Culture

Jena, Germany (27.11.2020) Antibiotics work in different ways. Some, including penicillin, attack the cell wall of the bacteria by inhibiting their synthesis. But the bacteria are not helpless against this attack. "We have been able to identify a small ribonucleic acid that has a decisive influence on the antibiotic-resistance of the cholera-triggering bacterium Vibrio cholerae," says Kai Papenfort, Professor of General Microbiology at the University of Jena, Germany.

The protein CrvA is found in the periplasmic space of the bacterium. This lies between the outer cell wall and the basic substance of the cell, the cytoplasm, which is also surrounded by a membrane. There CrvA determines the curvature of the rod-shaped bacterium V. cholerae. "Until now, however, it was not known what controls the activity of this protein. With the small ribonucleic acid VadR we were able to identify a post-transcriptional inhibitor of the synthesis of this protein," says Prof. Papenfort. In contrast to messenger RNA, small ribonucleic acids do not contain any genetic information, but do influence its expression - usually after the DNA has been transcribed into messenger RNA.

Maintenance of the cell form is crucial for antibiotic resistance

"Cholera bacteria in which the protein CrvA is not suppressed by VadR show a reduced survival rate on contact with penicillin," says Papenfort. This indicates that the maintenance of the cell form by the small RNA is crucial for antibiotic resistance, the microbiologist adds. The researchers revealed other functions of the small RNA VadR, including the formation of biofilms, which play an important role in the pathogenicity of V. cholerae.

"VadR is one of many molecules that can intervene in gene expression in V. cholerae. If we understand all these molecules, their functions and their interaction, we can derive new therapeutic approaches. The increasing resistance to antibiotics makes this urgently necessary", says Papenfort, whose research contributes to the Cluster of Excellence „Balance of the Microverse" at the University of Jena.

A new sensing method has made tracking movement easier and more efficient. A research group from Tohoku University has captured dexterous 3D motion data from a flexible magnetic flux sensor array, using deep learning and a structure-aware temporal bilateral filter.

"We can now track complex motions with higher accuracy," said Yoshifumi Kitamura, co-author of the study.

Dexterous 3D motion data can be used for multiple purposes: biologists can use the data to record detailed movements of small animals in their living environments, scientists can track the flow of fluids, and researchers can track finger movements and objects being manipulated by users in virtual reality.

Currently, optical cameras are the most prominent method of tracking movements. Yet optical cameras struggle with accuracy and reliability. If a small animal burrows away or if fingers or objects obscure the view, the camera will fail to detect the motion.

Magnetic tracking technology is also used for dexterous motion. However, even state-of-the-art magnetic systems face limitations. The classic tracking method creates bias and magnetic sources have a dead-angle problem or bulky markers.

The research team invented their new method by applying a deep neural network and a novel structure-aware temporal bilateral filter on a new magnetic tracking principle. First, the neural networks learn the regression from the simulation flux values to the LC coils 3D configuration at any location and orientation.

The new filter further compensates the data to reconstruct smooth and accurate motion. Markers do not require batteries, so observation time can be maximized.

As a result, the new integrated system can track multiple LC coils at 100Hz speed at millimetre level accuracy. Tracking loss due to dead-angle can be reconstructed because of the system's self-learning.

"The application of our research is widespread. Hand motions can be tracked to make creating smooth animations easier, markers can be put into fluids to track its flow, and tracking can be placed on small animals," added Kitamura.

The pilot project aims to examine the costs and benefits of avoided crises - so-called "non-events" - in the domain of consumer health protection from an economic and psychological point of view, and will begin in January 2021. The project will also analyse whether and how cost-benefit considerations can be used in communication with different participants in risk communication and reputation management. For this reason, BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel and HSU President Professor Dr. Klaus Beckmann signed a cooperation agreement yesterday.

"Risk communication is defined as a continuous and interactive process and characterised by a participatory dialogue with different target groups," says BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "It can help every person and every interest group to make informed and independent decisions. Our interdisciplinary research group aims to make contributions to the scientific basis of this decision-making problem and, therefore, also increase economic efficiency and transparency," states Hensel, explaining the idea behind the joint project. The research project will primarily deal with the interaction between risk assessment and risk communication in consumer health protection. So-called "non-events" present a particular challenge: these are crisis events that have been avoided and that, due to successful prevention and treatment measures, do not present themselves as such to the individual. Sometimes, preventing a crisis then leads to society questioning the risk and the measures taken - this is also known as a "prevention paradox". The new research group will now analyse the social significance of these non-events in consumer health protection from an economic and psychological point of view and explore the use of cost-benefit considerations to improve risk communication.

HSU President Professor Dr. Klaus Beckmann welcomes the cooperation between the two institutions: "Our first collaboration in socio-scientific research gives our two departments a massive boost in the domain of risk research and once again illustrates the direct application benefit that interdisciplinary explanatory models can have for our society; in this case, the consumer interested in health."

To answer the multifaceted question of how to assess avoided crises, the BfR and HSU rely on a broad range of expertise: the HSU notably contributes with its economic and psychological competence and the use of its experimental psychological laboratory. The interdisciplinary team at BfR with expertise in psychology and communication science has many years of research experience in the fields of risk communication and crisis prevention.

In a ground-breaking new study, scientists used innovative molecular techniques to explain how corals on the east coast of Australia survived previous tough conditions--enabling the Great Barrier Reef to become the vast reef it is today.

"We sequenced the genomes of 150 individual colonies of the same species of corals and used this to find out which genes are important for survival in inshore reefs," said the study's lead author Dr Ira Cooke from James Cook University.

"Genomes are like a time capsule containing an enormous wealth of historical information," said co-author Professor David Miller from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE).

"Generally, single genomes are really useful in coral studies, but hundreds of genomes for the same species are a goldmine of information," Prof Miller said.

The team delved into the ancient history of reefs, back some one million years, to when inshore corals from Magnetic Island first diverged from their northern reef kin.

The scientists mapped the rise and fall of these two coral populations on the Great Barrier Reef, tracking which genes rapidly evolved to endure changing conditions, while measuring the flow of genes between locations.

They say the results are important for the current and future conservation of coral reefs.

Dr Cooke and his team already knew corals on the inshore Great Barrier Reef were able to flourish despite a disruptive environment of high turbidity and highly variable salinity and temperature parameters. By looking at the variation between genomes the team discovered exactly how the corals achieved this feat.

The survival strategies used by the reef's inshore corals include a set of genes that evolved rapidly during the past 10,000 years. This time period includes flooding after the last ice-age. Another strategy includes the assimilation of specialist strains of coral symbiotic algae. These were found in reefs with some of the toughest conditions--often close to rivers.

"These two strategies deserve special attention in future studies, as possible keys to the survival of corals under similar conditions," Dr Cooke said.

"Losing these reefs is a future possibility as coral reefs currently experience unprecedented, drastic and rapid changes due to human influence," Prof Miller said.

"Coral reefs are threatened by climate change, over-fishing and pollution."

In addressing the latter, Dr Cooke says it's highly important to care for water catchments and water quality.

"As high-quality genome assemblies are derived from a broader range of corals and their symbionts, this and related approaches will become key tools," the authors said.

"These bring us closer to understanding the interaction between past climate conditions and the evolution of corals and coral reefs."

In the field of economics, the concept of a market economy is largely considered a modern phenomenon. Influential economists such as Karl Marx and Max Weber, for example, argued that although markets existed in antiquity, economies in which structures of production and distribution responded to the laws of supply and demand developed only as recently as the 19th century. A recent study by an international team of researchers, including Adam Izdebski of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, uses palynology - the study of pollen remains extracted from cored sediments - to challenge this belief and provide evidence for an integrated market economy existing in ancient Greece.

Market integration began earlier than assumed

Using publicly available data from the European Pollen Database, as well as data from other investigators, researchers analyzed pollen assemblages from 115 samples taken from six sites in southern Greece to measure landscape change. Using radiocarbon dating to tie their measurements to historical time, researchers followed the change in percentage values for individual plant taxa between 1000 BCE and 600 CE and observed a decrease in pollen from cereals, a staple of the ancient Greek diet, during a period of apparent population growth. This decrease occurred at the same time as an increase in the proportion of olive and vine pollen. These trends raise an important question: why would local producers chose to plant olives and vines instead of cereal grains, when the demand for this staple food must have been high and mounting?

In the current study, researchers argue that pollen data from southern Greece reveals an export economy based on cash cropping as early as the Archaic period, primarily through olive cultivation. Although archeological evidence from these periods documents the movement of goods, quantifiable data on market integration and structural changes in agricultural production have been very limited. "In this paper," says lead author Adam Izdebski, "we introduce pollen records as a new source of quantitative data in ancient economic history."

From mud to markets: Integrated scientific approaches reveal an integrated ancient economy

Before arriving at their conclusions, researchers compared the trends they observed in the pollen data with three other sources of data in an instance of pioneering scientific research. First, researchers observed a decrease in pollen from uncultivated landscapes corresponding with each increase in settlement numbers. This correlation between the number of settlements and the exploitation of the land supports the methodology of the study and indicates the potential of palynology for future studies in a variety of scientific disciplines.

Researchers then looked for evidence of increased trade activity in Mediterranean shipwrecks, which are routinely used to estimate maritime trade and overall economic activity. After restricting their search to wrecks from the appropriate period and region, scientists observed trends in shipwrecks consistent with trends found in cereal, olive, and vine pollen. Both sources of data suggest an economic boom in the 1st and 2nd century CE, a decline in the 4th and 5th century, and a smaller boom in the 6th century.

Finally, researchers examined trends in the presence of large-scale oil and wine presses in the Mediterranean. The presence of these machines, although not located in Greece, indicates a pattern of broad economic trends in the region and changing incentives for the production of large quantities of olive oil and wine. Again, the researchers found that trends in archaeological findings of oil and wine presses were consistent with trends in cereal, olive, and vine pollen.

As the emergence of integrated markets and capitalist economies of the early modern era is believed to have been at the roots of the Anthropocene, the current epoch in which humanity has become a major geological force, the current study shows that the structural developments that occurred on a large scale through European colonization from the 15th century onward were possible several thousand years before.

An international collaboration between researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Oxford University, and University of Sheffield has revealed that colonies of slow moving bacteria can expand significantly quicker than their fast moving counterparts. The result is now published in Nature Physics.

The researchers combined genetics, experiments, custom image analysis algorithms and theoretical physics to investigate the efficiency of the bacterial invasion. It turned out that bacteria move slowly and prudently in order to avoid crashes and jams, making them capable of moving efficiently in dense and massive, multimillion population crowds. The result may have implications for how we treat infections in a future in which super bacteria, immune to antibiotics, pose a threat to human health.

Pathogenic bacteria, Pseudomonas ariginosa, move around by grabbing the surfaces with tiny feet called pili. The researchers at Oxford Zoology and Sheffield University set up an experiment in which they modified the individual bacteria by simply adding the number of feet. No other features or properties were changed. The individual bacteria were now able to move approximately two times faster than before, and the researchers asked the question if this enhancement of the individual's abilities would also enhance the population's ability to invade new territories. "We wanted to understand the behavior of the bacteria, both on an individual level and on the level of the collective", Amin Doostmohammadi from the Niels Bohr Institute says.

The tortoise beats the hare - again

The researchers literally made a race between the fast moving and the slow moving colonies, and very counterintuitively, the genetically enhanced, fast population was overtaken by the slower moving wildtype bacteria population. In the beginning, the fast population was ahead, but was, over the course of few hours, overtaken by the slower moving, but apparently more efficient wildtype population. The researchers also put the two different types of bacteria together, to have them compete directly, and again the slower moving, wildtype bacteria population ended up being better at expanding their population. "We find that a mutant that produces a larger number of pili could move more rapidly than the wildtype on an individual level, but in large groups they tended to crash into one another at high speeds. These collisions rotate the mutant cells vertically and trap them in place. As a result, the slower moving wildtype cells can move past them and ultimately win the race into new territory."

Basic physics is at play in a colony of bacteria

By characterizing the orientation of bacteria the researchers found that collisions take place at specific locations: singular points in cell alignment in the form of aster-like structures that are known as +1 topological defects in physics. "Considering how much biology goes into the machinery of bacteria and their behavior, it is striking that we were able to recreate almost exactly the same patterns by using basic physics principles and modelling them in a computer. In other words, the bacteria are obeying a simple, physical principle that limits their pace as individuals, but still allows for a very efficient invasion of a colony. Evolution seems to have put a fundamental speed limit on bacteria: if they move faster than certain amount, they collide together and get trapped in structures of their own creation".

Infections may in the future be dealt with in other ways than with antibiotics

Control of an infection typically means adding a drug to the bacteria colony to influence the individual bacteria - slow it down or kill the individuals in a population with antibiotics, but the surprising new discovery seems to show that speeding up the pace of the crowd of bacteria may actually cause the infection to self-destruct. If the bacteria population, through evolution, have solved the problem of crowding by gaining new territory at a very specific speed, if you then turn up the speed dial, the infection "crashes" and dies out. "From the physics perspective, we may be able to say what property exactly we need to control in a bacteria population, and from the genetics perspective they (biologists) may say 'we know how to control that', and then we can move on to do so. It is a quite new way of thinking, linking different fields of expertise together. Understanding how to control the crowd, rather than the individual in an infection, we hope, will lead to new strategies to control infections in the future" Amin Doostmohammadi says.

Interdisciplinarity was key to the success of the experiment

It was impossible to do this work without a continuous cross talk between researchers within different fields: the expertise in genetic modifications, image analysis, and bacterial ecology from Dr. Oliver Meacock and Dr. William Durham at Sheffield, and Professor Kevin Foster at Oxford Zoology, was combined with theoretical expertise on topological defects from Professor Julia Yeomans in Oxford Physics, and Dr. Amin Doostmohamamdi at the Niels Bohr Institute to discover and explain a counterintuitive phenomenon of how nature has favored slow individuals to make fast collectives.

Nearly one million people in the UK have dementia. People living with the most common form, Alzheimer's disease, can experience difficulties working out where they are, meaning they often get lost even in familiar environments. Today (Friday 27 November) research funded by Alzheimer's Research UK at the University of Exeter Medical School sheds new light about why this might happen.

The brain contains specialised nerve cells called 'speed-sensitive cells', which change their firing rate depending how fast someone is moving. Much like a speedometer in a car, these nerve cells encode how fast, and therefore how far, an individual has travelled. This process helps us to know where we are in relation to where we were, and to navigate our environment.

In this study, Dr Jon Brown led a team of scientists to examine how these speed-sensing nerve cells in a specific part of the brain known as the entorhinal cortex might be affected in Alzheimer's disease.

They investigated this in mice with features of Alzheimer's disease. The mice produced the tau protein - a hallmark protein of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

The team found that while roughly 60% of the nerve cells in normal mice were speed-sensitive, a much lower proportion (13%) were speed-sensitive in the mice with features of disease.

When this speedometer malfunctions, the brain's map does not receive correct distance-travelled information.

The team believe that this malfunction will disrupt other elements of our internal map, and the team found that other cells in the mice producing the toxic tau protein did not function.

Dr Jon Brown, from the University of Exeter's Medical School, who led the research, said

"People with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias can experience profound deficits in spatial memory, meaning they often get lost even in familiar environments. We need to understand this if we are ever to provide treatments for this distressing symptom.

"Our discovery has revealed that cells acting like a "speedometer" and feeding information into the brain's neural map appear to malfunction in dementia brains, and this could help solve part of the puzzle. If this translates to humans, it could identify new pathways for potential treatment."

Dr Rosa Sancho, Head of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK who funded the work said:

"We often hear heart-breaking stories about people with dementia who get lost and can't find their way home and we know spatial navigation difficulties like these are some of the earliest warning signs for the condition.

"Research shows us that the brain changes associated with diseases like Alzheimer's begin decades before symptoms like memory loss start and for future Alzheimer's treatments to be effective, it's likely they must be given at the earliest stages of disease, before there's too much damage to the brain.

"Supporting fundamental research like this is incredibly important to build our knowledge of how the disease works. With the ongoing pandemic making its impact felt on people with dementia and our fundraising efforts, we are incredibly grateful for our dedicated supporters."

Neanderthal thumbs were better adapted to holding tools in the same way that we hold a hammer, according to a paper published in Scientific Reports. The findings suggest that Neanderthals may have found precision grips -- where objects are held between the tip of the finger and thumb -- more challenging than power 'squeeze' grips, where objects are held like a hammer, between the fingers and the palm with the thumb directing force.

Using 3D analysis, Ameline Bardo and colleagues mapped the joints between the bones responsible for movement of the thumb -- referred to collectively as the trapeziometacarpal complex -- of five Neanderthal individuals, and compared the results to measurements taken from the remains of five early modern humans and 50 recent modern adults.

The authors found covariation in shape and relative orientation of the trapeziometacarpal complex joints that suggest different repetitive thumb movements in Neanderthals compared with modern humans. The joint at the base of the thumb of the Neanderthal remains is flatter with a smaller contact surface, and better suited to an extended thumb positioned alongside the side of the hand. This thumb posture suggests the regular use of power 'squeeze' grips, like the ones we now use to hold tools with handles. In comparison, these joint surfaces are generally larger and more curved in recent modern human thumbs, an advantage when gripping objects between the pads of the finger and thumb, known as a precision grip.

Although the morphology of the studied Neanderthals is better suited for power 'squeeze' grips, they would still have been capable of precision hand postures, but would have found this more challenging than modern humans, according to the authors.

Comparison of fossil morphology between the hands of Neanderthals and modern humans may provide further insight into the behaviours of our ancient relatives and early tool use.

A team from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) and the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), led by Professor Fateh Chebana, has recently developed a cold-health watch and warning system for cold waves, a first in the world. Their results were published in November 2020 in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

"Cold waves, which are particularly severe in Quebec, can affect everyone, but especially people with chronic diseases. Data provided by the INSPQ indicates an increase in hospitalizations and mortality in cold weather. Therefore, designing an alert system similar to the one we developed for heat waves in 2010 seemed essential to us," says Professor Chebana, who led the study.

Based on past data, researchers were able to determine two temperature thresholds that would trigger an alert to warn healthcare professionals. Depending on the region, the temperature thresholds for a two-day cold wave causing an alert and related to excess mortality observed in the population vary between -15°C and -23°C during the day, and between -20°C and -29°C at night. The thresholds causing an alert and related to an excess of hospitalization in the population vary between -13°C and -23°C during the day, and between -17°C and -30°C at night.

Once the system is operational, it will use Environment Canada's forecasts and will take into account the reliability of these forecasts. The alert system also considers the effect of delays between exposure and observed health impacts. "Just because it was cold today doesn't mean that people die or go to the hospital on the same day. It takes several days to see the impact, longer than with high temperatures," he says.

A promising alert system

For now, these thresholds are the same throughout the winter period. The team is planning to improve the tool by adjusting thresholds according to the month. "A temperature of -15°C in December will not have the same effect on health as in February because the body has not yet adapted," says Professor Chebana.

The alert system currently considers the general population, but it could specifically look at higher-risk groups such as the elderly or those with respiratory problems. Researchers are also considering a specific feature applicable to tourism or the education sector, during school closures for example.

Currently managed by the INSPQ, the model will be integrated into its Système de surveillance et de prévention des impacts sanitaires des événements météorologiques extrêmes (SUPREME), a source of information on the impacts of extreme weather events on the health.

"Excessive mortality or hospitalizations caused by cold waves are not as well-known as for heat waves, even though their impact is high during the winter. This work, in collaboration with INRS hydrometeorological data modelling experts, will enable public health stakeholders to better monitor cold waves and implement appropriate interventions to prevent avoidable deaths or hospitalizations".

The number of people living with undiagnosed HIV is increasing in the WHO European Region. According to data published today by ECDC and the WHO/Europe, more than 136 000 people were newly diagnosed in 2019 - roughly 20% of these diagnoses were in the EU/EAA and 80% in the eastern part of the European Region.

Every second HIV diagnosis (53%) happens at a late stage of the infection, when the immune system has already started to fail. This is a sign that testing strategies in the Region are not working properly to diagnose HIV early.

The number of people diagnosed with AIDS, the end-stage of an untreated HIV infection, has gone down by more than half in the last decade and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is achievable. However, in the EU/EEA for example, 74% of the 2 772 AIDS diagnoses in 2019 were made very soon after the initial HIV diagnosis - within three months. This shows a significant problem with late diagnosis of HIV infection.

Late diagnosis contributes to ongoing HIV transmission as, often for years at a time, people do not know they have HIV and are not getting treatment.

Although the trend across the Region as a whole has stabilised in recent years, the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV has increased by 16% since 2010. In contrast, the proportion of new diagnoses across EU/EEA countries has declined by 9% over the same period.

The number of newly reported HIV diagnoses and the estimated number of new HIV infections in the whole WHO European Region show that more people have become infected with HIV over the last decade than have been diagnosed, indicating that the number of people living with undiagnosed HIV is increasing in the Region.

In the EU/EEA, the opposite trend has been observed: the number of people living with undiagnosed HIV has been falling.

ECDC Director Dr Andrea Ammon highlights: "Despite the focus on COVID-19 right now, we must not lose sight of other public health issues like HIV. Earlier diagnosis of HIV is an urgent priority. We cannot reach the Sustainable Development Goal target if takes an average of three years for people to find out that they are HIV-positive after infection with the virus. Three years during which live-saving treatment is not available to them and during which they can unknowingly pass on HIV. If we want to reduce the high proportion of people diagnosed late, it is essential to diversify our HIV testing strategies as outlined in the ECDC testing guidance, for example."

Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, says: "I remember when a diagnosis of HIV seemed like a death sentence. Now, with proper treatment, people with HIV can live without fear of AIDS. These data are from 2019, and the question in 2020 has to be what effect the pandemic will have had on testing by the end of 2021. For now, our message has to be to protect the progress of the last decade by continuing to prioritize HIV testing and getting treatment to those who need it. We cannot allow the pandemic to rob us of an AIDS-free future that is within our grasp."

Early diagnosis: higher life expectancy and less transmission

The HIV/AIDS surveillance data for 2019 show that the proportion of those who are diagnosed late increases with age.

Across the whole Region, 67% (EU/EEA: 65%) of people aged 50 years and older were diagnosed late in the course of their HIV infection. In 2019, one in five new HIV diagnoses was in a person over 50 years of age.

The reasons for this are not yet fully understood. It may be that older adults themselves, or the healthcare workers looking after them, underestimate the risk of infection. Older adults may be more affected by the stigma associated with the disease and less comfortable asking to be tested.

WHO/Europe and ECDC stress that to reduce the number of future HIV infections, Europe needs to focus on three main areas:

Prioritising a range of prevention measures, such as awareness-raising, promotion of safer sex, condoms, provision of needle exchange programmes and opioid substitution therapy, and pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, also known as PrEP;

Providing efficient HIV counselling and testing services, including rapid diagnostic services, community-based HIV testing and HIV self-testing; and

Ensuring rapid access to quality treatment and care for those diagnosed.

Early diagnosis is important because it allows people to start HIV treatment sooner, which in turn increases their chances of living a long and healthy life and prevents further transmission.

Guidance to improve testing in Europe

In their guidelines, both WHO/Europe and ECDC recommend that HIV testing services include self-testing and community-based testing by lay providers using rapid tests.

Demystifying traditional Chinese medicine for conservationists could be the key to better protecting endangered species like pangolins, tigers and rhino, according to University of Queensland-led researchers.

UQ PhD candidate Hubert Cheung said efforts to shift entrenched values and beliefs about Chinese medicine are not achieving conservation gains in the short term.

He said a better understanding of traditional practices was critical for conservationists to form more effective strategies.

"The use of endangered species in traditional Chinese medicine threatens species' survival and is a challenge for conservationists," Mr Cheung said.

"Pushing messages of inefficacy, providing various forms of scientific evidence or promoting biomedical alternatives doesn't seem to be drastically influencing decisions and behaviours.

"And, although many practices and treatments continue to be criticised for lacking scientific support, the World Health Organization approved the inclusion of traditional Chinese medicine in its global compendium of medical practices last year.

"The challenge now is for conservationists to work proactively with practitioners and others in the industry to find sustainable solutions.

"However, most conservation scientists and organisations are unfamiliar with traditional Chinese medicine, which makes it difficult to devise effective and culturally-nuanced interventions."

The researchers have examined the core theories and practices of traditional Chinese medicine, in a bid to make it more accessible.

They hope their study - and the nuances within - will influence policy and campaigning.

"Today, traditional Chinese medicine is formally integrated into China's healthcare system, and has been central to China's response to the ongoing pandemic," Mr Cheung said.

"In fact, the Chinese government's COVID-19 clinical guidance has included recommendations for the use of a product containing bear bile, which has raised concerns among conservation groups."

UQ's Professor Hugh Possingham said traditional Chinese medicine was now not only entrenched in the social and cultural fabric of Chinese society, but also gaining users elsewhere.

"A better understanding of traditional Chinese medicine will empower conservationists to engage more constructively with stakeholders in this space," Professor Possingham said.

"We're hoping that this work can help all parties develop more effective and lasting solutions for species threatened by medicinal use."

University of Copenhagen researchers have been following vegetation trends across the planet's driest areas using satellite imagery from recent decades. They have identified a troubling trend: Too little vegetation is sprouting up from rainwater in developing nations, whereas things are headed in the opposite direction in wealthier ones. As a result, the future could see food shortages and growing numbers of climate refugees.

More than 40 percent of Earth's ecosystems are arid, an amount that is expected to increase significantly over the course of the 21st century. Some of these areas, such as those in Africa and Australia may be savannah or desert, where sparse rainfall has long been the norm. Within these biomes, vegetation and wildlife have adapted to making use of their scant water resources, but they are also extraordinarily vulnerable to climate change.

Using extensive imagery from satellites that monitor Earth every day, researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources Management have studied the evolution of vegetation in arid regions. Their conclusion is unequivocal:

"We observe a clear trend of arid areas developing in a negative direction in the most economically challenged countries. Here, it is apparent that the growth of vegetation has become increasingly decoupled from the water resources available and that there is simply less vegetation in relation to the amount of rainfall. The opposite is the case in the wealthiest countries," explains Professor Rasmus Fensholt of the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management.

Worse in Asia and Africa, better in South America and Australia

The researchers analyzed 15 years worth of satellite imagery of vegetation and rainfall -- from 2000 to 2015. To compare the evolution of vegetation in arid regions of the world, the researchers removed precipitation totals from the equation. In other words, they produced a calculation that accounts for the fact that some regions received more rain in past decades, while other regions received less.

This provides a more accurate picture of ecosystem health, as human influences become easier to identify: In other words, whether resource use is balanced or whether an ecosystem's resources have been overexploited, with potentially fatal consequences -- as imbalanced systems may be irreparable.

"Here, our results demonstrate that in arid regions, particularly those in Africa and Asia, less vegetation grows for the amount of rainwater that falls, while more vegetation grows in arid areas of South America and Australia," says lead author Christin Abel, a postdoc at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management.

Infographic text: Areas with purple hues indicate where vegetation growth relative to rainfall is declining, while green hues reveal areas where vegetation has grown more than expected. White areas represent ecosystems where vegetation growth is in balance with the water resources available.

According to the researchers, there may be several explanations for why climate change and rising global temperatures are impacting vegetation in arid regions of the world's poorest countries. Among the most obvious is rapid population growth, in Africa for example, where there is an increasing need to exploit land that is otherwise poorly suited for agriculture. Doing so produces lower yields and puts increasing amounts of livestock on too little grass in already fragile ecosystems.

Conversely, vegetation in arid areas of the world's wealthier countries seems to be coping better with climate change. This is likely due to the intensification and expansion of larger farms, where more economic resources allow for, among other things, irrigation and fertilization.

Food crises and more climate refugees

As a result of climate change, future trends for the planet's poorest areas only seem to be getting worse. Forecasts point to an expansion of today's arid areas where they will make up a larger and larger share of our global ecosystems. This may result in more and more people being left without food and their needing to migrate.

"One consequence of declining vegetation in the world's poorer arid regions areas may be an increase in climate refugees from various African countries. According to what we've seen in this study, there is no indication that the problem will diminish in the future," explains Rasmus Fensholt.

For a number of years, satellite imagery has let researchers observe that, overall, it actually appears that the world's arid regions have become greener. However, when researchers look at how much vegetation arid areas in developing countries get in relation to rainfall amounts, the picture looks different.

"We have been pleased to see that, for a number of years, vegetation has been on an upwards trend in arid regions. But if we dig only a tiny bit deeper and look at how successfully precipitation has translated into vegetation, then climate change seems to be hitting unevenly, which is troubling," says Rasmus Fensholt.

New data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides further evidence for tidal disruption in the galaxy NGC 1052-DF4. This result explains a previous finding that this galaxy is missing most of its dark matter. By studying the galaxy's light and globular cluster distribution, astronomers have concluded that the gravity forces of the neighbouring galaxy NGC 1035 stripped the dark matter from NGC 1052-DF4 and are now tearing the galaxy apart.

In 2018 an international team of researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and several other observatories uncovered, for the first time, a galaxy in our cosmic neighbourhood that is missing most of its dark matter. This discovery of the galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 was a surprise to astronomers, as it was understood that Dark matter (DM) is a key constituent in current models of galaxy formation and evolution. In fact, without the presence of DM, the primordial gas would lack enough gravity pull to start collapsing and forming new galaxies. A year later, another galaxy that misses dark matter was discovered, NGC 1052-DF4, which further triggered intense debates among astronomers about the nature of these objects.

Now, new Hubble data [1] have been used to explain the reason behind the missing dark matter in NGC 1052-DF4, which resides 45 million light-years away. Mireia Montes of the University of New South Wales in Australia led an international team of astronomers to study the galaxy using deep optical imaging. They discovered that the missing dark matter can be explained by the effects of tidal disruption. The gravity forces of the neighbouring massive galaxy NGC 1035 are tearing NGC 1052-DF4 apart. During this process, the dark matter is removed, while the stars feel the effects of the interaction with another galaxy at a later stage.

Until now, the removal of dark matter in this way has remained hidden from astronomers as it can only be observed using extremely deep images that can reveal extremely faint features. "We used Hubble in two ways to discover that NGC 1052-DF4 is experiencing an interaction," explained Montes. "This includes studying the galaxy's light and the galaxy's distribution of globular clusters."

Thanks to Hubble's high resolution, the astronomers could identify the galaxy's globular clusters. The 10.4-metre Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) telescope and the IAC80 telescope in the Canaries, Spain, were also used to complement Hubble's observations by further studying the data.

"It is not enough just to spend a lot of time observing the object, but a careful treatment of the data is vital," explained team member Raúl Infante-Sainz of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain. "It was therefore important that we use not just one telescope/instrument, but several (both ground- and space-based) to conduct this research. With the high resolution of Hubble, we can identify the globular clusters, and then with GTC photometry we obtain the physical properties."

Globular clusters are thought to form in the episodes of intense star formation that shaped galaxies. Their compact sizes and luminosity make them easily observable and they are therefore good tracers of the properties of their host galaxy. In this way, by studying and characterising the spatial distribution of the clusters in NGC 1052-DF4, astronomers can develop insight into the present state of the galaxy itself. The alignment of these clusters suggests they are being "stripped" from their host galaxy, and this supports the conclusion that tidal disruption is occurring.

By studying the galaxy's light, the astronomers also found evidence of tidal tails, which are formed of material moving away from NGC1052-DF4 -- this further supports the conclusion that this is a disruption event. Additional analysis concluded that the central parts of the galaxy remain untouched and only ~ 7% of the stellar mass of the galaxy is hosted in these tidal tails. This means that dark matter, which is less concentrated than stars, was previously and preferentially stripped from the galaxy, and now the outer stellar component is starting to be stripped as well.

"This result is a good indicator that, while the dark matter of the galaxy was evaporated from the system, the stars are only now starting to suffer the disruption mechanism," explained team member Ignacio Trujillo of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain. "In time, NGC1052-DF4 will be cannibalised by the large system around NGC1035, with at least some of their stars floating free in deep space."

The discovery of evidence to support the mechanism of tidal disruption as the explanation for the galaxy's missing dark matter has not only solved an astronomical conundrum, but has also brought a sigh of relief to astronomers. Without it, scientists would be faced with having to revise our understanding of the laws of gravity.

"This discovery reconciles existing knowledge of how galaxies form and evolve with the most favorable cosmological model," added Montes.

Analysis of social media messages between care home staff on the coronavirus front line reveal their growing concerns over how to manage in the face of the virus.

Thousands of Whatsapp messages between 250 care home workers during the first coronavirus wave show workers were often asking questions which went unanswered due to a lack of proper guidance.

Staff asked where to purchase PPE; whether guidelines existed for isolating residents returning from hospital and how they could access testing.

But guidance either did not exist, was conflicting, or staff were not aware of it.

Care home staff formed the messaging group themselves in partnership with colleagues to offer support during the first wave. As group members, researchers at the University of Leeds analysed the questions and uncertainties raised.

They found most of the questions were about infection control and prevention and could have been tackled immediately through timely, responsive and unambiguous fact-based guidance.

But their analyses revealed scant guidance for care homes meant these basic needs were unmet.

Peter Hodkinson, Managing Director of Leeds care home company Westward Care Ltd, said: "This report highlights the isolation of care homes and their staff and the shortcomings of the 'arm's length' approach to the commissioning of these services. We need much more sector informed research to improve the outcome of those in receipt of care and the highest quality of care available to meet their needs. This will only be done by much closer collaboration."

The paper, Seeking Answers for Care Homes during the COVID-19 pandemic (COVID SEARCH), has been published in the journal Age and Ageing.

The social media messages reveal staff concerns over residents' wellbeing and relatives' anxieties; uncertainties over which symptoms predicted the need for self-isolating, and questions about how long staff with symptoms should self-isolate.

Other questions around the most effective strategies for resident and staff wellbeing, recruitment, communication and organisational impact needed further research, the group said.

It is the first systematic capture of the questions and uncertainties expressed by care home staff in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study has identified other areas of research which, importantly, have been informed by the sector itself.

Professor Karen Spilsbury, Chair in Nursing Research at Leeds' School of Healthcare, said: "COVID-19 has tragically impacted on long-term care worldwide, particularly for older people living in care homes.

"The pandemic has created new and unanticipated uncertainties for care home staff caring for older people.

"Scant care home-specific guidance during the early stages meant that basic information needs of care home staff were not satisfied."

Professor Spilsbury said policy makers, commissioners and regulators should make answering these questions a priority, and called for investment for research into the evidence produced by the study.

She said: "The experiences of care home staff should serve to focus the evidence-based response to the pandemic in care homes.

"We want to see care home providers and staff given timely, responsive and unambiguous guidance as they learn to live with and manage COVID-19."

The work was carried out in partnership with care providers Springfield Healthcare and Westward Care under the NICHE-Leeds research and innovation programme.

Cyd Akrill, Chief Nursing Officer for Springfield Healthcare, said: "In the early weeks of the pandemic it was frustrating and time consuming because guidance was often conflicting and the amount of advice was not always helpful. This research brought shared uncertainties together and helped us consider how they could be addressed. We were listened to and this was important. Our partnership with NICHE-Leeds yet again was invaluable not only to us but nationally and internationally."

Professor Carl Thompson, Dame Kathleen Raven Chair in Clinical Research at Leeds, said: "The basis for the kinds of evidence that can truly make a difference to the lives of people living and working in care homes are the uncertainties that people are struggling to address without reliable high-quality research that tackles what really matters. This is the first research to shine a light on these uncertainties, the questions that people have in homes and the research that can help."

Professor Adam Gordon, President-Elect of the British Geriatrics Society, said: "These research findings show us that care home staff were weeks, if not months, ahead of the government guidance when it came to identifying the most important areas of concern around the pandemic. They tell us that that those who write guidance for the sector need to develop better ways of rapidly consulting with and collating advice from care home staff. If we give these professionals a stronger voice, we'll make the right decisions quicker, and with greater certainty."

Scientists at Keele University and King's College London have found that 64% of people would be likely to have a COVID-19 vaccination when one became available.

The online survey of 1,500 UK adults also reported that 27% were unsure if they would have the vaccination, and just 9% - fewer than 1 in 10 - reported that they were unlikely to be vaccinated.

The online cross-sectional survey was conducted by a research team from Keele University and King's College London in collaboration with Public Health England, to understand the expected uptake of a future COVID-19 vaccine.

The researchers collected the data between July 14 and 17, 2020 and analysed associations between intention to be vaccinated when a vaccine becomes available, and socio-demographic factors such as age, race, ethnicity, and education, previous influenza vaccination, general vaccine attitudes and beliefs, attitudes and beliefs about COVID-19, and attitudes and beliefs about a COVID-19 vaccination.

Publishing their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, the team identify several factors associated with likelihood of accepting a coronavirus vaccine. People who had been vaccinated for flu last year were more likely to intend to be vaccinated for coronavirus, as were older people, people with more positive vaccination beliefs and attitudes, and people who perceived a greater risk of COVID-19 to others.

Joint first author Dr Sue Sherman, from Keele University's School of Psychology, said: "The scale and impact of COVID-19 are such that when a vaccine becomes available, we need to ensure that uptake is maximised in order to contain the mounting social and economic costs associated with the virus.

"Despite the pandemic nature and severity of COVID-19, high vaccine uptake cannot be assumed for various reasons, including something called the intention-behaviour gap. For instance, uptake of the H1N1 vaccine following the 2009 swine flu pandemic was poor in many countries.

"The highly contagious nature of COVID-19 means that once a vaccine becomes available, ensuring a good uptake will play an important role in reducing unnecessary deaths. In order to maximise the uptake of the coronavirus vaccine, campaigns to support vaccination programmes overall, including for other routine vaccination programmes such as the annual winter flu programme, will need to be in place."

Joint first author Dr Louise Smith, from the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit for Emergency Preparedness and Response at King's College London, said: "A coronavirus vaccine could offer us a chance to get back on the road to 'normal'. However, the vaccination programme will only be successful if people want to be vaccinated. We found that almost two thirds of the general population said that they would be likely to be vaccinated for coronavirus when a vaccine became available to them. Intention to be vaccinated for coronavirus was associated with having had a flu vaccine in the 2019/20 season, having positive attitudes towards vaccination generally, and thinking that a coronavirus vaccine would be safe. This is similar to what we see for uptake of other routine vaccinations.

"Although there is still considerable uncertainty around the details of a coronavirus vaccination, it is encouraging that most people report that they would be vaccinated for coronavirus when a vaccine becomes available to them."