Culture

Spotting horned owls in neighborhood trees? Raising a bumper crop of winter squash? You may have much in common with individuals in a new study.

People in the study--who ranged from stuck at home to stressed in essential worker jobs--reported significant increases in outdoor activity during COVID-19, especially among women.

Outdoor activities seeing the largest increases were: watching wildlife (up 64%), gardening (57%), taking photos or doing other art in nature (54%), relaxing alone outside (58%), and, yes, making their masked and distanced way on walks (70%).

People also experienced a shift in why they value nature. During the pandemic, respondents said in nature they cherished a greater sense of mental health and wellbeing (59%), exercise (29%), appreciating nature's beauty (29%), sense of identity (23%) and spirituality (22%), along with other less common values.

The Vermont research is one of the first published studies to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Americans' relationship with nature.

"These data are like a treasure chest of the pandemic moment: a record of how people have been thinking about their relationship with the rest of the world in a time of great upheaval," says Rachelle Gould of the University of Vermont, the study's senior author.

The research is the first of two UVM studies being published this week by PLOS ONE on nature and COVID-19.

Key differences across groups

Not everyone experienced more nature equally. Differences were tied to factors including gender, income and employment, and whether people lived in urban or rural areas.

Women increased their nature use in more ways than men. Across the six most common nature activities in the study, women were 1.7 (gardening) to 2.9 (walking) times more likely to report increasing their engagement than men. Men were not more likely than women to report increased engagement in any activities.

While the study advances our understanding of gender differences during COVID-19, the researchers plan to inspect this finding further. They wonder if women had a greater need for stress relief during the pandemic, and are potentially more likely than men to turn to nature for that.

"More research is needed, but our preliminary analysis suggests that, during the pandemic, women are more likely than men to report increased importance of values that include mental well-being, beauty, exercise, familiarity with landscape, and fun,” says Gould. “Our next step is to analyze the qualitative data to explore this result more fully."

Those who lost their jobs during the pandemic also had higher odds of reporting increased gardening, relaxing socially, walking, and wildlife watching. "This suggests that COVID-19 is overturning the idea that nature and its benefits--from stress reduction to social connection-- are becoming 'luxury goods,'" says Diana Hackenburg, a PhD candidate at the Rubenstein School, and a Gund Graduate Fellow.

Some groups valued tradition or food more and expressed those thoughts. With different results from urban and rural respondents, the researchers say there is more to learn behind the numbers, and plan future studies.

A first wave of COVID-19 research

Very few peer-reviewed studies have been published on the issue of Americans visiting nature during the pandemic, despite media reports and personal experience that suggest it is happening. This study, plus a UVM study that finds a large increase in new nature users, join a recent study from Rice et al., another study on birding, and another from Norway among the first, globally. The study is further unique because it explores not only changes in activities, but also people’s values towards nature.

The team hopes decision makers can learn more about which populations are using nature more or less during the pandemic, "and focus on removing barriers to nature access, to increase equity," says Joshua Morse, lead author, a PhD candidate at the Rubenstein School, and a Gund Graduate Fellow.

While many studies have explored how natural disasters (volcanoes, tornadoes, fires) impact human values, UVM researchers wanted to investigate a different type of crisis--a pandemic, which differs in key ways from other "natural disasters."

Of the 15 outdoor activities studied, some went down in frequency - including camping - while other activities stayed relatively constant, including biking, boating, and fishing.

"Our work catalogues a part of this pandemic that might otherwise be under-discussed or hard to provide evidence for," says Gould, an assistant professor in UVM's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and faculty fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment.

In addition to Prof. Gould and Morse, study authors include PhD candidates Diana Hackenburg and Tatiana Gladkikh, both Gund Graduate Fellows in the Rubenstein School. This research is one of six COVID projects launched by the Gund Institute for the Environment.

"This study is a timely snapshot of the central role nature plays in our well-being, and how important access to nature is during challenging, uncertain times like this pandemic," says Gladkikh. "I hope the results help inform future land management decisions."

The data resulted from online surveys of over 3,200 people in Vermont during the state's "Stay safe, stay home" executive order, announced in May 2020.

Women face a 20 per cent higher risk than men of dying or having heart failure during the five years following a heart attack, according to a new study from University of Alberta cardiology researchers.

"The women were on average a decade older than men at the time of their first heart attack and they more commonly presented with the less severe type of heart attack," said lead author Justin Ezekowitz, professor of medicine and co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR Centre. "But when they were faced with the more severe type of heart attack, they did develop heart failure more often."

"We don't know yet why there continue to be these differences in outcomes for men and women, but there is an international interest in looking at heart disease in women," said co-author Padma Kaul, professor of medicine and Sex and Gender Science Chair funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. "Our study shows that there's more work to be done."

The research team examined health records for more than 45,000 Canadians who were hospitalized for a first-time heart attack between 2002 and 2016, linking data on their angiogram results, treatments including medications and bypasses or stents, and clinical outcomes.

About 45 per cent of the patients experienced the more severe type of heart attack, known as STEMI, and 55 per cent the less severe type known as NSTEMI. Both types involve a blockage of the blood supply to the heart muscle and can lead to permanent damage. Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle can no longer pump enough blood and oxygen to sustain life.

The researchers found that the female patients were on average 10 years older than the male patients, had more chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure or atrial fibrillation and were more likely to die in hospital. The women were also less likely to receive a diagnostic angiogram or see a heart specialist and were prescribed fewer medications.

"We have to be careful not to introduce bias when applying the therapeutic regime," Ezekowitz said. "The basics have to be applied across all patients--that includes men and women of all ages."

"Close is no longer good enough."

Ezekowitz said his advice to men and women is the same: Stop smoking, get more exercise, and control blood pressure and stress levels, especially if you've already had a heart attack.

Both researchers pointed out that some women delay going to the hospital because they don't realize they are having a heart attack, and more needs to be done to help women recognize the signs, which may include chest or upper body pain, sweating, nausea, shortness of breath or light-headedness.

Ezekowitz said all patients presenting with heart attack symptoms should be diagnosed with both electrocardiogram (ECG) and a blood test looking for markers of heart damage, to determine whether the patient is having a STEMI or NSTEMI heart attack. Though the recommended treatments for both types of heart attack are similar, those experiencing the more severe type need treatment faster.

Differences between how men and women are diagnosed and treated for heart attack have been documented in previous studies, but this study showed the gap is narrowing over time.

"It's not all bad news, as we do see the rates of diagnostic and intervention procedures coming together," said Kaul, co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR centre and member of the Women and Children's Health Research Institute.

"It is improving, which shows there is a recognition on the part of clinicians that women are at risk and what kind of treatment they should get," she said.

"One of the things that's been missing from prior descriptions of the differences between men and women is the actual pictures of the arteries of the heart," said Ezekowitz, a 2020 fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. "There are known biologic differences between men and women at the time of a heart attack, so having that information really was a big plus."

Kaul said more research is needed to understand and address the multiple factors behind the difference in outcomes between men and women.

"As we get better information to women and the system stops treating the two sexes differently, I think we'll see it come together."

Getting good quality sleep, exercising, and eating more raw fruits and vegetables predicts better mental health and well-being in young adults, a University of Otago study has found.

The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, surveyed more than 1100 young adults from New Zealand and the United States about their sleep, physical activity, diet, and mental health.

Lead author Shay-Ruby Wickham, who completed the study as part of her Master of Science, says the research team found sleep quality, rather than sleep quantity, was the strongest predictor of mental health and well-being.

"This is surprising because sleep recommendations predominantly focus on quantity rather than quality. While we did see that both too little sleep - less than eight hours - and too much sleep - more than 12 hours - were associated with higher depressive symptoms and lower well-being, sleep quality significantly outranked sleep quantity in predicting mental health and well-being.

"This suggests that sleep quality should be promoted alongside sleep quantity as tools for improving mental health and well-being within young adults," Ms Wickham says.

Along with quality sleep, exercising, and eating more raw fruits and vegetables - in that order - were three modifiable behaviours which correlated with better mental health and well-being in young adults.

Depressive symptoms were lowest for young adults who slept 9.7 hours per night, and feelings of well-being were highest for those who slept 8 hours per night.

Well-being was highest for young adults who ate 4.8 servings of raw fruit and vegetables per day; those who ate less than two servings, and also more than eight servings, reported lower feelings of well-being.

"Sleep, physical activity, and a healthy diet can be thought of as three pillars of health, which could contribute to promoting optimal well-being among young adults, a population where the prevalence of mental disorders is high and well-being is suboptimal," Ms Wickham says.

Senior author, Associate Professor Tamlin Conner, of the Department of Psychology, says most prior research examines these health behaviours in isolation of each other.

"We showed that they are all important for predicting which young adults are flourishing versus suffering."

She also stressed the study's findings were correlations only.

"We didn't manipulate sleep, activity, or diet to test their changes on mental health and well-being. Other research has done that and has found positive benefits. Our research suggests that a 'whole health' intervention prioritising sleep, exercise, and fruit and vegetable intake together, could be the next logical step in this research," she says.

The stickleback is a well-studied system in freshwater lakes, but the evolution of convergent morphotypes that occupy different positions in the water column in marine environments is less clear. An international group of scientists led by researchers at the University of Oklahoma decided to test the extent to which independent transitions from bottom to midwater habitats in marine fish species from different oceanic basins resulted in the recurrent evolution of body shape morphologies, comparable to those documented in sticklebacks.

The motivation for this study was based on the book, Wonderful Life (ca. 1989), by noted Harvard University paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen J. Gould.

The OU-led study, "Evolutionary determinism and convergence associated with water-column transition in marine fish," which was published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and facilitated by funding from the National Science Foundation, was guided by researchers at OU, including Ricardo Betancur-R, assistant professor of biology, and Dahiana Arcila, assistant professor of biology and assistant curator at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, along with biology postdoctoral student Melissa Rincon-Sandoval and biology graduate students Emanuell Duarte-Ribeiro and Aintzane Santaquiteria.

It also involved collaborators from George Washington University, the Smithsonian Institution, Scripps Institution and Old Dominion University in the United States, as well as James Cook University in Australia and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

The study entailed the collection of genome-wide DNA data for over 100 species of snappers that include commercially important food fish (e.g., the red snapper) and are found in tropical and subtropical waters of all oceans around the world where some species are are closely associated to coral reefs or rocky substrates, while others live almost exclusively in midwaters. It also aggregated data layers for body shape, ecological habitat, geographic distribution, and paleontological and geological information.

Like with sticklebacks, snappers provide a unique evolutionary system to assess the degree to which transitions along the water column have consistently resulted in the evolution of similar body plans. Betancur-R and his team rigorously tested these ideas showing multiple independent incursions into the water column by ancestral bottom lineages in all major oceans throughout the 45-million-year history of snappers. These evolutionary transitions are persistently associated with convergent phenotypes, where deep-bodied benthic forms with truncate tail fins have repeatedly evolved into slender midwater species with furcate tail fins--adaptations to reduce hydrodynamic drag and promote swimming performance. The recurrent evolution of this pattern across distantly related groups suggests that limited sets of high-fitness solutions exist due to environmental constraints.

In his book, Wonderful Life, Gould proposed a famous thought experiment. He suggested that if we could replay the tape of life many times with the same starting conditions, each time we would achieve a drastically different outcome.

While we cannot replay the tape of life, we can still see what the evolutionary outcomes are under similar ecological conditions in different locations. In the last couple of decades, Jonathan Losos and other evolutionary biologists have shown that replaying of the tape of life in space rather than time has indeed produced repeatable and predictable results.

One such example comes from the anole lizards in the Greater Antillean islands. The research of Losos and his team has contradicted Gould's thesis, as very similar set of specialist anole species have independently and convergently evolved in each of the major islands.

While anole lizards provide a textbook example of evolutionary predictability in terrestrial habitats, similar processes have also been identified in aquatic organisms. For example, the three-spined stickleback is a small marine fish that is native to the coasts of North America, Europe and Asia. Remarkably, this species has independently colonized thousands of freshwater streams and lakes around the world. Most colonization events have resulted in the evolution of a midwater form that is slender-bodied and feeds on zooplankton, and a benthic form that is deep-bodied and feeds on large bottom invertebrates. Like with the anoles, divergent morphs in each lake are more closely related to one another than each are to their ecologically equivalent counterparts in different lakes.

Counter to Gould's premise, researchers could predict that if a new lake were to form, it will eventually be colonized by marine sticklebacks that will evolve into slender-bodied midwater and deep-bodied benthic forms.

The stickleback is a well-studied system in freshwater lakes, but the evolution of convergent morphotypes that occupy different positions in the water column have been far less studied in marine habitats. Challenging Gould's ideas, the researchers show that convergent ecological and functional phenotypes are pervasive among different lineages and across vastly different snapper lineages of different ages, achieving predictable solutions for similar environmental challenges, ultimately demonstrating strong evolutionary determinism in body-shape evolution.

Hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) have been released to support the wild salmon stocks in the Baltic Sea for decades. During their feeding migration, salmon are exposed to organohalogen compounds (OHCs). Here, we investigated the OHC levels and transcriptome profiles in the liver of wild and hatchery-reared salmon collected from the Baltic main basin, the Bothnian Sea, and the Gulf of Finland and examined whether salmon origin and OHC levels contributed to the hepatic transcriptome profiles. There were no differences in the OHC concentrations and transcriptome profiles between wild and hatchery-reared fish but there were large differences among the areas. Several transcript levels were associated with polychlorinated biphenyls, chlordanes, and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane in a concentration-dependent manner. When comparing the different areas, lipid metabolism, environmental stress, cell growth and death-related pathways were enriched in the liver transcriptome. Coinertia analysis, a multivariate method, showed that the covariation in the OHC levels and the transcriptome were significantly similar. These results suggest that the hepatic transcriptomes in wild and hatchery-reared salmon are more affected by the OHC level than the salmon's origin. This paper was published in an American Chemical Society Journal, Environmental Science and Technology on November 9, 2020.

If you thought your morning hike was contributing to your wellbeing, a new study shows that you're right, especially if our avian friends were singing while you strolled.

A growing body of research shows that time spent in nature contributes to human mental health. Although many studies have found that humans benefit from spending time in nature, few studies have explored why. A research team at California Polytechnic State University investigated how much the natural sounds humans hear during their time in the great outdoors contribute to this sense of well-being. The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"There is a lot of evidence that spending time in nature has positive effects on human well-being. However, few studies have considered the specific qualities of nature that confer these benefits," said biology graduate student Danielle Ferraro, who led the study. "While the bigger picture of nature's restorative properties is likely to involve multiple senses, our study is the first to experimentally manipulate a single one (sound) in the field and demonstrate its importance to human experiences in nature."

Ferraro and her team hid speakers that played recorded songs from a diverse group of birds on two sections of trails in the Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks in Colorado.The researchers alternated playing birdsong and turning the speakers off on each trail section in weekly blocks. Hikers were interviewed after they passed through these sections.

Hikers who heard the bird songs reported a greater sense of well-being than those who didn't. The survey results showed that both the sounds themselves and people's perception of biodiversity can increase humans' feelings of well-being.

On the first section of trail, hikers who heard more birdsong simply reported that they felt better but didn't comment that they thought more birds lived along that part of the trail. Hikers who heard more birdsong on the other section said that they thought more birds lived along that section of trail, and researchers found this perception of more species was responsible for making hikers feel better.

"We're such visual animals that we discount this modality of sound that we have," said Cal Poly biology Professor Clinton Francis, who oversaw the research. "I'm still kind of flabbergasted that only 7-10 minutes of exposure to these sounds improved people's well-being. It really underscores how important hearing is to us and probably to other animals."

Both findings support the need to improve natural soundscapes within and outside of protected areas. Less human noise pollution could contribute to greater human happiness by making it easier to hear natural sounds, including bird song.

"Our results underscore the need for park managers to reduce anthropogenic noise pollution, which is not only a cost-effective way to improve visitors' experiences but can also benefit wildlife as well," Ferraro said.

WESTMINSTER, Colorado - December 15, 2020 - In recent years, junglerice has become a significant problem in dicamba-resistant cotton and soybean crops. In Tennessee, for example, growers routinely find populations of the weed that escape applications of dicamba plus glyphosate and/or clethodim - two "go to" herbicide controls.

A recent survey featured in the journal Weed Technology explores the prevalence of junglerice in cotton and soybean crops and whether dicamba interferes with the effectiveness of herbicides used to control the weed.

In a two-year study, researchers from the University of Tennessee found junglerice was the most prevalent weed to escape treatment in the dicamba-resistant cotton and soybean fields. It was found 76 percent of the time in cotton and 64 percent of the time in soybean.

"Our study suggests dicamba is reducing the effectiveness of both glyphosate and clethodim," says Clay Perkins, a member of the University of Tennessee research team. "We found glyphosate plus dicamba mixtures reduced junglerice control by 25 percentage points compared with glyphosate alone. Clethodim plus dicamba provided 6.5 percentage less control than with clethodim alone."

A new study challenges the long-held view that the destruction of Central Asia's medieval river civilizations was a direct result of the Mongol invasion in the early 13th century CE.

The Aral Sea basin in Central Asia and the major rivers flowing through the region were once home to advanced river civilizations which used floodwater irrigation to farm.

The region's decline is often attributed to the devastating Mongol invasion of the early 13th century, but new research of long-term river dynamics and ancient irrigation networks shows the changing climate and dryer conditions may have been the real cause.

Research led by the University of Lincoln, UK, reconstructed the effects of climate change on floodwater farming in the region and found that decreasing river flow was equally, if not more, important for the abandonment of these previously flourishing city states.

Mark Macklin, author and Distinguished Professor of River Systems and Global Change, and Director of the Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health at the University of Lincoln said: "Our research shows that it was climate change, not Genghis Khan, that was the ultimate cause for the demise of Central Asia's forgotten river civilizations.

"We found that Central Asia recovered quickly following Arab invasions in the 7th and 8th centuries CE because of favourable wet conditions. But prolonged drought during and following the later Mongol destruction reduced the resilience of local population and prevented the re-establishment of large-scale irrigation-based agriculture."

The research focused on the archaeological sites and irrigation canals of the Otrar oasis, a UNESCO World Heritage site that was once a Silk Road trade hub located at the meeting point of the Syr Darya and Arys rivers in present southern Kazakhstan.

The researchers investigated the region to determine when the irrigation canals were abandoned and studied the past dynamics of the Arys river, whose waters fed the canals. The abandonment of irrigation systems matches a phase of riverbed erosion between the 10th and 14th century CE, that coincided with a dry period with low river flows, rather than corresponding with the Mongol invasion.

"While, for example, the closing of cultural institutions was only supported by 49 percent of respondents at the beginning of November, it is now considered appropriate by 62 percent", says BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "The threat of the pandemic is present in the population."

BfR-Corona-Monitor - as to 8-9 December 2020
https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/349/201208-bfr-corona-monitor-en.pdf

Even the closure of eating and dining venues is now viewed more favourably. Compared with the last survey, the proportion of those in favour has risen by twelve percentage points to 54 percent. The accommodation ban is now accepted by 61 percent of respondents, compared with 51 percent two weeks ago. In contrast, approval of the mandatory distance and mandatory use of masks, which has been in place for months, has hardly changed and remains at a very high level.

The behaviour of the population in Germany also shows increasing caution with regard to the coronavirus. For example, 75 percent of the respondents now say they leave their homes less frequently. 83 percent say they see friends and family less often. And stockpiling is also becoming more popular again: four weeks ago, 14 percent were building up larger stocks; that figure now is at 23 percent.

Despite these developments, concern about the impact of the coronavirus on various areas of life remains largely unchanged. As in the last survey at the end of November, just over one-third of the population is concerned about the social impact of the pandemic. Around a quarter is concerned that the coronavirus may affect their physical health; among people aged 60 and over, the figure is one-third.

The BfR continually adapts its FAQs on the topic of coronavirus to the current state of science:

Can the new type of coronavirus be transmitted via food and objects?
https://www.bfr.bund.de/en/can_the_new_type_of_coronavirus_be_transmitted_via_food_and_objects_-244090.html

It has long been known that the choice of shoe, surface and type of sport can all be contributing factors when someone suffers an anterior cruciate ligament rupture. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now observed that genes also play a decisive role.

By analysing data from the Swedish Twin Register along with data from the Swedish National Patient Register, researchers were able to see how many identical twins and fraternal twins had been diagnosed with anterior cruciate ligament rupture. A total of 88 414 twins aged 17 or above were involved in the epidemiological study, published in the British Journal of Sport Medicine.

The opportunity to observe injuries among both identical and fraternal twins enables conclusions to be drawn about heredity, explains Karin Magnusson, researcher and expert in twin studies within the field of orthopaedics at Lund University.

"Identical twins have totally identical genes, while fraternal twins, like other siblings, share half of their genes with each other. We can estimate heritability by studying how often cruciate ligament injury occurs in both twins in a set, that is, we compare the 'double' prevalence in identical and fraternal twins. This way we can draw conclusions about the importance of heredity and environment."

"Our results show that genes appear to contribute more than we thought. To put it very simply, we can say that out of all cruciate ligament injuries, 69 per cent can be explained by genetics. This should not be interpreted to mean an individual's risk of suffering the injury is 69 per cent, rather that it is significant in terms of the wider population. Heredity is easier to understand when compared with other illnesses or conditions. The genetic risk of suffering from cancer is 33 per cent, for example. This means that 33 per cent of variation within the population in terms of causes of all cancer cases is due to genetic variation, while the rest is due to other factors ¬- such as environment or lifestyle," explains Magnusson.

The genetic risk was equally high in men and women.

The results may be significant in terms of preventing this type of injury more effectively.

"In the past, genetic factors have not been taken into account when working to prevent anterior cruciate ligament injury, for example among athletes. This study does not provide us with an answer as to whether heredity entails anatomical or physiological conditions that could affect the risk of a cruciate ligament injury. However, if we know that there are many cases of this injury within a family, then it is worth being extra cautious and doing more preventive training, such as landing after jumping when playing handball, and so on," says Martin Englund, professor at Lund University, physician at Skåne University Hospital and one of the researchers behind the study.

WESTMINSTER, Colorado - December 15, 2020 - New research featured in the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management (IPSM) shows that genetics matter when it comes to the effective control of alligatorweed, an invasive plant found in or near aquatic settings across the southern U.S. and California.

A biological control program launched in the late 1960s reduced the prevalence of the invader, but the results varied geographically. A multidisciplinary research team recently explored whether the differences in efficacy might be related to genetic differences among alligatorweed populations.

After genotyping nearly 400 plants collected from 90 sites, researchers found that U.S. populations of alligatorweed are genetically diverse across geographies. This suggests the plant has been introduced to the U.S. multiple times from its native South American habitat.

The team found six genetic variations of alligatorweed, including both narrow-stem and broad-stem genotypes known to respond differently to both herbicides and biological controls. Though further testing is required, it is suspected the remaining four genotypes may also differ in their response to control measures and climate.

"The genetic markers identified in this study provide a quick way to determine the types of alligatorweed present in a given area and to test various control strategies," says Dean Williams, a professor at Texas Christian University. "In some areas, a single genotype predominates and may respond more uniformly to a single control strategy. In other areas, though, there may be multiple genotypes that require a more varied approach."

A recent study has identified four factors that predict user satisfaction with customer service chatbots. The study also found that a positive chatbot experience was associated with customer loyalty, highlighting the potential importance of the findings to corporate brands.

"Chatbots that use artificial intelligence to address customer needs are already in widespread use, and are expected to become even more common over the next few years," says Yang Cheng, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of communication at North Carolina State University. "We wanted to know how these chatbots are affecting the user experience and how they affect the way consumers feel about brands."

For this study, researchers conducted a survey of 1,064 consumers in the United States who had used a chatbot from at least one of the 30 U.S. brands with the most highly regarded chatbot services. These brands represent industries ranging from fashion to food to software.

The researchers found there were four attributes that positively predicted user satisfaction with a chatbot.

"The most powerful predictor was convenience," Cheng says. "If people thought chatbots were fast and efficient, they were more likely to be satisfied. I can sympathize with those people - I hate talking to customer service and being transferred from one person to another."

The other attributes associated with customer satisfaction were:

Information: if the chatbot provided information that was useful and relevant to the user;

Entertainment: if interacting with the chatbot was pleasant or fun; and

Social Presence: if the chatbot made users feel like they were interacting with an intelligent being.

But one factor was associated with reduced customer satisfaction: perceived privacy risk.

Specifically, if users felt that the information they were sharing with the chatbot could be misused, they were more likely to report being dissatisfied with the chatbot service.

"Companies need to pay attention to these results as they invest in AI-driven chatbot services," Cheng says. "Because we also found that a customer's satisfaction with their chatbot experience was associated with the customer's loyalty toward the relevant brand.

"This really highlights the importance of taking steps to protect consumer data - and ensuring that chatbot services are convenient, fun and helpful."

In order to adapt to the changing environment, bacteria must quickly transform extracellular information into appropriate intracellular reactions. Two component system (TCS) is the main signal transduction protein in prokaryotic cells to transform environmental stimuli into cellular responses.

HptRSA is a newly discovered TCS, which is composed of glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) related sensor protein HptA, transmembrane histidine kinase HptS and cytoplasmic effector HptR. It mediates G6P uptake and supports the growth and proliferation of Staphylococcus aureus, a major human pathogen, in different host cells. However, the molecular mechanism of sensing G6P signal and triggering downstream reaction by HptRSA sensor complex has been a mystery.

Recently, a team led by Prof. TAO Yuyong from the School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with Hefei National Laboratory for Physics Sciences at the Microscale, revealed the signal transduction mystery inside S. aureus, using a comprehensive application of biochemical and structural biology research methods. The study was published online in PNAS.

By analyzing the HptA structures in the substrate free state and G6P binding state respectively, scientists found that G6P could bind to the gap between two HptA proteins and cause the two HptA proteins to close to each other.

The complex structure of HptA protein and HptSp shows that HptA can interact with HptS through constitutive interface and another switchable interface. When G6P is not bound, HptA and HptSp are bound far away from the membrane and cause two HptSps to be arranged in parallel. When HptA binds to G6P, the junction of HptA and HptSp is parallel to each other and switches to the side close to the membrane, causing the rotation of HptSp, the C-terminal of two HptSps then approach each other, transducing extracellular signal into the cell.

On the basis of the above structural discovery, scientists combined biochemical and growth analysis of HptA and HptS mutants, and proposed the G6P HptRSA signal transduction mechanism mediated by interface switch.
These results provide important clues for the nutritional sensing mechanism of bacteria, and expand the understanding of TCS activation mode for external signal transmission.

An analysis of the first wave of the epidemic in Iran in 8902 people suggests the overall proportion of people with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in their blood - known as seroprevalence - may be higher than rates based on clinical cases alone, at around 17.1% seropositivity vs 0.6% based on modelling from previous studies, by end of April 2020.

However, seroprevalence varies widely between cities - with the highest estimates found in Rasht (72.6%) and the lowest in Sanandaj (1.7%) although some cities had small samples sizes.

Despite high seroprevalence in a few cities, a large proportion of population is still uninfected. The potential shortcomings of current public health policies should therefore be identified to prevent future epidemic waves in Iran.

A study tracking seroprevalence across Iran suggests that the number of people who have had the SARS-CoV-2 virus is 17.1% overall and 20.0% in high-risk occupations. The findings suggest that an estimated almost 4.3 million people across the 18 cities sampled were infected with the virus by the end of April 2020, compared with 800,000 clinically confirmed cases by November 2020 for the whole country (population 81.8 million). This discrepancy may reflect the fact that clinical cases pick up only the severe end of the disease spectrum, especially in the first wave when widespread testing was less common.

This is the first major seroprevalence study from the Middle East and is published inThe Lancet Infectious Diseases journal. Despite the high seroprevalence rates, the data suggests that there are still large swathes of the Iranian population who remain susceptible to the virus.

Seroprevalence data sheds light on the true rate of infection and may indicate the number of people with some degree of immunity, although it is still unknown to what extent previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 is protective and cases of re-infection have already been confirmed globally. It also gives an insight into infection spread as well as the success of public health campaigns, which could guide policy makers as Iran faces a second wave.

"We have found that although the overall rate of infection is higher in Iran than anticipated, it is still less than one-fifth of the population, indicating that much of the country is still vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection," says Professor Reza Malekzadeh, lead author from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. "We believe that antibody testing of individuals - including those in occupations at high-risk - should guide local public health decision making on lockdowns, PPE requirements and return-to-work policies." [1]

COVID-19 has caused over 1 million deaths and led to countless hospitalisations worldwide. After its detection in China, Iran was one of the first countries hit during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with the first reported death in February 2020. Restrictions on mass gathering and closures of restaurants were implemented in February 2020, and were eased in April.

Data collection for the new study took place between 17 April and 2 June 2020 and included people from the general population as well as those in occupations with higher potential for exposure, such as supermarket cashiers, bank tellers and healthcare workers.

Participants were invited to take part in the study by telephone call. Blood samples were taken and serum was tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Participants were also interviewed about their demographic characteristics, such as age and sex, their exposure to COVID-19, any recent COVID-19 symptoms, and their medical history.

Of 8,902 participants, 3,530 were from the general population. The remaining participants (5,372/8,902) were from occupations with high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers asked participants to record if they had experienced COVID-19 symptoms to better gauge the relationship between symptoms and infection rate. Overall, 35.7% of cases positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the study reported that they had never developed symptoms, despite having antibodies for the virus.

After statistically adjusting for population size and the sensitivity of the serum test, seroprevalence positive rates among individuals who reported being a contact of a COVID-19 case were considerably higher (30.8%) compared to those without (14.0%).

Seroprevalence was found to vary widely between cities. The city with the lowest seroprevalence - Sanandaj - had a rate of 1.7% (N=193), compared with the cities of Qom and Rasht, which had seroprevalence rates in the general population of 58.5% (N=349) and 72.6% (N=244) respectively, after adjusting for population and test characteristics. For higher-risk occupations, this rate rose to 80.7% in Rasht.

The variation in prevalence estimates among the cities may be partly explained by the early implementation of health measures in some places. For instance, Qom reported a rise in cases very early in the epidemic, partly due to an ongoing trading relationship with Wuhan, China.

"We have seen a striking variation in antibody rates across areas within Iran, which underlines the importance of sampling across different geographical areas, and may provide an insight into how the virus spread through the country during the first wave. This indicates that different regions might require personalized public health strategies against SARS-CoV-2, meaning that one size does not fit all," says, Dr Maryam Darvishian, co-author from Cancer Control Research, Vancouver, Canada. [1]

The seroprevalence rate reported in the new study for Iran is higher than that previously reported for the USA, Switzerland, and Spain. This could be due to the timing of the outbreak in Iran, which was among the first countries that reported SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, potentially exposing a higher proportion of the population to the virus.

The authors caution that there are limitations to the study and individuals with history of COVID-19 symptoms may have been more willing to participate in the study. Further, the serum test kits used were not fully assessed prior to the study, and although the researchers carried out further validation checks and statistically adjusted the data to allow for test characteristics, the sensitivity of the test used is known to be low. In some cities, including Tehran, some parts of the high-risk population could not be recruited due to lockdown restrictions during data collection.

"We hope that our seroprevalence data enables more targeted decision making for public health bodies as we face a second and potentially third wave of infection," says Professor Malekzadeh. "Our planned follow-up data will provide not only an updated picture of seroprevalence but also an indication of how SARS-CoV-2 antibodies change over time." [1]

About two in 10 U.S. school districts have already adopted, plan to adopt or are considering adopting virtual schools after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The survey of district leaders indicates that virtual schooling was the innovative practice that most district leaders anticipated would continue, citing both student and parent demand for continuing various forms of online instruction.

District leaders were united in their concerns about students' unequal opportunities to learn during COVID-19, which was among their top-rated challenges for the 2020-2021 school year.

However, in districts where at least 50% of students are Black or Hispanic/Latino or at least 50% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch rate, leaders also continued to rank fundamentals like internet and technology access as greatest needs. In contrast, leaders of the remaining districts more heavily emphasized student mental health and high-quality instructional resources rate as greatest needs.

"We found three common concerns: disparities in students' opportunities to learn, students' social and emotional learning needs, and insufficient funding to cover staff," said Heather Schwartz, lead author of the report and director of the Pre-K to 12 educational systems program at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "But just as reopening plans differ based on local approaches to both schooling and the pandemic, district leaders' opinions differed on the degree to which they prioritized these needs and concerns."