Culture

In a first-of-its-kind study, Children's Hospital Los Angeles researchers piece together a road map of typical brain development in children during a critical window of maturation. The study shows how a "wave of brain maturation" directly underlies important social and behavioral changes children develop during the transition from childhood to adolescence.

As children mature, many aspects of their lives shift in preparation for adulthood. Academic and social environments intensify during this time, requiring increasing mastery of thoughts, emotions, and behavioral control. Very little is known about what is going on neurologically during this important transition. A group of researchers at CHLA examined anatomical and behavioral changes during the finite window of neurological development in a group of 9-12 year old children. A more detailed understanding of typical brain development could give scientists and clinicians a better framework to help care for children who may be developing atypically or facing developmental challenges.

"We know that children are growing substantially in their ability to self-regulate during this time," says Mary Baron Nelson, PhD, RN, the first author on this publication. "Among many other changes, their attention spans are expanding and they are learning social norms such as gauging appropriate responses or behaviors." Because these are cognitive processes, the research group hypothesized that measurable changes could be occurring in brain structure and function. This is precisely what they found.

The team of scientists, led by Bradley Peterson, MD, of the Institute for the Developing Mind at CHLA, examined anatomical, chemical, and neuropsychological measures to determine what changes could be occurring in a group of 234 healthy children, aged 9-12 years. "We used brain imaging, measured multiple chemicals and metabolites, and took cognitive and neuropsychological scores," says Dr. Baron Nelson.

Using imaging and measuring brain metabolites, the group observed what Dr. Baron Nelson refers to as a "wave of maturation" sweeping through the brain. White matter tracts - the pathways in the brain that transmit information - showed increasing maturation with age from the back to the front of the brain. This is expected, as the frontal lobes are not fully formed until an individual is in his or her late twenties. The frontal lobes mediate executive function - major planning of complex decisions and actions. But perhaps less expected is that so many of these changes begin to occur so early on. The findings in the study show that this maturation is largely beginning during years 9-12. This brain maturity correlates with a critical and formative period of time: children are undergoing rapid, neurological maturity at the same time that they are facing difficult social and academic decisions.

As a child grows, he or she becomes more able to control impulses and process complex concepts. In support of this observation the group discovered increasing scores on tasks that measured these skills. But how were these children able to have more impulse control and make more complex decisions? The group analyzed the data and were able to determine that anatomical and metabolic changes occurring during this window of development are responsible for this increase in abilities.

"We've learned that this is not a wait-and-see period of time," says Dr. Baron Nelson. "Dynamic changes are happening here and this gives us a real opportunity for intervention. We can help shape these kids as they grow."

CLEVELAND, Ohio (September 24, 2019)--Thanks to increased media attention, sexual assaults occurring in the military are finally getting the attention they deserve. However, most reports involve reproductive-aged women Veterans from recent service eras. A new study confirms the problem has a long history with assaults linked to numerous mental and physical problems. Study results will be presented during The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Annual Meeting in Chicago, September 25 to 28, 2019.

Only recently has the problem of military sexual trauma (MST), defined as sexual assault and/or sexual harassment during military service, made its way out of the closet and into the headlines. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) instituted mandatory universal annual MST screening in 2003; an estimated one in four women Veterans report MST when screened by healthcare providers.

Not surprisingly, MST is associated with an increased risk for multiple physical and mental health concerns. However, research and clinical attention in this area has largely focused on younger women Veterans who served more recently. Little was known, until now, about MST among postmenopausal women Veterans.

In this new study, researchers examined the prevalence of MST and its physical and mental health-related comorbidities. In the sampling of postmenopausal women, 13% had a positive MST screen which was strongly associated with such mental health diagnoses as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and suicidal ideation. MST was also associated with multiple aging-related medical conditions, including insomnia, sleep apnea, and chronic pain.

"Although prior trauma is not often considered in the clinical care in this population, both VA and community providers caring for older women Veterans should recognize the prevalence and importance of MST when assessing patients' health concerns," says Dr. Carolyn Gibson, lead author of the study from the San Francisco VA Health Care System.

"These findings call attention to the need for additional research in this understudied population and underscore the importance of trauma screening regardless of a woman's age," says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.

CINCINNATI -- Three new studies by scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Cincinnati, highlight the relationship between air pollution and mental health in children.

A study to be published Sept. 25 in Environmental Health Perspectives found that short-term exposure to ambient air pollution was associated with exacerbations of psychiatric disorders in children one to two days later, as marked by increased utilization of the Cincinnati Children's emergency department for psychiatric issues. The study also found that children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods may be more susceptible to the effects of air pollution compared to other children, especially for disorders related to anxiety and suicidality.

The lead authors of this study are Cole Brokamp, PhD, and Patrick Ryan, PhD. They are researchers in the division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Cincinnati Children's. The article will be available at 9 am Sept. 25 at https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/ehp4815.

"This study is the first to show an association between daily outdoor air pollution levels and increased symptoms of psychiatric disorders, like anxiety and suicidality, in children," says Dr. Brokamp. "More research is needed to confirm these findings, but it could lead to new prevention strategies for children experiencing symptoms related to a psychiatric disorder. The fact that children living in high poverty neighborhoods experienced greater health effects of air pollution could mean that pollutant and neighborhood stressors can have synergistic effects on psychiatric symptom severity and frequency."

Two other Cincinnati Children's studies were recently published that also link air pollution to children's mental health:

A study published in Environmental Research found an association between recent high traffic related air pollution (TRAP) exposure and higher generalized anxiety. The study is believed to be the first to use neuroimaging to link TRAP exposure, metabolic disturbances in the brain, and generalized anxiety symptoms among otherwise healthy children. The study found higher myoinositol concentrations in the brain - a marker of the brain's neuroinflammatory response to TRAP.

The lead authors of this study are Kelly Brunst, PhD, a researcher in the department of Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati, and Kim Cecil, PhD, a researcher at Cincinnati Children's.

A study published in Environmental Research found that exposure to TRAP during early life and across childhood was significantly associated with self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms in 12 year olds. Similar findings have been reported in adults, but research showing clear connections between TRAP exposure and mental health in children has been limited.

The lead authors of the study are Kimberly Yolton, PhD, director of research in the division of General and Community Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's, and Dr. Ryan.

"Collectively, these studies contribute to the growing body of evidence that exposure to air pollution during early life and childhood may contribute to depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems in adolescence," says Dr. Ryan. "More research is needed to replicate these findings and uncover underlying mechanisms for these associations."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strengths of using film for public health research were:

Providing uniquely detailed descriptions of behavior, interactions and environment.

Capturing "insider" perspectives and cultural practices.

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

Empowering participants to express themselves in ways comfortable to them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why are they white and pasty? Uric acid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quality control holds back immature signaling molecules

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

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

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

Targeted interventions in immune cell communication

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

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

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

"Keep your eyes on the road."

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

Designing a better collision avoidance warning

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

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

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

Evaluating rear-end accidents from a driver's perspective

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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