV infection at its earliest stages revealed that the rapid activation and proliferation of CD8 T cells, which usually attack and destroy pathogens, quickly diminishes as the immune cells begin to die off themselves. But participants who can maintain higher levels of CD8 cells have lower viral levels, suggesting a possible strategy for vaccine development. Those who begin antiretroviral therapy as soon as infection is detected have more effective CD8 function without the typical drop in CD4 levels, making them an ideal group for studies aimed at potentially curative therapies.

"We measure the success of this program both by these important scientific insights and by providing participants with a pathway out of poverty," says Bruce Walker, MD, director of the Ragon Institute, the Philip and Susan Ragon Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, senior author of the Science Immunology report and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "The ability to both conduct cutting-edge science and provide a social benefit to participants is encouraging, but we continue to face challenges in implementing more effective methods of prevention, extending FRESH to other groups of women and developing programs targeting men - all of which will require additional philanthropic support."

A new study in the journal Scientific Reports gets to the bottom of it: Why do dogs that are trained to locate poop sometimes find the wrong kind of poop?

It happens anywhere from 4 percent to 45 percent of the time, said Karen DeMatteo, a biologist in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Her new research confirms that there are three viable, alternative explanations beyond errors in handler or dog training that can explain the collection of non-target scats with detection dogs in some ecosystems.

Detection dogs are trained to use scent, not their eyes, to locate specific kinds of scat. They're useful partners in conservation projects as an alternative to camera photo traps or other more invasive means of identifying which individual animals are present in an area.

And while finding the wrong kind of poop doesn't ultimately muck up research results -- researchers who use scat to track animals usually use DNA tests to confirm the identity of target and non-target evacuators -- collecting and testing false positives costs a project time and resources.

"To date, when non-target samples are found in detection dog studies, it is assumed it may be due to errors in detection dog or handler training; however, our study determined that this is not always the case," DeMatteo said. "Instead, the complexity of ecosystems where a study is conducted can affect the perceived accuracy of detection dog studies because the natural behaviors of non-target species, like coyotes in our study, can alter the genetic profile of target scat, like that from a puma."

In her own work, DeMatteo has successfully used scat-detection dogs to identify the routes traveled by endangered pumas and other reclusive carnivores along a biologically important corridor in Argentina.

Detection dogs are great at determining the presence of specific animals because they can find droppings hidden in grass, droppings that have been rained on and disintegrated into the mud -- or even droppings that have been eaten and then recycled.

Yes, that's right, and it's a normal part of life for many animals, DeMatteo said.

"Humans have a natural aversion to coprophagy, which is reflected in the visual horror on an owner's face when they see their dog gobble down their own scat or the scat of another dog or cat," DeMatteo said. "Once this shock subsides, the owner typically worries that the scat will cause health problems or there is something psychologically wrong with their four-legged friend."

"While the reasons underlying coprophagy in domestic dogs are still fuzzy, it is known in wild canids that coprophagy is natural and is often associated with territoriality or nutritional benefits," she said. "So while the finding that coyotes will consume puma scat is novel and has various ecological implications, coprophagy occurs naturally under a variety of circumstances."

The tendency of one animal to eat another's scat is one of three behaviors that might alter the type of scat, or the state of the scat, that a detector dog might encounter, and thus affect the perceived accuracy of the technique.

Researchers also considered how urine-marking by non-target species might affect a detector dog's ability to locate scat from a species of interest, and also what happens if one animal picks up another's scat and moves it using its mouth, potentially bringing it into contact with saliva. Field trials were conducted in the St. Louis area and in northwest Nebraska.

The researchers found that each of the proposed behaviors alters the genetic profile of the scat in question, and all were confirmed to play a role in the detection dog indicating on non-target scats.

The pool of conservation-trained detection dogs is constantly growing in number, as are the types of target species and the areas where they are being used, DeMatteo said. One of the continuing questions surrounding their use for these types of projects is how to maintain a high quality standard for training detection dogs and their handlers.

"In reality, the dog is easier to train then the handler, with the latter having a higher chance of introducing error," DeMatteo said. "Even with these variables, these results are extendable to other dog-handler teams with less experience, as long as consistency is used."

While this study, "How behavior of nontarget species affects perceived accuracy of scat detection dog surveys," demonstrates that there are alternative explanations for why dogs sometimes collect non-target samples, it also shines a light on behaviors that humans may not understand -- but that could play a role in ecosystem functioning.

"Genetic testing can eliminate these samples and maintain accuracy in the [detection dog-assisted] studies," DeMatteo said. "However, this non-target interaction with target scat potentially has important implications for other ecological questions, including parasite/disease transmission, zoonotic diseases and general health of wild populations."

September 14, 2018 - The "patient-centered medical home" (PCMH) approach is an important tool for providing coordinated care for the millions of American children with special healthcare needs. But most of these special-needs children don't have access to care consistent with the PCMH approach, reports a study in the October issue of Medical Care. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Despite extensive efforts over more than a decade, more than two-thirds of children with special healthcare needs aren't receiving "PCMH-concordant" care, according to the study by Mónica Pérez-Jolles, PhD, of University of Southern California and Kathleen C. Thomas, PhD, MPH, of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Inequities in PCMH-concordant care are more common in certain subgroups, including children with higher functional impairment.

More Progress Needed in Providing PCMH Care for Kids with Special Needs
Children with special healthcare needs are those with "a diagnosis of mental illness and/or the presence of a chronic physical or developmental condition that requires a higher use and range of health services compared to the general population." A national survey estimated that about 15 percent of children have special healthcare needs, and that 23 percent of US families have at least one child with special needs.

Because of their complex needs for healthcare and other services, these children are at risk for fragmented care or duplication of services. The PCMH approach - focused on delivering care that is accessible, family-centered, coordinated, comprehensive, culturally competent, compassionate, and high-quality - is an important part of efforts to improve outcomes for children with special healthcare needs.

In 2002, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement endorsing the PCMH approach for children with special healthcare needs, stating that "every child deserves a medical home." Drs. Pérez-Jolles and Thomas write, "This study sought to elucidate how much progress have we made on that promise."

Using nationally representative data (the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey) from 2003 to 2013, the researchers analyzed parent/caregiver experience concordant with PCMH care. The survey included data relevant to four PCMH characteristics: accessible, family-centered, comprehensive, and compassionate care. The authors examined the implementation of PCMH-concordant care overall and across the PCMH characteristics measured.

The findings suggested that only 31 percent of children with special healthcare needs were receiving PCMH-concordant care, based on a composite score consisting of total average scores across all four characteristics. On analysis of individual characteristics, more than 80 percent of children experienced care that was comprehensive and compassionate, while about 60 percent received accessible and patient-centered care.

About 87 percent of children with special healthcare needs had at least moderate functional impairment. These children were less likely to experience PCMH-concordant care - especially those with a high level of functional impairment. Several other characteristics were also linked to lower levels of PCMH-concordant care, including non-white race/ethnicity, lower parental education, low household income, living in a home where English is a second language, and being uninsured or on public health coverage. There were also significant differences by metropolitan area and region.

"Overall, our results showed that just under a third of children with special healthcare needs reported experiencing PCMH-concordant care and there was high variation across components," Drs. Pérez-Jolles and Thomas write. "Thus, despite strong support for this care model, we still have a long way to go to reach 'every child'...with implementation of [PCMH care].

The researchers conclude: "Despite increased parent perception of care that is concordant with medical home care over time, disparities remain among high-need children with special healthcare needs." The authors believe their findings may be useful in tracking special-needs children at higher risk of healthcare inequities, and in tailoring PCMH care to meet the unique needs of these subgroups.

A study in the journal Bulletin of Marine Science describes a new, blood-red species of octocoral found in Panama. The species in the genus Thesea was discovered in the threatened low-light reef environment on Hannibal Bank, 60 kilometers off mainland Pacific Panama, by researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama (STRI) and the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología (CIMAR) at the University of Costa Rica.

Scientists established the new species, Thesea dalioi, by comparing its physical traits, such as branch thickness and the bright red colony color, with the only other species in the genus in the eastern Pacific, T. variabilis.

T. dalioi is named for Ray Dalio, a supporter of marine exploration. Its name is intended to recognize Dalio's valuable contributions to marine research and public outreach.
Hannibal Bank, part of the Coiba National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a coastal seamount and a biodiversity hot spot that has only been explored recently.
"After just two expeditions using submersibles down to 300 meters, we have identified 17 species of octocorals for the Hannibal Bank, including the discovery and description of three new species," said Hector M. Guzman, marine ecologist at STRI and one of the authors of the study.

Light-dependent coral and algae, as well as other life-forms found in low-light environments, live on mesophotic reefs: meso means middle and photic means light.
These reefs, such as the one where T. dalioi was found, are considered fragile habitats with a high diversity of corals, algae and sponges. They are also generally neglected in most environmental and conservation policies because they are difficult to reach. Hannibal Bank is one of the spots requiring more attention for its protection.
"The present study should provide the basis for further research on the genus and contributes to the diversity and distribution knowledge of octocorals from the mesophotic zone in the eastern Pacific Ocean," said Odalisca Breedy, marine biologist at CIMAR and one of the authors of the study.

"Medical researchers have identified therapeutic benefits derived from both soft and hard corals such as anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties, bone repair and neurological benefits," said Guzman. "But our ability to contribute to the understanding of soft corals and their habitats, depends not only on steady funding for the use of submersibles, but also on our continued ability to obtain permission to work in Coiba National Park."

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), a type of bariatric surgery, many patients exhibit a reduction in taste preference for sweet and fatty foods, although this effect may only be temporary, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Obesity is a growing epidemic worldwide and a leading cause of death alongside heart disease and smoking. Bariatric surgery, specifically RYGB, is the most effective treatment for obesity.

"People who have this surgery are what we call morbidly obese, meaning that they are at least 100 pounds overweight, and in many cases are diabetic," said Patricia DiLorenzo, professor of psychology at Binghamton University. "It's life or death for them."

RYGB makes the stomach much smaller into what is called a pouch. This pouch bypasses part of the small intestine, so when you eat, your food enters a smaller stomach and empties right into the small intestine. This means that people cannot eat large meals anymore, leading to weight loss. However, taste and odor preferences are also known to change after surgery, and their potential involvement with the noted weight loss is a question of study.

DiLorenzo and her research team investigated food and odor preference changes following RYGB and compared them to changes in body-mass index post-surgery. To assess food and odor preferences before and after surgery, patients filled out the Self-Assessment Manikin, which assesses pleasure and arousal responses to an object. Patients were presented with pictures of foods representing the five taste qualities of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami, as well as four odors. They were then asked to rate their preferences. BMI data were collected before and after surgery.

"Most people before their surgery, their favorite foods are just what you'd expect -- ice cream, French fries, burgers, pizza," said DiLorenzo. "But afterwards, their favorite food was salad, for example. Twenty percent of people said that their favorite foods were vegetables. Those people - the ones who said they changed their taste preferences - lost the most weight."

DiLorenzo and her team also found that people who liked coffee more post-surgery were also the people that lost the most weight. Coffee and vegetables share a bitter flavor, indicating that post RYGB surgery, some patients' taste preferences shifted from high-fat and sweet foods to ones where bitter tastes were less aversive. Patients who experienced this effect lost the most weight and had lower BMIs in the long run after surgery.

However, these altered food preferences generally trend back towards pre-surgery preferences over time. Additionally, the rate of weight loss lessens as time increases post-surgery.

"The lion's share of the weight is lost in the first year," said DiLorenzo. "After that, your weight stabilizes."

Despite the risk for some patients to regain weight post-surgery, the majority of patients successfully lose and keep the weight off.

"People have the view that most people gain the weight back after RYGB surgery, and that's not true," said DiLorenzo. "Eighty percent of the people keep the weight off. In Western medicine, this is the most effective treatment for obesity."

The full paper, "Taste and odor preferences following Roux-en-Y surgery in humans," was published in PLOS One.

The research was conducted over a period of six months with a group of 36 patients in the Haemodyalisis Unit of the General University Hospital of Alicante and three nurses who had received training in solution-focussed communication.

The study, conducted in collaboration with María del Carmen Neipp (Miguel Hernández University of Elche), Maite García-Moreno (Hospital Complex of Navarre, CHN) and Inés González-Sánchez (General University Hospital of Alicante and the Cardenal Herrera University of Elche), has been published recently in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. It will shortly be replicated at two hospitals in La Rioja, so both nurses and kidney specialists will undergo training.

The question that the research aims to address is how to facilitate the reduction in the intake of liquid (and food) of certain patients on haemodyalisis who have problems in achieving this, "something that the majority find tremendously difficult and uncomfortable, in particular during these hot months," said Beyebach. The aim is to ensure that the weight gain between one session and the next should be the indispensable minimum and that, therefore, the work of the machine that is purifying the blood should take the shortest possible time. Various pieces of research have shown that in that way not only is the comfort of the haemodyalisis sessions increased, the life quality of the patients is improved, and their survival extended.

Changing the communicative style in order to achieve results

"It is a pilot study, not controlled and carried out on a small sample, but which explores an innovative alternative that no one has studied until now and which is pointing to some promising results," stressed the researcher. Normally, as he explained, to get the patient to reduce his/her intake, techniques such as the therapy or psychoeducation of the patients themselves are tried but they often fail to achieve the desired results. "It is necessary to empathise with the difficulties facing the patients and to reinforce positive behaviour, each patient's own resources," he said. "You also have to bear in mind that many of these patients have been waiting for a transplant for years and their moods are close to depression, so merely instructive communication is of no use whatsoever," he said.

The research published highlights the role of nurses as agents of change, since it is the healthcare personnel who are more directly in contact with the person affected and who develop a bond with them. "The study published now suggests that by improving the style of communication with the patients, significant results can be achieved and that is what we want to demonstrate ultimately with the next study that we will be conducting in La Rioja," said Beyebach.

The British mainland was formed from the collision of not two, but three ancient continental land masses, according to new research.

Scientists have for centuries believed that England, Wales and Scotland were created by the merger of Avalonia and Laurentia more than 400 million years ago.

However, geologists based at the University of Plymouth now believe that a third land mass - Armorica - was also involved in the process.

The findings are published in Nature Communications and follow an extensive study of mineral properties at exposed rock features across Devon and Cornwall.

They reveal a clear boundary running across the two counties, with areas north of it sharing their geological roots with the rest of England and Wales but everything south being geologically linked to France and mainland Europe.

Among other things, scientists believe the research explains the abundance of tin and tungsten in the far South West of England - metals also found in Brittany and other areas of mainland Europe, but not so evident in the rest of the UK.

The research's lead author, Lecturer in Igneous Petrology Dr Arjan Dijkstra, said: "This is a completely new way of thinking about how Britain was formed. It has always been presumed that the border of Avalonia and Armorica was beneath what would seem to be the natural boundary of the English Channel. But our findings suggest that although there is no physical line on the surface, there is a clear geological boundary which separates Cornwall and south Devon from the rest of the UK."

For the research, Dr Dijkstra and Masters student Callum Hatch (now working at the Natural History Museum) visited 22 sites in Devon and Cornwall that were left exposed following geological events, such as underground volcanic eruptions. These took place around 300 million years ago and brought magma from depths of 100 km to the Earth's surface.

They took rock samples from each site, subjecting them to detailed chemical analysis in the lab using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry.

The samples were also then dissolved in acid in order to conduct a more intensive isotopic analysis, with scientists examining the levels of two elements - strontium and neodymium - to understand the full history of the rocks.

These findings were then compared with previous studies elsewhere in the UK and mainland Europe, with the results showing the clear boundary running from the Exe estuary in the East to Camelford in the west.

"We always knew that around 10,000 years ago you would have been able to walk from England to France," Dr Dijkstra added. "But our findings show that millions of years before that, the bonds between the two countries would have been even stronger. It explains the immense mineral wealth of South West England, which had previously been something of a mystery, and provides a fascinating new insight into the geological history of the UK."

Long-term use of anti-cancer drugs treatment may lead to the development of multiple drug resistance reducing the efficiency of chemotherapy. Scientists are aware of several mechanisms for drug resistance development in tumor cells. They are to a great extent associated with the activation of proteins that get medicinal drugs out of cells, as well as with changes in the genes controlling cell survival and programmed cell death (apoptosis). One of the least studied mechanisms of drug resistance development is connected with the influence of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are formed during cell life and can destroy organic molecules.

RUDN biochemists studied the mechanism of drug resistance development in ovarian cancer cells under treatment with cisplatin. The researchers found out that the process was connected with increased expression (production of proteins coded by DNA molecules) of genes of key antioxidant enzymes (i.e. destroying ROS): Mn-superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase-1, hemoxygenase-1, as well as reduced expression of the enzyme NADPH-oxidase, which is responsible for ROS generation in the cell.

In the normal state there is a balance between the formation and destruction of ROS. Any changes in this balance may cause damage in the internal structure of the cells leading to number of diseases including cancer. On the other hand, high concentrations of ROS may also lead to the death of cancer cells. This effect is used in cancer therapy, and cisplatin may operate on a similar principle.

In their work the scientists used the real time RT-PCR method and western blotting to evaluate gene expression. The discovered redox-dependent mechanism of drug resistance development shows how well tumor cells can adapt to negative environmental conditions. The mechanism helps healthy cells survive, but in case of malignant tumors hinders their treatment.

"We found that under treatment of the ovarian cancer cells with cisplatin a new mechanism is triggered, changing the balance between generation and elimination of ROS; it is called as the adaptive antioxidant response. The studied mechanism of drug resistance development would help create new combined methods for ovarian cancer treatment," said Elena Kalinina, the author of the study, doctor of biological science, and professor of RUDN Institute of Medicine.

BOSTON, MA (Sept. 13, 2018) -- Airborne marine biologists were amazed by the sheer abundance and diversity of large marine wildlife in their recent aerial survey of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, the only marine national monument on the East Coast, about 150 southeast of Cape Cod. Scientists with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium documented more than 600 animal sightings in just four hours, including a "superpod" of about 250 common dolphins and a rare sighting of a giant manta ray.

The researchers, aboard a small, four-seat airplane, saw the equivalent of three animal sightings every minute. They also spotted hundreds of Risso's dolphins, some rarely-seen beaked whales, pods of bottlenose dolphins, and the bizarre-looking giant ocean sunfish, also known as the mola mola. The 605-total seen during the September survey nearly doubles the survey team's previous sighting record of 339 animals in April 2018.

"This was an amazing number of animals to see in such a short period of time and the highest count we've seen so far in our surveys," said Dr. Ester Quintana, head of the survey team. "The marine monument is known as the 'Serengeti of the sea' for a reason."

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is a critical hotspot of biodiversity on the edge of the continental shelf where the shallow seas off of New England drop sharply into the deep waters of the northwestern Atlantic. On September 16, the monument will celebrate its two year anniversary. In 2016, President Obama designated three underwater canyons that are deeper than the Grand Canyon, and four seamounts as tall as the Rockies, as the first American marine national monument in Atlantic waters. At the moment, is still the most strongly protected area in U.S. Atlantic waters. However, in 2017, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke recommended to President Trump has recommended weakening the area's protections.

"It's simply impossible to overstate the uniqueness of this habitat and its value as the most protected region in the U.S. Atlantic," said Vikki Spruill, President and CEO of the New England Aquarium. "And let's be clear about what it protects: Us. Our way of life. Our values. Our future. The monument should be here to stay."

Given the great distance offshore, documenting the marine life in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts is a challenge. During the 4-hour aerial survey, the team spotted 335 common dolphins, 30 bottlenose dolphins, 2 beaked whales, 3 ocean sunfish (mola mola), and a giant manta ray. The manta was an especially unexpected sight because the species is very rarely seen this far north. All of the dolphin groups included many calves and juveniles, reinforcing observations that the monument is a nursery area for several species.

This was the fourth in a series of aerial surveys of the monument that began in summer 2017, and the number of sightings by the scientists during this survey was higher than any other, nearly double the number of animals observed last fall.

For thousands of years, humans have relied on storytelling to engage, to share emotions and to relate personal experiences. Now, psychologists at McMaster University are exploring the mechanisms deep within the brain to better understand just what happens when we communicate.

New research published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, suggests that no matter how a narrative is expressed--through words, gestures or drawings--our brains relate best to the characters, focusing on the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist of each story.

"We tell stories in conversation each and every day," explains Steven Brown, lead author of the study, who runs the NeuroArts Lab at McMaster and is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience ang Behaviour. "Very much like literary stories, we engage with the characters and are wired to make stories people-oriented."

An important question researchers set out to answer was how, exactly, narrative ideas are communicated using three different forms of expression, and to identify a so-called narrative hub within the brain.

For the study, researchers scanned the brains of participants using fMRI and presented them with short headlines. For example, "Surgeon finds scissors inside of patient" or "Fisherman rescues boy from freezing lake."

They were then asked to convey the stories using speech, gestures or drawing, as one would do in a game of Pictionary. The illustrations were created using an MRI-compatible drawing tablet which allowed the participants to see their drawings.

Researchers found that no matter what form of story telling the participants used, the brain networks that were activated were the "theory-of-the-mind" network, which is affected by the character's intentions, motivations, beliefs, emotions and actions.

"Aristotle proposed 2,300 years ago that plot is the most important aspect of narrative, and that character is secondary," says Brown. "Our brain results show that people approach narrative in a strongly character-centered and psychological manner, focused on the mental states of the protagonist of the story."

Next, researchers hope to compare narration and acting to determine what happens when we tell stories in the third-person or portray characters in the first-person.

URBANA, Ill. - As mammals age, immune cells in the brain known as microglia become chronically inflamed. In this state, they produce chemicals known to impair cognitive and motor function. That's one explanation for why memory fades and other brain functions decline during old age. But, according to a new study from the University of Illinois, there may be a remedy to delay the inevitable: dietary fiber.

Dietary fiber promotes the growth of good bacteria in the gut. When these bacteria digest fiber, they produce short-chain-fatty-acids (SCFAs), including butyrate, as byproducts.

"Butyrate is of interest because it has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties on microglia and improve memory in mice when administered pharmacologically," says Rodney Johnson, professor and head of the Department of Animal Sciences at U of I, and corresponding author on the Frontiers in Immunology study.

Although positive outcomes of sodium butyrate - the drug form - were seen in previous studies, the mechanism wasn't clear. The new study reveals, in old mice, that butyrate inhibits production of damaging chemicals by inflamed microglia. One of those chemicals is interleukin-1β, which has been associated with Alzheimer's disease in humans.

Understanding how sodium butyrate works is a step forward, but the researchers were more interested in knowing whether the same effects could be obtained simply by feeding the mice more fiber.

"People are not likely to consume sodium butyrate directly, due to its noxious odor," Johnson says. "A practical way to get elevated butyrate is to consume a diet high in soluble fiber."

The concept takes advantage of the fact that gut bacteria convert fiber into butyrate naturally.

"We know that diet has a major influence on the composition and function of microbes in the gut and that diets high in fiber benefit good microbes, while diets high in fat and protein can have a negative influence on microbial composition and function. Diet, through altering gut microbes, is one way in which it affects disease," says Jeff Woods, professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at U of I, and co-author on the study.

Butyrate derived from dietary fiber should have the same benefits in the brain as the drug form, but no one had tested it before. The researchers fed low- and high-fiber diets to groups of young and old mice, then measured the levels of butyrate and other SCFAs in the blood, as well as inflammatory chemicals in the intestine.

"The high-fiber diet elevated butyrate and other SCFAs in the blood both for young and old mice. But only the old mice showed intestinal inflammation on the low-fiber diet," Johnson says. "It's interesting that young adults didn't have that inflammatory response on the same diet. It clearly highlights the vulnerability of being old."

On the other hand, when old mice consumed the high-fiber diet, their intestinal inflammation was reduced dramatically, showing no difference between the age groups. Johnson concludes, "Dietary fiber can really manipulate the inflammatory environment in the gut."

The next step was looking at signs of inflammation in the brain. The researchers examined about 50 unique genes in microglia and found the high-fiber diet reduced the inflammatory profile in aged animals.

The researchers did not examine the effects of the diets on cognition and behavior or the precise mechanisms in the gut-brain axis, but they plan to tackle that work in the future as part of a new, almost-$2 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Although the study was conducted in mice, Johnson is comfortable extending his findings to humans, if only in a general sense. "What you eat matters. We know that older adults consume 40 percent less dietary fiber than is recommended. Not getting enough fiber could have negative consequences for things you don't even think about, such as connections to brain health and inflammation in general."

"Cherry Blossom," a 39-year-old woman worked as a hotel breakfast bar hostess around the start of the "Great Recession." She lost her job, and three years later she was being interviewed to assess her struggles with her unemployment. She talked about her empty refrigerator.

A study by University of Missouri researchers that began as a survey of unemployment following the recession, led researchers to discover that participants used food to describe their circumstances.

In lower classes, those surveyed tended to think about food as survival; they experienced food insecurity, but rarely asked for food from family because of perceived stigmas. People from the middle classes tended to use language to "blur" their relationship with food, making it challenging for the listener to know if they were experiencing food insecurity. As a result, they were unlikely to gain access to food resources to address food insecurity.

However, people interviewed in the upper classes talked about food as a networking tool, rarely considering its physical necessity. Researchers believe that, given that food insecurity crosses social class boundaries during economic downturns, and given the variety of differing responses to food insecurity, policymakers should consider all demographics and socio-economic backgrounds when forming policies that affect food insecurity.

"Food is the essence of social class -- the way we talk about it, the way we think about it," said Debbie Dougherty, professor of communication in the MU College of Arts and Science. "We usually think about hunger as something that's purely material, we also need to think about hunger as something communicative. Food discourses are embedded into the U.S. culture and can reveal social and cultural capital. Our study revealed ways in which the food narrative shows the lived experiences of those experiencing unemployment."

Using a method called Photovoice, researchers asked participants to take photos of their experiences to help explain and illustrate their unemployment. Those surveyed tend to become more active in the research process, and their photos offer another source of data.

The data were collected between 2012 and 2013, and participants were chosen from various demographic and socio-economic backgrounds. In their responses, 19 of 21 participants voluntarily spoke about food and food access. Several in lower and middle classes submitted photos of empty or barely stocked refrigerators, other talked of how difficult it could be to obtain food.

"What was surprising was those who were in the upper classes were good at obscuring their 'food drama,'" Dougherty said. "The privilege this group of people previously had -- that they thought of food only as a social or work function -- made it so that they didn't have to think about their lack of food -- they tended to maintain the fantasy of their lives by taking their laptops to the coffee shop and feigning work. Surprisingly, these are the people who get lost in the shuffle in the discussion of food insecurity."

Dougherty says that policymakers tend to think about food in regions -- as a geographically related problem. Dougherty and her team suggest that policymakers at local, state and national levels should be addressing food insecurity as a more diffused problem that encompasses different classes and different neighborhoods in our towns and cities.

"Our economy generally runs in 8 to 10-year cycles, so when we have an economic downturn, we need to be thinking more widely about distribution of food as opposed to thinking about it in these geographically narrow spaces," Dougherty said.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - An international collaboration led by Oregon State University scientists has made a key advance toward understanding which of the trillions of gut microbes may play important roles in how humans and other mammals evolve.

Researchers came up with a novel way of classifying the microbes - a taxonomy that groups them based on their ancestry and common distribution across mammals.

Findings were published this week in mBio.

Known as ClaaTU - short for cladal taxonomic units - the new algorithm and corresponding software sharpen and fine-tune the focus needed to clarify potential ecological or evolutionary mechanisms, said corresponding author Thomas Sharpton, a microbiology and statistics researcher in OSU's College of Science.

A clade is a group of organisms thought to have descended from a common ancestor.

"The gut microbiome matters to the health of mammals like humans and mice, so perhaps it also affects a mammal's ability to survive and reproduce in nature," said lead author Christopher Gaulke, a postdoctoral scholar in the College of Science. "If so, then the gut microbiome may influence how animals evolve such that individuals that carry the proper set of gut microbes are more likely to thrive."

Gaulke and Sharpton worked with collaborators in the OSU Department of Microbiology and College of Veterinary Medicine and at the University of Illinois and University of Quebec at Montreal to develop ClaaTU.

ClaaTU identifies microbial clades that manifest across multiple sets of mammal communities more frequently than expected by chance. Those that do - the ones that are "conserved" in the mammalian microbiome - possibly played and continue to play important roles for their hosts.

"Identifying gut microbes that link to mammalian evolution is the first step toward evaluating this bold idea that gut microbes influence evolution," Sharpton said. "We were able to uncover an expansive array of such microbes by using our new approach to compare microbiomes across mammalian species."

Another find: Humans living "Western lifestyles" - i.e., eating diets high in fat and low in fiber - tend strongly away from gut microbiome clade diversity when compared with non-Western humans and non-human primates. That suggests changes in lifestyle, environment and/or genetics that go along with Westernization are connected with the conservation of gut bacterial clades.

"It's an observation that elevates concern that industrialization may have impacted the gut microbiome that our human ancestors evolved to harbor," Sharpton said. "But future work will be needed to determine if the gut microbes identified in this study actually affect mammalian physiology in a way that could matter to their evolution."

Pectus Excavatum (PE), Pectus Carinatum (PC), Poland Syndrome (PS), Sunken Chest Deformity (SCD), Barrel Chest Deformity (BCD), Body Builder Deformity (BBD), and Long Upper Chest Wall (LCW) are Chest Wall Deformities (CWDs) that are documented in the medical literature. A scoliotic CWD, unlike PE or PC, does not only concern the anterior chest wall but is an expression of thoracic torsion due to the scoliotic torsion of the spine and adjacent ribs. Typically, we find a rib hump dorsally on the convex side of the curvature when the thoracic spine is affected and a lumbar hump dorsally on the convex side of a lumbar curve when the lumbar spine is affected. When thoracic scoliosis is analysed more closely using a 3D scan of the trunk, we typically find a rotation of the trunk backward on the rib hump side and a rotation forward on the thoracic concave side.

A new form of CWD has been found by the first author: As has been shown in this case series, a Hemidystrophic Thorax (HDT) was found in patients with slight scoliosis and in cases without scoliosis (Cobb angle of 10° or less). The condition of HDT may lead to significant rib humps, which mimic scoliosis. According to our case series, mild scoliosis can also be associated with HDT. HDT, according to the cases presented in this study, seems to be a relatively benign deformity. Long-term observations are necessary before a final conclusion can be drawn with respect to prognosis.

An analysis of UK newspaper reporting of the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) between 2010 and 2015 shows that despite some critical analysis, the mostly positive stories are likely to have contributed to the CDF's continuation, despite mounting evidence of its ineffectiveness. Close to £1.4 billion in total has been spent through the CDF which has subsequently been reconfigured and is now under the control of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

The research, published by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, was based on stories in nine national newspapers in the UK. As well as looking at whether stories were positive, neutral or negative, the researchers from the Institute of Cancer Policy, King's College London and the University of Bristol measured the influence of each newspaper's reporting of the CDF, based on circulation and number of stories.

Lead researcher Dr Grant Lewison said: "Our analysis showed there was three times as much coverage in favour of the CDF as against. Media reports did not scrutinise the discrepancy between those drugs available through the CDF and those diseases with the greatest health burden, the toxicities of the medicines, nor the opportunity cost of the CDF for other cancer treatments." He added: "Access at any cost was a clear totem around which the pro-CDF media based its coverage. The views of experts who pointed out the intrinsic unfairness of the CDF or the lack of efficacy of, and unpleasant side effects from, many of the drugs seem to have counted for little against the human interest stories of individual patients."

The preponderance of stories on chemotherapy, compared with surgery and radiotherapy, has, according to the researchers, probably contributed to a strong public perception that the best way to help cancer patients and improve outcomes is to allow them access to new (and expensive) medicines, whose performance is often hyped and gives rise to unreasonable expectations.

The study also draws attention to the failure of many public organisations, including charitable research funders in the UK, to publicise the shortcomings of the CDF. Co-researcher Dr Charlotte Chamberlain, a palliative care doctor, said: "By uncritically reporting the assumed benefit of increased access to anti-cancer drugs we do our patients a disservice. The price of the hype for pharmaceuticals in the treatment of cancer may cost patients in a number of ways: through potential side effects, by offering false hope without 'meaningful clinical benefit', and preventing investigation of, and investment in, other treatment approaches. In an era of 'alternative facts', journalists, health professionals and cancer charities have a responsibility to interrogate claims of 'the next big thing'."