Culture

Researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Department at Rutgers University have developed an end-to-end blood testing device that integrates robotic phlebotomy with downstream sample processing. This platform device performs blood draws and provides diagnostic results in a fully automated fashion at the point-of-care. By reducing turnaround times, the device has the potential to expedite hospital work-flow, allowing practitioners to devote more time to treating patients. The research has been published in a paper in the June 2018 issue of TECHNOLOGY.

Diagnostic blood testing is the most commonly performed clinical procedure in the world and influences the majority of medical decisions made in hospital and laboratory settings. However, manual blood draw success rates are dependent on clinician skill and patient physiology, and results are generated almost exclusively in centralized labs from large-volume samples using labor-intensive analytical techniques.

To address these issues, the team of researchers at Rutgers University created a device that includes an image-guided venipuncture robot, to address the challenges of routine venous access, with a centrifuge-based blood analyzer to obtain quantitative measurements of hematology. In the paper, results are presented on a white blood cell assay, using a blood mimicking fluid spiked with fluorescent microbeads. Studies were conducted on the integrated device -- from blood draw to analysis -- using blood vessel phantoms, demonstrating both high accuracy and repeatability of the cannulation and resulting white blood cell assay.

"This device represents the holy grail in blood testing technology," stated Martin Yarmush, M.D., Ph.D., the paper's senior author. "Integrating miniaturized robotic and microfluidic systems, this technology combines the breadth and accuracy of traditional laboratory testing with the speed and convenience of point-of-care testing."

"When designing the system, our focus was on creating a modular and expandable device", stated Max Balter, Ph.D., first author of the paper. "With our relatively simple chip design and analysis techniques, the device can be extended to incorporate a broader panel of assays in the future".

Short and long daily sleep duration were risk factors for dementia and premature death in a study of Japanese adults aged 60 years and older. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Among 1,517 adults who were followed for 10 years, 294 developed dementia and 282 died. Age- and sex-adjusted incidence rates of dementia and all-cause mortality were greater in those with daily sleep duration of less than 5.0 hours and 10.0 hours or more, compared with those with daily sleep duration of 5.0 to 6.9 hours. Participants with short sleep duration who had high physical activity did not have a greater risk of dementia and death, however.

"Given the beneficial effects of physical activity on risk of sleep disturbance, these findings indicate that not only maintenance of appropriate sleep duration, but also modification of lifestyle behaviors related to sleep may be an effective strategy for preventing dementia and premature death in elderly adults," the authors wrote.

Cancer, aging-related diseases and other illnesses are closely tied to an important enzyme called "telomerase." UCLA researchers report in the journal Cell the deepest scientific understanding yet of this once-mysterious enzyme, whose catalytic core -- where most of its activity occurs -- can now be seen in near atomic resolution.

"We're now seeing not just the face of the clock, we're seeing how the components inside interact to make it work," said Juli Feigon, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the UCLA College and a senior author of the study. "At each step, we zoom in closer and see more and more details, and can now begin to deduce not just what the enzyme looks like, but also how it functions. Knowing that may lead to the development of new drugs that target specific parts of the enzyme."

In addition to reporting the highest level of detail ever seen of the structure of telomerase's catalytic core, shown in the animation below, the researchers report for the first time they have captured telomerase in the process of making DNA.

"For the first time, we have a framework, or blueprint, of telomerase," said Lukas Susac, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in Feigon's laboratory and a co-lead author. "We know people have telomerase mutations and get sick, but we have had no understanding of how this came to be, beyond knowing their telomerase doesn't work. Now we can say the problem is with a specific site within telomerase and perhaps see why the enzyme sometimes does not work properly. To treat an illness, first we have to locate where the problem occurs, and now this is possible. Of course, there are still steps to go."

Telomerase's main job is to maintain the DNA in telomeres, the structures at the ends of human chromosomes. When telomerase is not active, each time the cells divide, the telomeres get shorter. When that happens, the telomeres eventually become so short that the cells stop dividing or die.

Cells with abnormally active telomerase can continually rebuild their protective chromosomal caps and won't die, said Feigon, who also is a member of UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute and an associate member of the UCLA-Department of Energy Institute of Genomics and Proteomics. Over time, this is harmful because DNA errors accumulate and damage cells. Telomerase is especially active in cancer cells, which enables cancer to grow and spread.

Feigon's research team conducted the study using single-celled microorganisms called "Tetrahymena thermophila," which are commonly found in freshwater ponds. Telomerase's components are relatively well-known in Tetrahymena, and it is the organism in which telomerase and telomeres were first discovered. The central catalytic core of telomerase is similar in all organisms, including humans.

Telomerase contains a specialized "reverse transcriptase," or class of proteins, that has four major regions and several sub-regions. In this research, the scientists have revealed a large, previously unstudied sub-region called "TRAP" in the enzyme's reverse transcriptase. Instead of copying from DNA to RNA -- typically DNA makes RNA, which makes proteins -- reverse transcriptases use RNA to make DNA; one that's especially well-known is the HIV reverse transcriptase, the target of many drugs.

While other reverse transcriptases can copy any arbitrary RNA sequence and make DNA out of it, telomerase's reverse transcriptase copies only a specific six-nucleotide RNA and does so many times to make a long chain of DNA. (Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and RNA.) TRAP plays a crucial role in adding on small pieces of DNA to the ends of chromosomes to keep them from shortening every time cells divide.

The researchers report for the first time the structure, shape and significance of TRAP, and the region with which it interacts.

"A joy of science is the moment when you are the first person in the world to see something important," said Feigon, a member of the National Academy of Sciences. "I remember looking at this structure when we got it and thinking we had solved a significant piece of the puzzle and were the only people who had seen this. It's very exciting."

Feigon's research team is learning how the regions interact and communicate with one another. In a 2015 study in the journal Science, Feigon and colleagues reported the location of a major region called "TEN." Now the researchers report the structures of TEN and TRAP, and how they interact with each other and with the telomerase RNA. Many mutations that scientists attributed to the TEN region in fact disrupt TEN's interaction with TRAP, the researchers report in Cell.

This is the first time researchers have seen telomerase in the process of making DNA. The researchers captured telomerase immediately after it added a nucleotide to a growing DNA chain in the catalytic core. (The catalytic core consists of telomerase's reverse transcriptase and an RNA.)

What are the implications of the research for fighting cancers? Cancer cells keep reproducing, and for this to occur, telomerase must be highly active -- which it is not in healthy cells. To reduce this, it would be useful to know how to target the enzyme's activity. This new research brings this goal closer to reality by providing clues about what parts to target.

"We have very deep insights into how telomerase works and how the components work together," Susac said. "Each of these interactions could be a point to target, and possibly disrupt or enhance the function of telomerase. Precision will be very important; simply hitting telomerase with a hammer won't work. Telomerase is a very central and unique enzyme in many organisms. Now we have locations to aim for."

The scientists used a technique called "cryo-electron microscopy" that enables them to see the enzyme in extraordinary detail, and used computational modeling to interpret their data. The research team has expertise in several fields, including biochemistry, molecular biology, computational biology and biophysics.

Washington, DC--A team of scientists led by Carnegie's Shaunna Morrison and including Bob Hazen have revealed the mineralogy of Mars at an unprecedented scale, which will help them understand the planet's geologic history and habitability. Their findings are published in two American Mineralogist papers.

Minerals form from novel combinations of elements. These combinations can be facilitated by geological activity, including volcanoes and water-rock interactions. Understanding the mineralogy of another planet, such as Mars, allows scientists to backtrack and understand the forces that shaped their formation in that location.

An instrument on NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover called the Chemistry and Mineralogy Instrument, or CheMin, is the first tool of its kind ever to operate on another planet. But there are limitations to how much it can tell scientists about the Red Planet's minerals--how they formed and what they can illuminate about Martian history.

But Morrison found a way to glean even more information from the CheMin data, information which paints a detailed picture of the minerals the rover encountered on Mars.

CheMin is able to discern what types of minerals exist on Mars and in what proportions they are found. But until this latest work from Morrison, scientists didn't have the calibration capabilities to measure the precise composition or crystal chemistry of those minerals from CheMin data alone. For example, CheMin told Earth-bound scientists that certain types of feldspar exist on Mars, but it did not provide the level of detail that can give mineralogists vital clues about the conditions under the feldspars formed.

Crystals, by definition, have a long-range repetitive structure. The smallest unit of the geometry of this crystal lattice is called the unit cell, comprised of repeating atomic units. Morrison realized that because the unit cell dimensions for minerals found in the 13 samples CheMin took of the soils, sandstones, and formations of Mar's Gale Crater are known, she could use them as a key to unlock more information about the minerals sampled by CheMin.

"I scoured the literature, gathering and analyzing thousands of measurements of both mineral compositions and unit cell dimensions and then determined a mathematical connection between them," Morrison explained. "Once this relationship was established, it could be used to glean much more detail about the minerals in the Martian samples taken by CheMin."

For example, CheMin was able to measure that Mars' Gale Crater contains the minerals feldspar and olivine. Using Morrison's connection between unit cells and compositions, the team was able to determine how the composition of feldspar varies between the different sampling locations, which can offer information about its igneous origins. In addition, the percentage of magnesium found in olivine samples range from 52 to 72 percent, which when compared with Martian meteorites may offer information about aqueous alteration of the material.

"Thanks to Shaunna's creative approach, we have improved CheMin's resolution by an order of magnitude," Hazen explained. "The result is the most vivid picture yet of the mineralogy of another planet."

Struggling to finish that report for your boss? One way to increase your interest in a task is to add immediate rewards, rather than wait until the end to reward yourself, according to new Cornell research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled "It's About Time: Earlier Rewards Increase Intrinsic Motivation".

Kaitlin Woolley assistant professor of marketing at Cornell University, found that giving people an immediate bonus for working on a task, rather than waiting until the end of the task, increased their interest and enjoyment in the task. People who got an earlier bonus were more motivated to pursue the activity for its own sake and even continued with the activity after the reward was removed.

In a series of five experiments, Woolley analyzed how reward proximity influenced intrinsic motivation - the positive feeling that comes from the process of an activity - and people's desire to persist in the task after the reward was removed.

"The idea that immediate rewards could increase intrinsic motivation sounds counterintuitive, as people often think about rewards as undermining interest in a task," Woolley said. "But for activities like work, where people are already getting paid, immediate rewards can actually increase intrinsic motivation, compared with delayed or no rewards."

"If you have a hobby - say you like to knit or quilt - the process itself is enjoyable, it's intrinsically motivated. You're doing it just for the sake of doing it, rather than for the outcome," Woolley said. Adding immediate rewards does something similar: It increases the positive experience of the task, with important outcomes for motivation and persistence.

In one study, people completed a task in which they spotted the difference in two images. Some people expected to receive an immediate bonus after they finished the task, whereas others expected to receive the same bonus in a month. An immediate bonus led to an almost 20 percent increase in the percent of people sticking with the task after the reward was removed compared with a delayed reward.

In another study, the researchers compared the timing of a reward with the size of the reward. They found that an immediate (versus delayed) bonus for reading led to a 35 percent increase in the number of people continuing to read after the reward was removed, whereas a larger (versus smaller) reward only led to a 19 percent increase. This suggests the timing of a reward may matter more for intrinsic motivation than the size of the reward, Woolley said.

The work has important implications for motivating employees. For example, a series of smaller, more frequent bonuses throughout the year could motivate employees more than a larger end-of-the year bonus. Similarly, this finding could inform loyalty programs for marketers trying to incentive customers to make more purchases.

Ironically, people balk at providing bonuses too soon, and think early rewards might have a negative consequences. "More evidence suggests immediate rewards are beneficial," said Woolley. "They're a useful tool for increasing interest in an activity."

In a study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, investigators have identified urinary markers that differentiate total hip replacement patients who eventually develop bone tissue destruction, or osteolysis, from patients who do not.

For the study, researchers used a repository of 24-hour urine samples collected prior to surgery and annually thereafter in 26 patients, 16 who developed osteolysis and 10 who did not.

The levels of certain markers helped the investigators identify patients at risk for osteolysis long before the emergence of signs through imaging tests--in some cases 6 years before a diagnosis was made. Although single markers showed moderate accuracy, the combination of α-CTX, a bone resorption marker, and IL-6, an inflammatory marker, led to high accuracy in the differentiation of patients who eventually developed osteolysis from those with no signs of osteolysis.

"We are hopeful that early biomarkers for implant loosening will alert surgeons to be especially vigilant in their follow-up of at-risk patients and may eventually lead to treatments delaying or avoiding the need for revision surgery," said senior author Dr. D. Rick Sumner, of Rush University Medical Center, in Chicago. "Perhaps even more intriguing is that the two biomarkers we identified also differed before surgery among patients who eventually developed peri-implant osteolysis and those who did not, supporting the concept that other researchers have proposed of genetic risk factors for loosening."

Outside Asia, no country produces as much rice as does Brazil. It is the ninth largest rice producer in the world. Average annual yields are close to 15 million tons.

Rice production in Brazil is a multi-billion-dollar industry. It employs hundreds of thousands of people, directly and indirectly.

Given the importance of rice farming in Brazil, researchers are working to develop improved rice varieties.

"We are looking for rice varieties that satisfy farmers, the industry, and consumers," says researcher Ariano Martins de Magalhães Jr.

A new study explores the progress the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) has made over the last 45 years. Crop breeders developed rice varieties with higher yields and improved sustainability. Magalhães is one of the Embrapa authors of the study.

"We test whether the methods used in the breeding programs are helping us reach our goals," he says. "The study will also help us strategically develop and release new varieties in the future."

According to the study, the Embrapa breeding program has resulted in significant yield gains. Over 45 years, grain yield improved between 0.62-0.73% each year. That translates to thousands of pounds in increased yield for farmers.

The breeding program has also developed rice varieties with reduced plant height and time to flowering.

"Plant height is an important factor for rice crops," says Magalhães. "This plant architecture (shorter plants) allowed rice yield potential to double by the end of the 1970s." In 1972, the average plant was about 38 inches tall. By 2016, average plant height was about 32.5 inches.

Breeders also aimed to reduce time to flowering for rice varieties. "Early-flowering varieties are desirable because they need less water and other resources," says Magalhães. "These varieties also allow more flexibility in planting and harvesting."

According to the study, flowering time was reduced by about 9 days over 45 years. It took 97 days for half the rice crop to flower in 1972. In 2016, half the crop was flowering in 88 days.

The researchers also showed that rice varieties that mature quicker could be high-yielding. "Previously, the paradigm was that rice varieties that took longer to mature would have higher yields," Magalhães says. "In this study, it is evident that some varieties, which mature in 118 days, are more productive than some older varieties that mature in 130 days."

Researchers also look for rice varieties that use natural resources, such as water, more efficiently.

That's important because more than 70% of rice grown in Brazil is irrigated. Two southern states, including Rio Grande do Sul, account for most of the irrigated rice production.

"Rice varieties that need lower inputs can bring sustainability," says Magalhães.

Forty-five years is a long time, but Magalhães says the length of the study is important. "We are testing whether plant-breeding efforts have been efficient or not through the years. The longer the time frame analyzed, the more robust the data and findings."

Having dependable, robust data is important. "Plant breeding is an expensive process," says Magalhães. "It requires time, hard work, and investment."

Each error in the decision-making process can lead to huge losses for stakeholders. Mistakes may be irreversible in a short time span. "It is extremely important to monitor the efficiency of breeding programs," says Magalhães. "That way we can critically analyze our progress. We can also plan novel actions and strategies to develop and release new cultivars."

Read more about this work in Crop Science. Antonio Costa de Oliveira also worked on the project, a collaboration with researchers at the Federal University of Pelotas.

Pilot study results indicate that a sleep and yoga intervention has promising effects on improving sleep disturbance, sleep-related impairment, and sleep health behaviors.

Sleep problems are very common in low income communities yet often under-recognized and untreated, and are often related to sleep health behaviors, stress, and adverse environmental conditions. This study researched how to effectively deliver sleep health education and yoga interventions in underrepresented communities.

"We were encouraged to see large improvements in self-reported sleep quality and daytime functioning after the sleep hygiene and yoga intervention despite the short intervention period in this pilot study" said Christine Spadola, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at both Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. "We found that many of our participants were not initially aware of some of the fundamental behaviors that comprise sleep hygiene, or healthy sleep practices, but were pleased to see their openness to making changes to improve sleep and their enthusiasm for participating in yoga."

By partnering at all levels with community members, the research team was able to develop a sleep health and yoga intervention that offered content relevant to the participants and was convenient for participants to attend. Group sessions were held in community rooms within two large low-income housing units in Boston, providing easy access for residents.

"Some participants reported that they were able to deeply relax for the first time as a result of the yoga classes," said Spadola. "Considering that stress underlies poor sleep as well as many chronic health conditions, we were very pleased with this result."

A pilot study was conducted of a combined sleep health and yoga intervention among racially/ethnically diverse adults residing in low-income housing communities, who reported sleeping less than 6 hours a night (n=23). The six-week intervention consisted sequentially of: one group sleep health education session delivered by a sleep expert (1-hour), one telephone coaching session (15 minutes), and four weekly 1-hour yoga classes.

Participants completed assessments both before and after the intervention, which included standardized measurements of sleep and well-being, such as the PROMIS Sleep-Related Impairment and Sleep Disturbance Short Forms, Sleep Hygiene Index, and validated stress and mood assessments.

Mean participant age was 41.4 years; 80.7 percent were female; 61.5 percent identified as non-Hispanic Black and less than 20 percent had a college degree. Results showed significant pre/post intervention improvements in sleep duration (5.3 ± 0.9 hours/night versus 7.2 ± 1.7 hours/night [p=.02]), sleep-related impairment (p=.002), sleep disturbance (p=.002), and sleep health behaviors (p=.021).

Attendance (100 percent received sleep health education; 47.8 percent attended at least 2 of 4 yoga classes), intervention feedback scores (73.7 percent rated the sleep education session as helpful or very helpful; 63.2 percent strongly agreed that the yoga class left them feeling relaxed and less stressed), and qualitative data support the acceptability of the intervention.

According to the study authors, this sleep intervention can be brought directly to residential communities of under-served populations and holds promise for high uptake and sustainability.

"Our work suggests that a community informed intervention that addresses socio-contextual barriers to participation and adherence and partners with residential community leaders and institutions can significantly impact health behaviors, such as improved sleep," said Spadola.

The senior authors of the study, Drs. Suzanne Bertisch and Susan Redline, are currently conducting a larger randomized controlled study to test the added value of yoga over sleep hygiene alone.

A tailored lighting intervention in nursing homes can positively impact sleep, mood and behavior for patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to preliminary findings from a new study.

People with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias may experience sleep problems, wandering, and associated daytime irritability. This study tested whether a tailored daytime lighting intervention could improve sleep and behavior in Alzheimer's patients living in long-term care facilities.

Compared to baseline and to the inactive lighting condition, the lighting intervention significantly decreased sleep disturbances, depression and agitation. While all measures improved, the most significant improvement was seen in sleep quality.

"Here we show that if the stimulus (light dose) is carefully delivered and measured, it can have a strong impact on sleep, depression and agitation," said principal investigator and lead author Mariana Figueiro, PhD, a professor and director at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. "Depression was a secondary measure, and I was pleasantly surprised by the positive impact of the light treatment on depression scores."

The study involved 43 subjects diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias who were exposed to an active and inactive tailored lighting intervention for successive 4-week periods, spaced by a 4-week washout period. The lighting intervention was added to spaces in which patients spent most of their waking hours and was energized from wake time until 6 p.m. Calibrated personal light meters monitored exposures. Measures of sleep disturbances (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), mood (Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia) and agitation (Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Index) were collected at baseline and during the last week of the intervention.

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Tuesday, June 5, in Baltimore at SLEEP 2018, the 32nd annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), which is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

Maternal depressive mood during the prenatal and postnatal periods is related to child sleep disturbances, according to recent pilot data from a longitudinal cohort study in kindergarten children.

"The most surprising thing about our results was the mediation role of child behavior in the maternal emotion-children's sleep quality relationship, this demonstrates that emotion during pregnancy affects child behavior which further affects child's sleep, said principal investigator and lead author Jianghong Liu, PhD, RN, FAAN, an associate professor at the Schools of Nursing and Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "Furthermore, we found that happiness increased across the trimesters and that happiness during the second and third trimester was protective against child sleep problems."

Participants included 833 kindergarteners with mean age of about six years old. Women's emotional status, including prenatal/postnatal depressive emotion and perceived happiness throughout trimesters, was rated by a self-designed set of questions with a 5-point scale for happiness and a 3-point scale for depression. Sleep problems were assessed using the sleep subdomain of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Child behavioral problems were measured using the CBCL total score. General linear models were performed to examine the adjusted associations between childhood sleep problems and maternal emotional status.

Adjusted models showed that children of women who expressed either depressive emotion during the postnatal period (β=3.13, p=0.003) or during both the prenatal and postnatal periods (β=2.65, p=0.04) were more likely to exhibit sleep disturbances. Similarly, increased levels of happiness in the second and third trimester were significantly associated with decreased risk for children's sleep problems. Results show a significant mediation effect of child's behavior on the maternal emotion and child sleep relationship.

According to Liu and her co-authors (Xiaopeng Ji, Guanghai Wang, Yuli Li and Jennifer Pinto-Martin), these results are noteworthy because they highlight the importance of prenatal maternal emotional health and its impact on child sleep outcomes.

"These results promote the caretaking of maternal health and happiness during pregnancy and encourage the roles of familial and community support in aiding expecting mothers. This will benefit not only maternal health but also the long term behavioral and sleep health of their child," said Liu.

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Tuesday, June 5, in Baltimore at SLEEP 2018, the 32nd annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), which is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

Researchers at ETH Zurich under the direction of ETH Professor Kristina Shea and colleagues at Caltech in Pasadena, California, have developed a new propulsion concept for swimming robots. The robot exploits temperature fluctuations in the water for propulsion without the need for an engine, propellant or power supply.

As a proof-of-concept study, the researchers developed a 7.5-centimetre mini-submarine equipped with paddles, which they fabricated entirely using a multi-material 3D printer. The researchers report on this in the journal PNAS.

The paddles are actuated using a bistable propulsion element triggered by two shape memory polymer strips as previously developed by Shea and her doctoral student Tim Chen. Designed to expand in warm water, the polymer strips power the robot by acting like "muscles". If the water in which the mini-submarine floats is heated, the expansion of the "muscles" causes the bistable element to quickly snap, triggering a paddle stroke. The directional motion, force and timing of the paddle strokes are precisely defined by the robot's geometry and material.

Vessel with multiple propulsion elements

At present, each actuating element can execute a single paddle stroke and must then be reprogrammed manually. However, as the scientists point out, it is possible to fabricate complex swimming robots with multiple actuators. The scientists have already made a mini-submarine that can paddle forward with one stroke, release its "cargo" (a coin) and then navigate back to the starting point with a second paddle stroke in the opposite direction, all by sensing changes in temperature of the water. Varying the geometry of the polymer muscles allowed the scientists to define the sequence at which the paddle stroke is triggered: thin polymer strips heat up faster in warm water and therefore respond faster than thicker ones.

A potential development would be using polymers that do not react to the water temperature, but to other environmental factors such as the acidity or salinity of the water.

"The main takeaway from our work is that we have developed a new and promising means of propulsion that is fully 3D printed, tuneable and works without an external power source," says ETH Professor Shea. This could possibly be developed further to create a low-power vessel for exploring ocean depths.

Shareholder value and market share improve when companies merge, confirms a new study from the University of Waterloo.

The study also found that the new company's market share ended up being greater than the market share of the two merged companies combined.

"The increase in firm value post-merger may be chiefly attributable to improved efficiencies as opposed to market power," said Anindya Sen, co-author and professor of economics at the University of Waterloo. "Firms are realizing synergies from mergers which benefit all stakeholders. Consumers are not necessarily paying higher prices, and investors are gaining through holding the stocks of such firms in their financial portfolios."

For the study, Sen and lead author Mahdiyeh Entezarkheir, professor of economics at Huron College, Western University, compiled data from multiple sources for more than 5,000 publicly traded U.S. manufacturing companies from 1980-2003, including financial information and patents. The dataset is unique because it included information on companies over an extended period of time including before, during and after the merger. The data allowed the researchers to compare and contrast merged entities to firms that didn't merge and rule out any industry-wide influences.

Previous studies often focused on a single firm or a shorter timeframe, and often yielded mixed results about whether mergers made companies significantly more productive and profitable.

"We often see firms such as Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart merge under the assumption that mergers create value. However, empirical evidence on merger effects across industries was limited because it's so hard to assemble and construct the required dataset," said Sen. "Our research offers some robust evidence and clarity on how firms benefit from mergers in terms of market value and market share."

These results may also be helpful for antitrust authorities for their merger assessments, wrote the researchers.

The study, "Market value, market share, and mergers: Evidence from a panel of U.S. firms", appeared in Managerial and Decision Economics.

Dinosaur-age fossilised remains of tiny organisms normally found in the sea have been discovered in inland, arid Australia - suggesting the area was, for a short time at least, inundated by sea water 40 million years before Australia's large inland sea existed.

The fossils are the egg-like cysts of microorganisms known as dinoflagellates, best known for producing red tides or algal blooms that can turn the sea water blood red. The cysts rest on the sea floor before hatching new dinoflagellates.

Researchers at the University of Adelaide, in collaboration with geological consultancy MGPalaeo, discovered these microfossils in Jurassic rocks of south-western Queensland, near the town of Roma.

Described in the journal Palynology, the fossils have been dated to the late Jurassic period, 148 million years ago. This is a time when Australia was joined to Antarctica, and where dinosaurs roamed across ancient rivers, floodplains and swamps.

"We have plenty of evidence from the 110 million-year-old vast inland Eromanga Sea, which covered a large swathe of central, eastern Australia during the Cretaceous period (following on from the Jurassic)," says Dr Carmine Wainman, Postdoctoral Fellow in the University of Adelaide's Australian School of Petroleum.

"We've seen the opalised fossils sold in Adelaide's Rundle Mall, and the spectacular ancient marine reptiles on display in the South Australian Museum - all from the later Cretaceous period.

"However, this new microfossil evidence from the same region suggests there was a short-lived precursor to this sea 40 million years earlier."

Dr Wainman believes these microfossils must have been brought inland by an incursion of sea water and then evolved quickly to adapt to the freshwater or brackish conditions as the sea waters slowly receded.

"There is no other feasible explanation for how they managed to reach the interior of the Australian continent when the ancient coastline was thousands of kilometres away," Dr Wainman says.

"It was probably a result of rising sea levels during a time of greenhouse conditions before the establishment of the Eromanga Sea. With further investigations, we may find more of these microorganisms or even fossilised marine reptiles that uncover untold secrets about how this part of the world looked in the Jurassic."

New findings are now being presented on possible mechanisms behind gender differences in the occurrence of rheumatism and other autoimmune diseases. The study, published in Nature Communications, can be of significance for the future treatment of diseases.

"It's very important to understand what causes these diseases to be so much more common among women," says Asa Tivesten, professor of medicine at Sahlgrenska Academy, Sweden, a chief physician and one of the authors of the study. "In this way, we can eventually provide better treatment for the diseases."

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system creates antibodies that attack the body's own tissue. Almost all autoimmune diseases affect women more often than men. The gender difference is especially great in the case of lupus, a serious disease also known as systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE. Nine out of ten of those afflicted are women.

It has been known that there is a link between the male sex hormone testosterone and protection against autoimmune diseases. Men are generally more protected than women, who only have one tenth as much testosterone.

Testosterone reduces the number of B cells, a type of lymphocyte that releases harmful antibodies. The researchers behind the study were trying to understand what the connection between testosterone and the production of B cells in the spleen actually looks like, mechanisms that have so far been unknown.

After numerous experiments on mice and studies of blood samples from 128 men, the researchers were able to conclude that the critical connection is the protein BAFF, which makes the B cells more viable.

"We have concluded that testosterone suppresses BAFF. If you eliminate testosterone, you get more BAFF and thereby more B cells in the spleen because they survive to a greater extent. Recognition of the link between testosterone and BAFF is completely new. No one has reported this in the past," says Asa Tivesten.

The results correlate well with a previous study showing that genetic variations in BAFF can be linked to the risk of diseases such as lupus. That disease is treated with BAFF inhibitors, a medicine that has not, however, really lived up to expectations.

"That's why this information about how the body regulates the levels of BAFF is extremely important, so that we can continue to put the pieces together and try to understand which patients should have BAFF inhibitors and which should not. Accordingly, our study serves as a basis for further research on how the medicine can be used in a better way."

African-Americans are still much more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white Americans. A new paper on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African-American community shows that despite recent drops in HIV diagnoses across every population in the US, there are still great disparities between ethnic groups. The paper was led by Cato T. Laurencin of the University of Connecticut in the US and is published in Springer's Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

A decade ago Laurencin and his team published a call for action paper that highlighted high numbers of HIV diagnoses in the African American community. This follow-up paper now draws on data from surveys such as the 2010 United States Census and the 2016 HIV Surveillance Report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Worryingly, the paper's analysis shows that the trends highlighted 10 years ago have continued and in some regards worsened. For male and female populations in 2016, Blacks were 8.4 times more likely than whites to be diagnosed with HIV, whereas in 2005 they were 7.9 times more likely. Specifically, the number of Black males diagnosed with the disease in 2005 was 9,969 and increased by 29% to 12,890 in 2016.

Black male-to-male sexual contact was the most common form of transmission of HIV and the number of men that have sex with men who were diagnosed with HIV increased 154% from 4,020 in 2005 to 10,233 in 2016. Laurencin and his team point out that if this trend continues, one in two Black men who engage in sexual contact with men will receive an HIV diagnosis in their lifetimes.

The number of African-American females diagnosed with HIV through heterosexual contact increased by 75% from 2,392 in 2005 to 4,189 in 2016, and there was also a 76% increase in HIV diagnoses among heterosexual black men in the same time period.

"It is clear that much more needs to be done to address the fact that African-Americans continue to be overrepresented across all categories of transmission," said Laurencin.

Laurencin and his team recommend a five-fold plan aimed at healthcare practitioners and community advocates. The plan includes working to eliminate prejudices and unconscious biases when treating patients, and employing new technology and techniques to help prevent or eradicate HIV/AIDs. Working towards reducing secondary factors such as incarceration rates, poverty, STDs and other circumstances that increase the chances of contracting HIV is also another recommendation.

"While higher rates of poverty and prevalence of negative socio-economic determinants in African-American are important underlying factors, we believe that a concerted, re-dedicated effort - as seen with other national health emergencies such as the opioid crisis - can create meaningful change in the decade to come," said Laurencin.