Culture

A study led by researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago has found that combining acyclovir -- a commonly prescribed topical herpes medication -- with particles of activated carbon improves efficacy of the drug. This new approach allows for less frequent dosing and overall course of treatment while providing some protection from infection by the virus as well, opening up the possibility of using the combination in prophylactic products.

The findings of the study are reported in the journal Science Advances.

"Combing herpes medication with activated charcoal makes the drug much more efficient so less of the drug is needed to achieve the same effect," said Deepak Shukla, the Marion Schenk Professor of Ophthalmology and professor of microbiology and immunology in the UIC College of Medicine and the senior author of the paper. "Using less of the drug can help reduce the risk for kidney damage, which can be significant when these drugs are used over long periods of time."

There are two types of herpes simplex virus: herpes simplex 1, which infects the eyes and mouth and is a leading cause of blindness, and herpes simplex 2, a genital infection that causes warts and can seriously impair quality of life.

Treatment for both infections often includes acyclovir -- a systemic medication taken orally. However, long-term use often results in resistance to the drug as well as kidney damage. Activated carbon is known to have purifying effects by trapping toxins in its highly porous structure. Particles tend to bind to charcoal easily and it is often used in filters for water for this reason.

Shukla and his colleagues looked at the effect of both plain activated carbon and activated carbon plus acyclovir on HSV-1 and HSV-2.

Dilutions of plain activated carbon were able to reduce the infection of cells in the lab when applied to the cells prior to exposure to HSV-1 or HSV-2. They saw a 4% to 60% reduction in infections compared with when they exposed the cells to the virus without activated carbon present.

When they combined acyclovir with activated carbon and tested the mixture in mice infected with either HSV-1 or HSV-2, applying it to either the eyes or genitals, they saw that it was more effective and faster at reducing inflammation and viral load than topical or systemic acyclovir alone. Additionally, they found that the drug seemed to be working much more efficiently when combined with activated carbon, and they could achieve the same reductions in viral load and inflammation using far fewer doses than with acyclovir alone.

"We think that the charcoal releases particles of acyclovir slowly over time because the herpes virus, as well as other organic molecules and particles, are more attracted to the charcoal than the drug, and as these particles interact with the charcoal they displace and release the drug," said Tejabhiram Yadavalli, a postdoctoral fellow studying herpes viruses at UIC and a co-inventor of the technology. "The activated carbon acts like a slow-release drug capsule. Because it likes to bind with the virus, this gives it additional anti-viral properties."

Yadavalli and Shukla call the charcoal delivery system DECON for Drug Encapsulated Carbon.

"Activated carbon is known to be safe for use by humans and has been used for thousands of years for its purifying properties. We think that using it as a novel drug delivery system could help reduce dosing, cost and risk of toxicity to the kidneys and could eventually be used in lubricants prophylactically to help prevent new HSV genital infection," Shukla said.

Children born as little as three weeks premature, who consequently fall into an earlier school year are more likely to experience significant setbacks in their education after their first year of school, according to new research published today in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Previous research has already shown that children born severely prematurely, more than ten weeks early, are more likely to suffer educational problems. But the new findings highlight the disadvantage children born moderate-to-late premature may face, who were thought to be at a lower risk.

New research, from the University of Leeds and Born in Bradford, looked at the complex interplay between the educational disadvantage of being born moderately premature, and when during the year a child was born, to understand whether extra support might be necessary for some children.

This was in response to conversations with schools participating in the Bradford Opportunity Area programme, a Department for Education initiative aimed at improving outcomes for children and young people in areas that face significantly higher barriers to social mobility compared to their peers in other parts of the country. They indicated this was a specific area they would value further research into, to help inform their decision making.

Co-author Dr Liam Hill, from the University of Leeds' School of Psychology, said: "Some children born prematurely not only have to contend with having spent less time developing in the womb but also have to start school a year earlier than they would have, had they been born on their due date. This amounts to having less time also developing outside of the womb at the point they start school.

"This can pose additional challenges right from the start of their education, and we found this can have an immediate impact on their performance, after just one year of school."

The researchers looked at more than 10,000 school children from the Born in Bradford birth cohort study and found that the odds of a child not achieving a 'Good Level of Development' at the end of reception, if they were born prematurely, were approximately twice as high as those for children born at full term.

The children found to be most at risk were those born prematurely in the summer months (June to August), who consequently started school a year earlier than expected. These children were three times less likely to reach a good level of development compared to other children born prematurely during the summer, whose early arrival didn't change the year they started school in.

The researchers also analysed data that suggested that holding premature children back from starting school by a year may not compensate for being born prematurely, although they did not test that directly.

Co-author Dr Katherine Pettinger, a neonatal doctor from Born in Bradford and the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Whilst it seems like an obvious solution, delayed entry for premature children is not likely to compensate for being born early, as we found that within a given school year, the risks to development faced by children born premature did not vary depending on when within that school year they were born.

"To try to better support this at risk group we instead suggest that schools should be informed which of their pupils were born prematurely so they can be given extra support, particularly early on in their schooling."

According to national guidelines, once discharged from hospital severely premature children are given follow up medical support, and it is recommended that their schools are informed of their circumstances. But for moderately premature children, born between three to eight weeks early, there is no routine follow up support offered, so schools are unlikely to be informed.

To try to tackle the problem the researchers suggest:

Tailored advice is provided to families of premature children

Learning resources are provided for teachers to support children born prematurely in the classroom

Routine sharing of data between health and education services

As well as highlighting the risk for premature children who start school earlier than expected, the findings also show evidence for differences in development of children born prematurely at an earlier age than any previous studies. The researchers therefore argue that from an early age there is a complex interplay between health and education, which should help encourage education providers to move away from arbitrary decision making, towards a more targeted, personalised approach.

Mark Douglas, Head of Children's Services at Bradford City Council, added: "As a City of Research, Bradford City Council is committed to supporting the translation of research into policy and practice.

"This research is a great example of how we have used the latest evidence from Born in Bradford to improve the life chances for the children of Bradford, by introducing a smarter system to share information between our health and education services."

As the legalization of medical marijuana and marijuana use are both on the rise in the United States, people are not necessarily using alcohol less and may be unaware of the risks of combining alcohol and marijuana, according to researchers.

A new study from Penn State found that compared to people who only drank alcohol, those who used alcohol and marijuana simultaneously were more likely to drink heavier and more often. They were also more likely to experience alcohol-related problems -- like impulsive actions they later regretted.

"The results suggest that individuals who simultaneously use alcohol and marijuana are at a disproportionately higher risk for heavy, frequent, and problematic substance use," said Ashley Linden-Carmichael, assistant research professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State.

The researchers said the findings -- recently published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse -- also suggest that prevention and intervention programs should take into account not just alcohol, but also if people are using additional substances, as well.

"Right now, a lot of campus programs focus on whether students are drinking, and while sometimes they are asked about other substances, it's not necessarily whether they're using these substances simultaneously," Linden-Carmichael said. "I think we do need to be asking about whether they're drinking in combination with other drugs and educating students about how that exacerbates their risk."

According to the researchers, marijuana use is at an all-time high among young adults in the U.S., possibly leading to people using marijuana and alcohol simultaneously.

"The problem with simultaneous use is that it can affect people cognitively and perceptually, and also have an impact on motor impairment," Linden-Carmichael said. "There is a burgeoning area of research that is examining why people are using marijuana and alcohol together and what those effects are."

In the study, Linden-Carmichael said she and the other researchers were interested in learning more about how people use marijuana and alcohol together. They also wanted to explore whether personality traits -- like the tendency to pursue new and exciting experiences, or "sensation seeking" -- were associated with higher odds of using alcohol and marijuana at the same time.

The researchers recruited 1,017 participants from 49 states in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 25 for the study. The participants provided information about how often they used alcohol, marijuana and the two substances simultaneously. They also filled out questionnaires that measured their experiences with alcohol-related problems, whether they had a sensation-seeking personality, and how they perceived the drinking habits of their friends.

Linden-Carmichael said that across the board, individuals who used alcohol and marijuana simultaneously were at a greater risk than individuals using alcohol alone.

"Even after controlling for the number of drinks a person typically consumed, people who used alcohol and marijuana at the same time were at a greater risk for problems like blacking out, getting in an argument, or other concerns," Linden-Carmichael said. "Additionally, 70 percent of those who engaged in simultaneous use reported using at least weekly."

The researchers found that among people who used alcohol and marijuana simultaneously, those who used more frequently were more likely to drink more alcohol, more often, and for longer periods of time. They were also associated with using more marijuana more often.

Additionally, they found that people who used alcohol and marijuana together were more likely to have higher levels of sensation-seeking characteristics and think their friends were drinking larger amounts of alcohol.

ITHACA, N.Y. - Astronomers have uncovered a new way of searching for life in the cosmos. Harsh ultraviolet radiation flares from red suns, once thought to destroy surface life on planets, might help uncover hidden biospheres. Their radiation could trigger a protective glow from life on exoplanets called biofluorescence, according to new Cornell University research.

"Biofluorescent Worlds II: Biological Fluorescence Induced by Stellar UV Flares, a New Temporal Biosignature," was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"This is a completely novel way to search for life in the universe. Just imagine an alien world glowing softly in a powerful telescope," said lead author Jack O'Malley-James, a researcher at Cornell's Carl Sagan Institute.

"On Earth, there are some undersea coral that use biofluorescence to render the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation into harmless visible wavelengths, creating a beautiful radiance. Maybe such life forms can exist on other worlds too, leaving us a telltale sign to spot them," said co-author Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy and director of the Carl Sagan Institute

Astronomers generally agree that a large fraction of exoplanets - planets beyond our solar system - reside in the habitable zone of M-type stars, the most plentiful kinds of stars in the universe. M-type stars frequently flare, and when those ultraviolet flares strike their planets, biofluorescence could paint these worlds in beautiful colors. The next generation of Earth- or space-based telescopes can detect the glowing exoplanets, if they exist in the cosmos.

Ultraviolet rays can get absorbed into longer, safer wavelengths through a process called "photoprotective biofluorescence," and that mechanism leaves a specific sign for which astronomers can search.

"Such biofluorescence could expose hidden biospheres on new worlds through their temporary glow, when a flare from a star hits the planet," said Kaltenegger.

The astronomers used emission characteristics of common coral fluorescent pigments from Earth to create model spectra and colors for planets orbiting active M stars to mimic the strength of the signal and whether it could be detected for life.

In 2016, astronomers found a rocky exoplanet named Proxima b - a potentially habitable world orbiting the active M star Proxima Centauri, Earth's closest star beyond the sun - that might qualify as a target. Proxima b is also one of the most optimal far-future travel destinations.

"These biotic kinds of exoplanets are very good targets in our search for exoplanets, and these luminescent wonders are among our best bets for finding life on exoplanets," O'Malley-James said.

Large, land-based telescopes that are being developed now for 10 to 20 years into the future may be able to spot this glow.

"It is a great target for the next generation of big telescopes, which can catch enough light from small planets to analyze it for signs of life, like the Extremely Large Telescope in Chile," Kaltenegger said.

Unlike people, crocodiles do not clean their teeth to slow down wear and tear. Instead, they get rid of them and replace them with new copies.

Having one of the most powerful bites in the animal kingdom, crocodiles must be able to bite hard to eat their food such as turtles, wildebeest and other large prey. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that crocodiles -- and even their plant-eating ancestors -- had thin tooth enamel, a trait that is in stark contrast to humans and other hard-biting species. These findings could suggest new approaches for dealing with people's teeth.

"Once we unlock genetically how crocodiles and other non-mammals do this, maybe new teeth can be bioengineered for people," said Brianne Schmiegelow, a former undergraduate student at MU and current dental student at University of Missouri-Kansas City. "Instead of using fillers such as crowns, people could instead 'grow' new teeth when they need to replace their worn out chompers."

The team used a three-dimensional x-ray scanner to measure the thickness of tooth enamel in crocodiles. They found regardless of tooth position -- incisor, canine, molar -- age or diet, crocodiles do not have thick tooth enamel. With this new information, the team also studied published data on dinosaur teeth and found that the data nearly matched what they were seeing in crocodiles. For instance, a Tyrannosaurus rex has the same enamel thickness as a crocodile and can also bite extremely hard.

"Crocodiles bite really hard, so we were curious if they have teeth that correspondingly withstand those forces -- tough teeth to match a tough bite," said Kaleb Sellers, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri and lead researcher on the study. "We found that they don't have tough teeth, and we think it's because they replace their teeth like most other non-mammal animals. That made us wonder if other animals -- even prehistoric -- had similar issues."

Researchers said the next step is to study tooth replacement and the timing of teeth growth in crocodiles and other animals such as dinosaurs -- even looking into the possibility of genetic causes.

"Enamel takes a long time to build, so it's not something animals will do 'off-the-cuff,' so to speak," said Casey Holliday, an associate professor of anatomy in the MU School of Medicine. "It presents us with an interesting puzzle. If ancient crocodiles were chewing plants, did their new teeth already have the correct architecture -- dimples and facets -- to allow for this chewing? The findings here have paved the way for exploring this mystery with future research."

While oral cannabidiol (CBD) capsules were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients with seizures in 2018, very little was known about the effect of food on CBD absorption.

A University of Minnesota study, published in Epilepsia, examined whether eating high-fat foods after taking CBD increased the body's absorption of CBD. The study tested whether fasting or a high fat meal has an effect when cannabidiol oral capsules were taken by patients.

To find out what effect a fatty meal would have on CBD absorption, the research group measured CBD concentrations in epilepsy patients at the MINCEP Epilepsy Care clinic who were taking 99 percent pure CBD capsules. Concentrations from patients who took CBD on an empty stomach and a standardized fatty breakfast (i.e. breakfast burrito) were compared.

"The type of food can make a large difference in the amount of CBD that gets absorbed into the body. Although fatty foods can increase the absorption of CBD, it can also increase the variability as not all meals contain the same amount of fat," said Angela Birnbaum, a professor in the College of Pharmacy and study co-author.

"Increases in the amount of the CBD dose being absorbed into the body can also lead to lower medication costs," said Ilo Leppik, study co-author, a professor in the College of Pharmacy and an adjunct professor at the Medical School.

The study found:

CBD exposure is vastly increased when CBD is taken with high fatty foods;

when compared to fasting, taking CBD with food increased the amount of CBD in the body by four-times and the maximum amount recorded in the participants' blood by 14-times;

no cognitive differences were identified, which is consistent with previous studies.

"For epilepsy patients, a goal is to maintain consistent blood concentrations of drug," said Birnbaum. "This study shows that CBD concentrations could vary significantly if patients take it differently, sometimes with or without food. Variations in blood concentrations could leave a patient more susceptible to seizures."

A study published today in the journal Cell Reports sheds new light on how the CD2AP gene may enhance Alzheimer's disease susceptibility. Integrating experiments in fruit flies, mice and human brains, a multi-institutional team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found that the CD2AP gene is involved in synaptic transmission, the process by which neurons communicate. Digging deeper, the researchers discovered that CD2AP affects neuronal communication by regulating the levels of key regulatory proteins present at neuron terminals (synapses).

Dr. Joshua Shulman, associate professor of neurology at Baylor and corresponding author of the work, explains that they first worked with the laboratory fruit fly to test the effect of deleting the gene in the brain. The team deleted the fly equivalent of the human CD2AP gene, called cindr, and observed evidence of defective synapse structure and function. They also found that certain proteins accumulated more in the synapses of mutant flies. Among the accumulated proteins were several that regulate neural communication. To connect these findings with Alzheimer's disease, Shulman and his colleagues also studied a mouse in which the CD2AP gene was deleted and discovered brain changes similar to those they had found in flies. Finally, in order to establish relevance for humans, they examined a collection of more than 800 brain autopsies. Shulman and colleagues found that low CD2AP levels significantly correlated with abnormal turnover of synaptic proteins, and this relationship was enhanced in the setting of Alzheimer's disease.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- College students who participate in fun, peer-directed activities that openly and honestly address mental illness are significantly less likely to stigmatize people with these conditions, according to a new study led by researchers at Indiana University.

The work, published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, is the first study to systematically survey a single graduating class over the course of their college careers on attitudes toward people with mental illness in conjunction with a sustained campaign on the topic. The study was led by Bernice Pescosolido, IU Distinguished Professor of Sociology and director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research.

Specifically, the study examined the effectiveness of U Bring Change to Mind, a part of Bring Change to Mind, a national nonprofit focused on reducing the stigma associated with mental illness led by actress Glenn Close, whose sister and nephew live with mental illness. The researchers measured shifts in student attitudes over time though surveys in their freshman and junior years.

"This is really the first program to target stigma that's been scientifically vetted from its inception," said Pescosolido, whose team worked closely in collaboration with university leaders to implement a four-year anti-stigma campaign at IU. "This pre- and post-analysis is very unique. Moreover, the results show these efforts really did change campus climate … not only regarding attitudes but also behaviors."

The need to address mental illness on college campuses is great and continues to grow, Pescosolido said. According to a 2018 report based on data from nearly 200 college campuses, the percentage of students seeking mental health treatment between 2007 and 2017 rose from 19 to 34 percent, and the percentage of those with mental illness diagnoses rose from 22 to 36 percent. Because counseling services must focus their efforts on the most serious cases due to limited resources, Pescosolido said a need remains for other efforts that instead focus on improving the general campus climate around mental health.

Overall, the IU study found significant reductions in stigma in 11 to 14 percent of students, with the most change reported by those who participated in four or more activities sponsored by U Bring Change to Mind. This included serious events, such as a suicide awareness walk, and lighter activities, such as a scavenger hunt and escape room. These changes included reductions in prejudice toward people with mental illness -- both in college and in general -- as well as reduced likelihood of distancing themselves socially from people with mental illnesses.

To put these numbers in context, the study's authors said this represents a rate of change nearly five times greater than that produced by a national-level campaign to reduce stigma in the U.K. over the course of 10 years.

"When you look at most interventions, the numbers are very small," Pescosolido said. "This study suggests that students really are at the right moment in their lives for this sort of intervention to make a difference."

The study also suggests that a "tipping point" is needed to drive change since shifts in attitude were strongest in students who attended four or more events. Students who attended one to three events showed relatively small changes in stigmatization toward mental illness.

In addition, the IU study outlines how the U Bring Change to Mind model differs from other campaigns through a focus on open activities with honest discussion of mental illness. The concept draws upon Pescosolido and colleagues' previous work on reducing mental illness stigma, which found that efforts focusing on the scientific understanding of mental illness as "a disease like any other" did not lower stigma.

"Those messages didn't seem to affect whether or not people actually reject or include people with mental illness," Pescosolido said. "We wanted to create a program based on research that started from a new place -- one that draws from Bring Change to Mind's idea of ending stigma through starting a conversation."

The five key principles of this approach are: targeting a receptive population, such as college students, at a critical time of change; providing group leaders with needed resources to design relevant messages and organize activities "by students, for students"; avoiding past, ineffective approaches; levering existing resources; and "building in change" to evolve the program over time.

Based on the results, Pescosolido and her team at IU are designing a national and international rollout of the program. Toward this goal, they are seeking partners to assist with logistics so other universities can launch similar efforts or inform existing programs.

"We believe this is the right time for these efforts both because this generation is much more open than past generations -- including their thinking about mental health -- and because college is when people are really forming critical attitudes that will follow them the rest of their lives," Pescosolido said. "This is the moment when we can really make a difference."

Additional IU authors on the paper are Brea Perry, professor of sociology, and Anne Krendl, associate professor of psychology.

IU Research

Indiana University's world-class researchers have driven innovation and creative initiatives that matter for nearly 200 years. From curing testicular cancer to collaborating with NASA to search for life on Mars, IU has earned its reputation as a world-class research institution. Supported by $604 million last year from 868 partners, IU researchers are building collaborations and uncovering new solutions that improve lives in Indiana and around the globe.

Journal

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

DOI

10.1016/j.jaac.2019.06.016

A low-cost intervention aimed at fostering a growth mindset in students gave the students more confidence in their entrepreneurship abilities and helped them persist when challenges arose.

"The finding is valuable because efficacy, or confidence in one's abilities, and perseverance are powerful motivators and are critical for career development in entrepreneurship," says Jeff Pollack, second author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of entrepreneurship at North Carolina State University.

"Growth mindsets - the belief that human attributes are malleable - help students to flourish," says Jeni Burnette, lead author of the paper and an associate professor of psychology at NC State. "For this study, we focused on fostering a growth mindset of entrepreneurship - the idea that everyone can improve their entrepreneurship ability."

For the study, researchers worked with 238 undergraduate students. One group of 120 students received three growth mindset video modules focused on the idea that, with time, effort and energy, individuals can improve their entrepreneurship ability. A control group of 118 students watched three video modules that focused on misconceptions about entrepreneurship.

The study found that the growth mindset intervention did not directly or indirectly affect the classroom performance of students.

However, in post-intervention surveys, the researchers found that students who received the growth mindset intervention, relative to the control, reported greater entrepreneurial self-efficacy, such as confidence in their ability to identify new business opportunities and create new products. The growth mindset intervention also fostered greater persistence. Specifically, students reported continuing to pursue an entrepreneurial idea as part of a class project, even after encountering a challenge.

Additionally, self-efficacy correlated with an increased likelihood that students would consider entrepreneurship as a field of study and as a possible career.

Effects of the intervention did not depend on the student's gender or previous experience in the entrepreneurship field.

"This low-cost approach can be easily integrated into the classroom and is a promising tool for increasing students' motivation in entrepreneurship above and beyond simply learning about the field," Burnette says.

St. Paul, MN (August, 2019)--Tarnished plant bug is one of the most harmful pests of cotton in the mid-Atlantic states of Virginia and North Carolina. To learn more about this threat, Sally Taylor and Seth Dorman, of Virginia Tech Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center (AREC), scouted and studied cotton fields from 2016 to 2018. They present their findings in the webcast "Tarnished Plant Bug Management Strategies for Mid-Atlantic Cotton."

Taylor and Dorman encourage growers to avoid planting cotton beside other hosts of tarnished plant bug, including wheat and corn, and emphasize weed management to eliminate the proximity of other hosts. Taylor and Dorman also report that cotton planted later in the year and certain varieties of cotton, such as mid- to full-maturing and smooth-leaf varieties, require more intensive management.

Taylor and Dorman conclude that scouting and using thresholds are the most effective strategies for managing tarnished plant bug. They also recommend strategies for insecticide use and resistance management.

This webcast complements "Tarnished Plant Bug in North Carolina and Virginia," which gives a more general overview of the pest's relationship with cotton.

Both webcasts are available through the "Focus on Cotton" resource on the Plant Management Network. This resource contains more than 75 webcasts, along with presentations from six conferences, on a broad range of aspects of cotton crop management: agronomic practices, diseases, harvest and ginning, insects, irrigation, nematodes, precision agriculture, soil health and crop fertility, and weeds. These webcasts are available to readers open access (without a subscription).

The "Focus on Cotton" homepage also provides access to "Cotton Cultivated," a new resource from Cotton Incorporated that helps users quickly find the most current cotton production information available. These and other resources are freely available courtesy of Cotton Incorporated at http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/foco.

Mice scurry around while foraging for food, but genetics may be the unseen hand controlling these meandering movements. Researchers at University of Utah Health are using machine learning to draw links between genetic controls that shape incremental steps of instinctive and learned behaviors. The results are available online in Cell Reports on August 13.

"Patterns of complex behavior, like searching for food, are composed of sequences that feel random, spontaneous and free," said Christopher Gregg, Ph.D., assistant professor in Neurobiology and Anatomy at U of U Health and senior author of the study. "Using machine learning, we are finding discrete sequences that are reproduced more frequently than you would expect by chance and these sequences are rooted in biology."

The research team is venturing into the new territory of behavioral sequencing.

"We are trying to understand the architecture of complex behavior and how genetics shape these patterns," said Gregg.

The research supports the idea that complex behavior is composed of a collection of finite 'building blocks' the authors call behavioral modules, and that genetics are controlling the progression of these building blocks to form different behavioral patterns.

The research team evaluated 190 mice with differences in their genetics and age as they moved from their home into a uniquely created 'arena' to evaluate the set of behavioral sequences expressed while foraging for food. In the search for food, mice exhibit behaviors that require many neural systems to control seeking-behaviors, anxiety, reward, preservation, hunger, satiety, attention, navigation and memory. The new methods revealed that different genetic and age effects influence different sequences.

"Most species have a home range and their behaviors are structured around this home range," Gregg said. "We were able to identify reproduceable behavioral sequences and use this information to understand the complex patterns over time."

The team separated round trips from home to a food source and back into a series of more than 5,600 mouse actions. Layered within these actions are additional information, such as gait pattern, velocity, distance traveled and locations visited. Using machine learning, they evaluated this information and identified 71 reproduceable behavioral sequences that are the underlying building blocks for more complex behavior patterns.

The transition from one 'building block' to the next implies a mechanistic relationship that yields specific foraging behaviors that minimize predation risk, energy expenditure and caloric intake. In addition, the algorithm was able to identify spontaneous responses that are unique to specific mice.

Gregg believes this approach is sensitive enough to pick up a mutation in the copy of one gene. To prove this point, his team focused on foraging behaviors in mice with a mutation in an imprinted gene, Magel2, which is linked to autism. For example, when the mother's copy is turned off, the father's copy is turned on. In this scenario, it was widely believed that the mother's copy was silent and did not affect the offspring. Not so.

"What was exciting to us was we were able to detect significant effects on behavior from a single mutation in only the mother's gene copy," Gregg said.

At this time, the study has only explored the building blocks of foraging behavior in lab mice. Gregg believes the methodology could be applied to understand the basis of other complex behavior patterns and learn the specific genomic elements that shape behaviors leading to disease in humans, including obesity, addiction, fear, anxiety and psychiatric disorders.

"By deconstructing really complex, seemingly spontaneous behaviors, we were able to detect things that weren't observable in other studies," Gregg said. "If there is a mutation that causes disease in people we hope to use this method to map it to specific modules [aka behavior building blocks] to learn how genes contribute to shaping particular behavior patterns."

Bottom Line: Patterns of high blood pressure in midlife that extend to late life or high blood pressure in midlife followed by low blood pressure later in life was associated with increased risk for dementia compared to having normal blood pressure. This observational study included nearly 4,800 participants who had blood pressure measurements taken over 24 years at five visits plus a detailed neurocognitive evaluation during the fifth and a sixth visit, where dementia was assessed. There were 516 new cases of dementia diagnosed between the fifth and sixth visits. Study authors report that compared with maintaining normal blood pressure, an increased risk of dementia was associated with hypertension (greater than 140/90 mm Hg or use of antihypertensive medication) in midlife (age 54 to 63) that was sustained to late life and a pattern of hypertension in midlife and low blood pressure (less than 90/60 mm Hg) later life. Midlife hypertension followed by late-life low blood pressure also was associated with increased risk of mild cognitive impairment. Limitations of the study include that the findings may have been biased because of the increased likelihood that participants with higher blood pressure and poorer cognition during midlife dropped out of the study. Also, study participants were from Washington County, Maryland; Forsyth County, North Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; and Minneapolis, so the results may not be generalizable to other areas.

Authors: Keenan A. Walker, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jama.2019.10575)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Bottom Line: Consuming more gluten during the first five years of life was associated with increased risk of celiac disease and celiac disease autoimmunity (the presence of antibodies in the blood) among genetically predisposed children. It remains unclear whether the amount of gluten consumed can trigger celiac disease. This observational study included 6,605 children born between 2004 and 2010 in Finland, Germany, Sweden and the United States who had a genetic predisposition for celiac disease. Gluten intake was estimated from food records collected at ages 6, 9, and 12 months and then biannually until the age of 5. Of the 6,605 children, 18% developed celiac disease autoimmunity and 7% developed celiac disease. The incidence of both outcomes peaked at 2 to 3 years old. The authors report that for every 1-gram per day increase in gluten consumption there was an associated higher risk of celiac disease and celiac disease autoimmunity. If gluten intake was one gram per day higher than the average at age 2 (corresponding to a half slice of white bread), the absolute risk differences for celiac disease autoimmunity and celiac disease were 6% and 7% higher, respectively, by age 3. A limitation of the study is the uncertainty of the accuracy of the reported gluten intake. The authors suggest a randomized clinical trial be done of different amounts of gluten during early childhood in genetically at-risk children.

Authors: Daniel Agardh, M.D., Ph.D., Lund University, Malmo, Sweden and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jama.2019.10329)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

A vast region of Africa affected by drought and changing land use emits as much carbon dioxide each year as 200 million cars, research suggests.

Observations from two satellites have consistently shown emissions over northern tropical Africa of between 1 and 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon each year.

The data suggest stored carbon has been released from degraded soils - those subject to prolonged or repeated drought or land use change - in western Ethiopia and western tropical Africa, but scientists say further study is needed to provide a definitive explanation for the emissions.

Their findings improve understanding of greenhouse gas sources and aid efforts to meet the terms of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit average global temperature rise below 2C.

The carbon source might have gone undiscovered with land-based surveys alone, according to a team led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh.

Researchers examined data gathered by two NASA satellite missions - Japanese Greenhouse Gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2).

They compared readings with three atmospheric models showing changes in vegetation, and a host of other measurements of ground water, fire and levels of photosynthesis.

The study is the result of a decade of work, involving hundreds of dedicated engineers and scientists, and billions of dollars of investment by space agencies.

Professor Paul Palmer, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: "The tropics are home to one-third of Earth's three billion trees and their stored carbon, and yet we are only scratching the surface of understanding how they are responding to changes in climate. We anticipate that satellite data will continue to improve that situation."

New Haven, Conn. - To understand the most ordinary matter in the universe -- and the extraordinary things that happen to it -- a Yale-led team of astronomers took a deep dive into the cosmic fog.

They learned intriguing new details about the dynamics of baryons, the collection of subatomic particles (including protons and neutrons) that accounts for much of the visible matter in the universe. Most baryons reside in the intergalactic medium (IGM), which is the space in-between galaxies where matter is neither bound to nor tugged upon by surrounding systems.

In a new study, Yale postdoctoral associate Nir Mandelker and professor Frank C. van den Bosch report on the most detailed simulation ever of a large patch of the IGM. For the first time, they were able to see how cold, dense gas clouds in the IGM organize themselves and react within much larger "sheets" or "pancakes" of matter in the vastness of space.

The findings appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Researchers have tried for years to piece together the structures and properties of the IGM -- in part to test the standard model of Big Bang cosmology, which predicts that 80%-90% of baryons are in the IGM, but also to investigate the IGM's crucial role as the universe's fuel source.

"The reason galaxies are able to form stars continuously is because fresh gas flows into galaxies from the IGM," said Mandelker, lead author of the study. "It is clear that galaxies would run out of gas in very short order if they didn't accrete fresh gas from the IGM."

Yet detecting the IGM's gas has been supremely difficult. Unlike galaxies, which shine brightly in starlight, gas in the IGM is almost never luminous enough to detect directly. Instead, it has to be studied indirectly, through the absorption of background light. Such absorption studies allow researchers to learn about the density and chemical composition of gas clouds; in particular, they're able to find out if star formation in nearby galaxies has polluted the gas with metals (elements heavier than helium).

With its new simulation, the Yale team learned quite a lot -- including new properties of those aforementioned sheets of baryons.

"These are flattened distributions of matter, known as 'pancakes,' that extend across many millions of light years across," said van den Bosch. "We found that rather than being smoothly distributed, the gas in these pancakes shatters into what resembles a 'cosmic fog' made up of tiny, discrete clouds of relatively cold and dense gas."

Such dense clouds of gas had been thought to form only in areas of space close to galaxies, where the gas is naturally denser. But the new simulation shows that they also can condense out of the low-density IGM. The researchers said the phenomenon occurs naturally, as the result of an instability triggered by the efficient cooling of the gas.

Another aspect of this cosmic fog, based on the Yale simulation, is that it is pristine; it is too far away from any galaxy to be polluted with metals. According to Mandelker, this is significant because it explains recent, puzzling observations of dense, metal-free clouds at large distances from galaxies. Astronomers could not explain this phenomenon, but the new simulation suggests their presence may simply be the outcome of a natural process.

"Our work highlights the importance of properly resolving the properties of gas in the IGM, which is often neglected in favor of better resolving the central galaxies," Mandelker said. "It has been very difficult to understand how the gas in the IGM could possibly become so dense and optically thick, especially when previous generations of cosmological simulations did not reveal any such dense gas in the IGM."