Culture

Corona Virus Disease (COVID -19) patients primarily appear with respiratory issues and viral pneumonia. The patients may also present cardiovascular issues includes early signs of acute myocardial injury. The researchers from Sohag University, Egypt, found that cardiac troponin I (cTnI) can prove to be a gold-standard biomarker for necrosis and myocardial risk assessment in COVID-19 sufferers.

The researchers aimed to assess the prognostic value of cTnI in COVID-19 sufferers. The study included ninety-two COVID-19 patients admitted in the El Helal Hospital, Sohag, Egypt. The hospital, upon admission, did routine investigations including cTnI, chest Computed Tomography (CT), and Electrocardiogram (ECG). Additionally, the patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) received echocardiography testing. The research found that the cTnI level was elevated in 30 patients admitted to the ICU, of whom 17 died. The researchers conclude that cardiac troponin I levels are a prognostic factor for ICU admission and mortality in COVID-19 patients.

To download and read the Full-text article, please visit: https://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOCMJ-15-18

Public use of parks and reserves increased only slightly during last year's COVID-19 national lockdown despite gyms and sports facilities shutting down, a University of Queensland study found.

UQ School of Biological Sciences PhD candidate Violeta Berdejo-Espinola surveyed 1000 people in Brisbane, measuring their use of urban green space and the benefits people associated with visiting the areas during lockdown.

"People all around Brisbane, myself included, noticed a boom in park use in 2020, but while more people ventured into local parks, many folks were left indoors," Ms Berdejo-Espinola said.

"Thirty-six per cent of people increased their use of city green spaces, yet at the same time, 26 per cent reduced it - there was a great deal of flux during this time.

"As an avid green space user and runner, I noticed plenty of people that I had to dodge - kids on bikes, people walking and running, doing yoga, or reading a book.

"If you were already using green spaces frequently, chances are you significantly reduced your use of them - maybe because there were too many people to dodge.

"It was the same story if you were older - you might not have wanted to go to parks as often as you once did, which is concerning because staying isolated at home can have negative health implications."

The research also found that lockdown periods greatly motivated those who had never really visited Brisbane's parks before.

"Forty-five per cent of people who weren't previous users of urban green spaces started to use them for the first time during the restrictions period," Ms Berdejo-Espinola said.

"It seemed these people were finally discovering that our city's parks are excellent for fostering good mental health during stressful times and realised they're a highly effective nature-based coping mechanism.

"Programs exist across the globe where GPs are prescribing nature to people, and Brisbanites were naturally discovering these anxiety-reducing effects."

Fellow author Professor Richard Fuller said careful planning meant Brisbane was well-endowed with high-quality green spaces.

"Brisbane's comparative abundance of usable green spaces has undoubtedly played a role in helping our population through the crisis," he said.

"Yet it is concerning that many people actually reduced their park use during the lockdowns.

"Programs to help everyone benefit from the health and wellbeing effects of natural spaces will help Brisbane achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 - making inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities.

"COVID-19 is changing the way we're using green spaces, and now is the perfect time to place the human health benefits of urban green spaces at the forefront of our urban planning policies."

MAY 26, 2021 -- Researchers from UTSA, the University of Central Florida (UCF), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and SRI International have developed a new method that improves how artificial intelligence learns to see.

Led by Sumit Jha, professor in the Department of Computer Science at UTSA, the team has changed the conventional approach employed in explaining machine learning decisions that relies on a single injection of noise into the input layer of a neural network.

The team shows that adding noise--also known as pixilation--along multiple layers of a network provides a more robust representation of an image that's recognized by the AI and creates more robust explanations for AI decisions. This work aids in the development of what's been called "explainable AI" which seeks to enable high-assurance applications of AI such as medical imaging and autonomous driving.

"It's about injecting noise into every layer," Jha said. "The network is now forced to learn a more robust representation of the input in all of its internal layers. If every layer experiences more perturbations in every training, then the image representation will be more robust and you won't see the AI fail just because you change a few pixels of the input image."

Computer vision--the ability to recognize images--has many business applications. Computer vision can better identify areas of concern in the livers and brains of cancer patients. This type of machine learning can also be employed in many other industries. Manufacturers can use it to detect defection rates, drones can use it to help detect pipeline leaks, and agriculturists have begun using it to spot early signs of crop disease to improve their yields.

Through deep learning, a computer is trained to perform behaviors, such as recognizing speech, identifying images or making predictions. Instead of organizing data to run through set equations, deep learning works within basic parameters about a data set and trains the computer to learn on its own by recognizing patterns using many layers of processing.

The team's work, led by Jha, is a major advancement to previous work he's conducted in this field. In a 2019 paper presented at the AI Safety workshop co-located with that year's International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Jha, his students and colleagues from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrated how poor conditions in nature can lead to dangerous neural network performance. A computer vision system was asked to recognize a minivan on a road, and did so correctly. His team then added a small amount of fog and posed the same query again to the network: the AI identified the minivan as a fountain. As a result, their paper was a best paper candidate.

In most models that rely on neural ordinary differential equations (ODEs), a machine is trained with one input through one network, and then spreads through the hidden layers to create one response in the output layer. This team of UTSA, UCF, AFRL and SRI researchers use a more dynamic approach known as a stochastic differential equations (SDEs). Exploiting the connection between dynamical systems to show that neural SDEs lead to less noisy, visually sharper, and quantitatively robust attributions than those computed using neural ODEs.

The SDE approach learns not just from one image but from a set of nearby images due to the injection of the noise in multiple layers of the neural network. As more noise is injected, the machine will learn evolving approaches and find better ways to make explanations or attributions simply because the model created at the onset is based on evolving characteristics and/or the conditions of the image. It's an improvement on several other attribution approaches including saliency maps and integrated gradients.

Jha's new research is described in the paper "On Smoother Attributions using Neural Stochastic Differential Equations." Fellow contributors to this novel approach include UCF's Richard Ewetz, AFRL's Alvaro Velazquez and SRI's Sumit Jha. The lab is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation. Their research will be presented at the 2021 IJCAI, a conference with about a 14% acceptance rate for submissions. Past presenters at this highly selective conference have included Facebook and Google.

"I am delighted to share the fantastic news that our paper on explainable AI has just been accepted at IJCAI," Jha added. "This is a big opportunity for UTSA to be part of the global conversation on how a machine sees."

The Menetries' tiger moth (Arctia menetriesii) is one of the rarest and most poorly studied Palaearctic moth species. Even though its adult individuals are large and brightly coloured, they are difficult to spot, because they aren't attracted to light, they're not active at night, and they fly reluctantly. Currently, the species only inhabits two countries - Finland and the Russian Federation, and is included in the Red Lists of both, as Data Deficient in the former and Vulnerable in the latter.

For 13 years, researcher Evgeny Koshkin of the Institute of Water and Ecology Problems of the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences kept searching for the elusive Menetries' tiger moth in its habitat in the Bureinsky Nature Reserve, 400 km north of Khabarovsk, Russia, but he only ever found it in 2018, in what was the first record of this species in 34 years in this region. That's how rare it is.

After collecting eggs from a female moth, Koshkin documented the species' biology under laboratory conditions and described its immature stages in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal Nota Lepidopterologica. For the first time, detailed photographs of all developmental stages of this species have been published.

In laboratory conditions, the development cycle of the Menetries' tiger moth from egg laying to an adult individual lasts between 72 and 83 days. Out of the 105 eggs that the female moth laid in captivity, however, only 13 transformed into adults, and out of those, only four were able to spread their wings. In the last larval instar, about 75% of the larvae died immediately before pupation, and a number of metamorphosis anomalies were observed in the ones that survived.

This is the first time that such anomalies and morphological defects of pupae are documented in the Menetries' tiger moth, and it is possible that they occur in a similar way in nature. Some metamorphosis anomalies manifested as larva-pupa intermediates due to disrupted molting, and pupae with severe anomalies produced adults that were unable to inflate their wings.

It is possible that the diet of the laboratory-reared larvae might have had something to do with the high mortality rate before pupation and the metamorphosis anomalies during it. Some of the larvae were fed on Aconitum leaves and larch needles during certain periods of their lives, and it is possible that toxic compounds found in these plants might have impacted their health and development. More research on larval diet would be needed, however, to confirm or reject this hypothesis.

Men aged 65 and over should monitor their sleep patterns and seek medical advice after a warning from Flinders University experts that disrupted slumber can be linked to cognitive dysfunction.

In a new article published in the Journal of Sleep Research, the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health research group studied a group of 477 middle-aged and older men's attention and processing speed in relation to their sleep.

The participants from the Florey Adelaide Male Ageing Study undertook cognitive testing and a successful sleep study.

"Less deep sleep and more light sleep is related to slower responses on cognitive function tests," says lead author Jesse Parker.

"While obstructive sleep apnoea itself is not directly related to cognitive function in all men studied, we did note that in men aged 65 and older, more light sleep was related to worse attention and processing speed."

Senior author of the study, Flinders Associate Professor Andrew Vakulin, says the results suggest that day-to-day activities that rely on optimal attention and cognitive speed such as driving, physical activities and walking might be affected by the encroachment of poor sleep.

Medical Director of the research group, Professor Robert Adams, says decreasing deep sleep as people age is associated with cognition. This emphasises the importance of ongoing research looking at ways to stimulate deep sleep as a means of slowing cognitive decline with age.

Further longitudinal investigation is needed to connect poor sleep and sleep apnoea with future changes in sleep patterns and cognitive decline as well as general microarchitectural changes in older people's sleep patterns.

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a new biomaterial made entirely from discarded bullfrog skin and fish scales that could help in bone repair.

The porous biomaterial, which contains the same compounds that are predominant in bones, acts as a scaffold for bone-forming cells to adhere to and multiply, leading to the formation of new bone.

Through laboratory experiments, the NTU Singapore team found that human bone-forming cells seeded onto the biomaterial scaffold successfully attached themselves and started multiplying - a sign of growth. They also found that the risk of the biomaterial triggering an inflammatory response is low.

Such a scaffold could be used to help with the regeneration of bone tissue lost to disease or injury, such as jaw defects from trauma or cancer surgery. It could also assist bone growth around surgical implants such as dental implants.

The scientists believe the biomaterial is a promising alternative to the current standard practice of using a patient's own tissues, which requires additional surgery for bone extraction. At the same time, the production of this biomaterial tackles the problem of aquaculture waste, said Assistant Professor Dalton Tay of the NTU School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), who led the multidisciplinary study.

More than 20 million tonnes of fishery by-products, such as fins, scales, and skins, are discarded every year. In Singapore, the combined annual consumption of frog flesh and fish is estimated to be around 100 million kilograms, making bullfrog skin and fish scales two of Singapore's largest aquaculture waste side streams.

Asst Prof Dalton Tay said: "We took the 'waste-to-resource' approach in our study and turned discards into a high-value material with biomedical applications, closing the waste loop in the process. Our lab studies showed that the biomaterial we have engineered could be a promising option that helps with bone repair. The potential for this biomaterial is very broad, ranging from repairing bone defects due to injury or ageing, to dental applications for aesthetics. Our research builds on NTU's body of work in the area of sustainability and is in line with Singapore's circular economy approach towards a zero-waste nation."

Professor Matthew Hu Xiao, the study's co-author and Director of the Environmental Chemistry and Materials Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI), added: "These waste streams can also be converted into green chemicals and materials for environmental remediation and timely treatment can reduce wastewater contamination."

Clinical Associate Professor Goh Bee Tin, Director for Research at the National Dental Centre Singapore, who was not involved in the study, said: "The National Dental Centre Singapore is excited about the use of bullfrog skin as a natural biomaterial for tissue regeneration. We see many potential dental applications ranging from the regeneration of gum tissues in periodontal disease, to bone for placement of dental implants, to jawbone following tumour surgery. Obviating the need for additional bone harvesting surgery also translates to time and cost savings, and less pain for patients."

The research findings were published online in Materials Science and Engineering C in April and will be published in Volume 126 of the journal in July.

The research team has filed patents for the biomaterial's wound healing and bone tissue engineering applications. The team is now further evaluating the long-term safety and efficacy of the biomaterial as dental products under a grant from the China-Singapore International Joint Research Institute and aims to bring the waste-to-resource technological pipeline closer to commercialisation.

Turning waste to treasure

With the combined annual consumption of frog flesh and fish in Singapore estimated to be around 100 million kilograms, bullfrog skin and fish scales are two of Singapore's largest aquaculture waste side streams. The fishery waste used by the NTU team was collected from Khai Seng Fish Farm and Jurong Frog Farm.

To make the biomaterial, the team first extracted Type 1 tropocollagen (many molecules of which form collagen fibres) from the discarded skins of the American bullfrog, locally farmed and imported into Singapore in large numbers for consumption; and hydroxyapatite (a calcium-phosphate compound) from the scales of snakehead fish, commonly known as the Toman fish.

Collagen and hydroxyapatite (HA) are two predominant components found in bones, thus conferring on the biomaterial a structure, composition, and ability to promote cell attachment that are like the bone. These two components also make the biomaterial tough.

The scientists removed all impurities from the bullfrog skin, then blended it to form a thick collagenous paste that is diluted with water. Collagen was then extracted from this mix. "Using this approach, we were able to obtain the highest ever reported yield of collagen of approximately 70 per cent from frog skin, thus making this approach commercially viable," said Asst Prof Tay, who is also from the NTU School of Biological Sciences (SBS).

HA was harvested from discarded fish scales through calcination - a purification process that requires high heat - to remove the organic matter, and then air-dried.

The biomaterial was synthesised by adding HA powder to the extracted collagen, then cast into a mould to produce a 3D porous scaffold. This entire process took less than two weeks and the team believes it can be both further shortened and scaled-up.

Proof-of-concept experiment

To assess the biological performance of the porous biomaterial scaffold for bone repair, the scientists seeded bone-forming cells onto the scaffold.

In their laboratory experiments, they found that the number of cells increased significantly. After a week, the cells were uniformly distributed across the scaffold - an indicator that the scaffold could promote proper cellular activities and eventually lead to the formation of tissues. The scientists also found that the presence of HA in the biomaterial significantly enhanced bone formation.

The biomaterial was also tested for its tendency to cause an inflammatory response, which is common after a biomaterial is implanted in the body. Using real-time polymerase chain reaction, the scientists found that the expression level of pro-inflammatory genes in human immune cells exposed to the biomaterial remained "relatively modest" when compared to a control exposed to endotoxins, a compound known to stimulate immune response, said Asst Prof Tay.

For instance, the expression of the gene IL6 in the biomaterial group was negligible and at least 50 times lower than that of the endotoxins-exposed immune cells. This suggests that the risk of the NTU-developed biomaterial to trigger an excessive acute inflammatory response is low.

Taken together, these findings demonstrate the potential of the biomaterial scaffold, synthesised from discarded bullfrog skin and fish scales, as a promising waste-to-resource bone graft substitute material for bone repair and regeneration.

Ms Chelsea Wan, Director, Jurong Frog Farm said: "The aquaculture industry is an important avenue to meet the global growing demand for safe and quality seafood, but a big challenge we face is the huge wastage and downcycling of valuable aquatic resources. In Singapore, the combined annual consumption of frog flesh and fish is estimated to be around 100 million kilograms, making bullfrog skin and fish scales two of the largest aquaculture waste side streams here. The integration of multiple seafood waste streams into a single high value product is a leading example of sustainable innovation for the aquaculture industry."

Going forward, the research team hopes to work with clinical and industrial partners on animal studies to find out how tissues in the body would respond to this biomaterial in the long term, and the material's ability to repair bone defects and dermal wounds, as well as to bring the entire waste-to-resource technological pipeline closer to commercialisation.

This multidisciplinary research is carried out by MSE, SBS, NEWRI, and the Energy Research Institute at NTU.

International research led by Monash University and the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity has achieved a proof of concept for a new, fast, portable saliva screening test that uses an infrared light technology to confirm infection with SARS-CoV-2.

The research is published today in Angewandte Chemie.

Professor Bayden Wood, from the Monash University School of Chemistry, Dr Phil Heraud formerly from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and collaborators Professors Dale Godfrey and Damian Purcell from the Doherty Institute, report on a new diagnostic approach, which involves the use of a portable infrared instrument to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in saliva.

The team identified a signature of the infectious agent in the infrared spectra of saliva from 27 out of the 29 SARS-CoV-2-infected human subjects who presented at The Royal Melbourne Hospital with COVID-19-like symptoms.

"The most significant advantages of using this infrared-based technology on saliva samples, include the speed and ease with which the test can be performed, its affordability and the reduced risk to both patients and healthcare workers," said Professor Wood.

The scientists say this is very encouraging preliminary research and are keen to see further testing with a larger patient cohort to better understand the specificity of this approach.

A portable infrared spectrometer was modified to enable high throughput screening enabling the samples to be rapidly scanned in a contactless mode without having to clean the instrument between measurements.

Professor Wood estimates that this technique could be capable of screening 5000 samples per day per instrument, with results for each sample being ready in five minutes.

Dr Heraud said because the infrared light interacted with the vibrations of molecules, it could be used to generate a spectrum that represented a unique chemical fingerprint of the sample that was then processed using machine learning algorithms.

"The approach has significant advantages over the standard Real Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) that is the current gold standard for detection," said Professor Godfrey.

"As we know, this requires that samples are sent to a dedicated laboratory and results take a day or more".

According to Professor Purcell the proposed new test also avoids the discomfort associated with nasopharyngeal swabs, an advantage that could improve community participation in testing.

"A person can contribute the sample by simply dribbling into a sterile container," he said.

"The result can be derived in less than five minutes and a rapid result minimises the delay in determining if quarantine is required, therefore minimising the risk of further spread of infection."

A similar infrared technique known as Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) spectroscopy has previously been used by the Monash researchers to detect malaria and hepatitis.

The new transflection infrared based approach offers triple the absorbance and hence interrogates more saliva to detect pathogens compared to the traditional ATR technology.

The speed and versatility of the technique potentiates its use for point-of-care screening at airports, sporting venues, universities or schools, to triage patients for RT-PCR testing.

Although multiple techniques were used in validating the approach, Professor Bayden Wood carried out much of the initial work using the infrared microspectroscopy beamline at the Australian Synchrotron (AS), with support from the beamline team.

The measurements performed at the AS were recorded from highly purified clusters of virus, provided by the team at the Doherty Institute.

The unique infrared RNA signature from the SARS-CoV-2 virus was then detected in the infrared spectra of the saliva samples recorded using the portable instrument.

A study led by research groups of Prof. FU Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. ZHANG Hucai from Yunnan University covers the largest temporal transect of population dynamics in East Asia so far and offers a clearer picture of the deep population history of northern East Asia.

The study was published in Cell on May 27.

Northern East Asia falls within a similar latitude range as central and southern Europe, where human population movements and size were influenced by Ice Age climatic fluctuations. Did these climatic fluctuations have an impact on the population history of northern East Asia?

Stories uncovered by ancient DNA in East Asia remain relatively underexplored. The population dynamics between 40,000 years ago (40 ka) and 9.5 ka still remain mysterious.

To answer questions related to the deep population history of East Asia, the researchers obtained genome-wide genotype data from 25 ancient humans ranging from 33 to 3.4 ka from the Songnen Plain (Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China) in the Amur Region. This period covers the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), which is crucial to understanding what happened to northern East Asians before, during and after the LGM.

They found that the oldest sample (AR33K, ~33 ka) shares the highest genetic affinity with the Tianyuan man (~40 ka near Beijing, which represents the earliest ancient genome found in East Asia so far), compared to all other published ancient and modern individuals. This probably indicates that Tianyuan/AR33K ancestry was widespread before the LGM in northern East Asia, both geographically and temporally (from 40 ka to 33 ka). In addition, both AR33K and Tianyuan are basal to all East Asians."

The second oldest sample (AR19K, ~19 ka), an individual who lived toward the end of the LGM, is revealed to be the earliest northern East Asian yet identified. This shows that North-South genetic separation in East Asia occurred as early as 19 ka, 10,000 years earlier than previously discovered. AR19K also possesses a genetic ancestry distinct from that of the modern humans who occupied this region before the LGM (e.g., Tianyuan and AR33K), indicating a potential population shift.

The analyses of younger samples after the LGM demonstrate that the genetic continuity reported between modern inhabitants of the Amur Region and the Devil's Cave population (about 8 ka) probably started as early as 14 ka, i.e., 6,000 years earlier than previously proposed.

"The Amur Region populations could have been at the forefront of interactions with ancient North Eurasian (ANE)-related populations that likely contributed to the Ancient Paleo-Siberians," said Prof. FU. The Ancient Paleo-Siberians are reported to be the closest relatives of Native American populations outside of the Americas.

Besides elucidating population dynamics, these analyses provide the first ancient DNA evidence to narrow the time of appearance of an Asian-specific variant (EDAR V370A), which is associated with anthropogenic traits like thicker hair shafts, more sweat glands, and shovel-shaped incisors.

"This genetic variant was likely to be elevated to high frequency after the LGM. Our direct observations using ancient DNA likely support the hypothesis that selection on EDAR V370A increased vitamin D in breast milk in a low UV environment," said Associate Professor MAO Xiaowei, the first author of the study.

NUI Galway study confirms that the Noble False Widow spider does have public health implications

Research team have established a DNA database to allow clinicians dealing with cases to confirm the species identity using genetic analysis

Epidemiology of bites reveals that almost all bites occurred in and around the home, and 88% of bites occurred when the victim was either asleep in bed or when the spider was trapped in clothing

In parts of Ireland and Britain, the False Widow spider has become one of the most common species of spiders found in and around urban habitats

A team of scientists from NUI Galway have published a new study showing that Noble False Widow spiders can deliver a bite that requires hospitalisation.

The threat posed by the Noble False Widow spider has been debated among spider and healthcare specialists for many years. This new study, published in the international medical journal Clinical Toxicology, confirms that some bite victims experience symptoms very similar to the true black widow spiders and some severe cases require hospitalisation.

Originating from Madeira and the Canary Islands, the Noble False Widow spider Steatoda nobilis, now has the potential to become one of the world's most invasive species of spider. It was first documented in Britain over 140 years ago, but in recent decades the species has suddenly increased in numbers, significantly expanding its range and density.

The reasons behind this sudden expansion are not clear. Scientists have ruled out climate change as the likely cause but have suggested that a new genetic mutation within the species may have made Noble False Widows more adaptable to new environments. In addition, the species has benefited from an ever-increasing globalised economy, hitchhiking in containers and crates throughout the globe. Human movement has largely contributed to spread this species throughout Europe, North Africa, West Asia and parts of North and South America.

In parts of Ireland and Britain, it has become one of the most common species of spiders found in and around urban habitats. With the increase in False Widow spiders around homes, bites are becoming more prevalent, and scientists are now beginning to realise the full medical importance of these spiders.

Envenomation symptoms can be both localised and systemic, ranging from mild to debilitating pain and mild to intense swelling. Some victims have experienced tremors, reduced or elevated blood pressure, nausea and impaired mobility. In rare instances, victims have developed minor wounds at the bite site or had to be treated for severe bacterial infections.

The research team at NUI Galway have established a DNA database to allow clinicians dealing with cases to confirm the species identity using genetic analysis. This is especially important when the spider has been squashed so an accurate identification of the spider can be made. The study also provides epidemiology of bites which reveals that almost all bites occurred in and around the home, and 88% of bites occurred when the victim was either asleep in bed or when the spider was trapped in clothing. The team are encouraging members of the public to email them at falsewidow@nuigalway.ie if they think they may have been bitten.

Dr Michel Dugon, Head of the Venom Systems Lab at NUI Galway and senior author of the study, said: "In addition to their medically significant venom, Noble False Widows are extremely adaptable and competitive in the wild. Two decades ago, this species was almost unknown in Ireland, the UK or in continental Europe. We still have much to learn about its genetics, origin, behaviour and development. One thing is certain though: this species is here to stay, and we must learn how to live with it."

Dr John Dunbar, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Venom Systems Lab at NUI Galway and lead author of the study, said: "Speculations around the potential severity of the bites by the Noble False Widow have been debated for many years. We only compiled envenomation cases where we had a clear identification of the spider responsible for the bite. We had to rely on DNA extraction and genetic profiling to confirm some cases. We are encouraging people to capture a photograph of the spider immediately after being bitten. Our latest study confirms without a doubt that Noble False Widows can cause severe envenomations (the process by which venom is injected).

"This species is increasing its range and population density which will undoubtedly lead to an increase in bites (since submitting our study in March we have already received further confirmed bite cases). While most cases will have a mild outcome, we need to continue to closely monitor bites by the Noble False Widow to understand the potential range of symptoms and to treat severe cases when they occur."

Aiste Vitkauskaite, MSc student in Toxicology at NUI Galway and joint lead in the study, said: "Approximately ten species of Irish spiders have fangs large enough to bite through human skin, yet over the past five years, we have never heard of anybody being bitten by any of the native species. Within the same period, we have recorded dozens of confirmed or probable False Widow bites. These spiders will become increasingly common and so will their bites."

Professor Derek O'Keeffe, Professor of Medical Device Technology at NUI Galway and Consultant Physician, University Hospital Galway said: "This innovative research led by Dr Dugon and his team clearly demonstrates that Noble False Widow spider bites may result in significant patient morbidity that requires hospital care. This is important as previously we only had anecdotal evidence of its potential harms in victims and therefore this new evidence will allow the updating of clinical guidelines and protocols. These findings demonstrates the key importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists and clinicians to improve patient care."

For years, food producers who make lightly preserved, ready-to-eat food have had to follow a set of guidelines to stop growth of Clostridium botulinum bacteria and production of a strong neurotoxin. The toxin can cause a serious illness called botulism.

For refrigerated products, the guidelines for controlling Clostridium botulinum indicate that the water contained in the products should have a salt content of at least 3.5%. Unfortunately, this hampers efforts to develop salt-reduced products, even though such products would benefit public health, as most consumers eat more salt than recommended.

If food producers want to launch products that contain e.g. less salt, they have had to conduct laboratory experiments to document that such a change in recipe will not compromise food safety. This is a time-consuming and costly process.

Reduced need for costly product testing

Researchers at the National Food Institute have now developed a mathematical model, which replaces costly laboratory experiments. The industry has been asking for this model for years. The new model can predict whether a particular recipe for chilled products can prevent the growth of Clostridium botulinum and production of the toxin.

The model is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world and can show how storage temperature, pH, salt and the use of five different preservatives (such as acetic and lactic acids) affect potential bacterial growth and production of the toxin. Previous models have only incorporated the effect of half of these factors.

The model was originally developed for use in fish products. However, by conducting validation studies using more than 500 different products, the researchers have established that it can be used to assess the safety of recipes for both fish and poultry.

Future work on the model will include other foods such as meat and vegetable products.

Major interest from the industry

The researchers have described their work with development of the new model in a newly published article in the International Journal of Food Microbiology. Because of this, several large food producers have already contacted the National Food Institute with a view to having the safety of their recipes tested using the model.

The next step is to include the new Clostridium botulinum model in the institute's Food Spoilage and Safety Predictor (FSSP) software in order to make it more user-friendly.

The FSSP programme already contains a number of models that can predict the growth of disease-causing microorganisms such as Listeria monocytogenes as well as some spoilage bacteria. FSSP is used by food producers all over the world to promote product development and to document food safety and shelf life.

Laboratory experiments using less dangerous bacteria

When conducting experiments using Clostridium botulinum bacteria, strict safety measures must be adhered to in the laboratory, as their toxins can cause serious illness that can lead to death.

During their work to create the new model, the researchers have used Clostridium botulinum isolates, which cannot form the dangerous toxins but are still useful for predicting the absence of growth and thereby absence of toxin formation in different recipes. The use of these bacteria has made laboratory work considerably less cumbersome.

Current neural network algorithms produce impressive results that help solve an incredible number of problems. However, the electronic devices used to run these algorithms still require too much processing power. These artificial intelligence (AI) systems simply cannot compete with an actual brain when it comes to processing sensory information or interactions with the environment in real time.

Neuromorphic chip detects high-frequency oscillations

Neuromorphic engineering is a promising new approach that bridges the gap between artificial and natural intelligence. An interdisciplinary research team at the University of Zurich, the ETH Zurich, and the UniversityHospital Zurich has used this approach to develop a chip based on neuromorphic technology that reliably and accurately recognizes complex biosignals. The scientists were able to use this technology to successfully detect previously recorded high-frequency oscillations (HFOs). These specific waves, measured using an intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG), have proven to be promising biomarkers for identifying the brain tissue that causes epileptic seizures.

Complex, compact and energy efficient

The researchers first designed an algorithm that detects HFOs by simulating the brain's natural neural network: a tiny so-called spiking neural network (SNN). The second step involved imple-menting the SNN in a fingernail-sized piece of hardware that receives neural signals by means of electrodes and which, unlike conventional computers, is massively energy efficient. This makes calculations with a very high temporal resolution possible, without relying on the internet or cloud computing. "Our design allows us to recognize spatiotemporal patterns in biological signals in real time," says Giacomo Indiveri, professor at the Institute for Neuroinformatics of UZH and ETH Zur-ich.

Measuring HFOs in operating theaters and outside of hospitals

The researchers are now planning to use their findings to create an electronic system that reliably recognizes and monitors HFOs in real time. When used as an additional diagnostic tool in operating theaters, the system could improve the outcome of neurosurgical interventions.

However, this is not the only field where HFO recognition can play an important role. The team's long-term target is to develop a device for monitoring epilepsy that could be used outside of the hospital and that would make it possible to analyze signals from a large number of electrodes over several weeks or months. "We want to integrate low-energy, wireless data communications in the design - to connect it to a cellphone, for example," says Indiveri. Johannes Sarnthein, a neurophysiologist at UniversityHospital Zurich, elaborates: "A portable or implantable chip such as this could identify periods with a higher or lower rate of incidence of seizures, which would enable us to deliver personalized medicine." This research on epilepsy is being conducted at the Zurich Center of Epileptology and Epilepsy Surgery, which is run as part of a partnership between UniversityHospital Zurich, the Swiss Epilepsy Clinic and the University Children's Hospital Zurich.

The hunt for the never before heard "hum" of gravitational waves caused by mysterious neutron stars has just got a lot easier, thanks to an international team of researchers.

Gravitational waves have only been detected from black holes and neutron stars colliding, major cosmic events that cause huge bursts that ripple through space and time.

The research team, involving scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), Virgo Collaboration and the Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics (CGA) at The Australian National University (ANU), are now turning their eagle eye to spinning neutron stars to detect the waves.

Unlike the massive bursts caused by black holes or neutron stars colliding, the researchers say single spinning neutron stars have a bulge or "mountain" only a few millimetres high, which may produce a steady constant stream or "hum" of gravitational waves.

The researchers are using their methods that detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2015 to capture this steady soundtrack of the stars over the thunderous noise of massive black holes and dense neutron stars colliding.

They say it's like trying to capture the squeak of a mouse in the middle of a stampeding herd of elephants.

If successful, it would be the first detection of a gravitational wave event that didn't involve the collision of massive objects like black holes or neutron stars.

ANU Distinguished Professor, Susan Scott from the ANU Research School of Physics, said the collision of dense neutron stars sent a "burst" of gravitational waves rippling through the Universe.

"Neutron stars are mystery objects," Professor Scott, also a Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), said.

"We don't really understand what they are made up of, or how many types of them exist. But what we do know is that when they collide, they send incredible bursts of gravitational waves across the Universe.

"In contrast, the gentle hum of a spinning neutron star is very faint and almost impossible to detect."

Three new papers have just been published by the LSC and Virgo collaborations detailing the most sensitive searches to date for the faint hum of gravitational waves from spinning neutron stars.

Their work offers a "map to the potential El Dorado of gravitational waves."

"One of our searches targets young supernova remnants. These neutron stars, recently born, are more deformed, and should emit a stronger stream of gravitational waves," Dr Lilli Sun, from CGA and an Associate Investigator with OzGrav, said.

As these searches become more and more sensitive they are providing more detail than ever of the possible shape and make-up of neutron stars.

"If we can manage to detect this hum, we'll be able to look deep into the heart of a neutron star and unlock its secrets," Dr Karl Wette, a postdoctoral researcher with OzGrav and the CGA, said.

Professor Scott, who is also the leader of the General Relativity Theory and Data Analysis Group at ANU, added: "Neutron stars represent the densest form of matter in the Universe before a black hole will form."

"Searching for their gravitational waves allows us to probe nuclear matter states that simply can't be produced in laboratories on Earth."

AMHERST, Mass. - New research by University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomer Daniel Wang reveals, with unprecedented clarity, details of violent phenomena in the center of our galaxy. The images, published recently in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, document an X-ray thread, G0.17-0.41, which hints at a previously unknown interstellar mechanism that may govern the energy flow and potentially the evolution of the Milky Way.

"The galaxy is like an ecosystem," says Wang, a professor in UMass Amherst's astronomy department, whose findings are a result of more than two decades of research. "We know the centers of galaxies are where the action is and play an enormous role in their evolution." And yet, whatever has happened in the center of our own galaxy is hard to study, despite its relative proximity to Earth, because, as Wang explains, it is obscured by a dense fog of gas and dust. Researchers simply can't see the center, even with an instrument as powerful as the famous Hubble Space Telescope. Wang, however, has used a different telescope, NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which "sees" X-rays, rather than the rays of visible light that we perceive with our own eyes. These X-rays are capable of penetrating the obscuring fog--and the results are stunning.

Wang's findings, which were supported by NASA, give the clearest picture yet of a pair of X-ray-emitting plumes that are emerging from the region near the massive black hole lying at the center of our galaxy. Even more intriguing is the discovery of an X-ray thread called G0.17-0.41, located near the southern plume. "This thread reveals a new phenomenon," says Wang. "This is evidence of an ongoing magnetic field reconnection event." The thread, writes Wang, probably represents "only the tip of the reconnection iceberg."

A magnetic field reconnection event is what happens when two opposing magnetic fields are forced together and combine with one another, releasing an enormous amount of energy. "It's a violent process," says Wang, and is known to be responsible for such well-known phenomena as solar flares, which produce space weather powerful enough to disrupt power grids and communications systems here on Earth. They also produce the spectacular Northern Lights. Scientists now think that magnetic reconnection also occurs in interstellar space and tends to take place at the outer boundaries of the expanding plumes driven out of our galaxy's center.

"What is the total amount of energy outflow at the center of the galaxy? How is it produced and transported? And how does it regulate the galactic ecosystem?" These, says Wang, are the fundamental questions whose answers will help to unlock the history of our galaxy. Though much work remains to be done, Wang's new map points the way. For more information, including additional images and video, visit the Chandra X-Ray Observatory's Galactic Center website.

New Orleans, LA - A review study led by Maria D. Sanchez-Pino, PhD, an assistant research professor in the departments of Interdisciplinary Oncology and Genetics at LSU Health New Orleans' School of Medicine and Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, advances knowledge about the connection between obesity-associated inflammation and cancer. The researchers suggest that inflammatory cells with immunosuppressive properties may act as a critical biological link between obesity and cancer risk, progression, and metastasis. The paper is published in the June 2021 issue of Obesity, available here.

Despite evidence showing that obesity increases the risk of cancer progression, efforts are needed to identify the causal relationship between immunosuppressive cells and the response of immunotherapy in patients with obesity.

The function of myeloid cells is shaped by the metabolic microenvironment. Along with macrophages, myeloid cells with immunosuppressive properties called Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are generated in obesity. One of the major factors associated with the metabolic inflammation of obesity is the expansion of MDSCs. In cancer patients, MDSCs are associated with poor survival and resistance to immunotherapy.

Although there is tremendous cross-talk between inflammation and metabolic/endocrine disturbances that promote tumor growth in obesity, the biological and molecular mechanisms are not completely understood. The researchers reviewed the literature and explain that altered metabolic factors such as lipids, insulin, and leptin in obesity contribute to the activation of immunosuppressive and cancer developing capabilities of myeloid cells.

"Deciphering the molecular mechanisms by which obesity-associated metabolic factors activate or enhance the function of Myeloid-derived Suppressor Cells and immunosuppressive macrophages will allow us to identify biomarkers for prognosis and therapeutic responses," notes Dr. Sanchez-Pino. "It will also lead to the discovery of potential targets for pharmacological therapies that may disrupt the pathophysiologic inflammatory link between obesity and cancer."

A study led by researchers from the Institute Cajal of Spanish Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid, Spain in collaboration with the Bioengineering Department of George Mason University in Virginia, USA has updated one of the world's largest databases on neuronal types, Hippocampome.org.

The study, which is published in the journal PLOS Biology, represents the most comprehensive mapping performed to date between neural activity recoded in vivo and identified neuron types. This major breakthrough may enable biologically meaningful computer modeling of the full neuronal circuit of the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in memory function.

Circuits of the mammalian cerebral cortex are made up of two types of neurons: excitatory neurons, which release a neurotransmitter called glutamate, and inhibitory neurons, which release GABA (gamma-aminobutanoic acid), the main inhibitor of the central nervous system. "A balanced dialogue between the 'excitatory' and 'inhibitory' activities is critical for brain function. Identifying the contribution from the several types of excitatory and inhibitory cells is essential to better understand brain operation", explains Liset Menendez de la Prida, the Director of the Laboratorio de Circuitos Neuronales at the Institute Cajal who leads the study at the CSIC.

In the case of the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory function, there are 39 known types of excitatory principal cells and 85 types of inhibitory neurons. Activity patterns of these several cell types are very specific. All this information is now compiled in Hippocampome.org, a database created five years ago by the Center for Neural Informatics at George Mason University. This database integrates all current knowledge about the morphology, biophysics, genetic identity, connectivity and firing patterns of more than 120 types of neurons identified in the rodent hippocampus.

This upgrade, which has been possible thanks to a carefully recollection, identification and classification of neurons at the Institute Cajal, will allow the annotation and classification of high-density brain recordings, critical for brain machine interfaces. "Much of our knowledge about nerve cells to date comes from laboratory preparations that separate tissue sections of interest from the rest of the brain" says Giorgio Ascoli, a George Mason University Professor who directs the Center for Neural Informatics. "This new linkage to activity recorded in live animals is a game-changer towards real-scale computer models of brain and memory functions", adds Ascoli.

Novel computational models and machine learning applications

New information provided by Hippocampome.org may have impact in the development of more realistic predictive models that consider neural diversity as a source of information. The results of the work will help to decode brain signals associated with complex cognitive processes for which the information of single cell activity is essential.

This is the case of the hippocampus, which build a neural representation of sequential experiences that is later reactivated in a very specific way for encoding, storing, and retrieving memories. In order to better understand this code, we need to decompose mixed neuronal representations. The additional data included into Hippocampome.org may now provide the needed labels to begin deconstructing the code using modern tools from artificial intelligence.