Culture

Genetics, lifestyle and environment are all factors that somehow influence when and how we all age. But the financial situation is also important. Now, researchers from the Center for Healthy Aging and the Department of Public Health have found that four or more years with an income below the relative poverty threshold during adult life make a significant difference as to when the body begins to show signs of ageing.

To learn more about the context, the researchers have tested 5500 middle-aged persons, using various ageing markers: physical capability, cognitive function and inflammatory level. The results were then compared with the participants' income throughout the 22 years leading up to the test. An annual income of 60% below the median income is considered relative poverty.

In this way, the researchers found that there is a significant correlation between financial challenges and early ageing. And this is important in order to be able to instigate preventative measures, says co-author and Professor at the Center for Healthy Aging and the Department of Public Health, Rikke Lund.

'Early ageing also means more treatment at an earlier age, and it is a burden both to the individual and the society. With our results, we show that poor finances are a strong indicator of early ageing - this knowledge can be used to prevent the problems. Many people do not necessarily experience any noticeably poorer physical capability until they are growing older and are therefore not aware that their bodies have begun to age prematurely. This means that there will be no focus on preventative measures until it is too late', she says.

Poverty Affects Grip Strength and Memory

The participants have been through both physical and cognitive tests, each of which is an expression of general strength and function. Among other things, the researchers measured the participants' grip strength, how many times they could get up from and sit on a chair in 30 seconds, and how high they could jump. The cognitive tests have e.g. been tasks of memorising sequences.

'There is a significant difference between the test results. People who have been below the relative poverty threshold for four or more years in their adult life perform significantly worse than those who have never been below the threshold', says Rikke Lund.

The results show, among other things, that the financially challenged group, relative to the comparison group, can get up and sit down two times less per 30 seconds, and that their grip strength is reduced by 1.2 kilos.

In addition, the researchers have measured the inflammatory level of the participants - i.e. an inflammatory state that comes from within and is measured in the blood. A high inflammatory level is a sign that the body is in a state of alert and can likewise be used as a marker for illness and ageing. The study shows that the financially challenged also had higher inflammatory levels.

'The results draw a picture that groups which experience serious financial challenges several times in their adult lives age earlier than others. From a broader perspective, the results may inspire a reconsideration of the politically adopted reduced rates of public benefits', says Rikke Lund.

An interdisciplinary study led by Professor Daniel Wiesen from the University of Cologne's Department of Business Administration and Health Care Management showed that expert feedback leads to more appropriate antibiotic therapy decisions. A central result of the study is that especially physicians in an early stage of their career benefit from expert feedback. The study, which uses a controlled experiment to investigate the causal effect of expert feedback on individual physicians' antibiotic prescribing decisions, has been published in the journal Medical Decision Making.

The excessive use of antibiotics contributes to the development of resistance, which increasingly endangers the effectiveness of antibiotic therapies. Nevertheless, antibiotics are still frequently prescribed without being therapeutically indicated and treatment courses are often excessively long. In addition to the development of resistance, this increases the risk of antibiotic-related adverse outcomes. Especially in children, the inappropriate use of antibiotics can have serious short- and long-term consequences for their health and their development. In the experimental study with paediatricians, the research team at the UoC investigated a behavioural approach to improving antibiotic prescribing.

A total of 73 paediatricians took part in the experimental study, in which treatment decisions for paediatric routine cases were examined in a controlled environment. The experiment consisted of three stages. At each stage, participants were asked to decide for 40 hypothetical patients whether and for how long they would prescribe antibiotics. At the beginning of the second stage, the participants were informed that they would receive expert feedback on their treatment decisions, which was based on recommendations by directors of paediatric departments at German hospitals. At the end of the second stage, the participants actually received feedback on their treatment decisions. While the announcement of feedback had no significant effect on prescribing decisions, the provision of expert feedback significantly reduced the length of antibiotic therapies by one day on average (10 percent of the initially chosen length of therapies).

Daniel Wiesen says: 'We were surprised that a simple approach like providing expert feedback can have such a strong effect on physicians' prescribing decisions. After the provision of feedback, they chose shorter therapies. The treatment decisions were also more in line with expert and guideline recommendations. Thus, we can say that the provision of expert feedback has guided the physicians toward more appropriate antibiotic therapy decisions.'

The interdisciplinary project has shown that a simple 'nudge' (expert feedback) is a useful means to improve the prescribing behaviour of physicians. 'Nudging' is a method based on behavioural theory with the aim of influencing a person's behaviour without direct economic incentives.

Daniel Wiesen concludes: 'We firmly believe that providing expert feedback can be a viable option in clinical practice to help address the problem of excessive antibiotic use by simple means.' The experiment also showed that individual characteristics - such as the willingness to take risks or the experience of the physician - influence prescribing decisions. Such findings suggest that individual characteristics should be taken into account when implementing measures to influence antibiotic prescribing practices.

Diversity in the workplace is highly sought in theory, but often still lacking in practice. A new study shows that people tend to favor diversity for others, but prefer to work with people who are as similar to themselves as possible. A team of researchers from the universities of Basel and Koblenz-Landau published their report in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Today, many large corporations tout the importance of diversity on their websites, but current statistics show that the typical manager still tends to be white and male. Obviously, there is a dissonance between the desire to bring about diversity and corporate reality.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Mariela Jaffé from the Department of Psychology at the University of Basel studied this discrepancy from a social psychology perspective. This involved conducting four studies with a sampling of 605 people in total. The results showed a significant difference in how people select colleagues for themselves versus for other people.

How do people value diversity?

People have a wide spectrum of opinions concerning diversity. On the one hand, people see value in diversity, which can contribute a variety of perspectives, new ideas and innovative solutions. On the other hand, they assume that it might be difficult to work with someone who has completely different views, speaks a different language, or has a different style of work.

The actual value they attribute to diversity depends on the decision-making perspective. Building on current theories, the researchers have shown that doubts about the practicability of diversity have a greater weight if a person is directly affected. In other words, when a person's own work group is involved, they tend to prefer team members who are similar to themselves, whereas when people make decisions for other people, these reservations play a lesser role. Typically, a person will then put together a more diverse team.

Consequences of differing preferences

This leads to the conclusion that organizations could become more diverse if hiring and team decisions were not (only) made by those directly affected, but (also) by other people who are not directly involved in the group's daily work later.

"Research shows that people's perception of and the importance they attach to diversity have key implications for people's decision making," explains lead author Dr. Jaffé. "In a next step it would be important to gain a better understanding of the evaluation of diversity to discuss and resolve concerns about potential disadvantages. This way, people may then be more willing to include dissimilar people in their own teams."

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 observed Saturn on 20 June 2019 as the planet made its closest approach to Earth this year, at approximately 1.36 billion kilometres away.

Since the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, its goal has been to study not only distant astronomical objects, but also the planets within our Solar System. Hubble's high-resolution images of our planetary neighbours can only be surpassed by pictures taken from spacecraft that actually visit these bodies. However, Hubble has one advantage over space probes; it can look at these objects periodically and observe them over much longer periods than any passing probe could.

Saturn hosts many recognisable features, most notably its trademark ring system, which is now tilted towards Earth. This gives us a magnificent view of its bright icy structure. Hubble resolves numerous ringlets and the fainter inner rings. Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens first identified the rings in 1655 and thought they were a continuous disk encircling the planet, but we now know them to be composed of orbiting particles of ice and dust. Though all of the gas giants boast rings, Saturn's are the largest and most spectacular.

The age of Saturn's ring system continues to be debated. And, even more perplexingly, it's unknown what cosmic event formed the rings. There is no consensus among planetary astronomers today.

Another intriguing feature is the long-lasting hexagon-shaped structure circling the planet's north pole. It is a mysterious six-sided pattern caused by a high-speed jetstream. The hexagon is so large that four Earths could fit inside its boundaries (there is no similar structure at Saturn's south pole).

Other features, however, are not as long-lasting. A large storm in the north polar region spotted by Hubble last year has disappeared. Smaller, convective storms, such as the one just above the centre of the planet's image, also come and go.

Saturn's amber colours come from summer smog-like hazes, produced in photochemical reactions driven by solar ultraviolet radiation. Below the haze lie clouds of ammonia ice crystals, as well as deeper, unseen lower-level clouds of ammonium hydrosulphide and water. The planet's banded structure is caused by the winds and clouds at different altitudes.

Saturn's appearance changes with its seasons, caused by the planet's 27-degree axial tilt. This image was taken during summer in the planet's northern hemisphere.

Many of North America's migratory birds are declining, but the mysteries about when and how birds migrate must to be solved to effectively protect them. A new paper in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, published by Oxford University Press, identifies a previously overlooked area that is critical for conservation: the region between southern Mexico and Guatemala where songbirds fuel up for a grueling flight across the Gulf of Mexico.

Migration is a dangerous time for birds, especially during flights over large bodies of water. Many birds migrate directly across the Gulf of Mexico, requiring over 600 miles of sustained flight. The details of how the survivors manage this feat of endurance have been murky, especially for species like warblers, whose small size prevented researchers from tracking their full migration routes until recently.

Researchers used light-weight geolocators to identify migration strategies for the vulnerable and declining Golden-winged Warbler, finding 80% of individuals spent a week in southern Mexico and Guatemala to feed and build up reserves for the flight over the Gulf of Mexico in spring migration. The importance of this stopover region was previously unknown for this species, and it needs conservation given the rapid conversion of natural habitats to pasture and farmland.

While most Golden-winged Warblers stopped in this region, not all did. Some that overwintered in northern Central America were able to make the trans-Gulf flight directly from their overwintering grounds without the stopover. "This is an important finding," says Dr. Ruth Bennett of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, "because birds that migrated directly across the Gulf were able to shave a week off their total migration time. These birds may experience a selective advantage in the spring." That is because male Golden-winged Warblers race north in spring migration to establish breeding territories. Results from the study suggest the spring period requires more energy and poses a greater risk of predation and starvation, while fall migration allows for more flexibility to minimize energy costs and avoid risks.

"The variation we describe in migration routes and stopovers is encouraging," says Bennett. "Variation helps buffer a population from local changes in environmental conditions." Now that authors have identified where and when Golden-winged Warblers prepare for migration, they can start identifying the habitats that best allow birds to fuel up and successfully cross the Gulf of Mexico. This study provides a critical piece of the larger puzzle about where, when, and how to best protect the declining Golden-winged Warbler and other North American migratory birds.

September 12, 2019 -- In a Lancet Psychiatry commentary, Drs. Morgan M. Philbin and Pia M. Mauro, assistant professors at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, offer their insights on the non-medical use of prescription drugs among U.S. young adults, and specifically on a study published by a team of researchers at the University of Michigan. The Michigan investigators, led by Dr. Sean McCabe, explored patterns and drivers of young adults' non-medical use of prescription drugs-- including prescription sedatives, opioids, or stimulants -- and their association with substance use disorder symptoms at age 35. These trajectories of prescription drug use were based on age of peak use and ranged from "rare misuse", the most prevalent trajectory, to peak use at age 27-28, which was most strongly associated with substance use disorder symptoms at age 35.

Compared to other age groups, young adults in the United States (aged 18-25 years) report the highest prevalence of non-medical use of prescription drugs in the past year (15 percent), binge drinking in the past month (37 percent), or illicit drug use in the past month (24 percent).

"Based on the high rates of polysubstance use that we are seeing across the U.S. there is an urgency to educate youth and young adults about potential consequences associated with the non-medical use of prescription drugs. In addition, it's important to discuss diversion, or the sharing of medications with peers," according to Philbin, PhD, in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences.

"There were differences in peak ages for use of opioids (29-30 years), compared to sedatives (35 years), and stimulants (27-28 years). This means that the aggregated peak of 27-28 years for any non-medical use of prescription drugs is not the absolute peak for all prescription drugs," discussed Mauro, PhD, assistant professor of Epidemiology. "A life course perspective could help disentangle polysubstance use patterns across different developmental periods," added Mauro.

Given the differences in age of peak use across substances - for example, younger ages for stimulants than for opioids and even later for sedatives or tranquilizers -- Philbin and Mauro highlight the need to incorporate polysubstance use screening and care linkage across the life course. "While methods remain challenging for adequately measuring the use of more than one substance, there are approaches one can take to more accurately understand patterns of use," they write.

While interventions play an important role in addressing polysubstance use among youth; language and terminology also matter. "For example, the ways that we, as researchers, describe substance use can directly influence perceptions about people who use drugs, and by extension impact access to screening and treatment, and the quality of medical encounters," said Philbin. "We should strive to disseminate research findings to the public in a way that increases clarity and reduces stigma. For example, using the term "non-medical substance use" instead of "misuse" can make a difference."

Mauro and Philbin's own research indicates that more than a third of young adults who use substances are not asked about illicit substance use by their providers. The measurement of polysubstance use and its consequences should incorporate also alcohol, observed Mauro and Philbin, a point also highlighted by Sean McCabe and colleagues at the University of Michigan.

"In summary, we believe in the importance of a multilevel intervention approach to minimize potential harms related to polysubstance use throughout the life course," said Philbin and Mauro. "At the individual level, health-care providers should screen patients and discuss clinically indicated treatment options. At the structural level, we feel that programs should expand access to medication, medication disposal, and harm reduction services, and ensure affordable and non-stigmatizing treatment."

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA, September 12, 2019--People have very individualized inflammatory responses to eating a high-fat meal.

These were the somewhat unexpected results of a study recently published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry by researchers at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and their University of California-Davis colleagues.

"We looked at the inflammatory reactions of 20 volunteers at 0, 3 and 6 hours after eating a standardized meal containing 38 percent fat and their responses were completely unique. Like snowflakes, no two were exactly the same," explained molecular biologist Danielle G. Lemay at the ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, California.

Inflammation--defined as a group of responses by the body telling white blood cells how much to react--is a normal reaction to eating a meal, especially one with high amounts of fat. Inflammatory responses are not the same as the blood sugar reactions that also follow eating.

Inflammation is the defense mechanism in the body as the body attempts self-protection. It also is part of the body's immune response.

Each volunteer in the study had both a unique amount of inflammatory response and a unique amount of time for when the responses peaked, up to 6 hours after eating (8 or more hours is considered fasting by nutritionists).

The researchers used a very sensitive test to look at whether any genes in the human genome were turned off or on in order to define a volunteer's reactions. Responses by more than 13,000 genes differed between subjects.

The test meal was equivalent to someone having a small hamburger, small fries, and a small ice cream shake with fruit, according to the scientists.

"Eating a meal with this amount of fat is OK one or two days a week even considering the effect on inflammation. But in a lifetime of meal choices, eating like this every day could do some damage to a person's body," said Lemay.

Inflammation is associated with a whole host of conditions such as asthma, diabetes, peptic ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, and many others.

One reason these results are so fascinating is the growing interest in personalized nutrition.

"We need to understand what the variability is between people before we can consider starting to set different requirements in diets," Lemay said.

A prehistoric crocodile that lived around 180 million years ago has been identified - almost 250 years after the discovery of it fossil remains.

A fossil skull found in a Bavarian town in the 1770s has been recognised as the now-extinct species Mystriosaurus laurillardi, which lived in tropical waters during the Jurassic Period.

For the past 60 years, it was thought the animal was part of a similar species, known as Steneosaurus bollensis, which existed around the same time, researchers say.

Palaeontologists identified the animal by analysing fossils unearthed in the UK and Germany.

The team, which included scientists from the University of Edinburgh, also revealed that another skull, discovered in Yorkshire in the 1800s, belongs to Mystriosaurus laurillardi.

The marine predator - which was more than four metres in length - had a long snout and pointed teeth, and preyed on fish, the team says. It lived in warm seas alongside other animals including ammonites and large marine reptiles, called ichthyosaurs.

The discovery of fossils in present-day Germany and the UK shows that the species could easily swim between islands, much like modern saltwater crocodiles, researchers say.

The study, led by Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld in Germany, is published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, It was supported by the Palaeontographical Society, Leverhulme Trust and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Sven Sachs, of the Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld, who led the study, said: "Mystriosaurus looked like a gharial but it had a shorter snout with its nasal opening facing forwards, whereas in nearly all other fossil and living crocodiles the nasal opening is placed on top of the snout."

Dr Mark Young, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who was involved in the study, said: "Unravelling the complex history and anatomy of fossils like Mystriosaurus is necessary if we are to understand the diversification of crocodiles during the Jurassic. Their rapid increase in biodiversity between 200 and 180 million years ago is still poorly understood."

New research led by the University of Kent shows that popular mobile phone games could provide a new tool to help doctors spot early signs of cognitive decline, some of which may indicate the onset of serious conditions like dementia.

Investigating the link between patterns of tap, swipe and rotational gestures during mobile game play and the users' cognitive performance, the research shows that the speed, length and intensity of these motions correlates with brain function. In particular, the performance of these gestures reveals key information about players' visual search abilities, mental flexibility and inhibition of their responses. They all offer clues about the individuals' overall brain health.

The results of the study, 'Exploring the Touch and Motion Features in Game-Based Cognitive Assessments', will be presented on Thursday 12 September at the 2019 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp). Collaborators Dr Jim Ang, Jittrapol Intarasirisawat and Dr Christos Efsratiou from Kent's School of Engineering and Digital Arts; Luke William Feidham Dickens of University College London; and Rupert A. Page of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will present their findings.

Their research put 21 healthy participants through standard paper-based cognitive assessment tests, followed by 10-minute sessions of playing Tetris, Candy Crush Saga and Fruit Ninja over two separate periods, a fortnight apart. The three games selected were chosen because they are easy to learn, engaging for most players and involve intensive interactions using multiple gestures.

Using the sensors built into the mobile phones to collect data, the team showed how users interacted with the games and illustrated a clear link between the subjects' touch gestures, or taps and swipes, their rotational gestures and their levels of cognitive performance. The study revealed the participants' ability to perform visuo-spatial and visual search tasks, as well as testing their memory, mental flexibility and attention span.

The research team concluded that off-the-shelf, popular mobile games can provide an effective measure of brain function to spot changes in motor abilities which are commonly seen in patients with Alzheimer's Disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive-disorder. Early detection of the signs of cognitive decline is crucial to effective treatment and prevention, as well as identification of individuals at risk of brain disease.

Furthermore, the study provides evidence of the potential to use mobile gameplay to detect changes in cognitive performance among athletes who are exposed to traumatic brain injuries, such as boxers, rugby players and footballers. Using mobile technology is not only quicker than the traditional paper-based format, but makes it easier to carry out regular, repetitive testing and is more engaging for the individuals under assessment. The games are also easily modified to test specific cognitive abilities and place greater demands on users.

Dr Ang, who is a senior lecturer in multimedia/digital systems, said: 'We are very encouraged by the results of our study and have since collected data from patients who showed signs of brain damage. This additional analysis reinforced the conclusions of our original research. We're now working to design an algorithm which can carry out automatic monitoring of individuals' cognitive performance while playing these games.'

A collaboration between the laboratories of Vincent Bonin (NERF, empowered by VIB, imec and KU Leuven) and Matthew Holt (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research) reveals that noradrenaline plays a key role in how astrocytes - star-shaped cells in the brain closely associated with neurons - track distinct information during behavior. The researchers found that astrocytes can integrate information on arousal state and sensory experience. The results are published in Current Biology.

Noradrenaline in the brain

When we are aroused the hormone noradrenaline is secreted, which helps us to better remember emotional situations compared to neutral ones. In earlier studies, noradrenaline was shown to directly influence synapses - information exchange points between neurons - in brain regions responsible for processing emotions. However, noradrenaline is released across the entire brain and stimulates a class of non-neuronal cells, astrocytes, which listen and respond to locally active neurons. A question remained: do astrocytes integrate this brain-wide signal with the specific activity of local neuronal networks?

Watching astrocytes

To answer this question, Drs. Michal Slezak (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research) and Steffen Kandler (NERF) used a special microscope to monitor the activity of astrocytes in mice. When mice were presented with visual stimuli, in some cases astrocytes faithfully responded. "It was so exciting! We know that if you check neuronal activity in the brain region receiving inputs from the retina that it exactly mirrors the movement of the visual stimulus. But this is the first time we saw this pattern when watching non-neuronal cells", says Dr. Bonin co-lead author of the study.

However, in some cases visual stimuli did not elicit any response from the astrocytes. The mystery was solved when each event of visual stimulation was analyzed independently - it turned out that astrocytes were active only when the mouse was in motion, and they were silent when the mouse was stationary. Slezak and Kandler further tested whether noradrenaline is the molecule responsible for this effect. They used a compound which depletes the brain of noradrenaline and found that astrocytic responses were largely decreased, even when mice were in motion. In other words, noradrenaline is necessary for astrocytes to respond to local stimulation: astrocytes are effectively integrating sensory and behavioral information.

Big impact of little-known cells

"This novel finding opens many additional questions. Previous studies on the action of noradrenaline on brain function focused entirely on neurons. Our data highlights that astrocytes can play a much more substantial role than previously thought", says Dr. Slezak.

"The idea that astrocytes respond to neuronal activity has been floating around for some time, but evidence for such a system has been lacking in vivo. Our work fills this gap. I just don't think anyone really expected that the response would be so heavily influenced by the behavioral state of the animal," adds Dr. Matthew Holt, joint lead author on the study. "We now have to work out how this operates at the molecular level and investigate the function consequences for the brain."

PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State University researchers have for the first time grown the bacteria in a laboratory that causes Citrus Greening Disease, considered the world's most harmful citrus disease.

Being able to grow the elusive and poorly understood bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), will make it easier for researchers to find treatments for the disease that has destroyed millions of acres of orange, grapefruit and lemon groves around the world and has devastated the citrus industry in Florida.

The researchers, including Phuc Ha, postdoctoral research associate, Haluk Beyenal, Paul Hohenschuh Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, David Gang and Ruifeng He, from WSU's Institute of Biological Chemistry, Anders Omsland, from the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, and researchers from the University of Florida and University of Arizona, report on their work in the journal, Biofilm.

WSU was selected three years ago for a $2 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to study the bacteria, in part, because Washington has no citrus industry. The disease, formally known as Huánglóngbìng, (HLB), is spread by Asian citrus psyllids insects. It attacks the vascular system of citrus trees and causes fruit to become green, misshapen, and bitter-tasting.

A critical step in coming up with weapons to fight the disease is being able to study it in the lab, but the CLas bacterium is notoriously difficult to grow. With a small genome, CLas is thought to depend on very specific nutrient availability and possibly compounds secreted by other nearby bacteria. When researchers used a traditional rich media that they typically use for growing bacteria, they mostly grew bacteria other than CLas.

So, in order to conduct research, scientists have had to get bacterial samples directly from the trees themselves or from the insects that spread it, which is time-consuming and cumbersome. Trying to conduct experiments has also been difficult because, unlike neat lab cultures, bacterial samples gathered from a sick tree vary, depending on where and when the sample is gathered and the level of infection.

Without being able to grow the bacteria in a lab, researchers have been unable to even absolutely confirm that the bacteria, in fact, causes the disease.

In their paper, the researchers for the first time successfully established and maintained CLas bacterial cultures outside of its host.

Using infected citrus tissue as their starting point, the researchers developed a biofilm, a kind of bacterial city that allows a variety of bacteria to thrive. Instead of a rich growth medium that would crowd out the CLas, the researchers severely limited the growth of partner bacteria and created a medium with the specific nutrients, acidity, incubation temperatures, and oxygen levels that are optimal for CLas.

The CLas thrived - an important first step.

"We were really excited," said Beyenal, "but then we wondered if we could re-grow it."

The researchers were able to transfer the orange-colored culture and grow new cultures in their biofilm reactors, which they have maintained for more than two years.

"We can do this for as long as we want," said Beyenal.

Beyenal's group is now working to purify the culture, which will further help researchers to study it.  They are also developing genetic-based methods to understand and mitigate the spread of the disease.

A recent study led by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) revealed that regular tea drinkers have better organised brain regions - and this is associated with healthy cognitive function - compared to non-tea drinkers. The research team made this discovery after examining neuroimaging data of 36 older adults.

"Our results offer the first evidence of positive contribution of tea drinking to brain structure, and suggest that drinking tea regularly has a protective effect against age-related decline in brain organisation," explained team leader Assistant Professor Feng Lei, who is from the Department of Psychological Medicine at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

The research was carried out together with collaborators from the University of Essex and University of Cambridge, and the findings were published in scientific journal Aging on 14 June 2019.

Benefits of regular intake of tea

Past studies have demonstrated that tea intake is beneficial to human health, and the positive effects include mood improvement and cardiovascular disease prevention. In fact, results of a longitudinal study led by Asst Prof Feng which was published in 2017 showed that daily consumption of tea can reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older persons by 50 per cent.

Following this discovery, Asst Prof Feng and his team further explored the direct effect of tea on brain networks.

The research team recruited 36 adults aged 60 and above, and gathered data about their health, lifestyle, and psychological well-being. The elderly participants also had to undergo neuropsychological tests and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The study was carried out from 2015 to 2018.

Upon analysing the participants' cognitive performance and imaging results, the research team found that individuals who consumed either green tea, oolong tea, or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had brain regions that were interconnected in a more efficient way.

"Take the analogy of road traffic as an example - consider brain regions as destinations, while the connections between brain regions are roads. When a road system is better organised, the movement of vehicles and passengers is more efficient and uses less resources. Similarly, when the connections between brain regions are more structured, information processing can be performed more efficiently," explained Asst Prof Feng.

He added, "We have shown in our previous studies that tea drinkers had better cognitive function as compared to non-tea drinkers. Our current results relating to brain network indirectly support our previous findings by showing that the positive effects of regular tea drinking are the result of improved brain organisation brought about by preventing disruption to interregional connections."

Next step in research

As cognitive performance and brain organisation are intricately related, more research is needed to better understand how functions like memory emerge from brain circuits, and the possible interventions to better preserve cognition during the ageing process. Asst Prof Feng and his team plan to examine the effects of tea as well as the bioactive compounds in tea can have on cognitive decline.

Soybean is one of the most important crops worldwide. A high-quality reference genome will facilitate its functional analysis and molecular breeding. Previously, biologists from China (Chinese Academy of Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Berry Genomics Corporation) de novo assembled a high-quality Chinese soybean genome Gmax_ZH13 (Shen et al., 2018). However, due to technical limitations, a large number of small contigs were not anchored onto chromosomes.

Recently, the leader research group for Gmax_ZH13 genome project from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, updated the Gmax_ZH13 genome to a golden reference genome Gmax_ZH13_v2.0.

Based on the Gmax_ZH13, by adding more sequence data and refresh assembly pipeline (Figure 1A), researchers finally assembled Gmax_ZH13_v2.0 with a length of 1,011,174,350 bp. Its assembly quality was increased dramatically. When compared to Gmax_ZH13, the Contig N50 size of Gmax_ZH13_v2.0 increased 6.5 times (from 3.46 Mb to 22.6 Mb), gap number decreased 1.8 times (from 815 to 448) and gap length decreased 8.8 times (from 20.49 Mb to 2.33Mb). Meanwhile, the un-anchored contig number decreased 17 times (from 549 to 36), resulting in the ratio of sequence that anchored to 20 chromosomes reaching 98%. All these assembly parameters indicated the high completeness of Gmax_ZH13_v2.0. Besides nuclear chromosomes, researchers assembled the circular genomes of chloroplast and mitochondria with a length of 152,220 bp and 513,779 bp respectively.

To improve the accuracy of gene annotation, in addition to Iso-seq reads used for Gmax_ZH13 annotation, researches performed RNA-seq and smRNA-seq for another 27 ZH13 samples, which were collected from different tissues at different developmental stages. They finally annotated 55,443 protein coding genes containing 96,366 mRNAs in the nuclear genome, 81 protein coding genes in the chloroplast genome and 49 protein coding genes in the mitochondrial genome. 97% of the 1,440 single copy Embryophyta genes in BUSCO_v3 were completely assembled, confirming the high quality of protein coding gene annotation. Besides that, non-coding genes were also annotated, including 297 rRNA, 1,112 tRNA, 166 snRNA 1,816 snoRNA and 35926 TE. Especially, 331 MIRNA genes and the mature miRNAs they produced were annotated by smRNA-seq data (Figure 1B).

Researchers also provided a detailed expression profiling for all protein coding genes and miRNAs they annotated (Figure 1C). These expression profiling data will be helpful for soybean fundamental research, for instance, searching expression pattern of individual genes or choosing tissue specific expression genes. Moreover, the data can be used to investigate the relationship of miRNAs and their target genes because they came from the same sample sets.

"We updated the Gmax_ZH13 genome to a more complete and continuous platinum reference genome Gmax_ZH13_ v2.0, did comprehensive annotation and provided detailed expression information for it", said Professor Zhixi Tian, the leader of the Gmax_ZH13 Chinese soybean genome project. "We believe that the new genome will greatly facilitate soybean fundamental research and molecular breeding."

Bottom Line: Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer harboring a subset of non-V600 mutations in the BRAF gene, known as class 3 BRAF mutations, were more likely to respond to anti-EGFR treatment.

Journal in Which the Study was Published: Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research

Authors: Senior author Hiromichi Ebi, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Molecular Therapeutics at the Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute in Nagoya, Japan; and first author Rona Yaeger, MD, medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Background: "Cancer genomic profiling is rapidly transforming the clinical management of cancer patients," said Ebi. "Results from our study indicate that metastatic colorectal cancer patients with certain BRAF mutations should be considered for anti-EGFR treatment, a new indication for this population of patients."

Alterations to the RAS signaling pathway, which controls key functions such as cellular proliferation and survival, is a known driver of oncogenesis. Mutations to BRAF, a kinase that interacts with RAS, can result in activation or amplification of the RAS signaling pathway. Roughly 10 percent of metastatic colorectal cancer tumors harbor mutations in the BRAF gene, noted Ebi.

BRAF mutations belong to one of three functional classes. Class 1 comprises BRAF V600 mutations. Non-V600 BRAF mutations are divided into two classes: class 2 mutations are RAS-independent, and class 3 mutations have enhanced binding to RAS and the kinase CRAF, resulting in increased RAS-dependent signaling.

While tumors with V600 BRAF mutations are often susceptible to RAF inhibitors, this therapeutic strategy is not predicted to be successful in tumors with non-V600 BRAF mutations, explained Yaeger. Prior smaller studies have shown that some patients with non-V600 BRAF-mutant colorectal cancer may respond to anti-EGFR treatment, she noted.

How the Study Was Conducted and Results: To determine if different functional classes of non-V600 BRAF mutations affected responses to anti-EGFR therapy, Ebi and colleagues retrospectively analyzed data from 40 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer whose treatment included an anti-EGFR therapy through an international multicenter collaboration. Using biochemical assays, the researchers classified the patients' tumors as having one of the two classes of non-V600 BRAF mutations: 12 patients had class 2 BRAF mutations and 28 patients had class 3 BRAF mutations. Patients from both groups had comparable clinical characteristics.

Eight percent of patients with tumors harboring class 2 BRAF mutations responded to anti-EGFR treatment regimens, compared with 50 percent of those with class 3 BRAF mutations.

The researchers also analyzed responses to anti-EGFR regimens based on treatment line. In the first- or second-line setting, 17 percent of patients with tumors harboring class 2 BRAF mutations responded to treatment, compared with 78 percent of those with class 3 BRAF mutations. In the third-line setting or later, no patients with class 2 BRAF mutations responded to treatment, compared with 37 percent of those with class 3 BRAF mutations.

Author's Comments: "Through the analysis of colorectal cancer tumors with specific BRAF mutations, we identified a potential new indication for anti-EGFR treatment, highlighting the power of precision oncology," noted Ebi.

Study Limitations: Limitations of the study include the small number of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer harboring class 2 or class 3 BRAF mutations. Additionally, because most of the patients analyzed in this study were also treated with chemotherapy, the researchers could not assess the efficacy of anti-EGFR monotherapy based on the functional class of non-V600 BRAF mutations, Ebi noted.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Stems, leaves, flowers and fruits make up the biggest chunk of potential living space for microbes in the environment, but ecologists still don't know a lot about how the microorganisms that reside there establish and maintain themselves over the course of a growing season.

In a new study in Nature Communications, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center scientists at Michigan State University have focused on understanding more about the plant regions above the soil where these microbes can live, called the "phyllosphere." Ashley Shade, MSU assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, and her lab classified core members of this community in two bioenergy cropping systems: switchgrass and miscanthus. In so doing, the group made important distinctions about how these communities assemble - and how they're connected to microbes in the soil.

Microorganisms that dwell in the phyllosphere are thought to play a role in their host's growth and health. And, like their subterranean kin, the topside microbiome affects how much phosphorus, nitrogen and other nutrients bioenergy crops can keep out of our waterways and atmosphere.

Shade says the first step in determining how to maximize production of these bioenergy crops is figuring out which taxa, or kinds of organisms, are long-term residents and which might just be passing through.

Pillars of the community

Shade and her colleagues wanted to ask two questions: does the phyllosphere microbiome change across seasons; and, if so, what role does the soil play in the yearly dance between plants and microbes? To find out, they tapped miscanthus and switchgrass fields at MSU's Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners, established in 2008 as part of a GLBRC biofuel cropping system experiment.

Shade's lab members sampled microbial communities from bioenergy crop leaves every three weeks for one full growing season for miscanthus and two for switchgrass. They defined core microbes as those that consistently could be detected on leaves at the same time points across their fields, and that persistently appeared over sampling periods.

"If we found a microbe in one field, but not another, it couldn't be called a core member at that specific interval," she said. "We also expect these communities to change with the seasons, so we want to make sure we capture as many of those important taxa as possible."

It turns out that many core microbes on bioenergy plant leaves originate in the soil and are fairly consistent across seasons. This means the phyllosphere microbiome can be targeted for cultivation, just like the crops on which they grow.

The team identified hundreds of leaf microbiome members and compared them to thousands that live in the soil with a deep sequencing technique provided by the Joint Genome Institute, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility.

"Because of our relationship to JGI, we were able to get some really good coverage of the diversity in our soil communities, something we couldn't have done on our own," Shade said.

Some microbes found at consistent but low levels in the soil turned out to be core members of leaf communities.

"This suggests that the leaf environment is a specific habitat where certain organisms fit," Shade said. "The fact that we find them in the soil means the ground is a possible reservoir for these taxa."

To evaluate the idea further, Shade and her team set up a statistical model to mimic results as if microbes were randomly distributed between a plant's leaves and the nearby soil, then compared the output to their real-life observations.

The models showed that, indeed, the microbial community on miscanthus and switchgrass leaves aren't distributed by chance.

"They're not just randomly blowing onto leaves and sticking, so something in the environment is selecting for these taxa above the soil," Shade said. "Because the patterns on the ground are different than the ones we see on the leaves, there's reason to believe many of these core leaf members are there on purpose."

Whittling down the taxa

The next step will be to home in on which of the core microbiome members have important functions for the plant.

"Now that we have a whole bunch of community data from the microbiome that includes thousands of taxa," Shade said, "we can understand which of these core members are just hanging out on the plant, and which ones have an impact on growth and health."

"If we can understand how that microbial community is changing its interactions with its host over a season, we might be able to leverage that to benefit the plant," she added.