Culture

Rutgers University-New Brunswick engineers have created a 3D-printed smart gel that walks underwater and grabs objects and moves them.

The watery creation could lead to soft robots that mimic sea animals like the octopus, which can walk underwater and bump into things without damaging them. It may also lead to artificial heart, stomach and other muscles, along with devices for diagnosing diseases, detecting and delivering drugs and performing underwater inspections.

Soft materials like the smart gel are flexible, often cheaper to manufacture than hard materials and can be miniaturized. Devices made of soft materials typically are simple to design and control compared with mechanically more complex hard devices.

"Our 3D-printed smart gel has great potential in biomedical engineering because it resembles tissues in the human body that also contain lots of water and are very soft," said Howon Lee, senior author of a new study and an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. "It can be used for many different types of underwater devices that mimic aquatic life like the octopus."

The study, published online today in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, focuses on a 3D-printed hydrogel that moves and changes shape when activated by electricity. Hydrogels, which stay solid despite their 70-plus percent water content, are found in the human body, diapers, contact lenses, Jell-O and many other things.

Here is a YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhsRnLf9iNU&feature=youtu.be

During the 3D-printing process, light is projected on a light-sensitive solution that becomes a gel. The hydrogel is placed in a salty water solution (or electrolyte) and two thin wires apply electricity to trigger motion: walking forward, reversing course and grabbing and moving objects, said Lee. The human-like walker that the team created is about one inch tall.

The speed of the smart gel's movement is controlled by changing its dimensions (thin is faster than thick), and the gel bends or changes shape depending on the strength of the salty water solution and electric field. The gel resembles muscles that contract because it's made of soft material, has more than 70 percent water and responds to electrical stimulation, Lee said.

"This study demonstrates how our 3D-printing technique can expand the design, size and versatility of this smart gel," he said. "Our microscale 3D-printing technique allowed us to create unprecedented motions."

In a new SLAS Technology auto-commentary, two authors of an article recently published in Nature Biomedical Engineering (Abnormal Scar Identification with Spherical Nucleic Acid Technology) share more insight into their unique method for skin disease diagnosis using NanoFlare nanotechnology. In particular, the authors address point-of-care diagnosis and image acquisition, which are the primary bottlenecks in efficient disease diagnosis.

Authors David Yeo, Ph.D., and Prof. Chenjie Xu, Ph.D., of the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) use NanoFlare to enable biopsy-free disease diagnosis and progression monitoring in response to therapy. It is a minimally-invasive, self-applied alternative that can reduce scarring and infection risks; improve accessibility to disease diagnosis; provide timely feedback of treatment efficacy; and reduce healthcare personnel time and attention, hence the overall healthcare burden.

This vision of simplifying disease diagnosis using topically-applied nanotechnology could change the way skin diseases such as abnormal scars are diagnosed and managed.

A study of drinking water in Appalachian Ohio found no evidence of natural gas contamination from recent oil and gas drilling.

Geologists with the University of Cincinnati examined drinking water in Carroll, Stark and Harrison counties, a rural region in northeast Ohio where many residents rely on water from private underground wells.

The time-series study was the first of its kind in Ohio to examine methane in groundwater in relation to natural gas drilling. The results were published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

"Some people had elevated concentrations of methane in their groundwater, but the isotopic composition showed it wasn't from natural gas" said Amy Townsend-Small, associate professor of geology in UC's McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

"What we found is in most cases it was probably from underground coal in the area or biological methane produced in groundwater."

UC researchers collected 180 groundwater samples in total at homes in the three counties. Some of the sites were sampled multiple times. In particular, researchers looked for evidence of methane, the primary compound in natural gas. They also studied changes in the acidity or pH of the water, and changes to its conductivity.

They found no increase in methane concentration or composition in groundwater over the four years of the study, despite the presence of new shale gas wells drilled in the study area. Likewise, they did not find higher methane levels in closer approximation to shale drilling.

Researchers did find wide variability in methane concentrations in the drinking water, ranging from 0.2 micrograms per liter to 25.3 milligrams per liter, which is strong enough to catch fire in enclosed spaces. But researchers found no relationship between the methane observed in drinking water and the new gas wells.

"Clearly, additional monitoring is needed to determine whether methane concentrations and source signals in this region change as the number of oil and gas wells continues to increase," the study concluded.

Researchers identified the chemical composition of the water using gas chromatography, isotope ratio mass spectrometry, and radiocarbon dating in a UC geology lab. Understanding the chemical composition helps identify the source of methane found in drinking water: from natural gas extraction, organic decomposition or even from the digestive systems of nearby cows.

Lead author and UC graduate Claire Botner said the study solicited participation by homeowners who were willing to let researchers test their wells.

The study area has seen increasing interest from natural gas companies in recent years. It's located above a geological feature called the Utica Shale formation, which is known to harbor oil and natural gas. When UC launched its methane study in 2012, Ohio had issued 115 drilling permits for the region. By the study's end in 2015, nearly 1,600 permits had been issued, primarily for Carroll County.

Hydraulic fracturing is a process by which pressurized water, sand and chemicals are pumped into natural-gas wells more than a mile deep to break apart shale to release pockets of oil and natural gas.

Researchers hypothesized that methane concentrations in the drinking-water wells they sampled would increase over time with the growth of natural gas drilling in the area. This is a correlation researchers observed in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region.

But that's not what UC's water tests revealed. The study concluded that methane observed in groundwater was "biogenic," or naturally occurring and independent of natural gas drilling.

"The study researchers in Pennsylvania thought the contamination issue was a failure of the well casings in the fracking wells," Townsend-Small said.

"Hopefully, that doesn't happen often. And that apparently didn't happen with the wells of homeowners we worked with for our study."

Townsend-Small has spent much of her career researching groundwater and methane. She and other UC geologists are studying the influence of the Great Miami River on groundwater in southwest Ohio at UC's C.V. Theis Groundwater Observatory. She also has studied atmospheric methane in relation to algae blooms in the Great Lakes and methane in arctic lakes in Alaska.

"Some people had elevated concentrations of methane in their groundwater, but the isotopic composition showed it wasn't from natural gas. It was from a different source," Townsend-Small said. "What we found is in most cases it was probably from underground coal in the area or biological methane produced in groundwater."

Study co-authors included UC professor emeritus David Nash and UC assistant professor of geology Joshua Miller.

Botner said if researchers were to replicate the study, she might recommend expanding it to include other hydrocarbons such as propane or look for carbonate isotopes associated with natural gas drilling.

"It's a controversial topic," Botner said. "But that's why science is so valuable. Maybe another study would confirm our findings or maybe they would find something else. Regardless, we would welcome more well testing."

Carroll County Commissioner Robert Wirkner said the findings were good news for residents. Like many of his neighbors, he gets drinking water at his house from a private well on his property.

Wirkner said gas companies test the drinking water of nearby homes before and after they drill a well to observe any changes in water quality.

"My water has been tested multiple times," he said. "So we're happy to hear the findings."

Townsend-Small said protecting wells from contamination is especially important in rural areas because there are few alternatives for clean drinking water. Digging a new or deeper well is expensive and would not necessarily solve a pollution problem. And there are few opportunities in rural areas to connect to public water lines.

"It would be great if homeowners had access to ongoing monitoring," she said. "In cities, you are reassured that your drinking water is safe. We pay the public water utilities to test the water every day. But if you have a private well, you just have to hope that it's not contaminated on a day-to-day basis."

Due to its ballistic properties, lead shot up to now has been regarded as the optimal ammunition for hunting waterfowl. But it came to criticism because lead poisoning was observed in ducks and sea eagles which had ingested the shot as a result of bottom feeding respectively with their prey.

Ammunition manufacturers now offer a range of alternative hunting shot containing iron, copper, zinc, tungsten, or bismuth as primary declared component. A team of researchers at the TU Munich led by Prof. Dr. Axel Goettlein and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Geist, however, has come to the conclusion that a number of the alternatives are even more toxic to water organisms than conventional lead shot.

Surprising Results from Metals Measurements

As part of the study, shot made of each of the different materials were exposed to the identical conditions in water. These measurements demonstrated, that the quantity of metal ions released into the solution varies greatly. While shot made of tungsten, bismuth, and a coated lead shot released almost no metal ions into the solution, alarmingly high concentrations were measured for shot made of copper and zinc. The researchers found, that it was not always the declared main component of the shot which dominated ion release. Particularly striking was a sample of iron shot that released large quantities of zinc, which obviously came from a coating.

Rethinking Bans

In an immobilization testfor the water flea Daphnia magna standardized according to DIN, their movement behaviour is used as an indicator for their vitality. As the study showed, even small quantities of copper and zinc consistently led to very high or complete immobilization of this model organism. In contrast, shot made of pure iron, bismuth, and tungsten did not impact the mobility of the water fleas. Nor did lead shot cause a significant impact on the mobility of the water fleas as compared to the control group.

The study concludes that, if lead shot should be banned for the reason of environmental protection, the current findings indicate that a prohibition on copper and zinc for manufacturing of shot should also be called for. Because widely different conditions concerning water quality in conjunction with the correspondingly adapted organisms occur in nature, additional studies are necessary in order to provide a sound basis for making decisions concerning alternatives to lead shot.

An international research team led by scientists at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Queensland, has identified three new genes linked to the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The study, supported by Alzheimer's Research UK and also involving researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is published today (18 May) in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

The researchers combined findings from an existing study of Alzheimer's genetics, with those from a new analysis involving the children of people with the disease. The findings are set to help researchers better understand the mechanisms underlying Alzheimer's and could open the door to new approaches for treating the disease.

To find genetic risk factors for diseases like Alzheimer's, researchers generally compare the DNA code of people with and without the disease. By carefully analysing data from very large groups of people, researchers can pick out gene variations that are more common in people who have Alzheimer's. This approach has helped to find around 30 genes that are associated with Alzheimer's risk.

The more people who are involved in these genetic studies, the more powerful they are and the more they can reveal about the genetics of Alzheimer's. Large-scale research resources like the UK Biobank hold rich genetic and medical information about hundreds of thousands of research volunteers, but as only a fraction of this data comes from people with Alzheimer's, relatively few people can be included in the genetic studies.

In this new study, Alzheimer's researchers used a technique that allowed them to cast their nets more widely and include many more people in their genetic analysis. The research involved genetic information from over 300,000 people from the UK Biobank. As most of the participants were too young to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the research team looked to medical information about their parents, many of whom had developed the disease.

On average, children share 50% of their genes with each of their parents. While at the individual level having a parent with Alzheimer's doesn't mean you are at a much greater risk of the disease, by combining data from many thousands of people whose parents developed Alzheimer's the researchers were able to sift out genetic information relevant to the disease.

The team combined results from their new analysis with data from an existing genetic study involving 70,000 people with and without Alzheimer's disease. The findings highlight three new genes that may play a role in Alzheimer's risk.

Prof Peter Visscher, from the University of Queensland, said:

"By focusing on people with a family history of Alzheimer's, we have been able to take advantage of a wealth of existing data to gain new insights into the genetics of the disease. One challenge of this method is that we rely on people to provide accurate information about whether their parents developed Alzheimer's, and in some cases the disease can be mistaken for another form of dementia or go undiagnosed."

Dr Riccardo Marioni, from the University of Edinburgh, said:

"New genetic discoveries can provide vital clues to the biological processes involved in Alzheimer's, but our genetic makeup is not the only factor that affects our risk of the disease. We are now working to combine genetic data and information about people's lifestyle to produce more comprehensive and personalised picture of Alzheimer's risk. Understanding how genetic and lifestyle factors interact to affect our overall risk could lead to more targeted risk reduction strategies and pave the way to precision medicine in Alzheimer's disease."

Dr Sara Imarisio, Head of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said:

"This innovative research highlights three new genes linked to the risk of Alzheimer's disease and presents promising leads for future research. The next step will be for molecular scientists to assess how these genes might contribute to the development of Alzheimer's and fit in to the existing picture of the disease. Interestingly, two of these genes are targeted by drugs that are used to treat other conditions, signalling a potential direction for research into new Alzheimer's treatments.

"Dr Marioni is unlocking the power of big data by applying cutting-edge statistical techniques to rich medical, genetic and lifestyle information provided by hundreds of thousands of research volunteers.

People don't have to have dementia to take part in research studies, and anyone who is interested in playing a part can find out how at http://www.joindementiaresearch.org

"There are currently no treatments to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer's, but research can change this picture. Alzheimer's Research UK is proud to be supporting this pioneering research, none of which would be possible without the efforts of our dedicated supporters."

May 17, 2018 - Recent updates in evidence-based recommendations have led to changes in the use of steroid and hyaluronic acid injection for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, reports a study in the May 16, 2018 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in partnership in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Although guideline revisions based on new evidence have stopped or reversed trends towards increased use of injections for knee osteoarthritis, these treatments remain commonly used, according to the new research by Nicholas A. Bedard, MD, of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, and colleagues.

Guideline Changes Reflect Questions on Injections for Knee Arthritis

The researchers evaluated the impact of updated guidelines for nonsurgical treatment of knee osteoarthritis, issued by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) in 2008 and 2013. The study focused on two common treatments to reduce knee pain: corticosteroid (steroid) injection, intended to reduce inflammation; and hyaluronic acid, intended to supplement the natural fluids within the knee joint.

Dr. Bedard and colleagues analyzed an insurance database of more than 1 million patients with knee osteoarthritis treated between 2007 and 2015. Overall, about 38 percent of patients received at least one steroid injection and 13 percent had at least one hyaluronic acid injection.

Before the first clinical practice guideline, the rate of steroid injections was rising steadily. In the 2008 guideline, the AAOS suggested that steroid injection could be given for short-term pain relief of knee. After this "Grade B" recommendation - reflecting some limitations of the evidence - the rate of increase in steroid injection slowed significantly.

By 2013, there was new conflicting evidence on effectiveness of steroid injection. In response, the AAOS stated that it could not make any recommendation for or against the use of steroid injection. After this revision, the trend in steroid injection leveled off. Use of steroid injection continued to increase in patients under age 50 - perhaps reflecting attempts to avoid total knee replacement surgery in this younger age group.

Recommendations for injection of hyaluronic acid were also revised during the study period. In 2008, the AAOS stated that there was no evidence on which to base a recommendation on hyaluronic acid injection, either for or against. This recommendation slowed a previous trend toward increased use of hyaluronic acid.

By 2013, there was new evidence showing no benefit of hyaluronic acid compared to inactive placebo, prompting a strong recommendation against the use of this treatment. After this revision, the rate of hyaluronic acid injection declined significantly.

There was a significant decrease in hyaluronic acid injections performed by orthopaedic surgeons and pain specialists - but not by primary care physicians (such as general internal medicine doctors) or non-surgeon musculoskeletal specialists (such as rheumatologists or sports medicine physicians). Overall, orthopaedic surgeons performed two-thirds of hyaluronic acid injections. Trends in steroid injection did not differ by specialty.

Evidence-based guidelines play an important role in ongoing evaluation of medical treatments. The new findings suggest that guideline updates for knee osteoarthritis have had a "subtle but significant" impact on clinical practice. Rates of steroid injection leveled off after the AAOS concluded that no recommendation could be made, while the rate of hyaluronic acid injection decreased in response to a recommendation against this procedure.

Some of the same studies that questioned the effectiveness of these treatments also reported that they account for a large proportion of treatment costs for knee osteoarthritis. Injections given shortly before total knee replacement surgery may even increase the risk of infection. Dr. Bedard comments, "We hope that this project helps to shed light on the important clinical practice guidelines created by AAOS and further encourages providers to follow these recommendations, share them with their patients, and utilize them as a guide to improve the value of care provided to patients with knee osteoarthritis."

Rational behavior is not the only thing that keeps Russians from throwing away food; many food-handling practices have been shaped by socio-cultural factors, including the gastronomic trauma suffered in times of famine and scarcity. Valeria Erguneva and Darya Asaturyan from HSE University have studied some of the cultural attitudes towards food loss and waste in Russia.

Getting Rid of Leftover Food

The researchers interviewed Moscow residents aged 21 to 72 from diverse social backgrounds (employed, temporarily unemployed, students, pensioners, homemakers) to gain a better understanding of the meanings people attach to throwing out food and the psychological factors which come into play.

Reasons why people discard food vary from lack of planning of food shopping to poor food storage practices.

Unsure how much food they need to buy. Very often, people make a poor estimate of other household members' needs and preferences.

'Every now and then, you plan to buy, say, ten servings of some food and expect the other person to eat them all. But then it turns out they did not eat some of the food, and the leftovers get thrown out' (male student, aged 22).
Change of appetites and plans, impulsive 'hungry shopping', not knowing what you already have at home (e.g. you forget having bought a food item and buy more; family members fail to coordinate food buying among themselves). 'Sometimes, bread gets thrown away: e.g. I get up in the morning, see there's no bread and pick up some on my way home from work, but then I see that Dad has also bought bread' (female massage therapist, aged 43).

Mismatch between social engagements and shelf life of food. 'Sometimes we plan to have dinner at home and buy food but end up eating out or visiting friends. Then, after three or four nights of not eating at home, you open your fridge and see that virtually everything there must be discarded' (male driver, aged 35).

Preference for convenience food. 'At times, you just can't be bothered to warm up the soup and instead you grab something easier, and eventually cooked food gets thrown away' (male student, assistant researcher and teacher, aged 21).

Hedonistic attitudes and protest against frugality. Some people associate worrying too much about wasted food with excessive frugality. 'I don't think it's okay to be so thrifty that you need to hold on to stuff that's broken or to leftover food' (male student, aged 22).

People who perceive food primarily as a source of pleasure rather than just 'fuel' for the body tend to reject leftovers and insist on eating freshly cooked food. 'Finishing everything on your plate whether you want it or not does not make sense, because one goes to a restaurant to have fun, not necessarily to clean your plate - otherwise it's a kind of pettiness... if so, why are you eating out in the first place?' (male sports commentator, aged 25).

Life transitions such as moving to a new place, e.g. from a village to a big city or away from one's parents. Impulsive buying and throwing stuff away can feel like a newfound freedom for young people who have just moved away from their parents to live independently. People who relocate from rural communities to cities sometimes struggle with new waste management practices.

'When I lived in the village, food was never thrown away but given to pigs or dogs - those rural dogs are not like the spoilt city dogs here, they will eat almost everything. So we would never, ever dump food. When I moved here, I felt terrible throwing food away at first, but eventually one gets used to everything' (female owner of a hair salon, aged 33).

Shifting Responsibility

People tend to blame others for forcing them to waste food; chain supermarkets are often accused of using marketing tricks such as discounts and promotions to encourage impulse buying and offering food in large packages so that a small household is unlikely to finish it before the food goes bad.

Russians also accuse retail stores of manipulating product shelf life, e.g. relabelling packaged food to change its expiration date.

'Because they are all too smart to just discard food - it's like throwing money away, right? No one wants to do so. Honest retailers in the U.S., e.g., will discard food approaching its expiration date, but food stores here will replace the label with the date and sell the food anyway. Why would they discard it if they can sell it?' (male engineer, postgraduate student, aged 26).

Frozen Conscience

Not all people are concerned about food waste. Some consider it a natural and inevitable consequence of 'society's evolution'.

'It used to be really hard for prehistoric people to kill a mammoth, so they would use up every bit of it - meat, bones and the rest. But people living in a big city today can buy as much as they want and more. It's not a problem, it's a matter of consumption. We are a consumerist society, after all' (male student, aged 22).

Indeed, some people report feeling a kind of relief getting rid of food ('clearing space in the fridge feels good').

On the other hand, even those who do not mind throwing food away can feel guilty about wasting something still good enough to eat and prefer to keep it in the fridge for a while until it goes bad and can be discarded without remorse.

'I have experimented with freezing leftovers but when I defrost them later I do not really like the taste and dump the stuff anyway; so I just add another stage - freezing and defrosting - before it ends up in the trash' (female technologist, aged 38).

Philosophy of Conservation

The researchers also examined why some people refuse to waste food and what they do instead and found a range of reasons and solutions.

Rational behaviour. Adequate planning of the amount of food one needs and choosing foods with longer shelf life.

Financial constraints (poverty). Low-income households are forced to plan their consumption. According to the researchers, 'such people buy exactly as much food as they find necessary to satisfy their physical needs'.

Unconscious choice. People raised in poverty and scarcity make sure no food goes to waste.

Avoiding food waste as an unproductive use of resources such as money, time and effort invested in shopping for food and cooking.

Respect for other people's labour which went into producing the food, dating back to Russian peasant traditions. 'No matter who purchased the food I have to throw out, I still feel sorry for the effort of those who produced the food and the money spent buying it' (male student and research assistant, aged 21).

Finding waste unacceptable in principle. Instead of letting food go to waste, some people find ways to use it (giving it to neighbours and friends, feeding pets or stray animals, processing and preserving, etc.). 'If I buy sausage, let's say, and it looks good at first but goes bad on the next day despite being stored in the fridge, what will I do? I will boil it, changing the water twice, and then I can feed it to stray animals on the street. But I will never just throw it out' (female technologist, aged 38).

Ethical consumption. Reducing waste to save the environment. Some, although not many, respondents share this attitude. 'I do my best not to waste food, first of all because it is not environmentally friendly. Someone killed a pig to make this pork but you did not eat it and threw it out instead ... I find it difficult to give up meat for ethical reasons but I am considering it for environmental reasons. At least, I am trying to avoid beef because its production is five or six times worse for the environment than poultry production' (female student, aged 22).

Guilt and Trauma

Other reasons why people resent wasting food include sociocultural values, some of them specific to Russia.

Religious attitudes can stimulate frugal behaviour. "Food should be treated as sacred. Throwing away food, particularly bread, is a sin. People have traditionally believed so. It's a sin to dump food' (retired male, watchman, aged 72).

Empathy with people from poorer countries, such as compassion for malnourished African children, or popular wisdom learned in childhood can also play a role.

'I never leave food on my plate. My mom used to say, don't do it or you won't find a wife' (engineer and postgraduate student, aged 26).

'Back in Soviet times, they taught me at school that bread is the staple of life and how much effort goes into growing and making it. These ideas are still very strong in me' (female owner of a foreign language school network, aged 38).

Perhaps the most important factor, according to the authors, is the 'gastronomic trauma' dating back to the years of hunger and scarcity during World War II, the post-war years, and the 1990s.

This memory encourages thrifty attitudes and prevents wasteful consumption in older and not-so-old generations of Russians.

'I often feel pangs of conscience [throwing out food] because it brings back childhood memories of my Grandmother' (stay-at-home mother, aged 27).

In addition to this, symbolically, throwing out certain foods can be particularly traumatic and cause stronger feelings. Such special foods include bread.

'I've had [this attitude] since childhood, perhaps since [being told about] the siege of Leningrad... when I see stale bread and is about to throw it out, I think, no, you cannot waste bread' (male driver, aged 35).

'Every time I have to throw out bread I feel ashamed and cringe inside. For some reason I only feel this way towards bread... as if I am committing a sin' (female massage therapist, aged 43).

The researchers conclude that despite a reported transition to a consumerist society and the abundance of goods in stores, attitudes acquired in times of scarcity and poverty and passed down to younger generations can discourage wasteful food consumption which is perhaps specific of Russian consumer behaviour patterns.

Ethical consumption and avoidance of food waste are largely due to past traditions in Russia, as opposed to Western countries where they are driven by concerns for the environment and public good. In fact, poverty experienced now by a significant part of Russia's population can discourage throwing out food but at the same time can be a barrier to environmentally-sound practices, since people seek to meet their basic needs before considering their environmental impact.

An international study led by biochemists at the University of Liverpool has shown that the drug-molecule ebselen can correct many of the toxic characteristics of a protein that causes some cases of hereditary motor neurone disease (MND).

MND is an incurable, progressive disease that attacks the nerves controlling movement so muscles no longer work. MND affects about 5000 people in the UK at any one time and present treatment options have only a modest effect in improving the patient's quality of life.

Inherited MND is a rare form of the disease (5-10% of total cases) that runs in families. Around 20% of hereditary MND cases are caused by mutations in a gene which codes for a protein called SOD1. When the SOD1 gene is mutated, the protein assembly process malfunctions and steps are missed out. This makes the SOD1 protein structurally unstable leading to formation of protein 'clumps' in the motor neurones, causing them to die.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, scientists from the Universities of Liverpool (UK), Florence (Italy) and Wollongong (Australia) used state-of-the-art crystallography, mass-spectrometry and in-cell NMR technologies to search for a drug molecule which could 'correct' the SOD1 assembly line.

They found that ebselen, a drug which was discovered in the 1980s and has been investigated as a potential treatment for a variety of nervous system disorders, can effectively restore several important steps in the SOD1 assembly process including folding, dimerization and zinc binding.

Dr Gareth Wright, an MND researcher at the University of Liverpool, said: "This discovery has the potential to prevent the accumulation of SOD1 into the large aggregates we see within the motor neurons of effected individuals. If we can stop that, we might be able to stop the neurons dying."

Professor Samar Hasnain, a structural biologist at the University of Liverpool, added: "The next step is to test ebselen in settings more accurately resembling human neuronal cells and optimising it so that it can become useful as a drug for motor neuron disease."

More Canadian cities will experience damage from the emerald ash borer than previously thought. As a result of climate change and fewer days of extreme cold, the beetle may eat its way further north than originally estimated.

Kim Cuddington, a professor of biology at the University of Waterloo, led the team that produced a probability map for North America showing where the emerald ash borer is likely to kill trees.

"We ran specific predictions to help Canadian cities decide if they need to make plans before they're affected," said Cuddington. "Calgary is likely to experience damage, as are Thunder Bay, Prince George and Winnipeg. Edmonton and Saskatoon are less likely, but they should remain vigilant."

So far, the wood-boring beetle has wiped out tens of millions of ash trees and will likely cost municipalities $2 billion. Still, everyone expected the species' rapid migration would be stopped by Canada's extremely cold temperatures.

"This should be a wake-up call for how we think about invasive species," said Cuddington. "We need to develop preemptive measures as well as mitigate potential impacts. By the time we see the damage, it's almost too late."

According to previous studies, prepupae can survive in temperatures as low as -34ºC. Cuddington and her group confirmed the temperature found under the bark where the insect overwinters is warmer than the outside.

"We took a different approach from traditional range maps and charted the statistical probability of under-bark temperatures being above this lethal limit for at least six years," said Cuddington. "That's just long enough for the insect to kill its host tree."

This is one of the first studies to couple an extensive empirical data set with measures of climate variability using a mechanistic modelling approach. Cuddington says researchers need to think more carefully about how a changing and unpredictable climate relates to the biology of an invasive species and their risk of doing damage, both economically and ecologically.

Whether you learn to play a musical instrument or speak another language, you're training your brain to be more efficient, suggests a Baycrest study.

Researchers found that musicians and people who are bilingual utilized fewer brain resources when completing a working memory task, according to recently published findings in the journal, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Individuals with either a musical or bilingual background activated different brain networks and showed less brain activity than people who only spoke one language and didn't have formal music training to complete the task, according to the study's findings.

"These findings show that musicians and bilinguals require less effort to perform the same task, which could also protect them against cognitive decline and delay the onset of dementia," says Dr. Claude Alain, first author of the paper and senior scientist at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute. "Our results also demonstrated that a person's experiences, whether it's learning how to play a musical instrument or another language, can shape how the brain functions and which networks are used."

Musicians and people who are bilingual have long been shown to have a better working memory, the ability to keep things in mind, such as remembering a phone number, a list of instructions or doing mental math. But it remains a mystery as to why this is the case. This is the first brain imaging study looking at all three groups and this work uncovers how these activities boost different parts of the brain among individuals, adds Dr. Alain.

The study looked at the brains of 41 young adults between the ages of 19-35, who fit into three categories: English-speaking non-musicians, musicians who only spoke English and bilinguals who didn't play a musical instrument. Brain imagery was captured for each participant as they were asked to identify whether the sound they heard was the same type as the previous one. Sounds from musical instruments, the environment and humans were among those used in the study. Participants were also asked to identify if what they heard was coming from the same direction as the previous noise.

Musicians remembered the type of sound faster than individuals in the other groups, while bilinguals and musicians performed better on the location task. Bilinguals performed at about the same level as individuals who spoke only one language and didn't play a musical instrument on remembering the sound, but they still showed less brain activity when completing the task.

"People who speak two languages may take longer to process sounds since the information is run through two language libraries rather than just one," says Dr. Alain, who is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto's Institute of Medical Science and the Department of Psychology. "During this task, the brains of bilinguals showed greater signs of activation in areas that are known for speech comprehension, supporting this theory."

As next steps, researchers are exploring the impact of art and musical training among adults to see if this leads to changes in brain function.

Current global warming has far-reaching ecological consequences, also for the Earth's oceans. Many marine organisms are reacting by migrating towards the poles. Researchers at Geozentrum Nordbayern at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now discovered that marine animals have been migrating for millions of years when the temperature on Earth increases or decreases.

Marine animals follow changed temperature zones to the poles or equator

Most living organisms on Earth have settled into ecological niches and one of the decisive factors in their choice of habitat is a certain temperature . Marine animals either need warmer water for their metabolism, such as tropical species, or colder water, such as animals that depend on a higher oxygen content in the water. They therefore migrate either towards the poles or the equator as soon as the temperature changes, and have been doing so for millions of years. 'Whilst the climate appears to be changing more rapidly today than ever before, the climate also changed rapidly in the past, forcing organisms to migrate in order to survive. Adaptation tended to be the exception,' emphasises Prof. Wolfgang Kießling, Chair of Palaeoenviromental Research.

By investigating fossils, Prof. Kießling and Dr. Carl Reddin, who is also at GeoZentrum Nordbayern, have shown that coral, molluscs, and sponges have been following their preferred cold and warm zones for half a billion years. Isotherms (geographic lines denoting the same temperature, for example 20°C) shift towards the poles or the equator as soon as the global temperature rises or decreases. Isotherms have been shifting towards the poles for several years due to global warming.

The tendency towards climate-related migration is most apparent in tropical species. This may be due to the fact that several of these species live near the thermal maximum for complex organisms of 35-45°C . Current global warming trends are driving marine animals towards the poles, provided there is a suitable habitat they can migrate to.

Tracing climate change by investigating shifts in species distribution

How did the palaeobiologists discover this prehistoric migration pattern? Firstly, they determined the geographic coordinates of the area in which the fossils were found when they were alive. Using a model, they determined how the tectonic plates have moved since the time when the animals were living and combined the results with the current coordinates of the location where the fossil samples were discovered. This enabled them to retrace changes in fossil species composition over long time periods. The researchers used a global database that they helped to set up that contains records of all fossils ever found.

The results are also significant for the present. Wolfgang Kießling and Carl Reddin expect that the current shifts will affect mostly tropical species, and it is thought that there will be a significant reduction of such species in the long run. Research up to now has largely been limited to central latitudes, where migration is already occurring on a large scale.

Repeating seismic events--events that have the same frequency content and waveform shapes--may offer a glimpse at the movement of magma and volcanic gases underneath Turrialba and Poas, two well-known active volcanoes in Costa Rica.

At the 2018 SSA Annual Meeting, Rebecca Salvage of the Observatorio Vulcanologico y Sismologico de Costa Rica presented an analysis of these repeating signals from the volcanoes since July 2016.

When these repeating events are identified at a seismic station, researchers assume that these "events are all produced by a single mechanism and at a similar location at depth ... and by a source which is either non-destructive or able to quickly renew itself," Salvage noted. "Therefore, the identification and an understanding of repeating seismicity may allow us some insight into which parts of the volcanic system at depth are active, and the frequency content of the repeating seismicity may be indicative of processes occurring at depth."

At Turrialba, for instance, Salvage and her colleagues identified a type of repeating event called "drumbeat seismicity," characterized by a very short time interval between events. In January 2017, drumbeat seismicity at the volcano lasted less than three hours but contained hundreds of events. Eight hours later, there was a small eruption at Turrialba. In this case, the drumbeat seismicity may have been a "precursor signal" of the eruption, related to magma moving toward the surface, Salvage said.

"However, not all eruptions are preceded by these types of earthquakes, and often these earthquakes occur with no identifiable eruptive activity," she added. "A better understanding of drumbeats in terms of the conditions under which they do occur, and statistical analysis on inter-event times and occurrence rates will allow us to better assess whether these can actually be used as a warning tool."

At Poas, the researchers noted another interesting halt in six families of repeating seismic events, just two hours after a swarm of magnitude 2.7 and higher earthquakes was recorded very near the volcano. In this case, Salvage and her colleagues think that the earthquakes may have influenced the stress field around the volcano in a way that halted the repeating events. The stress field may have changed when the earthquakes generated small displacements on local faults that created similar small diversions in magmatic gas and ash rising to the surface.

Before cell division, the long strings of the cell's DNA are wrapped tightly into the structures we know as chromosomes. This protects the cell's genetic material from physical and chemical damage.

The ends of chromosomes are called telomeres. These are specialized structures that have to be replicated with each cell division cycle. But the complete replication of telomeres up to the very ends of chromosomes also requires specialized mechanisms, and these are limited. Telomeres are also very sensitive to oxidative damage, which affects their ability to replicate.

Because of this, telomeres shrink over time, limiting the lifespan of cells. Telomere shortening is essentially the cause of cell aging.

Now, Joachim Lingner and Wareed Ahmed at EPFL have discovered two antioxidant enzymes that work together to prevent oxidation of telomeric DNA at chromosome ends. The scientists disrupted both the enzymes, called PRDX1 and MTH1, in cancer cells, and found that the cells' telomeres shrunk with every round of cell division, eventually disappearing altogether.

One of the promising targets in cancer therapy is the enzyme telomerase. Normally, telomerase prevents telomeres from shortening in germ and stem cells, which helps with development. But telomerase is also highly active in cancer cells, keeping their telomeres intact and making the cells virtually immortal. The new work shows that disrupting PRDX1 and MTH1 prevents telomerase from counteracting telomere shortening.

So far, attempts to efficiently block telomerase in cancer have not been fruitful in the clinic. The discovery of the co-operating enzymes opens up a new opportunity to indirectly block telomerase. "Instead of inhibiting the enzyme itself, we target its substrate - the chromosome end - making it un-extendable by telomerase," says Lingner.

Hamilton, ON (May 16, 2018) - A large international study led by a Hamilton researcher has found a patient-centric treatment that works for people with mild asthma.

People with mild asthma are often prescribed a daily treatment regimen, but up to 80 per cent do not follow the routine, using inhalers only when they have an asthma attack. Now the researchers have found an as-needed combined-drug inhaler is a viable treatment option.

Paul O'Byrne is the principal investigator on the study that suggests an inhaler with a combination of budesonide, a steroid that controls inflammation, and formoterol, a beta2-agonist that helps to open airways and make breathing easier, may be an alternative to conventional treatment strategies.

O'Byrne is a respirologist, a professor of medicine at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and a clinician scientist at the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.

The results were published today in the high-impact medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). O'Byrne was also an author of a second NEJM article today regarding mile asthma.

"Short-acting beta-agonists, also known as rescue inhalers, work quickly but they do not treat the underlying problem of inflammation," said O'Byrne of the first study. "The secret in this new approach is that it not only relieves symptoms but at the same time delivers steroids required for overall control of asthma."

According to Statistics Canada, eight per cent of Canadians, or 2.4 million people have been diagnosed with asthma by a health professional. Approximately 50 to 75 per cent of patients diagnosed with the chronic disease have mild asthma. While symptoms may not always be burdensome, airway inflammation is usually present, and mild asthma patients are at risk of severe exacerbations, commonly called asthma attacks, which can result in emergency care or even asthma-related death.

"In clinical practice, poor adherence to asthma medications, particularly inhaled steroids as maintenance therapy, is a major problem across all severities of asthma," said O'Byrne. "As such, patients rely on as-needed inhalers for symptom relief, which doesn't actually help improve their overall condition."

O'Byrne and his team worked with researchers around the world to conduct a 52-week trial with patients aged 12 years of age of older with clinically-diagnosed mild asthma.

More than 3,800 patients participated from countries including Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil and South Africa, among others. The trial was conducted between July 2014 and August 2017.

Patients were randomly assigned one of three regimens and were closely monitored. One group took a twice-daily placebo plus as-needed terbutaline, a relief beta agonist used to prevent and treat wheezing; a second group was on a twice-daily placebo plus budesonide-formoterol used as needed, while a third group was on twice-daily maintenance budesonide plus terbutaline used as needed. All patients received an electronic reminder to take their maintenance treatment twice daily.

The trial results showed budesonide-formoterol used as needed was superior to terbutaline alone as needed for improving asthma symptom control, as well as reducing the risk of an asthma attacks by more than 60 per cent, but was inferior to the twice-daily budesonide maintenance therapy for symptom control.

"If patients could remember to take their maintenance budesonide treatment and follow it carefully, they would get the best day-to-day symptom control, but the risk of exacerbation was the same as if they used the combined budesonide and formoterol as needed," said O'Byrne.

"In addition, the amount of steroids used was much less when the combined inhaler was used, because the patient did not need to take it every day."

O'Byrne is also an author on a parallel study led by Eric Bateman at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, which was also published in the NEJM today.

In that study patients were randomly assigned a twice-daily placebo plus budesonide-formoterol used as needed or twice-daily budesonide plus terbutaline used as needed.

The trial involved more than 4,200 patients on a 52-week trial in 25 countries between November 2014 and August 2017. As with the other study, participants had mild asthma and were aged 12 and older.

The results showed that in patients with mild asthma, budesonide-formoterol used as needed was comparable to twice-daily budesonide in relation to the rate of severe asthma attacks during 52 weeks of treatment, but was inferior in controlling symptoms.

"This was more of a real-world study, without the electronic monitoring twice a day or reminders to use medication, and fewer study visits, so it is more comparable to managing patients in a real facility with a lower adherence to the daily treatment course," said O'Byrne.

"There was no short-acting beta-agonists comparator group in this trial, just the comparison of the maintenance budesonide to the reliever that contained budesonide-formoterol, but the trial outcomes were essentially identical."

Both studies were sponsored by AstraZeneca, and are being presented May 20 at the American Thoracic Society conference in San Diego.

PHILADELPHIA - Given the complex and rapidly evolving health care system in the United States, medical schools must focus their efforts on training more physician leaders to master the diverse skills needed to navigate emerging challenges in the field, urge leaders from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in a new Perspective piece published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Academic medicine has been somewhat complacent in the face of the disruptive forces in health care, and as a result, the gap between the physician-leader workforce and the needs of our system has only widened," said J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. "Health care systems need a new prescription to close this leadership gap. Given the societal impact of health care, we need to accelerate the development of skills that are not typically acquired during traditional medical training."

Historically, physician leaders have been chosen based on their national prominence and excellence as master clinicians, star researchers, and revered educators. While these credentials remain important, they aren't sufficient in the current health care climate, the authors write.

Today's physicians practice in an era of changing payment models, rising costs, IT advances, and emerging technologies and therapies that are reshaping the delivery of patient care. Dynamic changes have also come with ongoing health system mergers and market consolidation. To lead effectively in this environment, doctors need not only sharp clinical expertise, but also opportunities to hone their communication, team building, and decision making skills, and gain knowledge of finance and business.

Jameson and co-author Caryn Lerman, PhD, vice dean for Strategic Initiatives and the John H. Glick, MD Professor in Cancer Research in the department of Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine, suggest health systems focus on three strategies to create this new wave of leaders: rigorous mining of diverse talent pools to identify the most promising emerging physician leaders; building pipelines of future leaders with targeted leadership development to enable progressively increasing responsibility; and deliberate onboarding processes to integrate new leaders and assure alignment across missions and with the institutional culture.

Training in finance and business planning and personnel management should be central to professional development, as many physician leaders may manage budgets similar to those of medium-sized businesses, for example, and work in organizations which are among the largest employers in their community.

"Given the high rate of turnover among physician leaders, such as department chairs and deans, we can no longer afford to neglect the skills that are essential for leaders to succeed," they wrote. "We believe there is a need for a new generation of leaders who can promote strategic and cultural alignment in the face of rapid change."

At Penn, the Perelman School of Medicine has joined with the Wharton School to create an executive education program which will launch in 2019 for health care and academic medical leaders from across the nation and world. The program will provide targeted leadership development experiences and practical skills to enable today's and tomorrow's leaders of health systems and academic medical centers to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.

The new endeavor joins the Penn-Wharton MD/Master of Business Administration (MD/MBA) program, which is designed for medical students interested in integrating their medical course work with training in managerial, financial, and technical expertise in the health care field.

Another example is Penn Medicine's Healthcare Leadership for Quality Residency Track. This two-year training pathway for future physician leaders is one of only a few in the country to offer a pathway for residents aspiring to be leaders in health care quality, patient safety, or informatics. So far, more than one hundred residents have participated in the program.

To help meet the challenges of an increasingly complex landscape, the authors say, health systems should make leadership development an organizational priority - an emphasis which will also pay off in improved patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes.

"The 21st century physician leader must be equipped with a new tool kit of skills for the leadership agility necessary for them to respond proactively to rapidly changing environments," Lerman said. "Leadership development should be an organizational priority, preparing today's medical students and physicians to thrive in a continuously evolving era of health care."