Culture

Two hundred and sixty-one years ago, Linnaeus formalized binomial nomenclature and the modern system of naming organisms. Since the time of his first publication, taxonomists have managed to describe 1.8 million of the estimated 8 to 25 million extant species of multicellular life, somewhere between 7% and 22%. At this rate, the task of treating all species would be accomplished sometime before the year 4,000. In an age of alarming environmental crises, where taking measures for the preservation of our planet's ecosystems through efficient knowledge is becoming increasingly urgent, humanity cannot afford such dawdling.

"Clearly something needs to change to accelerate this rate, and in this publication we propose a novel approach that employs only a short sequence of mitochondrial DNA in conjunction with a lateral image of the holotype specimen," explain the researchers behind a new study, published in the open-access journal Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift (DEZ).

In standardized practices, it is required that experts conduct plenty of time- and labor-consuming analyses, in order to provide thorough descriptions of both the morphology and genetics of individual species, as well as a long list of characteristic features found to differentiate each from any previously known ones. However, the scientists argue, at this stage, it is impossible to pinpoint distinct morphological characters setting apart all currently known species from the numerous ones not yet encountered. To make matters worse, finding human and financial resources for performing this kind of detailed research is increasingly problematic.

This holds especially true when it comes to hyperdiverse groups, such as ichneumonoid parasitoid wasps: a group of tiny insects believed to comprise up to 1,000,000 species, of which only 44,000 were recognised as valid, according to 2016 data. In their role of parasitoids, these wasps have a key impact on ecosystem stability and diversity. Additionally, many species parasitise the larvae of commercially important pests, so understanding their diversity could help resolve essential issues in agriculture.

Meanwhile, providing a specific species-unique snippet of DNA alongside an image of the specimen used for the description of the species (i.e. holotype) could significantly accelerate the process. By providing a name for a species through a formal description, researchers would allow for their successors to easily build on their discoveries and eventually reach crucial scientific conclusions.

"If this style were to be adopted by a large portion of the taxonomic community, the mission of documenting Earth's multicellular life could be accomplished in a few generations, provided these organisms are still here," say the authors of the study.

To exemplify their revolutionary approach, the scientists use their paper to also describe a total of 18 new species of wasps in two genera (Zelomorpha and Hemichoma) known from Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Currently, the team works on the treatment of related species, which still comprise only a portion of the hundreds of thousands that remain unnamed.

Preclinical trials were held on mice. Senior Research Associate Alexander Deneka (Laboratory of Molecular and Biochemical Bases of Pathogenesis and Therapy of Cancer Diseases, Kazan Federal University) explains that the method in question was first proposed by British scientists; they proved that liquid can be drained from a pleural cavity with the help of a talcum powder solution.

Tests showed that only a half of patients can be assisted in this way, so new ways of drainage were sought. The authors of this new paper found a safer and more reliable alternative while experimenting with hydrogels.

Talcum and hydrogel are combined in such a way as to be evenly distributed between pleurae and absorb liquid more effectively. Experiments on cancer-stricken mice proved that the method is promising. Health deterioration was stalled, and they lived up 55% longer than those who received standard therapy.

"Importantly, the increased effectiveness of hydrogel infusion allows to remove a suction tube quicker. This reduces the risk of pleural inflammation or aeration of the pleural cavity," adds Deneka.

Further research is planned and can down the road help save thousands of lives.

Immune cells prevent bacteria, parasites or viruses from entering the body when, for example, the intestinal epithelium is injured. They respond with restricted inflammatory reactions, which are controlled via various processes in the healthy organism. If an organism suffers from Crohn's disease, for example, the immune cells are continuously activated. The research group led by Professor Thomas Brunner at the University of Konstanz has demonstrated that the transcription factor LRH-1 plays a key role in immune cells. That this protein can actually be found in so-called T cells was already confirmed by his team several years ago. The researchers in Konstanz were now able to show that the transcription factor is responsible for ensuring that an organism's immune defence functions properly. If it is not present, no immune response is activated. The researchers view this research result as an opportunity to develop therapeutic approaches or drugs that will control the damaging immune response by inhibiting LRH-1, as in Crohn's disease or liver diseases.

A transcription factor is a protein that ensures that a gene is transcribed and a corresponding gene product is generated. It regulates the so-called gene expression process, which puts the gene's information into effect. The transcription factor LRH-1 is particularly common in the intestine and liver. The elimination of LRH-1 in the epithelial cells of these organs has little effect on them, though. However, the biologists found that the T cells, which are crucial for the immune response, hardly divide when LRH-1 is eliminated. With fatal consequences: T cells have receptors that recognize specific foreign substances. A large number of them are needed to control pathogens such as viruses, which multiply rapidly after infiltrating the body. To fight these viruses, the T cells can usually divide very quickly - even faster than cancer cells - but in a more controlled manner.

"Without the LRH-1 transcription factor, it is practically impossible to trigger immune responses. As a result, the body can no longer protect itself against pathogens", explains Thomas Brunner.

That is the negative aspect. On the positive side, however, this inhibition of the immune cell expansion can be used to treat inflammatory diseases such as Crohn's disease or hepatitis. In the process of continuously fighting either harmless bacteria or viruses, the immune system's permanent response actually damages the organs. The overall aim is to shut down this out-of-control immune response. In fact, a pharmacological inhibitor that can specifically switch off the LRH-1 transcription factor activity already exists. A test has demonstrated that it actually blocks the T cells, thereby reducing the T cell mediated diseases.

Thomas Brunner and his team confirmed that the inhibition of LRH-1 yielded the hoped for results. "In order to test whether or not the inhibitor really works, we administered it to treat experimentally induced hepatitis. It did work. The damage was reduced".

Using YouTube to learn about climate-change-related topics will expose you to video content that mostly opposes worldwide scientific consensus.

That's the finding of a new study published in Frontiers in Communication, which also reveals that some scientific terms, such as geoengineering, have been 'hijacked' by conspiracy theorists so that searches provide entirely non-scientific video content. Scientists could counteract this by forming alliances with influential YouTubers, politicians and those in popular culture, to ensure scientifically accurate video content reaches the widest-possible audience.

"Searching YouTube for climate-science and climate-engineering-related terms finds fewer than half of the videos represent mainstream scientific views," says study author Dr. Joachim Allgaier, Senior Researcher at the RWTH Aachen University. "It's alarming to find that the majority of videos propagate conspiracy theories about climate science and technology."

Nearly 2 billion logged-in users - half the world online - visit YouTube every month, and research has shown that users see it as a platform for learning about science, health and technology.

Climate conspiracists

Allgaier wanted to know if the information YouTube users found, when searching for scientific information on climate change and climate modification, represented scientifically accurate views.

"So far, research has focused on the most-watched videos, checking their scientific accuracy, but this doesn't tell us what an average internet user will find, as the results are influenced by previous search and watch histories," reports Allgaier. "To combat this, I used the anonymization tool TOR to avoid personalization of the results."

Employing ten climate change-related search terms, Allgaier analyzed 200 videos about climate change and climate modification topics. He found that the majority of these videos opposed the worldwide scientific consensus, as detailed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Most videos propagated the so-called "chemtrails" conspiracy theory, which is a belief that the condensation trails of airplanes are purposefully enriched with harmful substances to modify the weather, control human populations, or for biological or chemical warfare. Scientists have clearly shown there is no evidence for such a large-scale secret atmospheric spraying program.

Geoengineering has been hijacked

Alarmingly, Allgaier found that the conspiracy theorists have 'hijacked' some relatively recent scientific terms by using them to describe their worldview of a global conspiracy. In fact, 'chemtrailers', as they are known, explicitly advise their followers to use scientific terms in their content, so that they are not immediately identified as conspiracy theorists.

"Within the scientific community, 'geoengineering' describes technology with the potential to deal with the serious consequences of climate change, if we don't manage to reduce greenhouse gases successfully. For example, greenhouse gas removal, solar radiation management or massive forestation to absorb carbon dioxide," explains Allgaier. "However, people searching for 'geoengineering' or 'climate modification' on YouTube won't find any information on these topics in the way they are discussed by scientists and engineers. Instead, searching for these terms results in videos that leave users exposed to entirely non-scientific video content."

Allgaier also questions YouTube search algorithms - does its business model direct traffic towards videos of dubious scientific content? He found some of the conspiracy videos being monetized by the users via adverts or the sale of merchandise with conspiracy-theory motives.

"The way YouTube search algorithms work is not very transparent. We should be aware this powerful artificial intelligence is already making decisions for us, for example, if you choose to use 'auto-play'. I think YouTube should take responsibility to ensure its users will find high-quality information if they search for scientific and biomedical terms, instead of being exposed to doubtful conspiracy videos," argues Allgaier.

Scientists and YouTubers unite!

To counter the non-scientific content on YouTube, Allgaier, who recently spoke at the World Conference of Science Journalists about his work, suggests scientists and science communicators should take YouTube seriously as a platform for sharing scientific information.

"YouTube has an enormous reach as an information channel, and some of the popular science YouTubers are doing an excellent job at communicating complex subjects and reaching new audiences. Scientists could form alliances with science-communicators, politicians and those in popular culture in order to reach out to the widest-possible audience. They should speak out publicly about their research and be transparent in order to keep established trustful relationships with citizens and society."

Inspired by the processes of cellular differentiation observed in developmental biology, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Bristol have demonstrated a new spontaneous approach to building communities of cell-like entities (protocells) using chemical gradients.

In a new study published today in the journal Nature Communications, Professor Stephen Mann from Bristol's School of Chemistry, together with colleagues Dr Liangfei Tian, Dr Mei Li, and Dr Avinash Patil in the Bristol Centre for Protolife Research, and Professor Bruce Drinkwater from the Faculty of Engineering used a chemical gradient to transform a uniform population of small droplets into a diverse community of artificial cells.

The team first used ultrasonic waves to create regular rows of thousands of droplets containing the energy storage molecule ATP.
They then allowed shape-shifting molecules (artificial morphogens) to diffuse in one direction through the population.

As the morphogens came into contact with the droplets, the droplets transformed row by row into membrane-bounded protocells with different shapes, chemical compositions and enzyme activities. How the droplets changed was dependent on the local morphogen concentration in the advancing chemical gradient.

Waves of differentiation were seen to travel across the population, leaving a pattern of differentiated protocells such that a complex and ordered community emerged spontaneously from the homogeneous population.

Professor Mann said: "This work opens up a new horizon in protocell research because it highlights the opportunities for spontaneously constructing protocell communities with graded structure and functionality.

"Although the research is just beginning, the results provide a step towards developing artificial cell platforms for chemical sensing and monitoring under non-equilibrium (flow-based) conditions."

Dr Tian added: "As droplet-based protocells have been proposed as plausible progenitors to membrane-bounded protocells on the early Earth, our work could have implications for contemporary theories of the origin of life.

"In particular, as chemical gradients produce protocell diversity from uniform populations, maybe a similar mechanism was responsible for the emergence of functional complexity in ancient proto-living systems."

HANOVER, N.H. - July 25, 2019 - Researchers at Dartmouth College have discovered a planet orbiting one of the brightest young stars known, according to a study published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Aged at approximately 45 million years old, the star and its planet could provide valuable information on how planetary bodies form.

Known as an exoplanet because it is outside of the solar system, the planet was found as part of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. While thousands of exoplanet discoveries have already been made, only a handful have been discovered circling relatively young stars.

The exoplanet observed in the Dartmouth research - known as DS Tuc Ab - can be considered a "pre-teen" in planetary time. The planet is no longer growing, but, because of its young age, it is still undergoing rapid changes like losing atmospheric gas as a result of the radiation coming from its host star.

Planets can take millions or billions of years to reach maturity. Since that process cannot be observed in real time, researchers are searching for planets around young stars to catch the process in action and learn how planets form and evolve.

"One of the overall goals of astronomy is understanding the big picture of how we got here, how solar systems and galaxies take shape and why," said Elisabeth Newton, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth. "By finding solar systems that are different from our own - especially young ones - we can hope to learn why Earth and our own solar system evolved in the ways that they did."

DS Tuc Ab is about six times the size of Earth, between the sizes of Neptune and Saturn. Given the size, it likely has a composition similar to that of the giant planets in our solar system. The exoplanet has two suns and makes one full orbit around its main star in just eight days.

The planet was first observed by NASA satellite in November of 2018 and was confirmed by the Dartmouth team in March using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and other ground- and space-based observatories, such as the South African Large Telescope (SALT).

The planet is about 150 light years away from Earth. Each light year is a distance of just under 6 trillion miles.

"We were really excited when we confirmed this discovery because the planet orbits such a bright, well-known young star. Our whole team worked together to learn everything we could about this solar system," said Newton, who led a team of scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University Texas at Austin, and other research centers from around the world.

NASA's TESS mission is looking for planets around nearby stars using the transit method. The approach detects when light is blocked as a planet passes between Earth and the planet's host star. Researchers then review observations from other telescopes to confirm the discovery.

"The star's brightness lets us study the planet in detail because the more photons you have the better statistics you have. A discovery of this sort with such a unique age and an unusual planet size would not be possible without TESS," said Newton.

Planets are larger when first formed and are thought to become smaller over time as they cool and lose atmosphere. Because this planet is still forming, the team hopes to detect atmosphere evaporation in action. Understanding this process could help researchers predict what might happen to the exoplanet over the next billions of years and can also be used to understand how atmospheric escape might have affected older planets, including Earth.

"We hope that by seeing this planet's atmosphere, we can provide a snapshot of what planets look like at a young age," said Newton.

The TESS satellite was launched on April 18, 2018. According to NASA, the TESS mission will survey 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun to search for transiting exoplanets, including those that could support life.

While the research team knows the size of DS Tuc Ab, the overall mass is not known. This limits what the team can currently tell about planet's density and composition. Thanks to the star's brightness, future investigations could measure the planet's mass or determine what molecules are present in its atmosphere.

SILVER SPRING, MD - A Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS CoV) vaccine candidate was shown to be safe, well-tolerated, and induced a robust immune response in a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical trial. Initial findings from the trial were published today in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The study, conducted at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) Clinical Trials Center, evaluated a candidate DNA vaccine (GLS-5300) co-developed by GeneOne Life Science Inc. and Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Though other vaccine candidates have previously been tested for use in camels, which are the suspected source of the virus that causes MERS, this is the first vaccine candidate to be tested in humans.

Seventy-five healthy adult volunteers received one of three dosages of the candidate vaccine at three time points (initial, one month, three months) and were followed for one year after final vaccination. Vaccinations were given with an electrical impulse to help with vaccine uptake. Vaccine-induced immune responses were compared to those of individuals who had recovered from natural MERS CoV infection.

The GLS-5300 MERS CoV vaccine was well tolerated with no major side effects reported by the volunteers. More than 85 percent of volunteers exhibited a detectable immune response to MERS CoV after just two vaccinations. This immune response persisted throughout the study and was similar in magnitude to the response seen in survivors of natural MERS CoV infection.

MERS is a severe respiratory disease akin to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. MERS CoV has infected more than 2,200 people and killed nearly 40% of those infected. There are currently no licensed vaccines or specific treatments for MERS. MERS has been identified as a priority disease by the World Health Organization (WHO) and as a top target for vaccine development by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

"The world witnessed the emergence and devastation of SARS in 2002 and then MERS ten years later. MERS hasn't gone away, and there's every indication that the family of viruses to which SARS and MERS belong, coronaviruses, are here to stay," said Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of WRAIR's Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, the principal investigator of the study and first author on the publication. He added, "Military personnel are at particular risk for MERS, given the deployments to the Middle East and South Korea where the largest MERS outbreaks have occurred. This study is, therefore, an important advancement for the U.S. Army, the military community as a whole and global stakeholders in the research and development of both MERS and corona virus countermeasures."

The GLS-5300 MERS-CoV product is a DNA vaccine candidate, which allows for rapid design and production in response to emerging infectious diseases. Underscoring the potential for rapid deployment of DNA vaccines, GLS-5300 was advanced into the clinic within nine months of preclinical vaccine candidate selection. The promising results from this study have prompted advancement to a second Phase I/IIa trial in South Korea and a Phase II study in the Middle East.

Emerging infectious diseases such as MERS pose an ongoing threat to military operations and readiness, and WRAIR's Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch (EIDB) develops vaccines, drugs and diagnostics to address these threats. The branch is also studying and developing countermeasures for Ebola, Marburg, Zika and Lassa, among other emerging threats.

BOSTON - Building on their research showing that an exciting new form of immunotherapy for cancer has activity in patients with glioblastoma, the most common and most deadly form of brain cancer, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have created a new method that could make immune therapy more effective again brain tumors and expand its use against other types of solid tumors. Their study is published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

The treatment, known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy, involves collecting and genetically modifying a patient's immune-fighting T cells to recognize specific targets (antigens) on the surface of tumors, and then returning them to the patient. Two CAR T cell products have been approved by the FDA for treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, respectively cancers of the lymphatic system and blood.

But solid tumors such as glioblastoma are notoriously difficult to treat with conventional cancer drugs, because most of the drugs have molecules that are too large to cross the blood-brain barrier, and immunotherapy has its own problems in this area, explains principal investigator Marcela V. Maus, MD, PhD, director of cellular immunotherapy at the MGH Cancer Center.

"We previously made CAR T cells for glioblastoma, and one of the challenges of glioblastoma is that not all of the tumor cells express the target that a T cell can go after," says Maus, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS).

The target they were aiming for is epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII), a mutated cancer-causing protein that is present on the surface of many but not all glioblastomas.

So to boost the effectiveness of CAR T cells, they decided to target a second antigen, the naturally occurring or "wild type" of EGFR. But because EGFR is present in many cells in the body, drugs targeting the protein can cause serious side effects. To overcome this toxicity problem, Maus and colleagues crafted a CAR T cell that can be delivered into the cerebrospinal fluid at the base of the brain. When it gets into the brain, the CAR T then secretes a second type of immunotherapy, called a bi-specific T-cell engager, or "BiTE." BiTEs are antibodies that direct cell-killing T cells to a specific target, somewhat akin to a homing mechanism on a so-called "smart bomb."

Although they are smaller than antibody-based drugs, BiTEs are still too large to cross the blood brain barrier if given intravenously, so the BiTE-secreting CAR T construct they crafted "can have a local tumor effect by targeting the second antigen, and that's a way of overcoming this tumor heterogeneity and being able to target two things at once. But because it's produced on the other side of the blood brain barrier and in small quantities, it doesn't cause the toxicities to other organs," Maus says.

When they tested it in models of human glioblastoma, they found that the modified BiTE-secreting CAR Ts eliminated about 80% of the tumors.

The technique holds promise for treating other solid tumors as well, says lead author Bryan D. Choi, MD, from the department of Neurosurgery at MGH.

The biggest barrier they still face in their efforts to bring the research into human clinical trials is financial support, the investigators say.

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (July 24, 2019) -- A research team led by Tufts University engineers has developed a 3D printed pill that samples bacteria found in the gut -- known as the microbiome -- as it passes through the gastrointestinal tract (GI). The ability to profile bacterial species inhabiting the gut could have important implications for conditions that affect and are affected by the intestinal microbiome, according to the researchers.

The 3D printed pill described in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems represents the first non-invasive diagnostic tool capable of providing a profile of microbiome populations throughout the entire GI tract, according to the researchers. Current methods of sampling the microbiome involve primarily the analysis of fecal DNA and metabolites, but that approach provides little information of the environment upstream of the distal colon, where bacterial species can vary significantly.

The pill has been studied extensively in vitro and in vivo, and found to provide accurate identification of bacterial populations and their relative abundance, the paper says. It has been tested in pigs and primates, yet clinical trials will be needed to determine if the pill can be used routinely in humans for clinical care.

More than 1,000 species of bacteria inhabit the healthy gut. The vast majority of these bacteria have a beneficial, supportive role in digestion and protection against disease. When the natural balance of the microbiome is disturbed, a condition called "dysbiosis" occurs, which can be associated with inflammation, susceptibility to infections, and even the exacerbation of other diseases such as cancer. Research is increasingly unveiling specific microbiome metabolites that have beneficial or protective effects against disease.

"We are learning quite a lot about the role of gut microbiome in health and disease. However, we know very little about its biogeography," said Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts University's School of Engineering and corresponding author of the study. "The pill will improve our understanding of the role of spatial distribution in the microbiome profile to advance novel treatments and therapies for a number of diseases and conditions."

The pill is more sophisticated than just a sponge. It is manufactured in a 3D printer with microfluidic channels that can sample different stages of the GI tract. The surface of the pill is covered with a pH sensitive coating, so that it does not absorb any samples until it enters the small intestine (bypassing the stomach) where the coating dissolves. A semi-permeable membrane separates two chambers in the pill - one containing helical channels that take up the bacteria and the other containing a calcium salt-filled chamber. The salt chamber helps create an osmotic flow across the membrane which pulls the bacteria into the helical channels. A small magnet in the pill enables one to hold it at certain locations in the gut for more spatially targeted sampling using a magnet outside the body. A fluorescent dye in the salt chamber helps locate the pill after it exits the GI tract.

"The design of this device makes it incredibly easy to use, posing little risk to the subject, yet providing so much information," said Giovanni Widmer, professor of infectious diseases and global health in Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and co-author of the study responsible for testing the pills effectiveness in animals studies and for high-throughput sequencing the microbiome samples.

The researchers see this technology as bridging an important gap in understanding the complexity of the ecosystem of the gut. "We have advanced technologies to analyze bacterial populations using DNA sequencing, but until now have not had a way to sample bacteria throughout the GI tract in a way that is not invasive," said Hojatollah Rezaei Nejad, a post-doctoral fellow studying novel applications of 3D printing in Sonkusale's laboratory at Tufts and lead author of the study. "By sampling non-invasively, this pill could help us better identify and understand the role of different intestinal bacterial species in health and disease."

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking, often comes up in lists of greatest fears. Such anxiety can often impact voice control leading to stammering or feeling like there is a "frog in your throat." A researcher from the University of Missouri has found that there is more to vocal issues than just feeling nervous and that stress-induced brain activations might be to blame.

Maria Dietrich, associate professor of speech, language and hearing sciences in the MU School of Health Professions, studies voice disorders. In a pilot study, Dietrich expanded on the Trait Theory of Voice Disorders, often used in understanding functional voice disorders. She discovered that stress-induced brain activations could lead to voice disorders such as muscle tension dysphonia, a disorder from excessive or altered muscle tension in and around the voice box changing the sound or feel of one's voice.

"For many, public speaking can be a stressful situation," Dietrich said. "We know that stress can trigger physiological changes such as muscle tension and that can impact our speech. The new findings will help researchers better understand the relationship between stress and vocal control and will allow us to pinpoint the brain activations that impact voices to identify better treatments for disorders."

For the study, young women who were pre-screened to participate were told that they had to prepare for a five-minute impromptu speech about why they were the best candidate for a job. The speech preparation test served as a stressor while participants were asked to read sentences but were never prompted to give their speech. Researchers collected samples of saliva to test for cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, in intervals before the stressor until approximately 50 minutes after.

During the study, participants were asked a series of questions to assess their emotional state. Throughout the experiment, MRI scans were taken of the participants for the researchers to see brain activations and how they impacted speech with and without stressful speech preparation.

Dietrich found that there were differences in stress-induced brain activations related to speech. Participants who exhibited higher cortisol responses also exhibited brain activity that impacted the larynx region in the brain and had lower scores on aspects of extraversion.

"Our findings are consistent with theories of vocal traits related to personality," Dietrich said. "Those who are more introverted are more likely to have stress reactions related to speaking and their brains are registering that stress, which could impact their vocal control."

Dietrich offers the following advice for those who feel stressed about public speaking:

Don't worry about the audience not smiling. Just because people might not be reacting to your public address, it doesn't mean they are judging you.

Present with an inner smile and remember to breathe. Taking a deep breath can go a long way to calm nerves.

Acknowledge that feeling nervous is normal.

ITHACA, N.Y. - A new study demonstrates that increasing class size has the largest negative impact on female participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) classrooms, and offers insights on ways to change the trend.

Using data obtained from 44 science courses across multiple institutions - including Cornell, the University of Minnesota, Bethel University and American University in Cairo - a team of researchers found that large classes begin to negatively impact students when they reach enrollments over 120 students.

"We show that class size has the largest impact on female participation, with smaller classes leading to more equitable participation. We also found that women are most likely to participate after small-group discussions when instructors use diverse teaching strategies," said lead author Cissy Ballen, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University and now an assistant professor at Auburn University. "We hope these results encourage instructors to be proactive in their classrooms with respect to these inequities."

The results call for a halt on the continued expansion of large introductory courses and highlight the importance of studying factors that either promote or counter equity. For example, many evidence-based active-learning techniques appear to work by making large classes function like smaller classes.

Study co-author Abby Drake, senior lecturer in ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, has implemented Team-Based Learning in the large gateway course Introduction to Evolutionary Biology and Diversity, where students work together in small teams.

"This reduces the faculty-to-student ratio from more than 1:200 to 1:50," Drake said. "We have seen a significant decrease in the number of students who don't succeed. Before the use of active learning and team-based learning, we would have upwards of 10 to 15 students failing or getting Ds. For the last three semesters, only two or three students have failed or received Ds. We are creating a small classroom climate within our large class and it is fostering student success."

The gateway course is part of the Active Learning Initiative in the College of Arts and Sciences.

It has long been known that large classes, such as gateway classes, can be especially challenging for certain demographic groups, such as first-generation students, underrepresented minorities and women, noted study co-author Kelly Zamudio, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences.

"What we show here," Zamudio said, "is that the deficit is not with those students, but rather with the classroom. If you want participation by everyone, then the classroom has to be an equal, open arena for everyone."

Irvine, Calif., July 24, 2019 -- As Lyme disease increases, researchers have taken a significant step toward finding new ways to prevent its transmission. The experts, who include a pioneer in Lyme disease discovery, have sequenced the genome of the animal carrying the bacteria that causes the illness. The advance by researchers at the University of California, Irvine and colleagues provides a launching pad for fresh approaches to stopping Lyme disease from infecting people.

Results of their study appear today in Science Advances.

The scientists dedicated four years to decoding the genetic makeup of the white-footed mouse Peromyscus leucopus, which harbors the Lyme disease-causing bacteria. Unlike mice that scurry into human homes, these rodents inhabit forests, shrubbery and wetlands. People become infected when a tick bites them after feeding on a white-footed mouse carrying the bacteria.

"Many efforts to combat Lyme disease have focused on trying to control those ticks, but they have been difficult to put in practice," said Lyme disease pioneer Alan Barbour, M.D. "So we decided that instead we should look at the animal carrying it."

Barbour co-discovered Borreliella burgdorferi, the bacteria causing the illness. He is a professor of medicine and microbiology & molecular genetics for the UCI School of Medicine.

As a next step in examining the white-footed mouse's role in Lyme disease's spread, Anthony Long, Ph.D., professor of ecology & evolutionary biology in the UCI School of Biological Sciences, worked with Barbour and other researchers on the complex task of determining the DNA letter sequence that makes up the animal's genome. With 2.45 billion of those letters, representing nucleotides that form DNA's basic structural unit, its genome is similar in size to that of humans.

"If you want to understand a species, knowing its genetic blueprint is invaluable," said Long, a geneticist and genomicist. "It provides a road map that makes new research approaches much faster and more efficient." While these rodents are called mice, they are more closely related to hamsters than to the house mouse and the researchers' new data emphasized this fact.

With the genome in hand, the scientists are interested in pursuing several potential avenues for preventing Lyme disease transmission. Among them are developing an environmentally-safe, humane vaccination method for white-footed mice in the wild, a process already used to prevent rabies transmission in other kinds of animals.

They also would like to find out why the rodents don't develop Lyme disease even though they carry the bacteria. "Understanding what shields them from getting sick could guide us in protecting humans from it," Barbour said. He noted that besides harboring Lyme disease, the rodents carry other emerging infections, including a form of viral encephalitis and illnesses similar to malaria and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

The white-footed mouse genome is now available for free download to all who are interested in Lyme or in the additional disease-causing microorganisms that can be transferred from the rodent carrier to humans. The scientists say they hope the information will help others in the quest to fight this transmission.

As they move forward with their investigations, the researchers say it remains very important for the public to continue safeguarding against Lyme disease by preventing tick bites. Information on how to protect people, pets and yards from the insects is available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

The reported number of confirmed and probable Lyme disease cases in the United States rose more than 17 percent between 2016 and 2017, increasing from 36,429 to 42,743, according to the CDC. Noting that those figures likely represent only a fraction of the actual amount, it also says reported cases have tripled since the late 1990s.

The CDC cites several factors as contributing to Lyme's rise, including the growth of forests in what were once agricultural fields, the development of suburbs in those areas, and changes in ecological patterns due to climate change.

AURORA, Colo. (July 24, 2019) - Physicians in the United States may prescribe opioids more frequently to patients during hospitalization and at discharge when compared to their physician peers in other countries, according to a recently published study led by researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The study reviewed prescribing practices at 11 academic hospitals in eight countries - the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Taiwan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. The four hospitals in the United States were the University of Colorado Hospital, Denver Health, Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, and Legacy Health in Portland, Oregon.

"Compared with patients hospitalized in other countries, a greater percentage of those hospitalized in the US were prescribed opioid analgesics both during hospitalization and at the time of discharge, even after adjustment for pain severity as well as several other factors like how ill the patients were," wrote the authors of the article that was published online today in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

The first author of the article is Marisha Burden, MD, associate professor of medicine at the CU School of Medicine and head of the Division of Hospital Medicine.

The study is important because the epidemic misuse of opioid medications has led to addiction and premature death in many communities across the country.

For the newly published study, the researchers approached 1,309 eligible patients and 981 of them consented to the study. Five hundred three were in the United States and 478 were from other countries. Seventy-nine percent of the patients in U.S. hospitals who experienced pain were prescribed opioids during hospitalization, compared with 51 percent of patients at the sites in other countries.

In addition to prescribing practices, the authors note that the patients' perception of pain and the cultural biases toward pain medication may have affected the prescribing practices.

"While we observed that physicians in the US more frequently prescribed opioid analgesics during hospitalizations than physicians working in other countries, we also observed that patients in the US reported higher levels of pain during their hospitalization," Burden and her co-authors wrote. "Our study also suggests that reducing the opioid epidemic in the US may require addressing patients' expectations regarding pain control in addition to providers' inpatient analgesic prescribing patterns."

Almost one in five adults in the U.S. lives with a mental illness. That statistic is similar worldwide, with an estimated 450 million people currently dealing with a mental or neurological disorder. Of those, only about a third seek treatment.

Interacting with nature is starting to be recognized as one way to improve mental health. A number of scientific studies have shown that nature experiences may benefit people's psychological well-being and cognitive function. But it has been difficult to find ways to quantify these benefits in a useful manner for cities or organizations that want to integrate nature to improve mental health.

Now, an international team led by the University of Washington and Stanford University has created a framework for how city planners and municipalities around the world can start to measure the mental health benefits of nature and incorporate those into plans and policies for cities and their residents. The study will appear July 24 in Science Advances.

"Thinking about the direct mental health benefits that nature contact provides is important to take into account when planning how to conserve nature and integrate it into our cities," said Greg Bratman, lead author and an assistant professor at the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. "The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual model of one way we can start to think about doing this."

The study brought together more than two dozen leading experts in the natural, social and health sciences who study aspects of how nature can benefit human well-being. Their first step was to establish a baseline, collective agreement regarding the understanding of the impacts of nature experience on aspects of cognitive functioning, emotional well-being and other dimensions of mental health.

"In hundreds of studies, nature experience is associated with increased happiness, social engagement, and manageability of life tasks, and decreased mental distress," said senior author Gretchen Daily, faculty director at the Stanford Natural Capital Project. "In addition, nature experience is linked to improved cognitive functioning, memory and attention, imagination and creativity, and children's school performance. These links span many dimensions of human experience, and include a greater sense of meaning and purpose in life."

While this line of study is still emerging, experts agree that nature can reduce risk factors for some types of mental illnesses and improve psychological well-being. They also agree that opportunities for nature experiences are dwindling for many people around the world because of urban growth.

"For millennia, many different cultures, traditions, and religious and spiritual practices have spoken directly to our deep relationship with nature. And more recently, using other sets of tools from psychology, public health, landscape architecture and medicine, evidence has been steadily gathering in this emerging, interdisciplinary field," Bratman said.

The study outlines how city planners, landscape architects, developers and others could eventually anticipate the mental health impacts of decisions related to the environment.

Many governments already consider this with regard to other aspects of human health. For example, trees are planted in cities to improve air quality or reduce urban heat island effects, and parks are built in specific neighborhoods to encourage physical activity. But these actions don't usually directly factor in the mental health benefits that trees or a restored park might provide.

"We have entered the urban century, with two-thirds of humanity projected to be living in cities by 2050. At the same time, there is an awakening underway today, to the many values of nature and the risks and costs of its loss," Daily said. "This new work can help inform investments in livability and sustainability of the world's cities."

The research team built a conceptual model that can be used to make meaningful, informed decisions about environmental projects and how they may impact mental health. It includes four steps for planners to consider: elements of nature included in a project, say at a school or across the whole city; the amount of contact people will have with nature; how people interact with nature; and how people may benefit from those interactions, based on the latest scientific evidence.

The researchers hope this tool will be especially useful in considering the possible mental health repercussions of adding -- or taking away -- nature in underserved communities.

"If the evidence shows that nature contact helps to buffer against negative impacts from other environmental predictors of health, then access to these landscapes can be considered a matter of environmental justice. We hope this framework will contribute to this discussion," Bratman said. "Eventually, it could be developed and potentially used to help address health disparities in underserved communities."

Having too much caffeine during pregnancy may impair baby's liver development and increase the risk of liver disease in adulthood, according to a study published in the Journal of Endocrinology. Pregnant rats given caffeine had offspring with lower birth weights, altered growth and stress hormone levels and impaired liver development. The study findings indicate that consumption of caffeine equivalent to 2-3 cups of coffee may alter stress and growth hormone levels in a manner that can impair growth and development, and increase the risk of liver disease in adulthood.

Previous studies have indicated that prenatal caffeine intake of 300 mg/day or more in women, which is approximately 2 to 3 cups coffee per day, can result in lower birth weights of their children. Animal studies have further suggested that prenatal caffeine consumption may have more detrimental long-term effects on liver development with an increased susceptibility to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a debilitating condition normally associated with obesity and diabetes. However, the underlying link between prenatal caffeine exposure and impaired liver development remains poorly understood. A better understanding of how caffeine mediates these effects could help prevent these health issues in people in the future.

In this study, Prof Hui Wang and colleagues at Wuhan University in China, investigated the effects of low (equivalent to 2-3 cups of coffee) and high doses (equivalent of 6-9 cups of coffee) caffeine, given to pregnant rats, on liver function and hormone levels of their offspring. Offspring exposed to prenatal caffeine had lower levels of the liver hormone, insulin like growth factor (IGF-1), and higher levels of the stress hormone, corticosteroid at birth. However, liver development after birth showed a compensatory 'catch up' phase, characterised by increased levels of IGF-1, which is important for growth.

Dr Yinxian Wen, study co-author, says, "Our results indicate that prenatal caffeine causes an excess of stress hormone activity in the mother, which inhibits IGF-1 activity for liver development before birth. However, compensatory mechanisms do occur after birth to accelerate growth and restore normal liver function, as IGF-1 activity increases and stress hormone signalling decreases. The increased risk of fatty liver disease caused by prenatal caffeine exposure is most likely a consequence of this enhanced, compensatory postnatal IGF-1 activity."

These findings not only confirm that prenatal caffeine exposure leads to lower birth weight and impaired liver development before birth but also expand our current understanding of the hormonal changes underlying these changes and suggest the potential mechanism for increased risk of liver disease in the future. However, these animal findings need to be confirmed in humans.

Dr Wen comments, "Our work suggests that prenatal caffeine is not good for babies and although these findings still need to be confirmed in people, I would recommend that women avoid caffeine during pregnancy."