Culture

A grass commonly used to fight soil erosion has been genetically modified to successfully remove toxic chemicals left in the ground from munitions that are dangerous to human health, new research shows.

The study - led by the University of York- demonstrates that genetically modified switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) can detoxify residues of the military explosive, RDX, left behind on live-fire training ranges, munitions dumps and minefields.

RDX has been a major component of munitions since WW2 which are still used extensively on military training grounds. This use has now resulted in widespread pollution of groundwater.

Researchers generated the plants by inserting two genes from bacteria able to breakdown RDX. The plants were then grown in RDX contaminated soil on a US military site. The genetically modified grass grew well and successfully degraded RDX to non-detectable levels in their plant tissues.

Study authors, Professor Neil Bruce from the Department of Biology and Director of the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) and Dr Liz Rylott, also from CNAP believe it is the first successful example of the use of a GM plant in-the-field to remove organic pollutants, which are resistant to environmental degradation.

Dr Rylott said: "The removal of the toxic RDX from training ranges is logistically challenging and there is currently a lack of cost-effective and sustainable solutions.

"Our research demonstrates how the expression, in switchgrass, of two bacterial genes that have evolved specifically to degrade RDX give the plants the ability to remove and metabolise RDX in the field at concentrations relevant to live fire military ranges.

"We demonstrated that by inserting these genes into switchgrass, the plant then had the ability to degrade RDX to non-detectable levels in the plant tissue."

The study confirmed that the plants were able remove and degrade RDX at a rate of 27 kg RDX per hectare. RDX is designated as a priority pollutant by the US Environmental Protection Agency and is of significant and increasing public concern. In the US, over 10 million hectares of military land are contaminated with munitions components, of which, RDX is a major component.

Professor Bruce added: "The recalcitrance of RDX to degradation in the environment, combined with its high mobility through soil and groundwater, mean that plumes of toxic RDX continue to spread below these military sites, threatening drinking water supplies."

The paper sites an example when in 1997, plumes of RDX pollution were discovered in both groundwater and the aquifer beneath the training range at the Massachusetts Military Reservation in Cape Cod. The aquifer is the sole source of drinking water for half a million people and resulted in the Environment Protection Agency preventing use of all live munitions during training at this site.

The study says that the continuing demand for vast amounts of military explosives means that RDX will continue to be manufactured and used globally on a massive scale for the foreseeable future.

A research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) scientists recently developed a new generation of microneedles technology which allows the intradermal delivery of living cells in a minimally invasive manner. Their experiment showed that vaccination using therapeutic cells through this ground-breaking technology elicited robust immune responses against tumours in mice, paving the way for developing an easy-to-use cell therapy and other therapeutics against cancers and other diseases.

The study was led by Dr Xu Chenjie, Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at CityU. The latest findings have been published in the scientific journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, titled "Cryomicroneedles for Transdermal Cell Delivery".

The new technology "cryomicroneedles" are the icy microneedles shorter than 1mm and can deliver therapeutic cells into the skin layers. "It is a skin patch-like device that can load, store, and intradermally deliver the living mammalian cells," explained Dr Xu.

Cell therapy, also called cell transplantation, is a therapy in which living cells like immune cells or stem cells are injected, grafted or implanted into a patient to achieve a medicinal effect. Advances in cell therapies have brought promising treating approach for previously intractable diseases like cancers. The global market size of cell therapy was valued at USD 7.8 billion in 2020.
[Note 1]

"But many problems related to the application of cell therapy yet to be solved," said Dr Xu. For example, the therapeutic cells are currently delivered by either surgical grafts or bolus injection. These methods are invasive, painful, complicated, low-efficient, and they bring the risk of infection and require experienced professionals to implement. It is also hard to store and transport the current solution-like formulations of cell therapeutics.

To solve this challenge, Dr Xu and his team at CityU have developed these cryomicroneedles that carry and deliver living cells into the skin. By putting the patch-like device on the skin, the microneedles would penetrate through the skin, detach from the patch base and then melt. The loaded cells were released, and subsequently migrated and proliferated inside the skin. This innovative device can be stored for months in refrigerators. It is also easy for transportation and deployment.

As a proof-of-concept, the researchers explored cell-based cancer immunotherapy through intradermal delivery of ovalbumin-pulsed dendritic cells. In the study, vaccination with this device elicited robust antigen-specific immune responses and provided strong protection against tumour in mice, which were superior to the therapeutic outcomes by conventional standard vaccination methods such as subcutaneous and intravenous injection.

"The application of our device is not limited to the delivery of cells. This device can also package, store, and deliver other types of bioactive therapeutic agents, such as proteins, peptides, mRNA, DNA, and vaccines. I hope this device offers an easy-to-use and effective alternative method for the delivery of therapeutics in clinics," Dr Xu said.

Dr Chang Hao from CityU's BME is the first author, and Dr Xu is the corresponding author. Professor Wang Dongan and Dr Shi Peng from BME are also part of the research team. Other researchers come from Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore. The research was partially funded by the CityU and a patent application has been filed through CityU.

https://www.cityu.edu.hk/research/stories/2021/05/03/cityu-scientists-invent-cryomicroneedles-intradermal-therapeutic-cell-delivery

[Note 1: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cell-therapy-market]

Black and Latino neighborhoods in the 30 most populous U.S. cities had fewer pharmacies than white or diverse neighborhoods in 2007-2015, USC research shows, suggesting that 'pharmacy deserts'- like so-called food deserts-may be an overlooked contributor to persistent racial and ethnic health disparities.

Pharmacies are increasingly vital points of care for essential health services. In addition to filling prescriptions to treat chronic health conditions, pharmacists dispense emergency doses of naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses, contraceptives to prevent unplanned pregnancy and COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.

But many neighborhoods in major cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Memphis lack convenient access to a pharmacy, according to research published published today in the May issue of the journal Health Affairs.

"We focused on cities because of racial/ethnic residential segregation and the fact that more than 80% of the Black and Latino population in the U.S. live in cities," said senior author Dima Mazen Qato, Hygeia Centennial Chair and associate professor of pharmacy at the USC School of Pharmacy and senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics.

"Our findings suggest that addressing disparities in geographic access to pharmacies - including pharmacy closures -- is imperative to improving access to essential medications and other health care services in segregated minority neighborhoods," said Qato, who directs the Program on Medicines and Public Health.

"One in three neighborhoods throughout these cities were pharmacy deserts, affecting nearly 15 million people," said Jenny S. Guadamuz, study first author and Postdoctoral Fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center and the USC Program on Medicines and Public Health at the USC School of Pharmacy. "However, limited access to pharmacies disproportionately impacts racial/ethnic minorities--8.3 million Black and Latino residents of these cities live in deserts."

Researchers focused on census tracts/neighborhoods in cities with populations of 500,000 or more. Census tracts, smaller than ZIP code areas, generally have a population size between 1,200 and 8,000 people. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey established neighborhood characteristics including total population, and percentage of the population by race/ethnicity, low-income status and vehicle ownership. Pharmacy locations and types of pharmacies came from National Council for Prescription Drug Programs.

Researchers overlaid census tract maps with pharmacy locations. Neighborhoods where the average distance to the nearest pharmacy was 1.0 mile or more were classified as pharmacy deserts. In neighborhoods that were low income and had at least 100 households with no vehicle, the qualifying distance dropped to 1/2 mile or more, to account for transportation barriers.

"Traveling a mile to get your prescription medications may be convenient for people that own a car. Traveling a mile, or even ½ a mile, may be difficult for people who live in low-income neighborhoods and don't drive, particularly older adults who rely on walking or public transportation," said Qato.

Prevalence of pharmacy deserts varied widely across cities. In New York and Philadelphia, for example, fewer than 10 percent of neighborhoods met the definition of pharmacy deserts. On the other hand, more than 60 percent of neighborhoods in Indianapolis, San Antonio, and Charlotte were pharmacy deserts.

In all cities, segregated Black or Latino neighborhoods, or both, were more likely to be pharmacy deserts than white or diverse neighborhoods. These disparities were most pronounced in Los Angeles, Chicago, Albuquerque, Dallas, Memphis, Boston, Milwaukee, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

"We observed stark disparities in Los Angeles, where one-third of all Black and Latino neighborhoods were pharmacy deserts, particularly neighborhoods in South Central LA, including Florence, Broadway-Manchester and Watts," said Guadamuz.

Among all the cities examined, the most pronounced disparities were in Chicago, where 1% of white neighborhoods were pharmacy deserts in comparison to 33% of Black neighborhoods in the South Side neighborhoods of Chatham, West Pullman and Greater Grand Crossing, Guadamuz added.

The researchers said policies could help address the situation. For example, federal, state, and local governments could deploy targeted grants and tax benefits to encourage pharmacies to locate in pharmacy deserts. Other incentives could motivate pharmacies to offer services such as home delivery to improve access.

"Increasing Medicaid and Medicare pharmacy reimbursement rates for prescription medications might encourage pharmacies to open in areas of need," Guadamuz said. "To ensure existing pharmacies don't close, policymakers need to make sure that stores serving Black and Latino areas are not excluded from pharmacy networks."

What would it be like to produce fertilizer in your own basement? Leguminous plants, like peas, beans, and various species of clover, obtain the organic nitrogen they need for their growth from symbiotic soil bacteria via specialized structures in their roots. A team led by the cell biologist Prof. Dr. Thomas Ott from the University of Freiburg's Faculty of Biology has now detected a factor in the root cells that the plants need for the initial contact with these so-called root-associated bacteria, which live in the soil. They discovered a protein found only in legumes called symbiotic formin 1 (SYFO1) and demonstrated the essential role it plays in symbiosis. Together with the molecular biologist Prof. Dr. Robert Grosse University of Freiburg's Faculty of Medicine and the evolutionary biologist Dr. Pierre-Marc Delaux from the Laboratoire de Recherche en Sciences Végétales (LRSV) in Toulouse/France, the team published their results in the journal Current Biology.

When a root nodule bacterium encounters the roots of a leguminous plant in the soil, the SYFO1 protein causes the tiny hairs of the root to change the direction of their growth. They thus wrap themselves around the potential symbiotic partner. Thanks to these bacterial helpers, legumes do not need any nitrogenous fertilizer, in contrast to other plants. "If we understood precisely how the symbiosis comes into being, we could give crop plants back this special property they have lost in the course of evolution," says Ott. Both he and Grosse are members of the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS - Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies. Ott's research at CIBSS involves studying the spatial organization of the signaling paths that enable the symbiotic relationship with symbiotic bacteria in the first place. Grosse, on the other hand, focuses in his work in Freiburg on the cytoskeleton of animal cells. "In our collaboration, which was made possible by CIBSS, we were able to contribute our expertise in different areas of specialization in the best possible way," says Ott.

The team demonstrated in the legume Medicago truncatula (barrel medic) that the root hairs of plants in which the gene for SYFO1 has been switched off are practically no longer capable of wrapping themselves around the bacteria. In further studies, the researchers discovered that the protein binds to actin, a component of the cytoskeleton, and at the same time to the cell wall outside the cells, thus changing the direction of its growth: Instead of growing straight, the tiny hairs now change their direction and form a loop around the bacterium.

"SYFO1 constitutes a special innovative step in the evolution of the plants," explains Ott. "While formin proteins are present in many forms in cells and interact with actin, this special type only responds to symbiotic signals from the bacteria."

Impaired bone health is among the most significant long-term consequences of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), a common therapy for patients with malignant and non-malignant haematological diseases.

To address this serious problem, the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) expert Working Group on Cancer and Bone Disease has published a new Executive Summary of its authoritative state-of-the-art review. The review outlined the major factors affecting bone health in HSCT patients, and provided expert guidance for the monitoring, evaluation and treatment of bone loss in these patients. Published in the Journal of Bone Oncology, the Executive Summary now provides a helpful management algorithm and succinct key guidance based on the Working Group's expert opinion.

Professor René Rizzoli, Chair of the IOF Cancer and Bone Working Group and Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland, stated:

"This concise summary aims to encourage and assist haematologists and oncologists in addressing osteoporosis and fracture prevention in their hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients. The 'check list' includes bone mineral density examination, evaluation of clinical risk factors, and general dietary and physical activity measures, with appropriate application of osteoporosis pharmacotherapies in those who are found to be at increased high risk of fracture."

Professor Nicholas Harvey, Chair of the IOF Committee of Scientific Advisors and Professor of Rheumatology and Clinical Epidemiology at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK added:

"Unfortunately, too many hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients are not being monitored and treated for bone fragility, despite the fact that poor bone health is a significant comorbidity post-HSCT. We therefore urge all physicians who care for HSCT recipients to take action to protect their patients' long-term bone health. It is important to keep in mind that fragility fractures can be severely debilitating, with resulting loss of physical independence and quality of life."

Individuals living with severe Alzheimer's disease showed remarkable improvements in behaviour and cognition within days of receiving an innovative new treatment that delivered low doses of radiation, a recent Baycrest-Sunnybrook pilot study found.

"The primary goal of a therapy for Alzheimer's disease should be to improve the patient's quality of life. We want to optimize their well-being and restore communication with family and friends to avoid social isolation, loneliness and under-stimulation. Although the study was a small pilot and should be interpreted with caution, our results suggest that low-dose radiation therapy may successfully achieve this," says Dr. Morris Freedman, scientist at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute, head of the division of neurology at Baycrest and senior author of the study.

The study was a clinical follow-up to a 2015 case report about a patient in hospice with Alzheimer's disease. After being treated several times with radiation to her brain, she showed such significant improvements in cognition, speech, movement and appetite that she was discharged from the hospice to a long-term care home for older adults.

High doses of radiation are known to have harmful effects on our health. However, low doses, such as those used for diagnostic CT scans, can help the body protect and repair itself.

"Numerous neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, are thought to be caused in part by oxidative stress that damages all cells, including those in the brain. We have natural protection systems to combat the damage, but they become less effective as we get older. Each dose of radiation stimulates our natural protection systems to work harder - to produce more antioxidants that prevent oxidative damage, to repair more DNA damage and to destroy more mutated cells," says Dr. Jerry Cuttler, a retired Atomic Energy of Canada scientist. He has been researching the effects of radiation on health for more than 25 years and is the lead author of the study.

In this study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, four individuals living with severe Alzheimer's disease were given three treatments of low-dose radiation, each spaced two weeks apart. A CT scanner at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre was employed to provide the treatments, with the supervision and support of Dr. Sandra Black, senior scientist and neurologist, and Dr. Sean Symons, radiologist-in-chief, both at Sunnybrook. The researchers used standardized tests and observation to record changes in the patients' communication and behaviour after the treatment. Most importantly, they collected information (descriptions, photos and videos) from the patients' spouse, children and caregivers.

Remarkably, three of the four individuals showed improvements within one day of the first treatment, with their relatives reporting increased alertness and responsiveness, recognition of loved ones, mobility, social engagement, mood and more.

Two days after the first treatment, the son of one of the patients reported, "When I said hello, she looked at me and said, 'Hello dear.' She hadn't said this to me in years!"

The daughter of another patient noted: "I had an amazing visit with my dad this evening. I'm speechless from last night. He was excited to see me - he spoke to me right away and gave me multiple kisses - real kisses like years ago. He was clapping his hands to the music. My mom agreed it's been years since he has done this. Everyone is amazed."

The results of this study offer hope for those with severe Alzheimer's disease and their loved ones. However, it is important to note that this was a small pilot study with some limitations, including missing a placebo group. Future research is needed to examine the effects of this novel therapy in larger clinical trials.

New research shows that patients who have had contact with the hospital due to serious glandular disease have a greater risk of subsequently developing depression. The study from iPSYCH is the largest yet to show a correlation between glandular fever and depression.

The vast majority of Danes have had glandular fever - also called mononucleosis - before adulthood. And for the vast majority of them, the disease can be cured at home with throat lozenges and a little extra care. But for some, the disease is so serious that they need to visit the hospital.

A new research result now shows that precisely those patients who have been in contact with the hospital in connection with their illness, have a greater risk of suffering a depression later.

"Our study shows that it is associated with a forty per cent greater relative risk of developing depression, if the patient has been in contact with a hospital due to glandular fever," says Professor and Research Director Michael Eriksen Benrós from the Mental Health Centre, Copenhagen, the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University, who is behind the study.

Demonstrates a correlation

The risk was considerable for up to four years after the infection.

"It is well-known that mononucleosis infection can cause long-term fatigue afterwards, and we can now see that there is also an increased risk of developing actual depression, which requires contact with the hospital. Fortunately, this was only the case for 1 out of 35 with mononucleosis infection within the study's follow-up, he says.

The study is a register-based study which has followed 1,440,590 Danes, of whom 12,510 had contact with the hospital due to glandular fever, and of these, 358 - corresponding to three per cent - subsequently developed depression that required hospital contact.

"Previous studies of the correlation between glandular fever and subsequent depression have primarily been small studies and the correlation has therefore been unclear. This study is the first major study able to demonstrate the correlation with a subsequent risk of depression with great statistical strength," says the lead author of the study, Nina Vindegaard from the Mental Health Centre, Copenhagen.

Affects young people

Glandular fever affects young people aged 10-25 years in particular, and symptoms include fatigue, pain in the neck, fever and swollen lymph nodes on the neck, often accompanied by fatigue in the months following. It is also often young people who come into contact with the hospital because their symptoms are serious.

"This knowledge is important - both for the patient and their parents, but also to a great extent for general practitioners - as there is an increased risk of depression after the infection," explains Nina Vindegaard.

According to Michael Eriksen Benrós, part of the explanation for the increased risk may be that the brain is affected by the infection:

"We know that mononucleosis infection can lead to long-term fatigue, but the actual underlying mechanisms for how this happens to a greater extent for this particular infection compared to many other infections haven't been identified. The general hypotheses are that it happens through activation of the immune system, which may also lie behind the increased risk of depression," he says.

Background for the results

The register-based study followed 1.44 million Danes born between 1977-2005, with 12,510 of these having had contact with the hospital contact with mononucleosis. Mononucleosis infection was associated with a forty percent increased relative risk of subsequently developing depression. Relative risk is the risk of an undesired outcome in the treatment group divided by the same risk in the control group.

AUSTIN, Texas -- For people experiencing homelessness, missing proof of identity can be a major barrier to receiving critical services, from housing to food assistance to health care. Physical documents such as driver's licenses are highly susceptible to loss, theft or damage. However, researchers from Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin say new technology solutions such as blockchain can be used to keep important health care information secure and portable.

"Health care institutions and social services are so fragmented and siloed they're unable to accurately collect, share or verify basic identity information about a person experiencing homelessness," said Tim Mercer, M.D., MPH, director of the Global Health Program in the Department of Population Health at Dell Med and co-author of a new commentary published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. "This puts the burden on the most underserved people in our communities to navigate complex bureaucracies, just to prove their identities."

How Blockchain Works

Mercer and co-author Anjum Khurshid, M.D., Ph.D., say blockchain holds great potential as "techQuity"-- technology that provides innovative solutions to advance health equity. Blockchain is a decentralized, digital ledger system that uses encryption to share information or transactions across a network of computers. Once verified, each "block" of new information is linked to the existing block, creating a chain of secure data that a person can access anytime, anywhere.

"The architecture of blockchain technology makes it a unique solution for managing identities of vulnerable people, allowing them to secure their information and control when and where that data gets shared," said Khurshid, director of data integration in Dell Med's Department of Population Health. "For instance, if you need to prove you're over 18 years old, that information can be validated through blockchain without having to share your driver's license."

Putting the Technology to the Test

In 2018, the City of Austin worked with a team at Dell Med to test the feasibility of blockchain technology to establish an identity system for people experiencing homelessness. The results of the study showed that blockchain allowed them to upload and share documents with service providers, while holding their personal information as an asset in their blockchain account.

In the commentary, Mercer and Khurshid propose a research agenda to address unresolved issues, including:

Defining the scope of the problem,

Mapping infrastructure requirements,

Understanding legal and ethical considerations, and

Testing the overall effectiveness of blockchain to not only solve identity management problems, but also to improve health equity for people experiencing homelessness.

"While blockchain is seeing increased applications across the health care and social sectors, this is still largely uncharted territory," said Mercer. "We have an incredible opportunity to partner with the private technology sector to solve this pernicious problem that plagues one of society's most vulnerable populations."

A study encompassing some 9,000 dogs conducted at the University of Helsinki demonstrated that fearfulness, age, breed, the company of other members of the same species and the owner's previous experience of dogs were associated with aggressive behaviour towards humans. The findings can potentially provide tools for understanding and preventing aggressive behaviour.

Aggressive behaviour in dogs can include growling, barking, snapping and biting. These gestures are part of normal canine communication, and they also occur in non-aggressive situations, such as during play. However, aggressive behaviour can be excessive, making the dog a health threat to both humans and other animals.

"Understanding the factors underlying aggressive behaviour is important. In what kinds of circumstances does aggressive behaviour occur and what is the dog's motive for such behaviour? In normal family dogs, aggressive behaviour is often unwanted, while some dogs with official duties are expected to have the capacity for aggressiveness. At the same time, aggressiveness can be caused by welfare issues, such as chronic pain," says doctoral researcher Salla Mikkola from the University of Helsinki.

The canine gene research group active at the University of Helsinki surveyed connections between aggressive behaviour and several potential risk factors with the help of a dataset encompassing more than 9,000 dogs, a sample from a larger dataset from a behavioural survey dataset of nearly 14,000 dogs. The study investigated aggressiveness towards both dog owners and unfamiliar human beings. Dogs were classified as aggressive if they growled often and/or had attempted to snap at or bite a human at least occasionally in the situations described in the survey.

"Dogs' fearfulness had a strong link to aggressive behaviour, with fearful dogs many times more likely to behave aggressively. Moreover, older dogs were more likely to behave aggressively than younger ones. One of the potential reasons behind this can be pain caused by a disease. Impairment of the senses can contribute to making it more difficult to notice people approaching, and dogs' responses to sudden situations can be aggressive," Mikkola adds.

Small dogs are more likely to behave aggressively than mid-sized and large dogs, but their aggressive behaviour is not necessarily considered as threatening as that of large dogs. Consequently, their behaviour is not addressed. In addition, the study found that male dogs were more aggressive than females. However, sterilisation had no effect on aggressive behaviour.

The first dogs of dog owners were more likely to behave aggressively compared to dogs whose owners had previous experience of dogs. The study also indicated that dogs that spend time in the company of other dogs behave less aggressively than dogs that live without other dogs in the household. While this phenomenon has been observed in prior research, the causality remains unclear.

"In the case of dogs prone to aggressive behaviour in the first instance, owners may not necessarily wish to take a risk of conflicts with another dog," Mikkola muses.

Significant differences in aggressive behaviour between breeds

Differences in the aggressiveness of various dog breeds can point to a genetic cause.

"In our dataset, the Long-Haired Collie, Poodle (Toy, Miniature and Medium) and Miniature Schnauzer were the most aggressive breeds. Previous studies have shown fearfulness in Long-Haired Collies, while the other two breeds have been found to express aggressive behaviour towards unfamiliar people. As expected, the popular breeds of Labrador Retriever and Golden Retriever were at the other extreme. People who are considering getting a dog should familiarise themselves with the background and needs of the breed. As for breeders, they should also pay attention to the character of dam candidates, since both fearfulness and aggressive behaviour are inherited," says Professor Hannes Lohi from the University of Helsinki.

The terms "co-creation" and "co-production", which denote the possibility for laypeople to participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives, have been gaining popularity. A new IIASA-led study explored options for empowering citizens as a driver for moving from awareness about the need to transform energy systems to action and participation.

The European Union's climate and energy policies for 2020-2030 require decarbonization of the energy sector. To this end, EU member countries are working on a number of key goals including greater energy efficiency, greater use of renewable energy, and increased energy security across the EU. The successful implementation of policies that support the achievement of these goals might lead not only to a transformation of energy systems, but also to socioeconomic transitions, and will depend on economic and technical factors, as well as behavioral aspects such as people's attitudes towards such a transition.

In their study published in the journal Energy Policy, IIASA Cooperation and Transformative Governance Research Group Leader, Nadejda Komendantova and colleagues, explored the potential for polycentric governance - a system that comprises multiple centers of decision making and co-production at different levels. In such a system, energy becomes a common good rather than a private or a public one. Polycentric governance presents opportunities for the co-production of energy policy by various stakeholder groups. The study specifically considered existing attitudes towards renewable energy sources among the residents of two so-called Climate and Energy Model (KEM) regions in Austria, their level of awareness about policy interventions for an energy transition, and their willingness to participate in decision-making processes.

"Emerging technologies and changing attitudes towards energy generation, transmission, and distribution create various options that facilitate participation in energy transitions. The emergence of distributed energy systems, which might lead to polycentricity in the governance of such a transition, also creates a need to reframe the discourse from social acceptance of certain technologies, towards engagement, and from focusing on particular technologies, to a focus on social innovations and new forms of governance," explains Komendantova. "This approach is not about providing information and educating the public; it is about listening to people and providing them with a variety of options and alternatives to make choices about services that affect their communities."

While both KEM regions (Freistadt and Amstetten) have committed to including a high degree of renewable energies (up to 100%) in their energy mix and have set ambitious goals to achieve this, one region already had a system in place that allowed citizens to participate in decisions concerning the energy transition in their region, while the other did not. The researchers conducted a large-scale survey that included around 2,000 respondents, who were representative of all social groups in these two regions, and found that the ability to participate in decision-making processes actually increased trust in both the process and decision makers among the respondents. The findings further indicate an increase in the level of awareness about energy transitions and a willingness to pay up to 10% more for electricity from renewable energy sources when they have the option to get involved in decisions around this. Interestingly, having the option to participate did not increase the number of people who actually participated in decision-making processes on energy transition, but having the option to participate increased the level of trust towards policymakers who implement energy transition.

According to the researchers, the willingness of respondents to use renewable energy sources is driven to an equal extent by concerns about climate change and the consideration that renewable energy sources can help them to become less dependent on energy providers. In this regard, the researchers point out that this would not necessarily mean that people produce their own energy, for instance, using residential solar panels, but rather that renewable energy is produced in their own region, which avoids the need to import it from elsewhere.

The study also found that the majority of people who would like to participate in decision-making processes would also like to participate in the process of selecting the technology or the site for the renewable energy project, while participating in financing the projects is the least desirable option.

"When people indicated that they were not willing to participate in decision-making processes, this was mainly because they felt they didn't have adequate information or time. The number of people who didn't want to participate because they thought that participation is not important was minor. Overall our results confirmed the willingness of people to participate, but conditions for participation should be created," Komendantova notes.

To facilitate participation among citizens in regions aiming to transition to sustainable energy systems, the researchers recommend that targeted information campaigns are created and communicated via trusted media channels to inform residents about projects that affect them. There is also a need to better understand the role of emerging information channels such as social media in energy transition, as well as other digital options that are emerging to increase the willingness of stakeholders to actively take part in the energy transition and address concerns about existing conditions.

In recent decades, Spain has undergone rapid social changes in terms of gender equality, despite, as a result of the Franco dictatorship, starting from a more backward position than most European countries. This process is hampered by the economic downturn that began in 2008, underlining the importance of the economic context in the development of gender inequality levels. Little attention has been paid in academia to how this gender revolution is associated with factors related to individual wellbeing.

A study by Jordi Gumà, a researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences and member of the UPF Sociodemography Research Group (DEMOSOC), together with Bruno Arpino, a researcher at the University of Florence (Italy), explores the association between the subjective level of satisfaction with life and the degree of relative participation by women and men in terms of providing financial resources to the household and performing domestic chores among the partnered adult Spanish population.

"When no financial difficulties are reported, it seems that gender behaviour in the home environment has less influence on individuals' levels of life satisfaction, whether men or women, than in homes with financial problems".

Following their research, published in Revista Internacional de Sociología, the researchers (who separate the analysis of the public and the private spheres to capture the effects differentially) conclude that the level of satisfaction with life is marked largely by household financial capacity: "When no financial difficulties are reported, it seems that gender behaviour in the home environment has less influence on individuals' levels of life satisfaction, whether men or women, than in homes with financial problems", the researchers assert.

Furthermore, the results reveal that there would be a situation of tension between the social context and inherited values (with an imbalance between gender values, far more egalitarian, and the end practices observed) would affect the levels of individual wellbeing.

The research methodology analyses Spanish samples from the European Social Survey (ESS) of 2004 and 2010 together, in which questions about family, work and wellbeing were introduced. The various analyses have been carried out independently according to sex, in order to identify possible differences between men and women. The sample was restricted to partnered individuals, within the 25-59 years age bracket.

The researchers state that the relative contribution to household income and the performance of household chores "has a significant effect on life satisfaction in the specific case of people with financial difficulties". This effect shows that the gender profile in households that report having financial difficulties is far closer to the traditional one. However, significant differences were found between men and women.

The overall situation of the household determines women's satisfaction

With regard to women, the researchers found that "their satisfaction with life is defined mainly by the overall situation of the household, beyond their own situation in terms of their relative contribution to income and relative time spent on household tasks". That is, it is their position within the private sphere that has the greatest impact on the values of life satisfaction in respect of women in Spain.

The position of women within the private sphere has the greatest impact on the values of life satisfaction in respect of women in Spain.

Among women who report not having financial difficulties (reaching the end of the month adequately or comfortably), the authors observe a positive relationship between their levels of satisfaction and time spent on household tasks: the greater their dedication, the higher their level of satisfaction. This pattern is exactly the opposite in the case of women who report having financial difficulties, whereby the greater their dedication to household tasks, the lower their satisfaction.

According to the researchers, one possible explanation is that more solvent households would be more able to hire paid services to perform household chores, so that although these women spend more time on household tasks than their partners, the actual number of hours allocated may be less than those who report having financial difficulties, and neither does this mean that there is parity with men. In fact, if we look at the average number of hours spent on such tasks, the figure is significantly lower among women with greater economic power.

Men's satisfaction with life is marked by their individual situation

In the case of men, the authors found significant differences in the level of satisfaction with regard to their relative contribution to the family budget. In the context of households with financial difficulties, men who report contributing more to total family income display higher levels of satisfaction than those who report contributing less than their partners.

According to the researchers, "being the main provider of material resources to the household is associated with values of satisfaction in the group of men in households with financial difficulties, while among men who report not having financial difficulties, being the main contributor does not seem to give them an extra boost to their levels of satisfaction".

In the context of households with financial difficulties, men who report contributing more to total family income display higher levels of satisfaction than those who report contributing less than their partners.

The same applies in the case of participation in household tasks, where significant differences were only observed, again, in men with financial difficulties, who reveal that devoting less time than their partners to household tasks is a situation associated with higher levels of satisfaction.

In consequence, according to the researchers, unlike the case of women, Spanish men's life satisfaction is determined to a greater extent by their individual situation, beyond the characteristics of the household as a whole. This suggests that, in this particular group of men, their position within the public sphere continues to set their perception of satisfaction with life.

Myotonic dystrophy is a hereditary degenerative neuromuscular disease that occurs mainly in adults, affecting about 50,000 people only in Spain. Symptoms range from difficulty walking and myotonia (great difficulty in relaxing the contracted muscles) to severe neurological problems, leading to progressive disability that unfortunately puts many of those affected in a wheelchair. This disease is very heterogeneous among patients (age of onset, progression, hereditary transmission, affected muscles), which makes the development of generic treatments especially complex.

Currently, drugs against myotonic dystrophy are developed in animal models such as Drosophila, the fruit fly, or in 2D cell cultures. They are later tested in mice and finally in patients. Unfortunately using these approaches, some of the drugs that have been developed have not been able to reach the last stages of clinical trials because they were not effective in patients, highlighting the difficulty of extrapolating results obtained with animals to humans.

Now, the team led by the ICREA Researcher Professor and head of the Biosensors for Bioengineering group at IBEC, Javier Ramón, and by his team's postdoctoral researcher Juan M. Fernández, has developed for the first time a three-dimensional model for myotonic dystrophy, using bioengineering techniques and patient cells. The work, which is part of the doctoral thesis of the IBEC researcher Xiomara Fernández, has recently been published in the journal Biofabrication and opens new avenues for finding personalized and effective treatments against this rare disease, and to date without cure. This work has been funded in part with funds from a fundraising campaign launched by IBEC from late 2017 to late 2019.

The new 3D model for myotonic dystrophy:

Researchers started from fibroblasts from patient's skin, which are cells of the connective tissue responsible for maintaining its structure, that were previously "reprogrammed" to become myoblasts, muscle precursor cells. These myoblasts were placed inside a gelatine and cellulose matrix and the mixture was subjected to a kind of rubber stamp to give it a shape of elongated rectangles, simulating muscle fibers. Subsequently, the matrix was incubated under the ideal conditions for the myoblasts to continue their development.

"What we observe is that, unlike classic cell cultures, the patient cells in our model are capable of fusing to form muscle fibers that adopt the 3D shape found in muscles and essential for their functioning.", states Juan M. Fernandez, researcher at IBEC.

Ability to test drugs in a personalized and fast way:

To evaluate the functionality of the new 3D model, the researchers have applied a drug, called AntagomiR-23b, to the muscle fibers. This drug has been previously developed by some authors of this work and in the not-too-distant future will enter the phase of clinical trials thanks to the Arthex Biotech company. They observed that both, the molecular and structural characteristics of the fibers derived from the patient, recovered their normal parameters when treated, validating their use for the development of new drugs.

In addition, this model has a low cost, its implementation is simple, and it can accelerate the process of developing new treatments, since it is faster compared to animal testing. This model represents a great step towards personalized medicine, since taking into account the enormous variability between patients is key when seeking treatments for this disease.

"This new model will allow testing different drugs and administering to the patients the one that has given the best results with their own cells. In this way, the treatment will be personalized, more effective and with no need for animal testing", explains Xiomara Fernandez, first author of the article.

Living materials, which are made by housing biological cells within a non-living matrix, have gained popularity in recent years as scientists recognize that often the most robust materials are those that mimic nature.

For the first time, an international team of researchers from the University of Rochester and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands used 3D printers and a novel bioprinting technique to print algae into living, photosynthetic materials that are tough and resilient. The material has a variety of applications in the energy, medical, and fashion sectors. The research is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

"Three-dimensional printing is a powerful technology for fabrication of living functional materials that have a huge potential in a wide range of environmental and human-based applications." says Srikkanth Balasubramanian, a postdoctoral research associate at Delft and the first author of the paper. "We provide the first example of an engineered photosynthetic material that is physically robust enough to be deployed in real-life applications."

HOW TO BUILD NEW MATERIALS: LIVING AND NONLIVING COMPONENTS

To create the photosynthetic materials, the researchers began with a non-living bacterial cellulose--an organic compound that is produced and excreted by bacteria. Bacterial cellulose has many unique mechanical properties, including its flexibility, toughness, strength, and ability to retain its shape, even when twisted, crushed, or otherwise physically distorted.

The bacterial cellulose is like the paper in a printer, while living microalgae acts as the ink. The researchers used a 3D printer to deposit living algae onto the bacterial cellulose.

The combination of living (microalgae) and nonliving (bacterial cellulose) components resulted in a unique material that has the photosynthetic quality of the algae and the robustness of the bacterial cellulose; the material is tough and resilient while also eco-friendly, biodegradable, and simple and scalable to produce. The plant-like nature of the material means it can use photosynthesis to "feed" itself over periods of many weeks, and it is also able to be regenerated--a small sample of the material can be grown on-site to make more materials.

ARTIFICIAL LEAVES, PHOTOSYNTHETIC SKINS, AND BIO-GARMENTS

The unique characteristics of the material make it an ideal candidate for a variety of applications, including new products such as artificial leaves, photosynthetic skins, or photosynthetic bio-garments.

Artificial leaves are materials that mimic actual leaves in that they use sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide--a major driver of climate change--into oxygen and energy, much like leaves during photosynthesis. The leaves store energy in chemical form as sugars, which can then be converted into fuels. Artificial leaves therefore offer a way to produce sustainable energy in places where plants don't grow well, including outer space colonies. The artificial leaves produced by the researchers at Delft and Rochester are additionally made from eco-friendly materials, in contrast to most artificial leaf technologies currently in production, which are produced using toxic chemical methods.

"For artificial leaves, our materials are like taking the 'best parts' of plants--the leaves--which can create sustainable energy, without needing to use resources to produce parts of plants--the stems and the roots--that need resources but don't produce energy," says Anne S. Meyer, an associate professor of biology at Rochester. "We are making a material that is only focused on the sustainable production of energy."

Another application of the material would be photosynthetic skins, which could be used for skin grafts, Meyer says. "The oxygen generated would help to kick-start healing of the damaged area, or it might be able to carry out light-activated wound healing."

Besides offering sustainable energy and medical treatments, the materials could also change the fashion sector. Bio-garments made from algae would address some of the negative environmental effects of the current textile industry in that they would be high-quality fabrics that would be sustainability produced and completely biodegradable. They would also work to purify the air by removing carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and would not need to be washed as often as conventional garments, reducing water usage.

"Our living materials are promising because they can survive for several days with no water or nutrients access, and the material itself can be used as a seed to grow new living materials," says Marie-Eve Aubin-Tam, an associate professor of bionanoscience at Delft. "This opens the door to applications in remote areas, even in space, where the material can be seeded on site."

PHILADELPHIA - Belief in conspiracies about the COVID-19 pandemic increased through the early months of the U.S. outbreak among people who reported being heavy users of conservative and social media, a study by Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) researchers has found.

Prior APPC research found that people who regularly used conservative or social media during the early months of the pandemic were more likely to report believing in a group of COVID-19 conspiracies. The current study expands on that, finding that a reliance on conservative or social media actually predicted an increase in conspiracy beliefs from March to July 2020.

From March to July 2020, for example, the share of conservative media users who reported believing that the Chinese government created the coronavirus as a bioweapon rose from 52% to 66%. Conservative media included sources such as Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart News, One America News, and the Drudge Report.

Further, these increases in conspiracy beliefs were associated with less mask wearing and decreased intentions to get a vaccine when it became available, according to the study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

"The media played a role in the promotion or reduction of conspiracy beliefs," said Dan Romer, research director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, who co-authored the study with APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson. "There were media sources that hindered the ability of the country to confront the pandemic."

Although some social media platforms said they downgraded or removed false or misleading content about the pandemic, the ongoing use of social media was also correlated with an increased belief in COVID-19 conspiracies.

"The major social media platforms are playing Whac-A-Mole with COVID conspiracy purveyors," Jamieson said. "Block their imaginings in one place and they reappear in another."

A Chinese bioweapon and other COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs

The researchers conducted an Annenberg Science Knowledge (ASK) survey using a national U.S. probability sample in March 2020 and again in July 2020 with the same group of 840 adults. The respondents were asked about three conspiracy beliefs, media use, steps taken to prevent the spread of the virus, and their intentions to be vaccinated, among other things.

In July, the researchers found these levels of overall acceptance of the conspiracy beliefs, with the overall sample rating them either "definitely true" or "probably true":

17% of U.S. adults reported believing that "the pharmaceutical industry created the coronavirus to increase sales of its drugs and vaccines," up from 15% in March;

32% reported believing that some in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "are exaggerating the danger posed by the coronavirus to damage the Trump presidency," up from 24% in March; and

38% reported believing that "the coronavirus was created by the Chinese government as a biological weapon," up from 28% in March.

From March to July 2020, conservative media users' belief that the pharmaceutical industry created the virus rose from 13% to 28%, and that some in the CDC were exaggerating the danger of the virus to damage the Trump presidency went from 34% to 61%.

In 2020, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, for instance, frequently discussed the conspiracy theory that the novel coronavirus was bioengineered in a Chinese lab. And Rush Limbaugh alleged that "the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump" and that "it probably is a ChiCom [Chinese Communist] laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized."

Mainstream news sources

While the use of conservative media and social media were associated with increased belief in conspiracies, use of the mainstream print media had the opposite association. The researchers found that regular use of the mainstream print media such as the Associated Press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post predicted a decline in these conspiracy beliefs, which was related to greater mask wearing and greater intentions to get vaccinated.

"When mainstream news treats conspiracy theories, it is to raise concerns about the effects of accepting them, not to legitimize them," Romer said.

People who relied on mainstream television news (such as ABC, NBC, and CBS News) didn't exhibit any change in their beliefs in conspiracies after controlling for their other media use. "People who get a lot of information from mainstream TV news were also more likely to want to be vaccinated and were more likely to wear masks, but that wasn't related to whether or not they believed in conspiracies," said Romer. "It operated independently."

The findings illustrate the importance of mainstream broadcast TV news in informing the country about effective means of confronting the pandemic during the months from March to July 2020.

The media and public health authorities

The researchers suggested that the findings "point to the need for greater efforts on the part of commentators, reporters, and guests on conservative media to report verifiable information about the pandemic. The results also suggest that social media platforms need to be more aggressive in downgrading, blocking, and counteracting claims about COVID-19 vaccines, claims about mask wearing, and conspiracy beliefs that have been judged problematic by public health authorities."

At the same time, the researchers said, public health authorities seeking to prevent the spread of the virus "should seek opportunities to present accurate information about the pandemic to users" of conservative and social media. Reaching users of mainstream news media is also important because they were "either less likely to subscribe to conspiracy beliefs (in the case of print) or more likely to adopt protective behavior (in the case of broadcast television news)."

HOUSTON - (May 3, 2021) - Ever look at a flatfish like a flounder or sole, with two eyes on one side of its head, and think, "How did that happen?"

You're in luck. Rice University biologist Kory Evans has the answer.

"Flatfishes are some of the weirdest vertebrates on the planet, and they got weird very, very fast by changing multiple traits at once over a short period of time," said Evans, an assistant professor of biosciences at Rice who specializes in studying the evolution of fish over long time scales.

Of all mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish, flatfish are easily the most asymmetric. Evans, the corresponding author of a study on flatfish evolution in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said it helps to keep that in perspective.

"Imagine any other animal," he said. "Like, say you're out walking and you see a squirrel, and one eye is here and the other is there," he said, pointing to two places on the same side of his face. "That squirrel is having a bad time. And there are 800 species of these fish that just do that.

"Perspective helps for understanding how weird these animals actually are."

In evolutionary terms, flatfish asymmetry isn't just a novelty, it's an innovation, and a trait that sets flatfish far apart from even their closest relatives.

Evans said flatfish evolution is particularly interesting because they began as typical, symmetrical fish. They started evolving their current shape, or morphology, about 65 million years ago, and within 3 million years, they'd largely finished.

"We got all that novel colonization of morphospace in 3 million years' time," Evans said. "And look how much time has passed since then. So there's a really brief and short period of time when they evolved all these new forms and all these crazy species."

In their study, Evans and co-authors Olivier Larouche of Rice and Sara-Jane Watson of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology found that tight integration of genetic traits in flatfish led to a sort of evolutionary cascade.

"Integration is where there's a high degree of correlation between traits, such that if you change one trait, another trait will be changed as well," Evans said. "At macroevolutionary timescales, this gets really interesting, because traits then begin to co-evolve with one another. So if you change one trait, you might end up changing several others."

He said traits can become more integrated if their morphological development is controlled or influenced by shared gene interaction networks.

"If the signaling networks expand to encompass more and more traits, then you can theoretically smear changes all across an entire organism using the same signaling network, and you can change really fast," he said. "It's like pressing one button and flipping the whole animal all at once."

Evans, Larouche and Watson used several methods to piece together the story of flatfish evolution. One was a phylogenetic comparative method that tracks the evolutionary history of traits between and among species. Phylogenetic trees have branches that show where species diverge. "Typically, the tree is built using genetics," Evans said. "So, maybe we'll have a bunch of genomes for all those species. And we can use that to figure out who's more closely related to who. Then, once the tree is built, I can see how traits have changed over time using the branching pattern of the tree as a guide."

The researchers also used a micro-CT scanner in the Evans lab to make 3D scans of the skulls of several flatfish species. The scans were used to make 3D morphometric models that could be compared for differences in shape. But many flatfish species are so dissimilar that it wasn't possible to "tease them apart with just shape or just phylogeny alone," Evans said.

So the researchers created complex mathematical models to track the degree of integration between different regions of the skull across the 65-million-year history of flatfishes and their relatives.

"We found that flatfishes were way more integrated than non-flat fishes, and what this means is that the evolution of asymmetry for flatfishes ended up being an integrated process, basically, involving changes all across the skull," he said. "As the eye migrated, a bunch of other things changed as well. And it became additive. So as the flatfish skull got more and more integrated, more things began to change, per unit time, than a generation before."

As to why flatfish evolved to be asymmetrical, Evans said it wasn't the only path to becoming flat.

"Other fishes that are flat did not do this, like stingrays," he said. "They just went flat like a pancake. But their eyes aren't both on the same side. The remora (aka suckerfish) are also a flat-looking fish, and they didn't do that."

Given evolution is a competition for "survival of the fittest," the evolutionary success of flatfish begs the question: Is asymmetry somehow advantageous?

"I'm not gonna lie," Evans said. "I don't really know if there's an advantage. I think they did it because they could."