Culture

Does the sight of maggots squirming in rotten food make you look away in disgust? The phrase 'makes my stomach turn' takes on a new meaning today as researchers at the University of Cambridge reveal that changes in the rhythm of our stomachs prompt us to look away from disgusting images.

Disgust is a natural response to unpleasant sights, such as rotting food, bodily waste and creepy crawlies, and has evolved to help us survive, encouraging us to avoid things that might spread disease. But for some people, disgust can become pathological, affecting their mental health and quality of life.

In a study published today in Current Biology, researchers at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit show that domperidone, a commonly-prescribed anti-nausea medicine, can help significantly reduce how much volunteers look away from disgusting images.

Domperidone works by stabilising the rhythm of the electrical signals in our stomach muscles. Normally, these signals help the stomach expand and contract, helping move food through the digestive tract. These rhythms become abnormal when we are nauseous or when we are hungry or full, for example. When they are strongly disrupted - for example, when we feel strong revulsion towards something - they can cause us to throw up the contents of our stomach.

In the study, twenty-five volunteers aged 18-35 were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group to receive domperidone, the second a placebo.

Before taking their pills, the volunteers were shown a series of unpleasant images along with neutral images, such as a scarf or buttons, while the researchers tracked their eye movements. Thirty minutes after taking their tablets, the volunteers were again shown the images while their eye movements were tracked.

Next, the researchers offered an incentive to the volunteers: for every four to eight seconds that they could look at a disgusting image, they would receive 25p - and hear a 'kerching!' sound. The volunteers then viewed the images again for a final round, but this time with no incentive.

The volunteers were also asked to rate how disgusting they found the images at the start and end of the trial.

The researchers found that initially, taking domperidone made little difference to the time the volunteers spent looking at a particular image. As could be expected among both groups, the dwell time increased dramatically when they were paid to look at the images.

In the final condition - when the volunteers were no longer being incentivised - the team found that volunteers who had received domperidone spent significantly longer than the placebo group looking at the disgusting images. By the end, people looked at the neutral image roughly 5.5 seconds more than the disgusting image, but under the influence of domperidone, the difference was only about 2.5 seconds.

Domperidone made no difference to how disgusting the volunteers rated the images to be.

"We've known for some time that when you see something disgusting, your stomach muscles' electrical signals become dysregulated, which in some cases causes people to feel sick or their stomach to turn. You're then likely to avoid that thing," said Dr Camilla Nord from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge.

"What we've shown here is that when we steady the stomach's electrical signals, people become less avoidant of a disgusting image after engaging with it. Changes in the stomach's rhythm led to reduced disgust avoidance in our study - and so the stomach's rhythm must be one cause of disgust avoidance in general."

"In another recent study, we showed that we do not become immune to looking at disgusting images - a fact supported by the placebo condition in this new study," said Dr Edwin Dalmaijer, also from the MRC Unit. "This is one reason why treating pathological disgust by exposure is often unsuccessful. Our research suggests domperidone may help."

"We've shown that by calming the rhythms of our stomach muscles using anti-nausea drugs, we can help reduce our instinct to look away from a disgusting image," added Professor Tim Dalgleish, also from the MRC Unit, "but just using the drug itself isn't enough: overcoming disgust avoidance requires us to be motivated or incentivised. This could provide us with clues on how we can help people overcome pathological disgust clinically, which occurs in a number of mental health conditions and can be disabling."

Explaining why the stomach should play a role in our disgust response, Dr Nord added: "When the brain constructs its representation of the environment, it integrates signals from the outside world, such as 'is it daylight?' with signals from the inside world, such as 'am I hungry?'. So your internal environment, and your perception of it, plays a large role in how you experience the world.

"Many studies have shown that the state of our body influences emotion, perception, and action. For example, the timing and your awareness of your heartbeats influences learning, anxiety, and other emotion perception. Our study shows that the state of your stomach also influences your behaviour."

Robots so tiny that they can manoeuvre through our blood vessels and deliver medications to certain points in the body - researchers have been pursuing this goal for years. Now, scientists at ETH Zurich have succeeded for the first time in building such "micromachines" out of metal and plastic, in which these two materials are interlocked as closely as links in a chain. This is possible thanks to a new manufacturing technique they have devised.

"Metals and polymers have different properties, and both materials offer certain advantages in building micromachines. Our goal was to benefit from all these properties simultaneously by combining the two," explains Carlos Alcântara, formerly a doctoral student in Salvador Pané's group at the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems and one of the two lead authors of the paper. As a rule, micromachines are powered from outside the body using magnetic fields, which means they must have magnetic metal parts installed. Polymers, in contrast, have the advantage that they can be used to construct soft, flexible components as well as parts that dissolve inside the body. If medication is embedded in this kind of soluble polymer, it is possible to selectively supply active substances to certain points in the body.

High-tech production method

Underpinning the new manufacturing method is the expertise of ETH Professor Salvador Pané. For years, he has been working with a high-precision 3D printing technique that produces complex objects on the micrometre level, a technique known as 3D lithography. The ETH scientists applied this method to produce a kind of mould or template for their micromachines. These templates have narrow grooves that serve as a "negative" and can be filled with the chosen materials.

Using electrochemical deposition, the scientists fill some of the grooves with metal and others with polymers before ultimately dissolving the template away with solvents. "Our interdisciplinary group consists of electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, chemists, and materials scientists who all work closely together. That was the key to developing this method," says Fabian Landers, a doctoral student in Pané's group. He is the other lead author of the paper, which has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Vehicle with tiny magnetic wheels

As a proof of principle for making micromachines by interlocking materials, the ETH scientists created various miniscule vehicles with plastic chassis and magnetic metal wheels powered by means of a rotating magnetic field. Some of the vehicles can be propelled across a glass surface, while others - depending on the polymer used - can float in liquid or on a liquid surface.

The scientists are now planning to refine their two-component micromachines and experiment with other materials. In addition, they will attempt to create more complex shapes and machines, including some that can fold and unfold themselves. Besides serving as "ferries" that distribute active substances, future applications of micromachines include treating aneurysms (bulges in blood vessels) or performing other surgical procedures. Another research goal is to make stents (tube shaped vessel supports) that unfold themselves and can be positioned at a specific place in the body using magnetic fields.

The only dinosaur bones ever found on the island of Ireland have been formally confirmed for the first time by a team of experts from the University of Portsmouth and Queen's University Belfast, led by Dr Mike Simms, a curator and palaeontologist at National Museums NI.

The two fossil bones were found by the late Roger Byrne, a schoolteacher and fossil collector, who donated them along with many other fossils to Ulster Museum. Analysis has confirmed they are from early Jurassic rocks found in Islandmagee, on the east coast of County Antrim.

Ulster Museum has announced plans to put them on display when it reopens after the latest rounds of restrictions are lifted.

Dr Simms, National Museums NI, said: "This is a hugely significant discovery. The great rarity of such fossils here is because most of Ireland's rocks are the wrong age for dinosaurs, either too old or too young, making it nearly impossible to confirm dinosaurs existed on these shores. The two dinosaur fossils that Roger Byrne found were perhaps swept out to sea, alive or dead, sinking to the Jurassic seabed where they were buried and fossilised."

The article, published in the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, is part of a larger project to document Jurassic rocks in Northern Ireland and draws on many fossils in Ulster Museum's collections.

Originally it was assumed the fossils were from the same animal, but the team were surprised to discover that they were from two completely different dinosaurs. The study, employing the latest available technology, identified the type of dinosaur from which each came. One is part of a femur (upper leg bone) of a four-legged plant-eater called Scelidosaurus. The other is part of the tibia (lower leg bone) of a two-legged meat-eater similar to Sarcosaurus.

The University of Portsmouth team, researcher Robert Smyth, originally from Ballymoney, and Professor David Martill, used high-resolution 3D digital models of the fossils, produced by Dr Patrick Collins of Queen's University Belfast, in their analysis of the bone fragments.

Robert Smyth said: "Analysing the shape and internal structure of the bones, we realised that they belonged to two very different animals. One is very dense and robust, typical of an armoured plant-eater. The other is slender, with thin bone walls and characteristics found only in fast-moving two-legged predatory dinosaurs called theropods."

"Despite being fragmentary, these fossils provide valuable insight on a very important period in dinosaur evolution, about 200 million years ago. It's at this time that dinosaurs really start to dominate the world's terrestrial ecosystems."

Professor Martill said: "Scelidosaurus keeps on turning up in marine strata, and I am beginning to think that it may have been a coastal animal, perhaps even eating seaweed like marine iguanas do today."

Infants' brains may be shaped by levels of stress their mother experiences during pregnancy, a study has revealed.

Stress levels in mothers - measured by a hormone linked to anxiety and other health problems - is related to changes in areas of the infant brain associated with emotional development, the study suggests.

Doctors say the findings highlight the urgent need for women to be better supported with their mental and physical health before and during pregnancy, and could help them spot mums and babies who need help.

The experts add that pregnant women who feel stressed or unwell should seek help from their midwife or consultant and that with support, most health issues can be well managed in pregnancy.

Maternal stress is known to influence the development of the child's behaviour and ability to regulate its emotions as it grows. This is usually measured by questionnaires, which are not always reliable.

The new study is the first time that scientists have used an objective measure - levels of the hormone cortisol - in the mother to study links with baby brain development.

Cortisol is involved in the body's response to stress - with higher levels indicating higher stress - and also plays a role in foetal growth.

A research team led by the University of Edinburgh showed that levels of cortisol are linked to the development of the baby's amygdala, an area of the brain known to be involved in emotional and social development in childhood.

For the study, scientists took hair samples from 78 pregnant women to determine the women's levels of cortisol in the previous three months.

The women's babies underwent a series of brain scans using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI, a non-invasive scan that took place whilst the baby slept.

The researchers found that higher levels of cortisol in the mother's hair were linked to structural changes in the infants' amygdala as well as differences in brain connections.

Doctors say this could explain why children whose mothers experienced high levels of stress during pregnancy may be more likely to have emotional issues in later life.

They caution, however, that the study did not assess emotion in children.

The study was funded by the global children's charity, Theirworld, and is published in the journal eLife.

Lead researcher, Professor James Boardman, Director of the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, said: "Our findings are a call to action to detect and support pregnant women who need extra help during pregnancy as this could be an effective way of promoting healthy brain development in their babies".

Professor Rebecca Reynolds, Personal Chair of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, who co-led the study, said: "Thankfully, psychological treatments are very successful at helping mothers and children and we hope that our findings could guide therapies in future to help spot those who might be most in need of support."

Sarah Brown, Chair of Theirworld, said: "This research highlights how important it is to support women's mental health during pregnancy to ensure that their needs are met and that their babies have the best start in life. Helping mothers cope with stress is an important step to ensure both mum and baby thrive."

Trinity College researchers are studying how the brain re-wires itself in neurological disease. The team is building treatments for today's more common global conditions like Motor Neurone Disease (MND/ALS) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy and their findings could impact rehabilitation for patients, the discovery of effective drugs and quantifying the potential efficacy of new therapies.

The paper is published in the journal Clinical Neurophysiology here: https://bit.ly/38On53Y .

Up to now, scientific knowledge has told us that the polio virus affects the spinal cord, but not the brain. The Trinity team have shown this not to be the case; finding previously unknown changes also occurring in the brain networks. These findings suggest that brain networks engage in an abnormal but active communication with muscles in patient groups studied.

Today, polio is a rare condition in the world, as it has been reasonably controlled by vaccination over several decades. Incidentally, there are people in Ireland who have had the disease in the past and live with its consequences. Polio is a viral infection that damages the neural cells (neurons) in the spinal cord. Neurons take up, process and transmit information through electrical and chemical signals to other parts of the body, including muscles, for movement.

The study considerably increases the team's understanding of how the neurological and neurodegenerative diseases in parts of the nervous systems can affect brain networks , and how these networks can compensate following damage. This work helps them understand how the networks that control the movement work and how they influence and are influenced by different disease mechanisms.

Because the polio virus affects the same neurons in the spinal cord such as Motor Neuron Disease (MND/ALS) and childhood onset Spinal Muscular Atrophy ,this work is extremely important in driving our global effort to find treatments for these diseases.

The team, led by Professor Orla Hardiman, Professor of Neurology at the School of Medicine, Trinity College assessed the abnormal changes in the neural networks underlying human movements that take place due to neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. The assessment was made using neuro-electric measurement of the brain activity (brain waves or EEG) and the muscle activity (EMG) and some complex signal analysis.

The study will be supporting the emerging approaches to diagnosis and therapy (precision medicine) where the patients can be diagnosed and treated (with rehabilitation and new drug treatments) based on how exactly their neural networks are affected (on an individual basis). This will be applicable both to the patient group in this study, but also, in cognate conditions such as different forms of MND/ALS.

Dr Amina Coffey, PhD researcher, Clinical Medicine, Trinity College and first author, said:

"This study shows that neurophysiological markers can pick up changes in brain connectivity patterns that have implications in our understanding of other similar neurological conditions like Spinal Muscular Atrophy."

Dr Bahman Nasseroleslami, Assistant Professor, Clinical Medicine, Trinity College and senior author, said:

"This study is especially interesting, because it shows that advanced methods in neurophysiology and neural signal analysis can help to unravel new aspects of how different diseases disrupt our movements. These types of inexpensive non-invasive methods can be further developed for probing the different "neural networks" in humans that are responsible for different day-to-day movements and different diseases that affect them."

Professor Orla Hardiman, Professor of Neurology, Clinical Medicine, Trinity College and co-author, said:

"Our research findings show for the first time that the brain "rewires" in those who suffered from polio in childhood.

This has implications for our understanding of brain plasticity, and in the longer term for rehabilitation and new biomarker development."

The addition and removal of methyl groups on DNA plays an important role in gene regulation. In order to study these mechanisms more precisely, a German team has developed a new method by which specific methylation sites can be blocked and then unblocked at a precise time through irradiation with light (photocaging). As reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the required regent is produced enzymatically, in situ.

Although they look very different and serve completely different functions, all cells in our body have identical DNA. However, they do not use the same genes. Certain genes are turned on and others off, depending on the type of cell and the moment in time. The "switches" are chemical changes in the building blocks of the DNA. These changes are called epigenetic modifications. One significant regulation mechanism is methylation and demethylation, meaning the attachment and removal of a methyl group (-CH(3)). The methylation patterns of cancer cells, for example, differ from healthy cells. During a methylation, enzymes known as methyl transferases (MTases) transfer a methyl group from S-adenosyl-?-methionine (AdoMet) to the target molecule.

In order to study the purpose and function of this regulation more closely and determine methylation patterns, it would be useful to have "tools" to specifically inhibit methylation at targeted locations and then lift the inhibition at a defined time. To this end, a team led by Andrea Rentmeister chose to use a method known as photocaging. In this method, a "photocage" is a molecule that falls apart upon irradiation, such as a 2-nitrobenzyl group. The cage first blocks the target location, then targeted irradiation with light acts as a "switch" to remove the blockade.

The idea was to equip AdoMet analogues with a photocage that is then transferred to the methylation sites. However, AdoMet analogues decompose in aqueous solutions and cannot enter into cells. Therefore, the team at the University of Münster wanted to produce them in situ. In the body, AdoMet is produced from the amino acid methionine through the action of the enzyme, methionine adenosyl transferase (MAT). Synthesis of the AdoMet analogues requires methionine with an attached nitrobenzyl photocage and a MAT that can use such an altered substrate. Starting with a MAT enzyme from a single-celled organism (Cryptosporidium hominis), the researchers were able to carefully change specific amino acids in the enzyme to increase the size of its hydrophobic binding cavity so that it could contain the nitrobenzyl group. A crystal structure analysis showed that the ADoMet analogue is bound in the cavity of this photocaging MAT (PC-MAT). Based on this information, the team also produced a second PC-MAT based on a thermostable MAT enzyme from the archaeon Methanocaldococcus jannaschii.

Both of these PC-MATs are compatible with DNA and RNA MTases and made it possible to attach photocages to all natural methylation sites of a plasmid DNA. Irradiation with light removed the blockade.

A 'game changing' study deciphering the genetic material of the desert locust by researchers at the University of Leicester, could help combat the crop-ravaging behaviour of the notorious insect pest which currently exacerbates a hunger crisis across many developing countries.

It is hoped that the study will provide the basis for developing 'intelligent pesticides', that act with surgical precision by tapping into locust-specific signals in the nervous system, to either kill or disable their swarming behaviour, without harming other organisms.

The full set of genetic information for the desert locust could have major international implications for countries such as East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and South-West Asia, which this year have been suffering the most devastating desert locust crises in decades despite wide-spread control operations that are still ongoing.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), a swarm of locusts can contain around 40 million insects per square kilometre, which each day can eat the same amount of food as 35,000 people. The FAO estimates that 42 million people are currently facing severe food insecurity caused specifically by the desert locust.

Dr Tom Matheson said:"The incredible devastation that these voracious insects can cause to food crops and pastures affects the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers and exacerbates the risks of starvation for the wider population in already vulnerable regions.

"The desert locust genome provides key information that could be a complete game-changer for the developing world, and a huge economic step forward for countries struggling to feed their populations.

"Tackling locust infestations and controlling swarms will never be easy because of the challenging conditions across the huge areas affected, but with the right information and research at hand, we hope that future approaches can become more effective."

He added:"If climate change causes locust plagues to become the 'new normal', we will need all hands on deck by way of in-depth research and improved technology to help in the fight to control swarms."

Desert locust swarms are a major economic issue in more than 65 countries, across more than 20 per centof the world's total land surface. Authorities in affected countries have been carrying out aerial spraying of pesticides, but the scale of the infestation is often beyond local capacity as desert locusts can travel up to 150km (95 miles) in a day, crossing national borders and rugged terrain in regions with little road infrastructure.

While locust swarms are infamous for the great damage they inflict to agriculture, their genetic material ('genome') is famed amongst researchers for its enormous size. At more than 8.8 billion base pairs of DNA (8.8 'giga-bases'), the desert locust genome is the largest insect genome sequenced to date and over 2.8 times larger than the human genome.

Dr Swidbert Ott added:"We do not yet understand the genetic instructions that make locusts behave so differently from ordinary grasshoppers, and to such damaging effect. Until now, a major stumbling block has been the lack of the desert locust genome sequence that holds the answer to what makes a grasshopper a locust.

"We hope that our data can facilitate the development of novel, more sustainable methods of managing swarm outbreaks. With the information in our research now available, there is a unique opportunity for innovators to create an intelligent pesticide that targets locusts, but not other insects crucial to the ecosystem, such as pollinators."

A majority of police detectives in England and Wales investigating financial crime do not have sufficient knowledge to build a successful case.

That's the finding of new research from the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth, looking into why results of such investigations vary so widely, especially when the crimes account for half of all criminal activity in the UK.

The report, published today in Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, finds that only 40 per cent of investigators understood the process by which fraud is reported. A third of those questioned said they had not received proper training in how to investigate financial crime. There was also a poor perception of fraud and the impact on victims amongst those questioned.

Researchers found that in many cases investigators had a negative view of their work, and did not have the time, training or determination. Financial crime is perceived to be notoriously challenging to investigate. Investigations into less prolific, but higher profile and headline grabbing crimes are known to get better results. Their report builds a picture of why investigations into financial crimes are largely unsuccessful, and it makes a series of recommendations to improve outcomes.

Lead author Paul Gilmour, Lecturer of Criminal Justice and Policing, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, said: "The police service in England and Wales has been subject of much criticism in the past two decades over the response to financial crime. Many studies have reported failures in how the police investigate and prosecute financial crime, which have led to many victims being dissatisfied with the service provided by police. Despite this, there has been little research into the barriers facing police investigators entrusted with tackling financial crime."

A recent study by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) concluded that the policing response to fraud is ineffective, with victims of fraud often left dissatisfied with the quality of the police's investigation into fraud. Less than three per cent of fraud reported to police between 2017 and 2018 led to any type of positive outcome, such as a charge, summons, caution, or community service. These statistics are especially disappointing considering that fraud and related computer crimes accounted for almost half of all crime in England and Wales in the year ending December 2019 (Office for National Statistics, 2020).

Paul Gilmour said: "Our article reports on a study into such barriers, through surveys and interviews with investigators that aimed to better understand the challenges faced by police forces within England and Wales. It demonstrates several overriding practical and cultural issues that inhibit the success of investigations. The article concludes that police need a better appreciation of financial crime, to help improve the service delivered to victims and to prioritise this often undervalued field of policing."

The report found that financial crimes need to be prioritised, with all sectors of the police service needing to understand that they have an important role to play in the success of an investigation. Researchers also recognised that resources dedicated to fighting financial crime have struggled to compete with other policing priorities. It suggests improved training will allow investigators to better judge and, therefore, prioritise those cases that warrant further investigation.

A summary of the findings and recommendations can be
found below:

The findings showed a common theme -

The police's lack of knowledge around relevant legislation and investigative procedures emerged as a key theme in the research. Only 40 per cent of all respondents reported understanding the processes through which frauds are reported to the police, and half of all respondents did not understand the role of Action Fraud.

Many respondents reported a lack of training as a barrier. A total of 29 per cent of respondents reported having received no training related to investigating financial crime. Almost 40 per cent of all surveyed stated that the only training received relating to financial crime was during their initial police recruitment. In nearly 40 per cent of respondents, all investigative training delivered had been via online e-learning packages.

There was also a poor perception of fraud and also victims of fraud. Given the lack of training and knowledge around financial crimes, many respondents reported being fearful of conducting investigations into such crimes. The perception of fraud was overwhelmingly negative. Many respondents reported that fraud was not a priority.

One respondent said: "Fraud has never interested me, but that said, it does not seem to interest many people; and as a result, it is definitely a poor relation when it comes to criminal investigation."

The perceived lack of support from fraud victims was also reported as being a barrier. One said: "Many victims have a completely unrealistic attitude towards what we can achieve."

Many respondents also reported that inadequate available resources hinder their ability to respond to financial crimes.

Report recommendations:

Greater training is needed in this field to enhance investigators' ability to tackle financial crime. Further initial training and ongoing development will, not only, strengthen the police's competence in tackling financial crime, but also, improve the police workforce's resilience in meeting growing operational demands.

Better training will also improve how this area of policing is perceived. Victims of fraud and other financial crimes need the full support of the police, especially considering the increasing volume of frauds reported to police each year.

Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) have worked to create methods for improving the safety of technologically complex vehicles. Now that the majority of new cars operate using sophisticated computing technology, they are vulnerable to malicious attacks on their networks that could lead to disastrous safety issues. Riadul Islam, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, has worked with collaborators at UMBC and the University of Michigan-Dearborn to create a simple, easily adapted method for detecting the breaches in security. The research is published in the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) publication Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Currently, the most widely used intra-vehicular communications network in the automobile industry is the controller area network (CAN). This network is very simple to use, which makes it appealing for consumers and manufacturers, but this simplicity also renders it vulnerable to potential security threats.

The CAN is essentially a broadcasting network, so any entity has the ability to "read" the messages coming from a car, and potentially send conflicting messages. It is possible to remotely control a car from another device using the CAN network. This is both a feature and a bug, enabling many new innovations, and also creating security concerns. An entity could take control of the network and send new commands to a vehicle, creating dangerous circumstances, such as disabling the breaks or causing engine failure.

The first step to completely eradicating these possible threats is detecting them. According to Islam, detecting these threats does not require extensive technology. Instead, his method involves the formulation of graph-based anomaly detection techniques that will "easily show the complex relationship between data."

Islam's team took the graphs that were made to demonstrate the data on the network and conducted a simple statistical analysis to detect intruders or threats. This method does not require costly machinery; instead, it relies on methods that are already well understood by statisticians and capable of functioning intuitively.

The main benefit of using a statistical method to detect potential threats in the CAN is that it is cost-effective by "an order of magnitude," according to Islam. "The statistical method requires less energy than machine learning or artificially intelligent methods would," he explains.

As the prospect of self-driving or heavily computerized cars becomes a reality, detecting and addressing network vulnerabilities becomes essential. Islam and his team have shown that this task does not need to be complex or expensive to be effective. Instead, car manufacturers can maintain simplicity by using data and statistical analysis to identify threats in real time. In the future, the statistical method developed by Islam will be available digitally to best assure accessibility as vehicles are created with more functions than ever before.

Magic squares belong to the imagination of humanity for a long time. The oldest known magic square comes from China and is over 2000 years old. One of the most famous magic squares can be found in Albrecht Dürer's copper engraving Melencolia I. Another one is on the facade of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. A magic square is a square of numbers such that every column and every row sums to the same number. For example, in the magic square of the Sagrada Família every row and column sums to 33.

If the magic square can contain real numbers, and every row and column sums to 1, then it is called a doubly stochastic matrix. One particular example would be a matrix that has 0's everywhere except for one 1 in every column and every row. This is called a permutation matrix. A famous theorem says that every doubly stochastic matrix can be obtained as a convex combination of permutation matrices. In words, this means that permutation matrices "contain all the secrets" of doubly stochastic matrices--more precisely, that the latter can be fully characterized in terms of the former.

In a new paper in the Journal of Mathematical Physics, Tim Netzer and Tom Drescher from the Department of Mathematics and Gemma De las Cuevas from the Department of Theoretical Physics have introduced the notion of the quantum magic square, which is a magic square but instead of numbers one puts in matrices. This is a non-commutative, and thus quantum, generalization of a magic square. The authors show that quantum magic squares cannot be as easily characterized as their "classical" cousins. More precisely, quantum magic squares are not convex combinations of quantum permutation matrices. "They are richer and more complicated to understand", explains Tom Drescher. "This is the general theme when generalizations to the non-commutative case are studied."

PHILADELPHIA - Marginalized groups of people value professionalism more -- and are more likely to leave a job at an institution due to issues of professionalism -- compared to their white, male counterparts, according to a Penn Medicine study of staff, faculty, and students who were affiliated with a large, academic health system in 2015 and 2017. The findings, published today in JAMA Network Open, suggest that health care institutions must reevaluate and redefine professionalism standards in order to successfully make the culture of academic medicine more inclusive and to improve the retention of minorities and women.

This study is one of a series of research projects launched at Penn Medicine, under the leadership of Vice Dean Eve J. Higginbotham, MD, SM, as part of Office of Inclusion and Diversity's mission to chart Penn Medicine's course toward inclusivity for all groups.

"What does it actually mean to operationalize an anti-racist, inclusive workplace? It means understanding the factors in an environment that allow women and minorities to thrive in your organization," said Jaya Aysola, MD, MPH, assistant dean of Inclusion and Diversity at the Perelman School of Medicine and executive director at the Penn Medicine Center for Health Equity Advancement. "We wanted to look at the ways that marginalized groups perceive and experience professionalism, so that we could move toward standardizing policies in a way that is really inclusive for all. Recruiting female and minority students and employees is not enough if an organization cannot retain them."

Professionalism has been implemented as a core competency for medical education to govern how physicians conduct themselves in public, be it with patients or with each other. However, the medical field lacks a concise, unifying, and operational definition of professionalism, and the word is often misused or overused. Moreover, the historic definition of professionalism has largely centered around white, heterosexual male identity, and therefore the current understanding of what is deemed professional can often be non-inclusive or discriminatory. For instance, because of these cultural norms, the way that certain groups dress, speak, eat, or wear their hair might be deemed unprofessional.

The study authors wanted to examine perceptions and experiences of professionalism among faculty, trainees, staff, and students, in order to better understand, and then perhaps reevaluate, how professionalism standards are applied to different groups.

In the first part of the study, the researchers analyzed answers collected from the Diversity Engagement Survey, which is administered by Datastar, from February to April 2015. The dataset included 3,506 respondents -- faculty, trainees, staff, and students -- from two Philadelphia-area health systems and four medical/health professional schools.

On the survey, respondents were asked to rate their responses (from strongly agree to strongly disagree) to three statements related to professionalism: (1) "I have considered changing jobs due to inappropriate, disruptive, or unprofessional behavior by a coworker or supervisor." (2) "I value institutional initiatives, policies, and/or educational resources related to professional behavior in the workplace." (3) "My institution supports a culture of professionalism."

In response to the statement "I value institutional initiatives, policies, and/or educational resources related to professional behavior," 52 percent of women and 54 percent of

Black individuals agreed or strongly agreed, compared to 45 percent of male and 49 percent of white respondents.

Respondents who self-identified as female, LGBTQ, non-Hispanic Black individuals, when compared with white, heterosexual men, were also statistically significantly more likely to report considering changing jobs because of "unprofessional" behavior. No statistically significant adjusted differences were found among respondents who agreed with the statement "My institution supports a culture of professionalism."

Aysola said that she suspects the greater value women and underrepresented minority groups place on professionalism may stem from what they perceive to be lacking in their work environment, as well as gaps that they perceive between institutional values and their lived experiences.

To probe that hypothesis further, the research team also analyzed responses to the open-ended question: "Tell us a time that you felt valued or devalued, or welcomed or not welcomed by your organization." The researchers solicited narratives via email in 2017 from faculty, trainees, staff, and students across the organizations studied. They then analyzed 52 narratives pertaining to professionalism.

Many narrators who self-identified as members of marginalized populations expressed infringement on their professional boundaries during interactions at work or learning environments.

The infringements reported ranged from microaggressions to blatant racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia. Other narratives stated that professional standards were applied differently to certain groups, and those groups perceived that they were subject to greater scrutiny. Experiences cited ranged from facing differential disciplinary practices and feeling unwelcomed, to experiencing pressure to conform and being asked questions about childbearing, living situations, and tattoos.

A consistent theme throughout the stories was that the respondents from underrepresented groups felt they were subjected to greater scrutiny, while simultaneously reporting greater infringements over their professionalism boundaries.

"The narratives that we collected reveal disparities in how we assess professionalism, with minorities and women reporting a microscope over their behaviors." Aysola said. "A common theme was that being different was not perceived as being a good 'fit,' forcing individuals to alter their authentic selves to feel included.'"

These findings, according to Aysola, underscore the need to revisit the professionalism standards, which govern the practice of medicine and the engagement between members of the medical profession. These standards, she said, must be informed by diverse perspectives, in order to be more inclusive. They also must be operationalized in a way that ensures behaviors are subject to equal scrutiny, irrespective of the culture or background of the individual, she added.

"We have to take every single policy and practice that governs culture, and we have to put it through an inclusion filter," she said. "Inclusion and diversity cannot exist in silos; they must be designed into the fabric of an institution."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Gut hormones play an important role in regulating fat production in the body. One key hormone, released a few hours after eating, turns off fat production by regulating gene expression in the liver, but this regulation is abnormal in obesity, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found in a new study.

The study, led by molecular and integrative physiology professor Jongsook Kim Kemper and research scientist Young-Chae Kim, was published in the journal Nature Communications.

After eating, the pancreas produces insulin, which triggers the liver to convert digested foods into fat for storage in a process known as lipogenesis. A few hours later, when the body begins the transition to fasting mode, the liver slows fat production. While the insulin pathway has been thoroughly studied, the pathway by which lipogenesis is turned off has largely remained unknown, Kemper said.

In the new study, Kemper's team found that the gut hormone FGF15 in mice and its human counterpart FGF19 turn off fat-producing genes in the liver. The hormones are released a few hours after eating, when the body transitions from feeding to fasting. FGF15/19 activate regulatory molecules to enter the nucleus, the center of the cell where DNA is stored, and inhibit gene expression.

"This gut hormone actually acts as a breaker of insulin action, and specifically inhibits lipogenesis in the liver so that it's tightly regulated," Kemper said. "For example, with the holidays coming up, if you eat some cookies, the body will release insulin, which promotes lipogenesis. If lipogenesis is not reduced later when the body enters the fasting state, excess fat will accumulate in the liver, so the FGF19 hormone puts the brakes on fat production."

Furthermore, in experiments involving mice with obesity and human patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, the researchers found that the pathway for turning off fat production was dysregulated. The genes that the gut hormone regulates were highly active, the FGF15/19-activated regulatory molecules did not even enter the cell's nucleus and the suppression markers were not added to the genes.

"This study could be very important for understanding this pathway and investigating how it is abnormal in obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease," Kemper said. "It adds to our understanding of obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and other metabolic disorders. It also could have implications for other diseases such as diabetes or certain cancers, for which obesity is a risk factor.

"Based on this study, we potentially could search for therapeutic treatment options to target this pathway and increase regulatory function."

The study goals

Predi-COVID was launched with the goal of defining which patient profiles can be associated with a more severe prognosis. The study aims to identify the clinical, epidemiological and socio-demographic characteristics, as well as specific biomarkers from both the SARS CoV-2 virus and the patient, which can help predict the way the disease will evolve in a given individual, according notably to his immune profile.

Predi-COVID and Predi-COVID-H: patient recruitment and operational aspects

The research team has been establishing a cohort of people over the age of 18 positive for SARS CoV-2. All newly diagnosed individuals in Luxembourg can participate in Predi-COVID, upon agreeing to share their data for research purposes. In parallel to Predi-COVID, the ancillary study "Predi-COVID-H" was launched to include household members of COVID-19 positive participants to study the transmission of the virus in this high-risk population. The recruitment and data/sample collection phase started on May 5th and was initially planned to last until December 2020, although an extension period until late June 2021 is being requested.

The health evolution and symptoms of the enrolled patients are followed daily through different remote digital tools, depending on whether patients are at home or at the hospital, for 14 days from the time of confirmation of diagnosis. Short additional evaluations are also performed monthly for up to 12 months, to assess potential long-term consequences of COVID-19. Innovative digital data, specifically voice recordings, is also collected as part of the study. More detailed clinical and digital data and associated biological samples is gathered from a subset of at least 200 volunteers from the Predi-COVID cohort and from 100 Predi-COVID-H participants, in order to better characterise symptoms and clearly define the different outcomes. Upon inclusion in the study and after three weeks, several biological samples -- including blood, nasal and oral swabs, saliva and stool -- are collected from participants to identify human and viral predictive markers.

Preliminary results: participant recruitment, data collection, symptoms and vocal biomarkers

Since May 5th - the date of enrolment of the first participant - and as of November 10th, 1406 and 67 eligible subjects have been contacted by phone for inclusion in Predi-COVID and in Predi-COVID-H, respectively, 556 of which agreed to be included in the former and 48 in the latter. On average, participants are 39 years old. In terms of biological samples, the team has been establishing a unique biobank to study COVID-19, already boasting 627 specimens collected during the baseline and follow-up visits. This collection includes blood, sputum, swabs, stool and hair samples.

The preliminary findings also indicate that the majority of the enrolled population experienced few or mild symptoms. The most prevalent symptoms at admission included fever (26.2% of participants), cough (23.3%), runny nose (12.2%) and sore throat (10.8%), while the most common comorbidities and risk factors include smoking (18.1% of participants), asthma (5.4%), diabetes (4.7%), chronic heart disease (3.6%) and obesity (3.3%).

Furthermore, a total of 3,290 voice recordings has been made available by 245 participants using the CoLive LIH smartphone app, with multiple recordings per person to allow the study of the evolution of voice characteristics over time. These will enable the identification of "vocal biomarkers" of frequently observed symptoms in COVID-19 patients, such as respiratory syndromes, fatigue, anxiety or negative emotions related to COVID-19, which could subsequently be used for the easy remote monitoring of patients at home.

"We are delighted with the results obtained thus far. The greater the number of participants, the more accurate the final results. Besides, we are now collaborating with the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg to envisage the inclusion of up to 100 COVID-19 positive children in Predi-COVID and up to 30 children from affected households in Predi-COVID-H", states Prof Markus Ollert, Director of the LIH Department of Infection and Immunity and co-Principal Investigator of Predi-COVID.

"We are very grateful to the Health Inspection Department of the Ministry of Health for the unwavering support and excellent collaboration throughout, which are key to the success of the study. The protocol has recently been published in a renowned international journal and will serve as the core publication to cite for all future work based on Predi-COVID data. So far, nine ancillary projects funded by the National Research Fund or by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme are already using Predi-COVID data", concludes Dr Guy Fagherazzi of the LIH Department of Population Health, co-Principal Investigator of Predi-COVID and first author of the publication.

November 24, 2020 - Medical mistrust is one reason why African American patients are more likely to have regrets about their choice of treatment for prostate cancer, suggests a study in The Journal of Urology®, Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Concerns about masculinity also contribute to decision regret among African American men with localized prostate cancer, suggests the new research by Molly DeWitt-Foy, MD, and colleagues of the Cleveland Clinic. "Our findings may help to identify new approaches to reducing racial disparities in risk and treatment outcomes for African American men with prostate cancer," Dr. DeWitt-Foy comments.

Beliefs about prostate cancer help to explain racial disparities

The study included 1,112 men, average age 63 years, treated for localized prostate cancer between 2010 and 2016. Because their cancer hasn't spread beyond the prostate gland, patients with localized disease have a choice of treatment options, including active surveillance, hormone therapy, radiation, surgery, or watchful waiting.

About 40 percent of patients in the study were African American, while 60 percent were of other racial/ethnic groups. Most medical characteristics were similar for African American versus non-African American men. Initial treatment consisted of surgery (prostatectomy) in about 50 percent of patients and radiation (brachytherapy) in 42 percent.

The men completed a series of surveys, including a newly designed Prostate Cancer Beliefs Questionnaire (PCBQ). Based on previous studies of racial differences in cultural beliefs regarding medical care, the PCBQ aimed at a better understanding cancer-related beliefs and experience with prostate cancer diagnosis, treatment, recovery and survival.

The outcomes of prostate cancer treatment were generally similar between groups, including problems with urinary incontinence, bowel function, and hormonal symptoms. African American men had lower scores for sexual function compared to non-African American men. Yet despite similar outcomes, African American men had higher average scores for decision regret: about 45 versus 35 (on a 100-point scale).

There were also some racial differences in responses to the PCBQ. "African American men exhibited greater concern about masculinity and more medical mistrust than non-African American men," Dr. DeWitt-Foy and coauthors write.

African American patients were more likely to say their doctor treated them differently because of their race - although 80 percent of them disagreed with this statement. African American patients were also more likely to feel that screening and treatment for prostate cancer "made them feel like less of a man."

After adjusting for other factors, African American patients were more than twice as likely to have high decision regret regarding prostate cancer treatment. Medical mistrust and concerns about masculinity explained some of the effect of race on regret scores. Regardless of race, poorer sexual function and worse urinary incontinence - two major side effects of prostate cancer treatment - also predicted higher decision regret scores.

Despite progress over the past 20 years, African American men are still more likely to be diagnosed with, and die from, prostate cancer. The new study sought to better understand patients' beliefs about prostate cancer, and ultimately to reduce treatment-related decisional regret.

The findings confirm African American men have higher decision regret about their prostate cancer treatment, and suggest these regrets are related to medical mistrust and concerns about masculinity. Dr. DeWitt-Foy and colleagues conclude: "This information may help inform counseling of patients, and has the potential to reduce racial disparities in patients' experiences with prostate cancer by targeting opportunities for education and improved communication."

Click here to read "Race, Decisional Regret and Prostate Cancer Beliefs: Identifying Targets to Reduce Racial Disparities in Prostate Cancer."

DOI: 10.1097/JU.0000000000001385

A new paper from a UIC researcher shows evidence that suggests sex steroids may play a role in protecting against COVID-19 symptoms.

"Sex and Covid-19: A protective role for reproductive steroids," by Graziano Pinna, research associate professor in psychiatry, analyzes existing research to look at reasons why COVID-19 symptom severity and mortality are more frequent in men than in women and in older people. His paper suggests female reproductive steroids play a protective role.

Female reproductive steroids, estrogen and progesterone and its physiologically active metabolite, allopregnanolone, provide anti-inflammatory functions, reshape competence of immune cells, stimulate antibody production and promote respiratory epithelial cell repair, and inhibit the ACE2 receptor, the door of access for the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) to infect the organism, suggesting they may protect against COVID-19 symptoms, according to Pinna's report. The paper is published in Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Pinna became interested in the role of reproductive steroids in COVID-19 pathology in March when early case reports showed COVID-19 positive pregnant women who had no COVID-19 symptoms, had escalated symptoms -- severe enough to require intensive care -- immediately after giving birth. The severity of symptoms coincided with a rapid drop of estradiol, progesterone, and allopregnanolone.

"Hormones that help sustain the pregnancy - like progesterone -- are 100 times more concentrated in a pregnancy's third trimester. Estradiol, allopregnanolone, and progesterone all have important anti-inflammatory functions and are involved in resetting the immune system. This suggests that pregnant women became symptomatic, and some were even admitted to the ICU, after delivering their babies because of the rapid drop in these hormones," said Pinna. "The correlation was really striking."

According to recent CDC data, in the United States, 38,071 women who were pregnant contracted COVID-19, with 51 deaths -- 0.13%. For non-pregnant women, the death toll is 2%.

"Pregnant women are 15 times less likely to die from COVID than other women," said Pinna.

There is a difference between the severity of symptoms, and intensive care hospitalization between men and women with COVID-19, with women being more resistant. It was thought that female hormones protected women, but it was difficult to ascertain why, said Pinna.

"This observation in pregnant women provides significant scientific background, not only as to why women are more protected than men, but also why older people are less protected than younger people because we know the older you are, the more decreased your hormones are," said Pinna.

Pinna's paper also discusses the importance of reproductive hormones in stimulating the production of antibodies and promoting lung cell repair after virus infection and fighting against the 'cytokine storm' -- an immune response where the body starts to attack its own cells and tissues rather than just fighting off the virus.

"Progesterone and allopregnanolone can block the incredible overreaction of the inflammatory system, repressing it and avoiding the over-expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines," said Pinna.

Reproductive hormone protection from COVID symptoms may be warranted by oral combinations of hormonal contraceptives or by treatment with hormone replacement therapy against hypoestrogenism in postmenopausal women. Pinna said clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of progesterone or estradiol to improve COVID-19 symptoms in men and post-menopausal women are underway.

Additionally, nutrition may also play a role when diets are enriched with phytoestrogens - plant-produced 'estrogen' -- (in foods such as soybeans, lentils, oats). Phytoestrogens have the ability to bind directly to human estrogen receptors, or can be converted to estradiol by the microbiome. The microbiome is the collective genomes of the microbes (composed of bacteria, bacteriophage, fungi, protozoa, and viruses) that live in the gut.

"Nutrition is very important and there hasn't been much talk about it," Pinna said. "It is important because it is something we can take care of each day to boost the immune system and make our bodies stronger against COVID."