Culture

A team of scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has invented an artificial olfactory system that mimics the mammalian nose to assess the freshness of meat accurately.

The 'electronic nose' (e-nose) comprises a 'barcode' that changes colour over time in reaction to the gases produced by meat as it decays, and a barcode 'reader' in the form of a smartphone app powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The e-nose has been trained to recognise and predict meat freshness from a large library of barcode colours.

When tested on commercially packaged chicken, fish and beef meat samples that were left to age, the team found that their deep convolutional neural network AI algorithm that powers the e-nose predicted the freshness of the meats with a 98.5 per cent accuracy. As a comparison, the research team assessed the prediction accuracy of a commonly used algorithm to measure the response of sensors like the barcode used in this e-nose. This type of analysis showed an overall accuracy of 61.7 per cent.

The e-nose, described in a paper published in the scientific journal Advanced Materials in October, could help to reduce food wastage by confirming to consumers whether meat is fit for consumption, more accurately than a 'Best Before' label could, said the research team from NTU Singapore, who collaborated with scientists from Jiangnan University, China, and Monash University, Australia.

Co-lead author Professor Chen Xiaodong, the Director of Innovative Centre for Flexible Devices at NTU, said: "Our proof-of-concept artificial olfactory system, which we tested in real-life scenarios, can be easily integrated into packaging materials and yields results in a short time without the bulky wiring used for electrical signal collection in some e-noses that were developed recently.

"These barcodes help consumers to save money by ensuring that they do not discard products that are still fit for consumption, which also helps the environment. The biodegradable and non-toxic nature of the barcodes also means they could be safely applied in all parts of the food supply chain to ensure food freshness."

A patent has been filed for this method of real-time monitoring of food freshness, and the team is now working with a Singapore agribusiness company to extend this concept to other types of perishables.

A nose for freshness

The e-nose developed by NTU scientists and their collaborators comprises two elements: a coloured 'barcode' that reacts with gases produced by decaying meat; and a barcode 'reader' that uses AI to interpret the combination of colours on the barcode. To make the e-nose portable, the scientists integrated it into a smartphone app that can yield results in 30 seconds.

The e-nose mimics how a mammalian nose works. When gases produced by decaying meat bind to receptors in the mammalian nose, signals are generated and transmitted to the brain. The brain then collects these responses and organises them into patterns, allowing the mammal to identify the odour present as meat ages and rots.

In the e-nose, the 20 bars in the barcode act as the receptors. Each bar is made of chitosan (a natural sugar) embedded on a cellulose derivative and loaded with a different type of dye. These dyes react with the gases emitted by decaying meat and change colour in response to the different types and concentrations of gases, resulting in a unique combination of colours that serves as a 'scent fingerprint' for the state of any meat.

For instance, the first bar in the barcode contains a yellow dye that is weakly acidic. When exposed to nitrogen-containing compounds produced by decaying meat (called bioamines), this yellow dye changes into blue as the dye reacts with these compounds. The colour intensity changes with an increasing concentration of bioamines as meat decays further.

For this study, the scientists first developed a classification system (fresh, less fresh, or spoiled) using an international standard that determines meat freshness. This is done by extracting and measuring the amount of ammonia and two other bioamines found in fish packages wrapped in widely-used transparent PVC (polyvinyl chloride) packaging film and stored at 4°C (39°Fahrenheit) over five days at different intervals.

They concurrently monitored the freshness of these fish packages with barcodes glued on the inner side of the PVC film without touching the fish. Images of these barcodes were taken at different intervals over five days.

>E-nose achieves 98.5 per cent overall accuracy

A type of AI algorithm known as deep convolutional neural networks was then trained with images of different barcodes to identify patterns in the scent fingerprint that correspond to each category of freshness.

To gauge the prediction accuracy of their e-nose, the NTU scientists then monitored the freshness of commercially packed chicken, fish, and beef with barcodes glued on the packaging film, and stored at 25°C (77°Fahrenheit). Over 4,000 images of the barcodes from six meat packages were taken at different time intervals over 48 hours without opening the different meat packages.

The research team first trained their system to pick out patterns among the scent fingerprints captured in 3,475 barcode images, before testing the system's accuracy on the remaining images.

The results revealed an overall 98.5 per cent accuracy - 100 per cent accuracy in identifying spoiled meats, and a 96 to 99 per cent accuracy for fresh and less fresh meats.

As a comparison, the research team randomly selected 20 barcode images from each freshness category to assess the prediction accuracy of Euclidean distance analysis, a commonly used method to measure the response of sensors like the barcode used in this e-nose. This analysis showed an overall accuracy of 61.7 per cent.

Prof Chen, President's Chair Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at NTU, said: "While e-noses have been extensively researched, there are still bottlenecks to their commercialisation due to current prototypes' issues with accurately detecting and identifying the odour. We need a system that has both a robust sensor setup and a data analysis method that can accurately predict scent fingerprints, which is what our e-nose offers.

"Its non-destructive, automated and real-time monitoring capability could also be used to recognise the types of gases that other types of perishable food emit as they become less fresh, providing a broadly applicable new platform for food quality control, which is what we are working towards now."

Radiation esophagitis, characterized by the inflammation of the esophagus, is the most common acute adverse effect of radiation therapy that causes swallowing problems. This eventually causes dehydration and leaves the body unfit for further treatment. Unfortunately, no direct cure currently exists for patients suffering from such conditions. To this, a POSTECH research team has developed esophageal stents that biodegrade in the body using 3D printers, opening up the possibility of treating the condition.

A joint research team led by Professor Dong-Woo Cho and Ph.D. candidate Suhun Chae in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH and Dr. Dong-Heon Ha of EDmicBio, Inc. has together produced biodegradable stents with esophageal-derived bioink to directly treat radiation esophagitis and verified their therapeutic effects in animal models. These research findings were recently published in Biomaterials, an academic journal with international authority in the biomaterials field.

Various treatment methods are being developed to treat cancer, but radiation therapy is still one of the common treatments along with surgery and chemotherapy. If radiation esophagitis occurs during radiation therapy, treatment is limited to cataclysmic therapy that relieves the pain depending on the symptoms that appear, or inserting a stent to open the swollen esophagus to allow drinking or eating. However, these methods do not treat the damaged tissues directly.

The research team first produced bioink that removed cell components from esophageal tissues and extracted only extracellular matrix through the decellularization process. They produced a dumbbell-type stent that can carry this bioink using a 3D printing system. By inserting this stent into the inflamed esophagus of an animal, they confirmed that it promotes tissue regeneration while mitigating inflammatory reactions.

"The effectiveness of treatment is negated if proper nutrition cannot be delivered due to the pain," explained Dong-Woo Cho who led the study. He added, "If this esophageal stent implantation is applied clinically, we expect that the patients will have better prognosis and higher quality of life."

This research was conducted as part of the Research Leader Program the National Research Foundation of Korea and in cooperation with EDmicBio, Inc. which specializes in commercializing 3D organs-on-chips and medical devices.

Australian schools are unfairly suspending and excluding students - particularly boys, Indigenous students, and students with a disability - according to new research from the University of South Australia.

Auditing exclusionary policies and practices in Australian schools across 2019, researchers found that discrimination is disturbingly prominent across the Australian education sector.

Of all suspensions and expulsions researchers found that:

Indigenous students received:

25 per cent of all suspensions and permanent exclusions in Queensland, despite comprising just over10 per cent of student enrolments;

25 per cent of all suspensions in New South Wales (NSW), despite representing just eight per cent of student enrolments;

6.5 per cent of all expulsions in Victoria (a large percentage given the group represents only 2.3 per cent of the student population).

Male students received:

77 per cent of all suspensions in South Australia (three times that of girls);

Over 80 per cent of permanent exclusions in Victoria (four times that of girls);

Around three quarters of all suspensions in in NSW.

Students with disability funding received 14 per cent of all permanent exclusions in Victoria, while comprising only 4.5 per cent of all government school enrolments.

Lead researcher and Director of UniSA's Research for Educational and Social Inclusion Group, Associate Professor Anna Sullivan says the research will establish an evidence base for policy and school-based interventions to enhance the health, welfare and academic achievement of vulnerable children in our schools.

"Every child has a right to education and to participate in a school environment that is safe, fair and supportive," Assoc Prof Sullivan says.

"Yet what these statistics show is that disciplinary actions are being disproportionately applied to certain groups of students in Australia, and concerningly, marginalised groups including Indigenous children and children with a disability.

"Of course, Australian schools, like elsewhere, commonly use exclusionary practices, such as suspensions and exclusions to help address poor student behaviour. But how these are applied, and which students are impacted is quite clearly unfair.

"We need to find ways for vulnerable children to be better supported at school, and ways for schools to better manage challenging behaviours.

"Only when we have a fair and equitable education system will Australian children, from all cultures, backgrounds and of all abilities be able to thrive and survive."

In the Netherlands, whole genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks on 16 mink farms has revealed virus transmission between human to mink, as well as from mink to human. The virus was initially introduced from humans, the study's authors say, and it has since evolved. "More research in minks and other mustelid species is important to understand if these species are at risk of becoming a reservoir of SARS-CoV-2," they write. Although several animals have been shown to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the zoonotic origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still unknown. In the Netherlands, the virus was first diagnosed on two mink farms in late April of 2020. In response, the Dutch national response system for zoonotic diseases was activated, and an extensive surveillance system was set up. Bas B. Oude Munnink et al. performed an in-depth investigation among the first 16 infected mink farms in the Netherlands. Their analysis combined SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics, whole-genome sequencing and in-depth interviews with farm workers. By the end of June, 66 of 97 (68%) of the mink farm residents, employees and/or contacts tested had evidence for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Analysis of the mink virus genomes on these farms revealed a diversity of sequences. These large clusters of infection were initiated by human COVID-19 cases with viruses that bear the D614G mutation, say the authors. Sequencing also revealed that some people were infected with strains of the virus with an animal sequence signature, providing evidence of animal to human transmission. Further analysis indicated no spillover to people living in close proximity to mink farms. They authors write: "It is imperative that fur production and trading sector should not become a reservoir for future spillover of SARS-CoV-2 to humans."

A team of linguists from RUDN University established that a person's ability to accurately differentiate between vowel sounds of a foreign language correlates with the size of their vocabulary in said language. The results of the study were published in the Language Learning and Development journal.

In linguistics, a second language (or L2) is any language that a person acquires after their mother tongue. The first language, or L1, affects the use of the second one: for example if L1 does not have many variations of vowel pronunciation, and L2 is rich in them, it would be more difficult for a speaker to perceive and reproduce the vowel sounds of the second language. It can be hard for a native Spanish speaker to feel the difference between the sounds [i] and [i:] in English because in Spanish only [i] is used. A team of linguists from RUDN University studied the effect of L2 vocabulary size on the speakers' ability to tell the difference between L2 vowel sounds.

"For our study, we chose Russian and English languages, because the former contains only five vowel sounds while the latter has a complex system of vowels. Therefore, we assumed that it would be difficult for Russian speakers to differentiate between English vowels," said Georgios Georgiou, Ph.D., a postdoc, and a researcher at the Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Philological Faculty of RUDN.

To describe vowel sounds, scientists use a set of parameters called formants. They indicate vibration frequency and are measured in hertz. Based on the values of formants, a linguist can understand how a human tongue moves when a vowel sound is pronounced. For example, the first formant shows the height of the tongue in the mouth and the second indicates its proximity to teeth. Russian language (L1) has five vowel phonemes ( [i, e, a, o, u]), and English (L2)--11. The team placed L1 and L2 vowel sounds on a reference plane and marked the values of the first and the second formant on the axes. When a set of points was created on the plane, the team measured the distance between them and used it as an indicator of differences between the sounds. Based on the measured distances, the team identified two English vowel pairs, [i:]/[I] and [e]/[??], that were the easiest to differentiate from one another. Then, an experiment was conducted to confirm this hypothesis and to study the correlation between differentiation abilities and vocabulary size.

The team chose 28 Russian-speaking students from 17 to 19 years of age. All of them spent eight years on average studying English (RP) at public or language schools and never lived in an English-speaking country for more than a month. Their English proficiency level was B2, and their proficiency in any other foreign language did not exceed A2. The participants were divided into two groups with small (around 5,500 words) and large (7,150 words) vocabulary based on the results of an online test with multiple-choice questions. In the test, the participants were asked to choose the correct definitions of English words, which gave the researchers an understanding of their average vocabulary size. After that, both groups took a psychoacoustic test that consisted of two parts. First, the students listened to English words and matched the vowels in them with the vowels of their native language. Then, they listened to groups of three words and had to identify whether the vowel in the second word matched that in the first or the third word.

It turned out that one's ability to associate L2 vowels with the vowels of one's mother tongue does not depend on their vocabulary. The participants with a small vocabulary managed to match Russian and English sounds in 95% of cases and students with a large vocabulary--in 94.7% of cases. However, the vocabulary size affected the participants' ability to tell the difference between vowels in similar words. For example, students with a large vocabulary differentiated between [?] and [i?] in 71% of cases, and the participants from the other group--only in 59%.

"In the future, we plan to study the effect of additional external factors, such as fluency in another foreign language, on the differentiation of L2 sounds," added Georgios Georgiou.

The sweet taste of sugar is very popular worldwide. In Austria and Germany, the yearly intake per person adds up to about 33 and 34 kilograms, respectively. Thus, sugar plays an increasingly role in the nutrition and health of the population, especially with regard to body weight. However, little is known about the molecular (taste) mechanisms of sugar that influence dietary intake, independently of its caloric load.

Taste receptor and satiety regulation

"We therefore investigated the role of sweet taste receptor activation in the regulation of satiety," says Veronika Somoza, deputy head of the Department of Physiological Chemistry at the University of Vienna and director of the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich.

For this purpose, the scientists conducted a blinded, cross-over intervention study with glucose and sucrose. A total of 27 healthy, male persons, between 18 and 45 years of age, received either a 10 percent glucose or sucrose solution (weight percent) or one of the sugar solutions supplemented with 60 ppm lactisole. Lactisole is a substance that binds to a subunit of the sweet receptor and reduces the perception of sweet taste. Despite different types of sugar, all solutions with or without lactisole had the same energy content.

Two hours after drinking each of the test solutions, the participants were allowed to have as much as breakfast they wanted. Shortly before and during the 120-min waiting period, the researchers took blood samples in regular intervals and measured their body temperature.

Additional 100 kilocalories on average

After the consumption of the lactisole-containing sucrose solution, the test persons had an increased energy intake from breakfast of about 13 percent, about 100 kilocalories more, than after drinking the sucrose solution without lactisole. In addition, the subjects of this group showed lower body temperature and reduced plasma serotonin concentrations. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter and tissue hormone which, among other things, has an appetite-suppressing effect. In contrast, the researchers observed no differences after administration of the lactisole-containing glucose solution and the pure glucose solution.

"This result suggests that sucrose, regardless of its energy content, modulates the regulation of satiety and energy intake via the sweet taste receptor," says Barbara Lieder, head of Christian Doppler Laboratory for Taste Research and also deputy head of the Department of Physiological Chemistry of the Faculty of Chemistry at University of Vienna.

The first study author of the study, Kerstin Schweiger, University of Vienna adds: "We do not know yet why we could not observe the lactisole effect with glucose. However, we suspect it is because glucose and sucrose activate the sweet receptor in different ways. We also assume that mechanisms independent of the sweet receptor play a role."

"So there is still a lot of research needed to clarify the complex relationships between sugar consumption, taste receptors and satiety regulation on the molecular level," says Veronika Somoza. In particular, as sweet receptors are also found in the digestive tract and little is known about their function there. The first steps have nevertheless been taken.

In a recent study, researchers from the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen have studied how one of the world's most widespread moss species, Ceratodon pupureus, AKA fire moss, purple horn toothed moss, etc., has managed to inhabit every crevice and corner of the planet.

"We found a remarkable overlap between global wind patterns and the way in which this moss species has spread over time, one that we haven't been aware of until now," says evolutionary biologist Elisabeth Biersma of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, who is the study's lead author.

According to Biersma, this means that much of the moss Danes find commingling with their lawn grass or lightly clinging to their rooftops is often part of the same population found on another continent at a similar latitude. For example, moss spores from North America are likely blown by the prevailing Westerlies across the Atlantic to Denmark.

One of the oldest plant groups on Earth

Mosses (Bryophyta) are one of the oldest plant groups on Earth and characterized by not having roots. Most groups grow in damp, shaded places, while others toleratebright and dry environments.

"Mosses are extremely resilient organisms that can both suck up a lot of water and tolerate considerable desiccation. Most other plants are far from being as resistant to harsh environments such as rooftops, sidewalks or polar climates. Along with the wind, this has been the key to the great success of mosses the world over," explains Elisabeth Biersma.

There are roughly 600 moss species in Denmark, out of roughly 12,000 species found worldwide. In the study, researchers used moss samples sourced from dried plant collections called herbaria, from around the world. Using genetic samples of the mosses, the researchers built an extensive evolutionary tree that helped them map the various moss populations.

Global wind patterns and different moss families. Illustration mos: Christiaan Sepp (Wikimedia Commons).

A better understanding of how airborne organisms spread

The researchers' analyses demonstrate that the current distribution pattern of C. purpureus has occurred over the last ~11 million years. But the fact that it has taken so long for C. purpureus to spread to the places where it is found today comes as a bit of a surprise

"This can probably be explained by the fact that global wind systems can partly disperse spores over a long distance, but also restrict global dispersion as wind systems are self-enclosed and isolated transport systems, which thereby restrict any spreading beyond them," explains Elisabeth Biersma.

This is the first time that the researcher has seen such a uniform pattern of proliferation across the globe, as demonstrated with C. pupureus. The knowledge may be transferable elsewhere.

"These findings could help us understand the spread of other organisms, such as bacteria, fungi and some plants, which are also spread via microscopic airborne particles transported by the wind. But only the future can say whether this knowledge is applicable to other organisms." concludes Biersma.

A new study lead by GSI scientists and international colleagues investigates black-hole formation in neutron star mergers. Computer simulations show that the properties of dense nuclear matter play a crucial role, which directly links the astrophysical merger event to heavy-ion collision experiments at GSI and FAIR. These properties will be studied more precisely at the future FAIR facility. The results have now been published in Physical Review Letters. With the award of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for the theoretical description of black holes and for the discovery of a supermassive object at the center of our galaxy the topic currently also receives a lot of attention.

But under which conditions does a black hole actually form? This is the central question of a study lead by the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt within an international collaboration. Using computer simulations, the scientists focus on a particular process to form black holes namely the merging of two neutron stars (simulation movie).

Neutron stars consists of highly compressed dense matter. The mass of one and a half solar masses is squeezed to the size of just a few kilometers. This corresponds to similar or even higher densities than in the inner of atomic nuclei. If two neutron stars merge, the matter is additionally compressed during the collision. This brings the merger remnant on the brink to collapse to a black hole. Black holes are the most compact objects in the universe, even light cannot escape, so these objects cannot be observed directly.

"The critical parameter is the total mass of the neutron stars. If it exceeds a certain threshold the collapse to a black hole is inevitable" summarizes Dr. Andreas Bauswein from the GSI theory department. However, the exact threshold mass depends on the properties of highly dense nuclear matter. In detail these properties of high-density matter are still not completely understood, which is why research labs like GSI collide atomic nuclei - like a neutron star merger but on a much smaller scale. In fact, the heavy-ion collisions lead to very similar conditions as mergers of neutron stars. Based on theoretical developments and physical heavy-ion experiments, it is possible to compute certain models of neutron star matter, so-call equations of state.

Employing numerous of these equations of state, the new study calculated the threshold mass for black-hole formation. If neutron star matter or nuclear matter, respectively, is easily compressible - if the equation of state is "soft" - already the merger a relatively light neutron stars leads to the formation of a black hole. If nuclear matter is "stiffer" and less compressible, the remnant is stabilized against the so-called gravitational collapse and a massive rotating neutron star remnant forms from the collision. Hence, the threshold mass for collapse itself informs about properties of high-density matter. The new study revealed furthermore that the threshold to collapse may even clarify whether during the collision nucleon dissolve into their constituents, the quarks.

"We are very excited about this results because we expect that future observations can reveal the threshold mass" adds Professor Nikolaos Stergioulas of the department of physics of the Aristotle University Thessaloniki in Greece. Just a few years ago a neutron star merger was observed for the first time by measuring gravitational waves from the collision. Telescopes also found the "electromagnetic counterpart" and detected light from the merger event. If a black hole is directly formed during the collision, the optical emission of the merger is pretty dim. Thus, the observational data indicates if a black hole was created. At the same time the gravitational-wave signal carries information about the total mass of the system. The more massive the stars the stronger is the gravitational-wave signal, which thus allows determining the threshold mass.

While gravitational-wave detectors and telescopes wait for the next neutron star mergers, the course is being set in Darmstadt for knowledge that is even more detailed. The new accelerator facility FAIR, currently under construction at GSI, will create conditions, which are even more similar to those in neutron star mergers. Finally, only the combination of astronomical observations, computer simulations and heavy-ion experiments can settle the questions about the fundamental building blocks of matter and their properties, and, by this, they will also clarify how the collapse to a black hole occurs.

Stress and overload in the workplace are increasing worldwide and are often considered a cause of burnout. Indeed, a new study shows that work stress and burnout are mutually reinforcing. However, contrary to popular belief, burnout has a much greater impact on work stress than vice versa. "This means that the more severe a person's burnout becomes, the more stressed they will feel at work, such as being under time pressure, for example," said Professor Christian Dormann of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). Employees suffering from burnout should be timely provided with adequate support in order to break the vicious circle between work stress and burnout.

Symptoms of burnout include exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced performance. "The most important burnout symptom is the feeling of total exhaustion - to the extent that it cannot be remedied by normal recovery phases of an evening, a weekend, or even a vacation," said Dormann. "To protect themselves from further exhaustion, some try to build a psychological distance to their work, that is, they alienate themselves from their work as well as the people associated with it and become more cynical," added Dr. Christina Guthier. She conducted the study as part of her doctoral thesis in Dormann's research group and was awarded with the dissertation prize of the Alfred Teves Foundation in 2020. The study has recently been published in Psychological Bulletin.

For the joint publication with Professor Christian Dormann and Professor Manuel Völkle of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Christina Guthier evaluated 48 longitudinal studies of burnout and work stress comprising 26,319 participants. The average age in the initial survey was about 42 years, 44 percent of the respondents were men. The longitudinal studies from 1986 to 2019 came from various countries, including predominantly European countries as well as Israel, the USA, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, China, and Taiwan.

Stopping the downward spiral and reducing the effect of burnout on work stress

The results challenge, or at least relativize, the common perception that work stress is the driving force behind burnout. "Burnout can be triggered by a work situation, but that is not always the case," Dormann pointed out. Once burnout begins, it develops only very gradually, building up slowly over time. Ultimately it leads to work being increasingly perceived as stressful: The amount of work is too much, time is too short, and work stress is too great. "When exhausted, the ability to cope with stress usually decreases. As a result, even smaller tasks can be perceived as significantly more strenuous," explained Guthier, the first author of the article. "We expected an effect of burnout on work stress; the strength of the effect was very surprising," she noted. The effect of burnout on perceived work stress can be somewhat mitigated if employees have more control over their own work and receive support from colleagues or superiors.

According to Dormann, a new research area is emerging on the basis of this unique data because the strong boomerang effect of burnout on work stress has not yet been investigated. Key questions that need to be addressed are: how can the effects of burnout on perceived work stress be reduced and how can the development of this vicious circle be prevented? Dormann and Guthier suggest that the place to start is with management behavior. Employees should have the opportunity to give feedback on their work stress at any time and be appreciated. Last but not least, proper recovery could also help to stop the downward spiral.

Heart attacks strike suddenly and have a range of different triggers. Researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) were able to uncover a further underlying cause. Studying arterial deposits (plaque) in patients with acute coronary syndrome, the researchers found that, in some patients, these were characterized by activated immune cells which, as a result of altered flow conditions within the vessel, had accumulated on the interior arterial wall, causing damage to the arterial lining. The researchers' report on this novel immune system-mediated pathophysiological mechanism has been published in the European Heart Journal*.

Acute coronary syndrome (also known as heart attack) is a life-threatening condition which is characterized by impaired blood flow to the heart and is caused by a blockage or narrowing of the coronary arteries. Arterial deposits (known as plaque) represent a major contributing factor, as they can give rise to blood clots, which can detach and block the coronary arteries. What triggers the formation of blood clots - and thus the subsequent heart attack - remains to be fully elucidated. For a long time, researchers had thought that these blood clots were exclusively caused by damage to the fibrous cap, a connective tissue layer which surrounds the deposit and whose rupture results in the release of debris. More recent data, however, suggest that blood clots can also originate from plaques whose fibrous cap remains intact. For the first time, researchers from Charité's Department of Cardiology on Campus Benjamin Franklin and from DZHK have shown the manner in which this type of 'plaque erosion' can help trigger heart attack.

As part of the OPTICO-ACS study program, the research teams - led by study lead Prof. Dr. David M. Leistner and Head of Department Prof. Dr. Ulf Landmesser - investigated a total of 170 patients with acute coronary syndrome. The researchers found that, in approximately 25 percent of patients, the acute coronary syndrome had been caused by plaque erosion rather than plaque rupture. "Our study is the first to elucidate the manner in which plaque erosion can trigger heart attack. Areas of plaque erosion were characterized by the presence of special, activated immune cells known as T-lymphocytes. Altered arterial blood flow enables these cells to accumulate in the coronary artery wall, causing damage to the inner lining," says first author Prof. Leistner.

Using special high-resolution imaging technology known as optical coherence tomography (OCT), the researchers were able to visualize the heart attack-causing plaques for classification into the 'plaque rupture' and 'plaque erosion' trigger categories. Using an aspiration catheter, the researchers then removed the blood clots for analysis. They also collected blood samples, which were tested for immune cells and markers of inflammation. Blood clot analysis revealed altered immune cell ratios in approximately one quarter of blood clots, namely those which had originated from sites of plaque erosion. These showed increased levels of CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes and their effector molecules, a finding which suggests an inflammatory response that causes damage to endothelial cells in the arterial wall. In these patients, the culprit blood clots were also found near sites of arterial branching, an environment which is known to create altered blood flow patterns. Prof. Leistner adds: "In the hope of reinforcing our patient-based observations - and in keeping with our translational approach - we also used cell culture experiments, which enabled us to confirm our findings."

What this means is that heart attacks can have different pathophysiological causes. One of the key features of this newly described mechanism is a misguided adaptive immune response. Summing up the significance of the research, Prof. Landmesser (also BIH Professor) says: "Given that the use of immunomodulation has proven to be both safe and effective within cardiovascular medicine, this certainly holds great promise in terms of research into more personalized treatments for different forms of acute coronary syndrome which may even be able to prevent clinical complications." In pursuit of the ability to influence the immune system in a targeted manner, the researchers plan to conduct a more detailed study of the precise role of the T-lymphocytes involved and how they accumulate inside blood vessels.

There was no significant difference with regard to vitamin B12, which was present in approximately the same amount in the blood of both groups. Since vitamin B12 is taken up almost exclusively by animal food, the supply of participants following a vegan diet could be due to the intake via dietary supplements. "This study makes it possible to compare a vegan diet with a mixed diet with regard to a variety vitamins and trace elements," says BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "Both diets investigated revealed a lack of iodine. However, the shortage is clearly more distinct in the vegan variant."

n the RBVD study, the BfR research team analysed blood and urine samples and evaluated lifestyle questionnaires and dietary protocols. Of those participating (18 women and men respectively per group aged 30-60 years), almost all those following a vegan diet and one third following a mixed diet took different food supplements.

The study results were particularly noteworthy with regard to the trace element iodine. Iodine excretion measured in urine samples provides information on how well the body is supplied with the trace element. The majority of the participants had a deficiency. The deficiency was significantly more pronounced among vegans - in one third of them, the level was below 20 micrograms per litre (μg/L), the limit defined by the World Health Organization (WHO); anything below this represents a serious shortage. A vegan diet has, however, also shown health benefits, such as a higher fibre intake and lower cholesterol levels. For both diets, about 10% of participants had an iron deficiency.

In the Europe-wide FIThydro project, TalTech researchers worked with industry partners to study existing hydroelectric power plants. Together with researchers across Europe, they developed new assessment methods and technologies with the goal of making hydropower more fish-friendly and environmentally sustainable.

Hydropower is one of the most important and widely used renewable energy sources. The big advantage: it is far less weather-dependent than wind power and solar energy. However, the use of hydropower plants also involves major interventions in the environment, including the damming of rivers, changes in aquatic habitats, and fish mortality through turbines, spillways or screens.

Reducing these negative ecological effects is one of the objectives of the European Water Framework Directive. However, older hydropower plants in particular often fail to meet these new requirements and need to be retrofitted before their certification can be renewed. The decision on economically viable measures for implementing these changes have to be made individually for every hydropower plant, "It is important to tailor existing solutions to the site-specific factors of each plant," explains Prof. Peter Rutschmann from the Technical University of Munich and coordinator of the FIThydro project.

Studying hydropower plants across Europe

In the four-year EU project FIThydro (Fishfriendly Innovation Technologies for Hydropower), a work group made up of 26 European research institutions and companies studied the effects of hydropower plants on ecosystems and in particular fish at 17 test sites in eight countries. "It was important to us that the test sites reflect the diverse geographical, hydromorphological and climate conditions so that our results would be applicable to a wide range of hydropower plants in Europe," explains Prof. Rutschmann.

"Electronic fish" measure turbine passage

There are also gaps in the existing knowledge on effective upstream and downstream fish migration measures - such as which fish ladders are suitable for which species or which conditions are ideal for fish to find them. During downstream migration, fish can swim through the hydropower turbines and, apart from the risk of injury from the turbine blades, are exposed to enormous pressure changes. "With these sensors, we can test the extreme conditions fish and other aquatic life experience passing through turbines. This can help to reduce the number of live fish experiments needed, and provide operators with new insights into how they can make their facilities more fish-friendly" explains Dr. Jeffrey Tuhtan, who leads the sensor team at TalTech.

To compare the sensors with the experience of live fish, colleagues from INBO Belgium together with TalTech investigated the multispecies risk of injury and mortality during downstream passage through a large Archimedes hydrodynamic screw for bream (Abramis brama), eel (Anguilla anguilla), and roach (Rutilus rutilus) in conjunction with passive sensors that record the pressure, acceleration, and rate of rotation. "Our work came up with several new ways to assess downstream passage for fish and sensors including the times and durations of impact events, the kinetic energies of translation and rotation, and the pressure gradient" said Dr. Ine Pauwels from INBO. The team found that the screws were not always fish-friendly and proposed concrete ways to improve the situation for both operators and fish.

Decision making tools for hydropower operators

Along with the risk analysis and assessment of hydropower plants, the second part of the project explored possible measures to retrofit hydropower plant - as well as decision making tools for hydropower operators and planners. "These decisions are highly complex," says Prof. Rutschmann. "The hydropower plant and the site-specific conditions play a role. But it is also necessary to comply with regulatory standards on the national and EU level. And for the operators it is of course important for the measures to be effective and cost-efficient."

Open-access online tools

One of the main results of the project is the FIThydro Decision Support System that can be used when planning and assessing hydropower plants. The user can enter data on the type of the power plant, its location, the fish populations present in the waterways and other characteristics. Taking into account environmental policy requirements and international regulatory guidelines, the software then analyses the data to calculate the level of environmental risk and the fish population hazard and recommends mitigation measures.

A wiki has also been created in the project. "There are different practices in every country, but the knowledge exchange is not yet where it should be," says Prof. Rutschmann. "For example, people are often unaware of measures that have been tried out and found to be efficient elsewhere. We hope that the wiki will support the networking of knowledge."

The study was initiated in 2018 by three researchers who have an established interest in Indigenous issues - Daria Khanolainen, Elena Semenova (both working at Kazan Federal University), and Yulia Nesterova (who at the time was completing her PhD at the University of Hong Kong). Yulia, who is now a research fellow at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, has conducted extensive research in a number of countries across the world (for example, Brazil, Ethiopia, Taiwan) focusing her work on the rights, education, and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples. Daria and Elena invited Yulia to join the project that would critically evaluate education offered to Indigenous peoples in the Republics of Karelia and Mari El (two Russian regions). The project is still ongoing, and more articles are expected to come out in the nearest future.

Ten Karelian and ten Mari people volunteered to participate in in-depth semi-structured interviews. As a result, the study identified a number of elements that can help to better understand Indigenous education in Russia. The findings show that while Mari participants had formal and informal educational opportunities to learn about their culture, identity, history, traditions, and to transmit the language than Karelian participants, both groups' education about their Indigenous roots and related matters was fragmented and unsystematic, both at home and in school. While some Mari and Karelian people sought opportunities to learn about their respective groups, the majority felt relieved that they did not have to address, discuss and reveal, what was at the time, a stigmatised and shamed Indigenous identity that led to discrimination. As children, many chose to abandon their roots, cultures, and languages to assimilate into the dominant society in order not to stand out. Now, however, many reportedly value and embrace their cultures, identities, and languages, and wish for more educational opportunities to strengthen and promote those. The participants believe in the importance of incorporating Indigenous material in the school curricular to encourage and support children's learning about their roots, histories, and cultures. They also believe that such education should be extended to include majority population so that they could understand Indigenous cultures and the need to protect them.

Based on the findings, researchers have come up with a list of recommendations that would support the development of education systems and educational opportunities in the Republic of Mari El and the Republic of Karelia in accordance with the wishes and needs of their Indigenous communities. The main recommendation is to ensure that Indigenous people themselves are owners of educational and learning programs that aim to support their learning and language revival. This way, policymakers can ensure that programmes are context-specific, address the issue at hand, and there is community buy-in.

Researchers plan to extend their project by developing a survey based on their qualitative findings. They also consider the possibility of expanding the project to include other Indigenous groups that live in Russia and partner with researchers in other countries to conduct cross-country analysis of Indigenous education.

CABI scientists have mapped the potential global spread of the devastating papaya mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus), highlighting new areas in Africa, Asia and the Americas into which this pest could potentially invade.

The papaya mealybug, which is native to Mexico and Central America, can have severe impacts upon livelihoods and food security. In Ghana, for example, infestations led to a 65% yield loss which reduced export earnings and resulted in the loss of 1,700 jobs.

Using location data received through collaborations with Kerala Agricultural University, India; the National Rice Research Institute, India; the Bangladesh Agricultural University; University of Queensland, Australia; the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA); Fujan Agriculture and Forestry University in China and CSIRO, researchers were able to model the potential distribution of this pest, taking into account environmental conditions, and the distribution of suitable host crops and irrigation patterns.

The researchers, led by CABI's Dr Elizabeth Finch, believe the polyphagous insect pest, which affects over 200 plants including economically important crops such as papaya, cassava and avocado, could spread to areas such as the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Cameroon, Zambia, Madagascar and western Ethiopia which are environmentally suitable and have suitable crop hosts.

In the Americas, the research, published in the journal Pest Management Science, suggests papaya mealybug could extend into El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama - although the scientists believe it could already be in these locations but its presence is yet to be confirmed.

Whilst papaya mealybug is already present in Florida, where it is under successful control as a result of the release of endoparasitoid wasp species - Acerophagus papayae, Anagyrus loecki, Anagyrus californicus - suitable conditions for this pest are also present in the southern tip of Texas.

Conditions are likely to be too cold in the rest of the USA for permanent papaya mealybug populations, however the research showed that seasonal populations could survive in California, along the Pacific coastline and in the central and eastern states of the USA during the warmer summer months.

In Asia, the areas with suitable conditions were more expansive than the areas with known populations of papaya mealybug, suggesting the potential for further expansion of papaya mealybug specifically in India, Southeast Asia and the southern regions of the Guangxi and Guangdong provinces of southern China.

However, in Australasia the risk is low as only a small amount of fragmented land along the north-eastern side of Queensland, from the very northern tip of Queensland to Bundaberg, is climatically suitable. This is due to heat stress from the high temperatures on the continent.

Similarly, in Europe - though due to cold rather than heat stress - widespread distribution of papaya mealybug is not expected, with only a very small area of land surrounding Seville in Spain and around Sicily in Italy having suitable conditions for resident populations.

Dr Finch said, "This pest has been so successful due to its quick development and prolific reproductive capacity. It has the potential to spread to new areas and rapidly reach high numbers unless suitable phytosanitary or control methods are implemented.

"Information about the papaya mealybug's potential distribution is important as it can highlight key areas susceptible to invasion, giving an early warning to decision makers, allowing them to put into place phytosanitary measures to prevent or slow the invasion of the pest into their jurisdiction."

Dr Finch added, "In areas where the papaya mealybug has become established and reached a high enough population density, the use of parasitoids - such as Acerophagus papayae and Anagyrus loecki - remains an effective potential control method.

"Further ecological niche modelling of these parasitoid species is recommended to anticipate their survival, fitness and ultimate biological control impact in areas into which papaya mealybug could potentially expand and become established."

For the first time, new research conducted by SISSA and by the University of Roma Tre identifies narrative markers of gambling addiction and paves the way to innovative approaches for therapy and prevention.

How do people affected by pathological gambling tell their story? What information can we extract from their narratives? For the first time, a study conducted by SISSA - Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati and by the University of Roma Tre has analysed in detail the words and linguistic constructions used by people suffering from gambling. The researchers identified several characteristic elements of their emotional and cognitive state in the different stages of the disorder. The study, published in Addictive disorders and their treatment, opens up new scenarios for the development of recovery and prevention paths based on linguistic skills.

Sharing personal experiences with friends or relatives, through storytelling, is an exercise that many of us do every day. Yet personal narratives are by no means a trivial process. They help us to order and give meaning to our story, allowing us to integrate the different aspects of our psychic experience, of the different times - past, present and future - in which our mind lives.

The words that an individual uses when they narrate a fact or describe an inner condition reflect their psychological states and represent their particular cognitive and emotional style, personality traits, as well as any symptoms of psychological disorders they may suffer from. That is why the story of self is also an important access route to emotional and cognitive processes used in research and therapeutic contexts.

For the first time, a group of researchers of SISSA and of the University of Roma Tre analysed the narratives of patients suffering from gambling addiction in order to identify the most common problems and provide possible innovative treatments.

In particular, the scholars interviewed 30 individuals suffering from a gambling disorder and undergoing therapy in public services in the Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The interviews, done in a semi-structured form, dealt with various aspects of their experience with gambling, from the compulsive trait, to the attempts to control desire, from addiction triggers to those useful for achieving abstinence and regaining control.

The investigators went on to analyse the words used by the patients with LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count), the most widely used software for computational linguistic studies. "We identified different linguistic markers of the emotional and cognitive problems of gamblers, which vary in the different phases of the addiction," says Stefano Canali, researcher at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of SISSA and at the Cosmic Lab of the University of Roma Tre, responsible for the study. "The most evident among all is the total absence of words and sentences referring to the future. This is probably both an indication and a cause of the difficulty gamblers have in thinking about the effects of impulsive and risky behaviour on their future."

Another narrative marker identified by the study was the contemporary use of expressions in first person and in passive form to talk about their relationship with gambling. "It is as if the subject feels as being an 'agent' and responsible for the gambling behaviour and, at the same time, as being 'acted upon', dragged by desire and automatism. This narrative contradiction is a clear indication of a fragmented self," states Canali. "Lastly, these indicators are accompanied by an extreme difficulty to describe emotional experiences connected with the desire to gamble and the loss of control. This narrative deficit seems to improve with the therapeutic route."

"This is a pilot study which has allowed us to show the importance of language analysis in understanding the psychological functions involved in addictions," Canali concludes. "Clinically speaking, narrative markers can be a new support tool in the therapeutic process, as well as a possible means to recognise individuals at risk. Furthermore, they pave the way for the use of techniques to strengthen narrative skills as complementary strategies in the treatment of addictions, similar to those which are being tested for example with patients suffering from autism."