Culture

Firefighters and emergency medical workers in New York City were 15 times more likely to be infected during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the general public, according to a study published in ERJ Open Research. [1]

The study, which includes almost all the 15,000 front-line workers at the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), also shows that workers who had been experiencing a deterioration in their lung health prior to the pandemic were more likely to suffer a severe COVID-19 infection, meaning they were admitted to hospital or died.

Researchers say their study supports the proper use of PPE and other measures to protect emergency workers around the world and maintain capacity of emergency services during any subsequent waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research was by David Prezant, Chief Medical Officer for FDNY and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Michael Weiden, Medial Officer at FDNY and Professor of Medicine at New York University Medical School, and colleagues in New York, USA.

The study included 14,290 FDNY front line workers, the vast majority of all those employed by the service at the beginning of March this year. Of these, 10,789 were firefighters and 3,501 were emergency medical service providers, such as emergency medical technicians and paramedics. All had been given tests to assess their lung health on at least two occasions prior to the pandemic.

From the beginning of March to the end of May, a total of 5,175 FDNY front-line workers were either confirmed as having the virus with a positive COVID-19 PCR viral test or suspected as having the virus due to COVID-19 symptoms. This equates to 36.2% of FDNY front line staff, compared to a rate of 2.4% of the city's general population in the same period of time.

Sixty-two workers were classified as suffering severe COVID-19 infection and four died following an infection. Their rate of serious COVID-19 illness and death was lower than the city's general population, which researchers say could be the result of the 'healthy worker effect' (all those in the study were working and therefore possibly younger and healthier on average).

Compared to the firefighters, the FDNY's emergency medical workers were at a higher risk of becoming infected and five times more likely to develop a severe COVID-19 infection.

The risk of severe COVID-19 infection was also higher among workers who had experienced a decline in their lung health prior to the pandemic. This was measured by the amount of air each worker could force out of their lungs in one second, with a decline of 100ml of air per year corresponding in an increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection of 71%.

Dr Prezant said: "Our study emphasises the higher risk of COVID-19 infection for FDNY responders corresponding with the surge in pandemic-related emergency calls. Although all staff follow the same PPE protocol, it could be that emergency medical workers were more exposed to COVID-19 than firefighters, for example while traveling with patients to hospital and administering treatment to help them breathe.

"These findings highlight the importance of protecting emergency workers in countries around the world and maintaining the capacity of our emergency services in the event of subsequent waves of the pandemic. This means proper use of PPE, but also ensuring emergency workers get flu vaccinations and, when available, COVID-19 vaccinations."

Professor Anita Simonds, President of the European Respiratory Society, noted: "It is important to note that this group is predominantly male, and we know that men are at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection. However, this study highlights the risk of infection encountered not only by emergency medical workers, but also to firefighters. The nature of their work means they cannot avoid entering homes or having close contact with members of the public and co-workers. No matter where we live in the world, we rely on these key workers, so we need to do all we can to protect them.

"These findings also suggest that people whose lung health is declining face a higher risk of developing a more serious infection and those individuals may need additional protection or redeployment at work."

"Scientific knowledge of climate change and its drivers has been growing exponentially during the past decades, yet the degradation of nature and continued growth in greenhouse gas emissions has yet to even cease let alone start reversing. We have to ask if just trying to adjust 'business as usual' can safeguard our future on this planet" says Prof. Michael Norton, EASAC's Environment Programme Director. EASAC's new publication lays out the scale of the problems that face humanity to match human development with the capacity of the Earth and examines the calls for a fundamental transformation of our current economic and social systems across technological, economic and social domains.

Demand for energy and resources has been growing as a result of population growth and increased consumption to the point where all the scientific evidence shows we are bumping up against fundamental planetary boundaries on which our civilizations depend. EASAC summarises this evidence with a focus on climate and biodiversity, describing what many international scientists have been thinking since the 1970s - that current unsustainable trajectories are built into our economic theories and our political reward systems. These fundamentals need to be reset so that long-term sustainability is built into our decision-making at all levels rather than just left to altruism at the fringes.

The short-term perspective of many vested interests in continuing the status quo (whether in fossil fuels, resources extraction, high consumption in the linear economy, overfishing, conversion of forests and so on) is a formidable barrier to change. "Decision-makers seem to listen more to vested interests than to science," says Anders Wijkman, Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. "The science message has been consistent since the 1970s on the finite nature of the planet but been ignored. Incremental emissions reductions - achieved so far - are far from what is needed."

Emission Gap is widening

Climate warming is proceeding too fast to meet the Paris Agreement objective of avoiding dangerous climate change. Positive feedback effects that accelerate warming are already occurring. Even with the extreme effects of the COVID19 pandemic, the gap between what is needed in terms of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and what is being achieved continues to widen.

At the same time, biodiversity is being lost at a rate that will weaken and degrade the services we rely on from nature and sabotage progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and land. That is what drives the conclusion that achieving sustainability may only be achieved through transformative changes.

What keeps us from listening to the science?

"There is much talk of redirecting our values and reward systems towards a more sustainable economy whereby we can live well within our planet for more than just a few more years. But the inertia of the 'brown economy' cannot be underestimated", says Norton. Even now, fossil fuel interests have succeeded in capturing almost double the post-COVID19 recovery funds in G20 countries allocated to renewable energies. Food and agricultural interests are driving deforestation, land clearing and over-fishing but continue to be subsidised and escape paying for the environmental costs of their activities.

Wijkman: "The problem is the short-term nature of our political and economic system. I call it the tyranny of the now. So-called wealth is detached from the real wealth of our environment and our well-being. We have even delegated stock market speculation to algorithms and regard that as wealth - even though it has no real value. That's just one illustration of our disconnect with the physical reality of our planet and its limits."

Concrete change measures

"Generation Greta gets it," continues Wijkman. "Our focus should be on well-being and welfare, but our economic system puts all focus on growth and GDP which adds fuel to the climate and biodiversity crises. Yet, we are not becoming happier by consuming more and more and more material goods. The pandemic hopefully has demonstrated that consumption in itself is not the main objective or goal in life. It's well-being that is the main goal."

The scientists list some of the most urgent and transforming change measures:

Replace GDP by measures of real well-being that don't rely on exploiting and destroying the planet's resources

Overcome the vested interests in the brown economy - starting with replacing perverse subsidies with positive incentives for environmental responsibility

Steer our economic system to think long-term
- Engage industry and finance sectors to drive the changes and engage the public through new approaches (examples provided in the publication)

Grasp the opportunities now of the post-COVID and Green Deal stimuli to start to fix the system which is no longer fit for purpose.

"We are aware that our conclusions challenge political leaders and global elites who have campaigned for the traditional economy, expecting science and technology to allow economic growth to be indefinitely sustained," says Prof. Louise Vet, Netherlands Institute of Ecology. "But we all have to accept the realities of our finite planet. Only if we push the reset button now and work with nature instead of against it, our children get the chance of having a future."

Grocery store employees are likely to be at heightened risk of COVID-19 infection, with those in customer-facing roles 5 times as likely to test positive as their colleagues in other positions, suggests the first study of its kind, published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

What's more, among those testing positive, three out of four had no symptoms, suggesting these key workers could be an important reservoir of infection, say the researchers.

Published research focusing on essential/key workers has largely focused on healthcare workers. To try and plug this knowledge gap and find out how COVID-19 has affected the health and wellbeing of other key workers, the researchers studied 104 employees of one grocery store in Boston, Massachusetts.

Each employee was tested for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19 infection, in May this year as part of a mandatory testing policy across Boston.

But before doing so, they completed detailed questionnaires on: their lifestyle; medical history; employment history; working patterns and role at the store; commuting to and from work; and the protective measures they were able to take against infection at work.

They were also asked to provide information on COVID-19, including any symptoms and exposure to anyone with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 over the past 14 days. Information on mental health was gleaned from two validated questionnaires for depression and anxiety: PHQ-9 and GAD-7.

One in five (21 out of 104) workers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, indicating a prevalence of 20% at that point in time. This was significantly higher than the prevalence of the infection in the local community at the time: 0.9-1.3%.

Three out of four of those testing positive (76%) had no symptoms. And of those testing positive, most (91%) had a customer facing role compared with 59% of those testing negative.

Workers in customer facing roles were five times more likely to test positive than their colleagues in other types of role, after accounting for potentially influential factors, such as the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 where they lived. Those in supervisory roles were six times more likely to do so.

Ninety-nine employees filled in the mental health questionnaires: 24 workers reported at least mild anxiety. Only half (46%) of them said they were able to practice social distancing consistently at work, whereas most (76%) of those who weren't anxious were able to do so.

Eight employees were deemed to be mildly depressed from their questionnaire answers. They were less likely to practice social distancing consistently at work and more likely to travel to and from work on public transport or shared rides compared with those who weren't depressed.

Those able to commute on foot, by bike or in their own car were 90% less likely to report depressive symptoms.

This is a small observational study of workers in one store in one city at one point in time, which relied on subjective reports, and as such, can't establish cause, caution the researchers.

Nevertheless they say: "This is the first study to demonstrate the significant asymptomatic infection rate, exposure risks, and associated psychological distress of grocery retail essential workers during the pandemic."

And they point out: "Once essential workers are infected with SARS-CoV-2, they may become a significant transmission source for the community they serve."

They believe their findings support: "the policy recommendations that employers and government officials should take actions on implementing preventive strategies and administrative arrangements, such as methods to reduce interpersonal contact, repeat and routine SARS-CoV-2 employee testing, to ensure the health and safety of essential workers."

And they add: "Our significant mental health finding calls for action in providing comprehensive employee assistance services to help essential workers cope with the psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic."

The results of a survey of 1038 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, administrators and allied health professionals (such dieticians and physiotherapists) working in oncology in the UK National Health Service (NHS) during the spring wave of COVID-19 will be presented at the NCRI Virtual Showcase.

The results of the COVID-NOW study show that 69% of oncology staff believe patients' access to 'standard of care treatment' (meaning the standard NHS treatment available) has been compromised as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and 94% of staff felt that 'patient management' (meaning treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy) had altered.

The study also found that while 66% felt able to do their job without compromising their personal safety, 42% of staff felt they were likely to be 'at risk' of poor wellbeing and 34% indicated signs of burnout. However, the majority said that they felt able to work well during this time and an average score of around 7 out of 10 was reported, where 10 indicates being able to work to their best.

The survey also uncovered the coping strategies staff use, with doctors tending to use planning and humour as strategies, whereas allied health professionals sought out emotional support and information from others. Staff were also asked how valued they felt by their organisation and by the public. Overall, 68% said they felt valued by the public and 66% said they felt valued in the workplace. On average, doctors felt the most valued by the UK public (79%) and their workplace (73%). Support services staff (such as research administration staff, health care assistants and phlebotomists) felt the least valued (47% felt valued by the public and 60% in the workplace).

The study will be presented at the NCRI Virtual Showcase by Dr Susana Banerjee, Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Reader in Women's Cancers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK. She said: "As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire oncology community has been facing rapid changes to help ensure the safety of our cancer patients while maintaining their cancer care.

"Increasing our understanding of oncology professionals' experiences since COVID-19 is essential to making evidence-driven decisions on how best to help the oncology workforce and NHS organisations. The NHS and the global oncology community must work collaboratively to ensure that limited resources are used in the best way possible to support oncology staff and their patients."

The COVID-NOW study continues with further surveys planned as well as in-depth interviews to learn more about the impact of COVID-19 and how best to support oncology staff.

Dr Iain Frame, Chief Executive of NCRI, said: "This study gives us some important insights into how oncology staff were managing during the spring peak of COVID-19. As we see rates of the infection rise again around the world, it's crucial that we learn lessons to protect oncology staff and cancer patients and ensure patients get the best treatment now and in the coming months."

Silver Spring, Md.-- Innovative scientific research results on Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and its impact on obesity will be presented through oral and poster abstracts at the 38th Annual Meeting of The Obesity Society (TOS) at ObesityWeek® Interactive. This online event will take place Nov. 2-6, 2020 at http://www.obesityweek.org. On-Demand materials and other elements of the interactive conference will remain available online through Dec. 31, 2020.

"COVID-19 disproportionately affects people with obesity, who are at greater risk for complications and death," said Jaime Almandoz, MD, co-chair of the TOS Program Planning Committee. "This year's program highlights the latest research on the impact of COVID-19 for people with obesity. This includes presentations covering the effects of COVID-19 on the immune system and outcomes in critically ill patients with obesity, in addition to the influence that the pandemic is having on eating, health behaviors, television watching and telemedicine."

TOS's program chairs haves selected a sampling of top abstracts from the nearly 40 abstracts focused on COVID-19 and obesity that will be presented at the meeting.

Samples of the science that will be presented include:

"Binge Watching During COVID: Associations With Stress and Body Weight" - Aghababian et al.

"Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on Lifestyle Behaviors in Children With Obesity: A Longitudinal Study" - Heymsfield et al.

"Obesity Management in Times of COVID-19 Restrictions: Patient Survey in Center Offering Telemedicine" - Pachter et al.

"Impact of COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders on Weight-Related Behaviors Among Patients With Obesity" - Almandoz et al.

"Effect of Obesity and Metabolic Disease on Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Infection" - Jirapinyo et al.

"Association of BMI with Outcomes in Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19: Multicenter Cohort Study" - Pattou et al.

"Inflammatory Markers and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Obesity Admitted With COVID-19" - Mostaghim et al.

LA JOLLA, CA--Examining data from the first six weeks of their landmark DETECT study, a team of scientists from the Scripps Research Translational Institute sees encouraging signs that wearable fitness devices can improve public health efforts to control COVID-19.

The DETECT study, launched on March 25, uses a mobile app to collect smartwatch and activity tracker data from consenting participants, and also gathers their self-reported symptoms and diagnostic test results. Any adult living in the United States is eligible to participate in the study by downloading the research app, MyDataHelps.

In a study that appears today in Nature Medicine, the Scripps Research team reports that wearable devices like Fitbit are capable of identifying cases of COVID-19 by evaluating changes in heart rate, sleep and activity levels, along with self-reported symptom data--and can identify cases with greater success than looking at symptoms alone.

"What's exciting here is that we now have a validated digital signal for COVID-19. The next step is to use this to prevent emerging outbreaks from spreading," says Eric Topol, MD, director and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and executive vice president of Scripps Research. "Roughly 100 million Americans already have a wearable tracker or smartwatch and can help us; all we need is a tiny fraction of them--just 1 percent or 2 percent--to use the app."

With data from the app, researchers can see when participants fall out of their normal range for sleep, activity level or resting heart rate; deviations from individual norms are a sign of viral illness or infection.

But how do they know if the illness causing those changes is COVID-19? To answer that question, the team reviewed data from those who reported developing symptoms and were tested for the novel coronavirus. Knowing the test results enabled them to pinpoint specific changes indicative of COVID-19 versus other illnesses.

"One of the greatest challenges in stopping COVID-19 from spreading is the ability to quickly identify, trace and isolate infected individuals," says Giorgio Quer, PhD, director of artificial intelligence at Scripps Research Translational Institute and first author of the study. "Early identification of those who are pre-symptomatic or even asymptomatic would be especially valuable, as people may potentially be even more infectious during this period. That's the ultimate goal."

For the study, the team used health data from fitness wearables and other devices to identify--with roughly 80% prediction accuracy--whether a person who reported symptoms was likely to have COVID-19. This is a significant improvement from other models that only evaluated self-reported symptoms.

As of June 7, 30,529 individuals had enrolled in the study, with representation from every U.S. state. Of these, 3,811 reported symptoms, 54 tested positive for the coronavirus and 279 tested negative. More sleep and less activity than an individual's normal levels were significant factors in predicting coronavirus infection.

The predictive model under development in DETECT might someday help public health officials spot coronavirus hotspots early. It also may encourage people who are potentially infected to immediately seek diagnostic testing and, if necessary, quarantine themselves to avoid spreading the virus.

"We know that common screening practices for the coronavirus can easily miss pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic cases," says Jennifer Radin, PhD, an epidemiologist at the Scripps Research Translational Institute who is leading the study. "And infrequent viral tests, with often-delayed results, don't offer the real-time insights we need to control the spread of the virus."

The DETECT team is now actively recruiting more participants for this important research. The goal to enroll more than 100,000 people, which will help the scientists improve their predictions of who will get sick, including those who are asymptomatic. In addition, Radin and her colleagues plan to incorporate data from frontline essential workers who are at an especially high risk of infection.

DALLAS - Oct. 29, 2020 - About half of all tumors have mutations of the gene p53, normally responsible for warding off cancer. Now, UT Southwestern scientists have discovered a new role for p53 in its fight against tumors: preventing retrotransposons, or "jumping genes," from hopping around the human genome. In cells with missing or mutated p53, the team found, retrotransposons move and multiply more than usual. The finding could lead to new ways of detecting or treating cancers with p53 mutations.

"There's been long-standing literature associating retrotransposons with cancer," says John Abrams, Ph.D., professor of cell biology at UTSW and senior author of the study published recently in Genes & Development. "What this work does is deliver the first empirical link between p53 and retrotransposons in humans."

The role of p53 as an anti-cancer, or tumor suppressor, gene has been well-established. It works by blocking cell growth, or inducing cellular suicide, when cells are under stress or dividing abnormally, as is the case in tumors. But researchers have long wondered whether the gene has another function. Even when the previously known targets of p53 - genes involved in cell growth and death - are removed or mutated, p53 still protects cells from cancer, suggesting additional, unknown targets. Moreover, the gene is found throughout evolution, including in ancient single-celled organisms.

"These genes existed long before the need for blocking cancer," Abrams says. "My lab has wondered what originally drove the evolution of p53 genes and whether that knowledge can help us target cancer."

Retrotransposons are stretches of DNA that, after being transcribed into RNA, can insert themselves into new spots in the genome. These mobile genetic elements are considered beneficial to some degree - they can help genes evolve with new functions. However, they also have the potential to shuffle genomes and insert themselves into genes that are critical for cell health and growth, potentially contributing to cancer.

In 2016, Abrams and his colleagues discovered that retrotransposons were especially mobile when p53 was inactivated in cells of flies and fish. In the new work, they set out to study whether the same was true in human cells.

When the researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to remove p53 from human cells, they found that the abundance of retrotransposons quickly increased. Cells derived from both cancers and normal lung tissue that were engineered to lack p53 had roughly four times the rate of retrotransposon movement than cells still containing p53.

Abrams' team also introduced a synthetic, fluorescent-tagged retrotransposon to cells that let them follow the movement of the retrotransposon throughout the genome in real time. The results were similar to their first experiment; the retrotransposon was about four times more mobile, and therefore became more prevalent over time when cells lacked p53. The finding hints that one way in which p53 works to prevent cancer is by blocking retrotransposons from leading to other cancer-causing mutations.

"In the clinic, one could use this information to possibly detect or mitigate p53-driven cancers by quantifying or blocking retrotransposon activity," says Abrams. A liquid biopsy, for instance, could be developed to detect an overabundance of retrotransposons that, theoretically, may precede cancers or be easier to detect than other cancer mutations.

The research team further solidified the link between p53 and retrotransposons by showing that the p53 protein binds directly to one region of human retrotransposons. And they showed that a drug blocking the ability of retrotransposons to copy themselves prevented inflammation otherwise seen in cells with high levels of retrotransposon movement. More work is needed to determine whether a drug targeting retrotransposons could slow or stop the growth of existing cancers.

New research on the genetics of Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes could help in developing personalised therapies for associated mental illness and autism features. Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and Angelman syndrome (AS) have few treatments for associated complications including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mental health issues such as psychosis.

Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and University of Kansas Medical Center (KU Medical Center) experts have found that changes in expression levels of the UBE3A gene in white blood cells were associated with social and communication difficulties in PWS and impairment of fine motor and language skills in AS. The team now plan to investigate whether these changes are also seen in patients' supporting brain cells, called glia.

PWS and AS each affect 1 in 15,000 people and among other things cause intellectual and behavioural challenges. Apart from giving human growth hormone, treatments for Prader-Willi syndrome only address individual symptoms. The only Angelman syndrome treatments involve symptom-related therapies such as anti-seizure medication and physical, communication and behaviour therapy.

Published in Translational Psychiatry, the study investigated three conditions caused by chromosome 15 alterations, and included 27 participants affected with PWS, 21 with AS and 10 with chromosome 15 duplication (Dup15q) syndrome. It identified new links between UBE3A gene activity in white blood cells, autism features and fine motor and language skills. These raise the possibility that inflammatory pathways may be involved in contributing to disease severity in these conditions.

Senior author, MCRI Diagnosis and Development Laboratory head and University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics Associate Professor David Godler, said immune system changes had been implicated as key contributors to mental health issues in other disorders, including ASD. This study now suggests this may also be the case in chromosome 15-related conditions.

If confirmed in future studies, these findings could lead to new treatments that control the function of immune cells. They could also lead to new ways of predicting the type and severity of symptoms, using easily accessible biological materials, such as blood, which may be helpful for families and in assessing the effectiveness of new treatments as they arise.

"The immune system plays an important role in ensuring that nerve cells in the brain function properly," Associate Professor Godler said. "This is the first study to show that gene expression changes in white blood cells of individuals with PWS and AS are related to these issues too."

Australian study clinical lead Professor David Amor said the new research made meaningful change possible. "For a child that has significant obsessions, behavioural disturbance or autism, even if we can just improve those by 20 per cent, that can potentially translate into a substantial improvement in quality of life both for the child and for the family," he said.

Project psychologist Dr Emma Baker said psychiatric and behavioural issues associated with these conditions were "quite challenging". Those with PWS are prone to emotional outbursts, communication issues, and restrictive and repetitive behaviours that can exacerbate the core features of the disorder, such as overeating.

"This can really interfere with how an individual with Prader-Willi engages with the world," Dr Baker said. "Motor difficulties are big issues for children with Angelman syndrome. We found associations between UBE3A gene expression levels in white blood cells and fine motor skills. Improving motor skills can improve engagement and learning."

The study was conducted in collaboration with University of Kansas Medical Center PWS expert Professor of Psychiatry and Paediatrics Merlin Butler and his group, primarily supported by US-based Foundation for Prader-Willi Research (FPWR), Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) Australia and the Medical Research Future Fund.

"The study approach was novel," Professor Butler said. "The resultant genetic and clinical findings are preliminary; but if confirmed may revolutionise our understanding of brain-behavioural-gene interactions, opening new research on the role of genetics in human behaviour and treatment."

The principal investigators on this project have now been awarded additional funding from the US-based Foundation for Prader-Willi Research (FPWR) to build upon its findings by examining brain tissues of individuals affected with PWS.

FPWR Director of Research Programs Dr Theresa Strong said, "These novel insights ... lay the groundwork for exploring new treatment approaches for some of the most challenging aspects of PWS. Autism features, behavioural problems and mental illness can have profound impacts on individuals and families."

Ms Sally Hartmanis has a sister, Stephanie, with Angleman syndrome. "It's been extremely difficult to never hear Stephanie speak and to have no way of knowing what she is thinking or experiencing, or how much she understands. Over the years, Stephanie has developed certain repetitive behaviours which can be quite distressing to witness. It's upsetting not knowing what the cause of these behaviours are, or how we can help her.

"I'm comforted by the knowledge that researchers are finding and putting together the puzzle pieces underlying this heartbreaking condition."

Visit the MCRI website or FPWR for more information.

The ability to detect threatening stimuli and initiate an escape response is critical for survival and under stringent evolutionary pressure. To detect predators, fish use a number of sensory systems including olfaction (smell) and vision, which contribute to the activation of arousal systems. Surprisingly, little is known about the neural mechanisms through which ecological perturbation shapes the evolution of escape response. When startled, do all fish respond the same way?

A few fish, like Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, have evolved in unique environments without any predators. To determine how this lack of predation impacts escape responses that are highly stereotyped across fish species, researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College explored the tiny A. mexicanus to determine if there are evolved difference in the species. A. mexicanus exist as surface fish that inhabit rivers in Mexico and Southern Texas and as more than 30 geographically isolated cave-dwelling populations of the same species.

The ecology of caves differs dramatically from the surface habitat, resulting in distinct morphological and behavioral phenotypes in A. mexicanus. Cave populations live in environments without light, which is thought to contribute to the evolution of albinism, eye-loss, and circadian rhythm. Because they lack predators they might also lack the selective pressure to avoid predators. Dramatic differences in these cavefish populations combined with the robust ecological differences suggest that the startle reflex could indeed differ between populations of A. mexicanus.

To put this theory to the test, researchers elicited "C-start" responses using acoustic stimuli and high-speed videography in multiple cavefish populations and compared responses to eyed surface fish. The C-start escape response represents a primary mechanism for predator avoidance in fish and amphibians. C-start gets its name from the "c-shaped" curve a fish's body forms during the first stage of the escape response, which is followed by a smaller counter-bend and then rapid swimming.

Results of the study, published in a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Zoology: Molecular and Developmental Evolution on the evolution of Mexican cavefish, support the idea that ecological differences between cave and river environments contribute to differences in A. mexicanus escape behaviors. Findings provide a platform for investigating the evolution of neural circuits contributing to sensory-motor integration and support using A. mexicanus as a model to investigate the evolution of escape behavior.

In diverse fish species, acoustic stimuli activate Mauthner neurons, which initiate a C-start escape response. Mauthner cells receive input from multiple sensory modalities including visual, olfactory, and mechanosensory systems. To compare C-start kinematics between surface fish and cavefish, researchers examined and quantified response latency, maximum change in orientation (referred to as "peak bend angle") and angular speed. They used six-day post-fertilization larvae instead of adult surface fish and cavefish to eliminate the confounding variable of learned behavior.

Researchers found that C-start is present in river-dwelling surface fish and multiple populations of cavefish, but response kinematics and probability differed between populations. The Pachon population of cavefish exhibited an increased response probability, a slower response latency and speed, and reduction of the maximum bend angle, revealing evolved differences between surface and cave populations. Analysis of the responses of two other independently evolved populations of cavefish, revealed the repeated evolution of reduced angular speed. Investigation of surface-cave hybrids showed a correlation between angular speed and peak angle, suggesting that these two kinematic characteristics are related at the genetic or functional levels.

"These findings show that even the most highly conserved behaviors have evolved differences in the cave environment," said Alex Keene, Ph.D., lead author and an associate professor of biological sciences, FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. "It puts us in a position to identify the biological causes that underlie the reduced response probability and other changes we observed between cavefish and surface fish."

Keene notes that perhaps most interesting, is the difference in response probability in which Molino cavefish which diverged from surface fish more recently, were significantly more responsive than any of the other populations, with Pachon larvae, originating from the more ancestral stock, exhibiting the second highest response probability.

"The finding that multiple populations independently evolved similar phenotypes gives us a way to examine how escape circuits can be modified," said Keene.

Despite having no eyes, cavefish could detect light and sense looming stimuli, raising the possibility that light modulates their C-start response. To assess the influence of visual input on the C-start responses of surface fish and cavefish, researchers assayed both populations under light and dark conditions. The presence of light had no detectable effect on response probability, response latency, or angular speed in cavefish or surface fish. It did however, influence peak bend angle. In the dark conditions, surface fish displayed an increase in peak bend angle compared to cavefish. Although they were able to perceive light at this age, the presence or absence of light had no observable effect on the responses of Pachon cavefish.

To assess differences in responsiveness to acoustic stimuli, researchers quantified the probability of C-start initiation in surface fish and Pachon cavefish at multiple vibration intensities. They found that Pachon cavefish were more likely than surface fish to initiate a C-start in response to vibrations of higher intensities (31 and 35 decibels, but not 28 decibels).

"Interestingly, all cave populations analyzed in our study exhibited decreased angular speed. Furthermore, it is likely that a slower latency, such as that of Pachon larvae, decreases the likelihood of successful evasion," said Alexandra Paz, first author, an FAU doctoral student and a research assistant in the Department of Biological Sciences. "These data suggest that the C-start responses of cavefish, especially from the Pachon population, may be less effective for successful predator evasion. Because no predators have been identified in the caves, it is possible that this change is a result of diminished predation in the cave environment."

Since the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU of 2018, which placed genome-edited crops under the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) legislation, the scientific community has passionately debated the future of these new breeding techniques.

The new ALLEA report "Genome Editing for Crop Improvement" presents the state of the art of scientific evidence in the field and explores paths to harmonise EU legislation with recent scientific developments, while particularly considering relevant ethical and societal considerations.

The report summarises the discussions between scientific experts, policy-makers and civil-society organisations at a public symposium Genome Editing for Crop Improvement held in Brussels in November 2019, where ALLEA and the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts KVAB invited relevant stakeholders and the interested public to assess and discuss the impact of the ruling on present research and developments in genome editing for plant breeding.

"Widening public discourse on innovation in genome-editing for crop improvement is a key responsibility of the scientific community, including academies across Europe. While these new techniques offer exciting opportunities, it remains vital to see the bigger picture and to also consider public perceptions and cultural differences. This report summarises these diverse strands of research and aims to provide a comprehensive overview to European policymakers and the public." states Prof. Antonio Loprieno, President of ALLEA.

At the European level, the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU on case C-528/16 of 2018 has been met largely with bewilderment and disappointment among the scientific community involved in research in this field. Scientists are concerned that this legislation will impede European research and leave the continent lagging behind other world regions where regulation is less restrictive.

The present report provides an overview of the latest scientific evidence with respect to safety of genome-edited crops and their possible potential to provide solutions to current and future agricultural challenges. Issues related to the traceability of genome-edited crops and how this will likely affect international trade of food and feed are also addressed.

In addition to the bioscience aspects of the technology, the report discusses economic and social implications of genome editing for crop improvement, and the legal hurdles in readdressing the court decision by legislative means. The authors underline that "public participation should be incorporated into the policy-making process for genome editing and should include ongoing monitoring of public attitudes, informational deficits, and addressing concerns about certain applications of genome editing".

Key takeaways from the report:

European legislation should follow the features of the plant, rather than the technique used to generate it, to determine its regulatory status.

Targeted genome edits, which do not add foreign DNA, do not present any other health or environmental danger than plants obtained through classical breeding techniques, and are as safe or dangerous as the latter.

Continued legislative and policy restrictions may hamper the selection of more productive, diverse, and climate-resilient crops with a reduced environmental footprint.

The length and cost of the authorisation process makes it, except for major industrial players, hardly possible to bring into culture and commercialise plants developed with new biotechnological breeding techniques.

To enhance sustainability and to reduce the usage of chemicals, access is needed to the most advanced technologies enabling the improvement of existing varietal heritage and increasing the ability to respond to new challenges of changing environments. These new technologies may contribute to a reduction of the environmental footprint of agriculture.

An open, honest dialogue with all stakeholders, including the public, is needed in the decision-making processes for introducing genome-edited products into the market, ensuring that the implications of market introduction are accurately communicated.

The burden of knee osteoarthritis is set to continue to increase around the world. Ageing populations and rising levels of obesity, combined with an absence of a cure for the disease, will lead to an increased strain on health-care systems. Due to this, there is a focus on how to best manage the disease.

Clinical management is difficult and recommended treatment strategies routinely include a combination of non-pharmacological, pharmacological and in some cases surgical interventions. Management can further be categorised by disease severity, joint site and the presence/absence of comorbidities making OA treatment increasingly personalised.

Facing such complexities, health-care providers turn to clinical practice guidelines to help inform the decision-making process. But according to a research team from the Universities of Oxford, Southampton, Liège, Oulu, Maryland, Oslo and Boston, the complexities for clinicians don't end there.

"Leading experts and national and international organisations frequently publish guidelines outlining the best strategies for managing osteoarthritis," said Thomas Perry, joint first author and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS), University of Oxford. "There are a number of OA organisations across the world, each publishing new updated algorithms for how to best manage osteoarthritis, which means it can be difficult for clinicians to keep track of the most up-to-date literature, best practice policies, and ultimately provide the best care for their patients."

In 2019, when OARSI (Osteoarthritis Research Society International) and ESCEO (European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis) updated their guidelines for the non-surgical management of knee osteoarthritis, Nigel Arden, Professor of Rheumatic Diseases at NDORMS proposed a review of their new algorithms. Together with members from OARSI and ESCEO, a working group examined the similarities and differences between the two guidelines and created a narrative to help guide health-care providers through the complexities of treatments.

The results are published today in Nature Reviews Rheumatology.

The guidelines are similar in the majority of their recommendations. OARSI and ESCEO both recommend education, structured exercise and weight loss as core treatments for knee OA and advise the use of topical NSAIDs as first-line treatments, and oral NSAIDs and intra-articular injections for persistent pain. Where they differed was in ESCEO's recommendation for the use of low-dose, short-term acetaminophen, pharmaceutical grade glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, as compared to OARSI which strongly recommends against their use (including all glucosamine and chondroitin formulations).
Thomas said: "It's reassuring that the majority of recommendations from OARSI and ESCEO are in agreement. The working group concluded that the most likely reason for the differences were down to the methodologies of how they each approach the data and the literature. Each organisation uses slightly different procedures which could translate into the few, but important differences observed. It also highlights that there remain contested treatments for which we need better quality data to confirm use or non-use in the management of knee OA. Moving forward, there is also a need to define a standard protocol, outlining a method for making treatment algorithms which can be adopted by all societies."

Professor Arden said: "It was the first time that OARSI and ESCEO had come together to discuss their guidelines and it proved a very positive experience. Our aspiration would be to expand the collaboration to other societies and to harmonise the algorithms in order to present a consistent set of recommendations, providing confidence and clarity for practising clinicians regarding the treatment for their patients."

A global study of ancient dog DNA, led by scientists at the Francis Crick Institute, University of Oxford, University of Vienna and archaeologists from more than 10 countries, presents evidence that there were different types of dogs more than 11,000 years ago in the period immediately following the Ice Age.

In their study, published in Science today (29th October), the research team sequenced ancient DNA from 27 dogs, some of which lived up to nearly 11,000 years ago, across Europe, the Near East and Siberia.* They found that by this point in history, just after the Ice Age and before any other animal had been domesticated, there were already at least five different types of dog with distinct genetic ancestries.

This finding reveals that the diversity observed between dogs in different parts of the world today originated when all humans were still hunters and gatherers.

Pontus Skoglund, author and group leader of the Crick's Ancient Genomics laboratory, says: "Some of the variation you see between dogs walking down the street today originated in the Ice Age. By the end of this period, dogs were already widespread across the northern hemisphere."

This study of ancient genomics involves extracting and analysing DNA from skeletal material. It provides a window into the past, allowing researchers to uncover evolutionary changes that occurred many thousands of years ago.

The team showed that over the last 10,000 years, these early dog lineages mixed and moved to give rise to the dogs we know today. For example, early European dogs were initially diverse, appearing to originate from two highly distinct populations, one related to Near Eastern dogs and another to Siberian dogs. However, at some point this diversity was lost, as it is not present in European dogs today.

Anders Bergström, lead author and post-doctoral researcher in the Ancient Genomics laboratory at the Crick, says: "If we look back more than four or five thousand years ago, we can see that Europe was a very diverse place when it came to dogs. Although the European dogs we see today come in such an extraordinary array of shapes and forms, genetically they derive from only a very narrow subset of the diversity that used to exist."

The researchers also compared the evolution in dog history to changes in human evolution, lifestyles and migrations. In many cases comparable changes took place, likely reflecting how humans would bring their dogs with them as they migrated across the world.

But there are also cases when human and dog histories do not mirror each other. For example, the loss of diversity that existed in dogs in early Europe was caused by the spread of a single dog ancestry that replaced other populations. This dramatic event is not mirrored in human populations, and it remains to be determined what caused this turnover in European dog ancestry.

Greger Larson, author and Director of the Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network at the University of Oxford, says: "Dogs are our oldest and closest animal partner. Using DNA from ancient dogs is showing us just how far back our shared history goes and will ultimately help us understand when and where this deep relationship began."

Ron Pinhasi, author and group leader at the University of Vienna, says: "Just as ancient DNA has revolutionised the study of our own ancestors, it's now starting to do the same for dogs and other domesticated animals. Studying our animal companions adds another layer to our understanding of human history."

While this study provides major new insights into the early history of dog populations and their relationships with humans and each other, many questions still remain. In particular, research teams are still trying to uncover where and in which human cultural context, dogs were first domesticated.

The shells of crustaceans and wood waste such as branches pruned from trees usually end up in landfills. These waste materials are given a new lease of life to become nutritional supplements and medicine, with the help of a novel process developed by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

A team led by Associate Professor Yan Ning and Assistant Professor Zhou Kang from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the NUS Faculty of Engineering devised a method to turn shells from prawns and crabs into L-DOPA, a widely used drug to treat Parkinson's disease. A similar method can be used to convert wood waste to Proline, which is essential for the formation of healthy collagen and cartilage.

The NUS team's conversion approach can potentially play a pivotal role in the chemical industry, as the movement of waste-derived compounds has been gaining momentum in a bid to reduce reliance on the use of non-renewable fossil fuels and energy-consuming processes.

From waste to useful chemicals

The global food processing industry generates as much as eight million tonnes of crustacean shell waste annually. Concurrently, Singapore generated over 438,000 tonnes of wood waste in 2019, among which include branches pruned from trees and saw dust from workshops. Deriving ways to upcycle these food and agricultural waste materials into useful compounds will reap benefits without straining landfills.

Although reusing waste materials has gained traction in recent years, the typical output of chemicals produced from waste recycling is often less diversified than the conventional chemical synthesis pipeline which uses crude oil or gas. To overcome the limitations, the NUS researchers came up with a pathway that marries a chemical approach with a biological process.

They first applied chemical processes to the waste materials and converted them into a substance that can be "digested" by microbes. The second step involves a biological process, akin to the fermentation of grapes into wine, where they engineered special strains of bacteria such as Escherichia coli to convert the substance produced in the chemical process into a higher value product such as amino acids.

The NUS team took four years to derive their method, and applied it to obtain high value chemicals from renewable sources in a sustainable way.

Producing organic chemicals cheaper and faster

Conventionally, L-DOPA is produced from L-tyrosine, a chemical made from fermenting sugars. With the approach developed by the NUS team, crustacean waste is first treated using a simple chemical step, allowing it to be used by microbes to produce L-DOPA. The yield of the NUS method is similar to that achieved in the traditional method using sugars. In addition, compared to glucose, the most common sugar used, which costs between US$400 to US$600 per ton, shrimp waste costs only about US$100 per ton. Given the low cost and abundance of shell waste, the NUS team's process has the potential to provide L-DOPA at a lower cost.

Proline, on the other hand, is conventionally produced through pure biological processes. The NUS team's unique method has now replaced most of the transformations by using chemical processes, which are much faster. As a result, the new integrated process could achieve higher productivity, and potentially lead to reductions in capital investment and operating costs.

The research on producing amino acids such as L-DOPA from crustacean shells was first published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on 25 March 2020, while the work on producing Proline from wood waste was reported in Angewandte Chemie on 27 July 2020.

"Chemical processes are rapid and can utilise a variety of harsh conditions such as extreme heat or pressure to break down a wide variety of waste materials as no living organism are involved, but they can only produce simple substances. On the other hand, biological processes are a lot slower, and require very specific conditions for the microbes to flourish but can produce complex substances which tend to be of higher value. By combining both chemical and biological processes, we can reap the benefits of both to create high value materials," explained Asst Prof Zhou.

Potential to upcycle other types of waste

The NUS team's methodology has the potential to be applied to different types of waste materials, and they can tailor the process, based on the type of waste as well as the target end product.

Moving forward, the team is looking to adapt their unique process to other forms of waste, such as carbon dioxide and wastepaper. Such development would reduce the society's reliance on non-renewable resources for acquiring chemicals which are important constituents of many nutritional supplements and medicine today.

"Our novel chemical-biological integrated workflow offers a general pathway to produce a variety of high-value organonitrogen chemicals. While it may sound simple on paper to just combine two different methodologies, the devil is in the details. Given that these chemicals are found in a vast array of commercially valuable pharmaceuticals, pigments and nutrients, we are excited to expand our research and develop new methodologies to produce value-added chemicals from other abundant, locally available substrates found in Singapore," shared Assoc Prof Yan.

The research team is also planning to scale up the processes currently developed in their laboratories, and to work with industrial partners to commercialise this technology.

Imagine that you are a job consultant. You are sitting across from your client, an unemployed individual.

After locating them in the system, up pops the following text on the computer screen; 'increased risk of long-term unemployment'.

Such assessments are made by an algorithm that, via data on the citizen's gender, age, residence, education, income, ethnicity, history of illness, etc., spits out an estimate of how long the person -- compared to other people from similar backgrounds -- is expected to remain in the system and receive benefits.

But is it reasonable to characterize individual citizens on the basis of what those with similar backgrounds have managed in their job searches? According to a new study from the University of Copenhagen, no.

"You have to understand that people are human. We get older, become ill and experience tragedies and triumphs. So instead of trying to predict risks for individuals, we ought to look at implementing improved and more transparent courses in the job center arena," says Naja Holten Møller, an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science, and one of the researchers behind the study.

Together with two colleagues from the same department, Professor Thomas Hildebrandt and Professor Irina Shklovski, Møller has explored possible alternatives to using algorithms that predict job readiness for unemployed individuals as well as the ethical aspects that may arise.

"We studied how to develop algorithms in an ethical and responsible manner, where the goals determined for the algorithm make sense to job consultants as well. Here, it is crucial to find a balance, where the unemployed individual's current situation is assessed by a job consultant, while at the same time, one learns from similar trajectories using an algorithm," says Naja Holten Møller.

Job consultants need to help create the algorithm

The use of job search algorithms is not a well-thought scenario. Nevertheless, the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment has already rolled out this type of algorithm to predict the risk of long-term unemployment among the citizenry -- despite criticism from several data law experts.

"Algorithms used in the public sphere must not harm citizens, obviously. By challenging the scenario and the very assumption that the goal of an unemployed person at a job centre is always to land a job, we are better equipped to understand ethical challenges. Unemployment can have many causes. Thus, the study shows that a quick clarification of time frames for the most vulnerable citizens may be a better goal. By doing so, we can avoid the deployment of algorithms that do great harm," explains Naja Holten Møller.

The job consultants surveyed in the study expressed concern about how the algorithm's assessment would affect their own judgment, specifically in relation to vulnerable citizens.

"A framework must be established in which job consultants can have a real influence on the underlying targets that guide the algorithm. Accomplishing this is difficult and will take time, but is crucial for the outcome. At the same time, it should be kept in mind that algorithms which help make decisions can greatly alter the work of job consultants. Thus, an ethical approach involves considering their advice," explains Naja Holten Møller.

We must consider the ethical aspects

While algorithms can be useful for providing an idea of, for example, how long an individual citizen might expect to be unemployed, this does not mean that it is ethically justifiable to use such predictions in job centers, points out Naja Holten Møller.

"There is a dream that the algorithm can identify patterns that others are oblivious to. Perhaps it can seem that, for those who have experienced a personal tragedy, a particular path through the system is best. For example, the algorithm could determine that because you've been unemployed due to illness or a divorce, your ability to avoid long-term unemployment depends on such and such," she says, concluding:

"But what will we do with this information, and can it be deployed in a sensible way to make better decisions? Job consultants are often able to assess for themselves whether a person is likely to be unemployed for an extended period of time. These assessments are shaped by in-person meetings, professionalism and experience -- and it is here, within these meetings, that an ethical development of new systems for the public can best be spawned."

Ever since the astronomer Edwin Hubble demonstrated that the further apart two galaxies are, the faster they move away from each other, researchers have measured the expansion rate of the Universe (the Hubble constant) and the history of this expansion. Recently, a new puzzle has emerged, as there seems to be a discrepancy between measurements of this expansion using radiation in the early Universe and using nearby objects. Researchers from the Cosmic Dawn Center, at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, have now contributed to this debate by focusing on velocity measurements. The result has been published in Astrophysical Journal.

The researchers at the Cosmic Dawn Center found that the measurements of velocity used for determining the expansion rate of the Universe may not be reliable. As stated in the publication, this doesn't resolve the discrepancies, but rather hints at an additional inconsistency in the composition of the Universe.

Measuring the expansion rate of the Universe

Currently, astronomers measure the expansion of the Universe using two very different techniques. One is based on measuring the relationship between distance and velocity of nearby galaxies, while the other stems from studying the background radiation from the very early universe. Surprisingly, these two approaches currently find different expansion rates. If this discrepancy is real, a new and rather dramatic reinterpretation of the development of the Universe will be the consequence. However, it is also possible that the difference in the Hubble constant could be from incorrect measurements. It is difficult to measure distances in the Universe, so many studies have focused on improving and recalibrating distance measurements. But in spite of this, over the last 4 years the disagreement has not been resolved.

The velocity of the remote galaxies is easy to measure - or so we thought

In the recent scientific article, the researchers from the Cosmic Dawn Center now attempt to shine light on a related problem: the measurement of velocity. Depending on the velocity with which a remote object moves away from us, its light shifts to redder colors. With this so-called redshift it is possible to measure the velocity from a spectrum of a remote galaxy. Unlike measurements of distance, until now it was assumed that velocities were relatively easy to measure.

However, when the researchers recently examined distance and velocity measurements from more than 1000 supernovae (exploding stars) collected during the last 25 years, they found a surprising discrepancy in their results. Albert Sneppen, Masters student at the Niels Bohr Institute explains: "We've always believed that measuring velocities was fairly straightforward and precise, but it turns out that we are actually dealing with two types of redshifts".

The first type, measuring the velocity with which the host-galaxy moves away from us, is considered the most reliable. The other type of redshift measures instead the velocity of matter ejected from the exploding star inside the galaxy. Or, more precisely, the matter from the supernova moving towards us with a few percent of the velocity of light (illustration 1). After compensating for this extra movement the redshift - and velocity - of the host galaxy can be determined. But this compensation requires a precise model for the explosion. The researchers were able to determine that the results from these two different techniques result in two different expansion histories for the Universe, and therefore two different compositions as well.

Are things "broken in an interesting way?"

So, does this mean that the measurements of the early Universe and newer measurements are ultimately a question of imprecise measurements of velocity? Probably not, says Bidisha Sen, one the authors of the article. "Even if we only use the more reliable redshifts, the supernova measurements not only continue to disagree with the Hubble constant measured from the early Universe - they also hint at a more general discrepancy regarding the composition of the Universe", she says.

Associate professor at the Niels Bohr Institute Charles Steinhardt, is intrigued by these new results. "If we are actually dealing with two disagreements, it means that our current model would be "broken in an interesting way", he says. "In order to solve two problems, one regarding the composition of the Universe and one regarding the expansion rate of the Universe, rather different physical explanations are required than if we only want to explain a single discrepancy in the expansion rate".

The Scientific work continues at the Nordic Optical Telescope

With the Nordic Optical Telescope in Gran Canaria the researchers are now acquiring new redshifts from the host galaxies. When they compare these results with the supernova based redshifts, they will be able to see if the two techniques remain different. "We have learned that these sensitive measurements require precise measurements of velocity, and these will be attainable with fresh observations", Steinhardt explains.