Culture

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Smartphone apps that tell commuters when a bus will arrive at a stop don't result in less time waiting than reliance on an official bus route schedule, a new study suggests.

In fact, people who followed the suggestions of transit apps to time their arrival for when the bus pulls up to the stop were likely to miss the bus about three-fourths of the time, results showed.

"Following what transit apps tell you about when to leave your home or office for the bus stop is a risky strategy," said Luyu Liu, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in geography at The Ohio State University.

"The app may tell you the bus will be five minutes late, but drivers can make up time after you start walking, and you end up missing the bus."

The best choice on average for bus commuters is to refer to the official schedule, or at least build in extra time when using the app's suggestions, according to the researchers.

Liu conducted the study with Harvey Miller, professor of geography and director of Ohio State's Center for Urban and Regional Analysis. The study was published recently online in the journal Transportation Research Part A.

"We're not saying that real-time bus information is bad. It is reassuring to know that a bus is coming," Miller said.

"But if you're going to use these apps, you have to know how to use them and realize it still won't be better on average than following the schedule."

For the study, the researchers analyzed bus traffic for one year (May 2018 to May 2019) on one route of the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA), the public bus system in Columbus.

Liu and Miller used the same real-time data that publicly available apps use to tell riders where buses are and when they are likely to reach individual stops. They compared the real-time data predictions of when buses would arrive at stops to when buses actually arrived for a popular bus route that traverses a large part of the city. The researchers then calculated the average time commuters would wait at a stop if they used different tactics to time their arrival, including just following the bus schedule.

The absolute worst way to catch the bus was using what the researchers called the "greedy tactic" - the one used by many transit apps - in which commuters timed their arrival at the stop to when the app said the bus would pull up.

The average wait using the greedy tactic was about 12½ minutes - about three times longer than simply following the schedule. That's because riders using this tactic are at high risk of missing the bus, researchers found.

The app tells riders when the bus will arrive based on where it is and how fast it is traveling when a commuter checks it, Miller said.

But there are two problems with that method, he said. For one, drivers can make up lost time.

"COTA wants to deliver on-time service, so bus operators understandably will try to get back on schedule," Miller said.

Plus, the apps don't check the bus location often enough to get accurate real-time information.

Slightly better was the "arbitrary tactic" when a person just randomly walked up to a stop and caught the next bus that arrived. Commuters using this tactic would wait on average about 8½ minutes for the next bus.

The second-best tactic was what the researchers called the "prudent tactic," which was using the app to plan for arrival at the stop but adding some time as an "insurance buffer." Here the average wait time was four minutes and 42 seconds, with a 10 percent risk of missing the bus.

The prudent tactic waiting time was similar to the "schedule tactic," which is just using the public schedule to determine when to arrive at the stop. These commuters waited an average of four minutes and 12 seconds, with only a 6 percent risk of missing the bus.

There is some variation on waiting time within these averages, especially with the two tactics that use real-time information from apps. One of the most important factors is the length of a commuter's walk to the bus stop.

Those who have longer walks take more risks when they rely on real-time information. If the app tells commuters their bus is running late, a long walk gives the bus more time to speed up to get back on schedule.

Another important factor is the length of time between buses arriving at a stop. A longer time between buses means more risk if you miss a bus, and results in more time waiting.

While on average the schedule tactic worked best, there were minor exceptions.

Results showed that it was generally better for work commuters to follow the schedule tactic in the morning when going to work and follow the prudent tactic using an app in the afternoon.

But one thing was certain, the researchers said: It was never a good idea to be greedy and try to achieve no waiting at the bus stop.

Waiting time for buses is an important issue, Miller said. For one, long waiting times is one of the top issues cited by people for not using public transportation.

It is also a safety concern for people to not have to wait for long periods at stops, especially at night, or for those rushing around busy streets because they are late for a bus. And for many people, missing buses can jeopardize their jobs or important health care appointments, Miller said.

Miller said the apps themselves could be more helpful by taking advantage of the data used in this study to make better recommendations.

"These apps shouldn't be pushing risky strategies on users for eliminating waiting time. They should be more sophisticated," he said.

A team of New York University scientists has developed a method using holographic imaging to detect both viruses and antibodies. The breakthrough has the potential to aid in medical diagnoses and, specifically, those related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our approach is based on physical principles that have not previously been used for diagnostic testing," explains David Grier, a professor of physics at NYU and one of the researchers on the project, which is reported in the journal Soft Matter. "We can detect antibodies and viruses by literally watching them stick to specially prepared test beads."

If fully realized, this proposed test could be done in under 30 minutes, is highly accurate, and can be performed by minimally trained personnel. Moreover, the method can test for either the virus (current infection) or antibodies (immunity).

The scientists, who also include NYU doctoral candidates Kaitlynn Snyder and Rushna Quddus as well as NYU Chemistry Professor Kent Kirshenbaum and NYU Physics Professor Andy Hollingsworth, base their test on holographic video microscopy, which uses laser beams to record holograms of their test beads. The surfaces of the beads are activated with biochemical binding sites that attract either antibodies or virus particles, depending on the intended test. Binding antibodies or viruses causes the beads to grow by a few billionths of a meter, which the NYU researchers have shown they can detect through changes in the beads' holograms.

"We can analyze a dozen beads per second," explains Grier, "which means that we can cut the time for a reliable thousand-bead diagnostic test to 20 minutes. And we can measure those changes rapidly, reliably, and inexpensively."

The holographic video microscopy is performed by an instrument, xSight, created by Spheryx, a New York-based company Grier co-founded.

The scientists also note the versatility of their method.

"This instrument can count virus particles dispersed in patients' saliva and also detect and differentiate antibodies dissolved in their blood," adds Grier. "This flexibility is achieved by changing the composition of the test beads to model what we are testing.

"Each type of bead tests for the presence of a particular target, but can also test for
several targets simultaneously. Our holographic analysis distinguishes the different
test beads by their size and by their refractive index--an easily controlled
optical property."

The scientists say that this capability can be used to develop libraries of test beads that may be combined into test kits for mixing with patient samples. This will support doctors in distinguishing among possible diagnoses, speeding patients' treatment, reducing the risk of misdiagnosis, and cutting the cost of healthcare.

In their quest to destroy cancer cells, researchers are turning to combinational therapies more and more. Scientists from Germany and China have now combined a chemotherapeutic and photodynamic approach. All agents are encapsulated in nanocapsules with a protein shell to be delivered to the tumor. There, light irradiation triggers a cascade of events, which lead to the destruction of the tumor cells, the researchers write in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Different anticancer agents use different strategies. DNA-damaging agents make the DNA dysfunctional so the tumor cannot grow. Photodynamic agents generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) when irradiated with light. These ROS then interfere with organelles in the cell and push the cells toward programmed cell death known as apoptosis.

However, some cancer types have developed resistances. Either the drug cannot enter the cell or the cells quickly repair the damaged DNA strands. To enhance effectivity, Katharina Landfester and her colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany, and researchers from Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China, combined chemotherapeutic and photodynamic agents. All agents were packed inside a nanocapsule for delivery to the tumor cells.

Photodynamic therapy can be less effective in solid tumors within which the oxygen level is too low to generate enough ROS. Therefore, the scientists used a modified system that partly recycles oxygen. In this system, a photosensitizer produces ROS after light irradiation. Enzymes of the cell convert the ROS to hydrogen peroxide. Another reagent called Fenton reagent--which is basically iron in its highest oxidation state--then back-transforms the hydrogen peroxide to ROS and oxygen.

The authors said that it was challenging to assemble all reagents in one nanocapsule. The chemotherapeutic agent, cisplatin, is poorly soluble in water, while ovalbumin, the nanocapsule protein, does not dissolve in the organic solvent. Using a miniemulsion technique, the scientists eventually combined all three reagents in a solvent mixture and wrapped them up in a shell of ovalbumin. They stabilized and emulsified these nanocapsules by adding a copolymer based on poly(ethylene glycol).

The scientists tested this system on tumor cell lines. The nanocapsules entered the cells, released their loads, and developed ROS when irradiated with red light. The agent set also killed cells that were resistant to cisplatin or had a particularly low oxygen concentration.

The combined encapsulated drugs also stopped tumor growth in live mice. The authors found that the reagents accumulated in the tumor tissue. They also made the tumors shrink over time without affecting healthy tissue or other organs.

The authors highlighted that the anticancer agents were delivered to the tumor in nanocapsules and worked synergistically. Treatments involving only one agent, or a combination of two, were much less effective. The authors proposed that similar synergistic platforms will play a major role in future therapy settings.

One of the most significant questions about the novel coronavirus is whether people who are infected are immune from reinfection and, if so, for how long.

To determine the answer, University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers studied the production of antibodies from a sample of nearly 6,000 people and found immunity persists for at least several months after being infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

"We clearly see high-quality antibodies still being produced five to seven months after SARS-CoV-2 infection," said Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, associate professor, UArizona College of Medicine - Tucson, Department of Immunobiology. "Many concerns have been expressed about immunity against COVID-19 not lasting. We used this study to investigate that question and found immunity is stable for at least five months."

The resulting paper, "Orthogonal SARS-CoV-2 Serological Assays Enable Surveillance of Low Prevalence Communities and Reveal Durable Humoral Immunity," was published today in the journal Immunity. Dr. Bhattacharya and Janko Nikolich-Zugich, MD, PhD, professor and head of the Department of Immunobiology, led the research team.

When a virus first infects cells, the immune system deploys short-lived plasma cells that produce antibodies to immediately fight the virus. Those antibodies appear in blood tests within 14 days of infection.

The second stage of the immune response is the creation of long-lived plasma cells, which produce high-quality antibodies that provide lasting immunity. Drs. Bhattacharya and Nikolich-Zugich tracked antibody levels over several months in people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. They found SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are present in blood tests at viable levels for at least five to seven months, although they believe immunity lasts much longer.

"Whether antibodies provide lasting protection against SARS-CoV-2 has been one of the most difficult questions to answer," said UArizona Health Sciences Senior Vice President Michael D. Dake, MD, who is a co-author on the paper. "This research not only has given us the ability to accurately test for antibodies against COVID-19, but also has armed us with the knowledge that lasting immunity is a reality."

Earlier studies extrapolated antibody production from initial infections and suggested antibody levels drop quickly after infection, providing only short-term immunity. Dr. Bhattacharya believes those conclusions focused on short-lived plasma cells and failed to take into account long-lived plasma cells and the high-affinity antibodies they produce.

"The latest time-points we tracked in infected individuals were past seven months, so that is the longest period of time we can confirm immunity lasts," Dr. Bhattacharya said. "That said, we know that people who were infected with the first SARS coronavirus, which is the most similar virus to SARS-CoV-2, are still seeing immunity 17 years after infection. If SARS-CoV-2 is anything like the first one, we expect antibodies to last at least two years, and it would be unlikely for anything much shorter."

The study began when Drs. Nikolich-Zugich and Bhattacharya, both members of the UArizona BIO5 Institute, led a UArizona Health Sciences team that developed a blood test to check for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. A partnership with the state led to 5,882 volunteers undergoing antibody testing in Pima County, Ariz., starting April 30. The testing efforts later were expanded statewide.

Since antibodies attach to viruses at more than one location, the UArizona Health Sciences test was developed employing two different parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus - S1 and S2. Most tests look for antibodies at S1, which includes the receptor-binding domain wherein the spike protein binds to a protein receptor to infect cells. The UArizona Health Sciences test also analyzes the S2 region of the spike protein. Antibodies must be present in both locations for the test to be determined positive.

"When we began, the first test we developed was 99% accurate for measuring antibodies in one part of the virus," Dr. Nikolich-Zugich said. "We decided to confirm, and hopefully improve, that accuracy level by looking at another part of the virus that makes antibodies independent of the first location. We then validated that test, knowing some people will make antibodies more consistently for one part of the virus than the other. We put the two tests together, and only people who show antibody production for both parts of the test are determined to be positive."

The scientific verification of the high level of accuracy of the UArizona Health Sciences antibody test is the other finding highlighted in the Immunity paper. Of 5,882 tests completed, only one returned a false positive, a rate of less than .02%. The test received U.S. Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization in August.

Dr. Nikolich-Zugich said the team now has tested almost 30,000 people. Antibody tests still are available for anyone in Arizona age 18 and older at multiple locations throughout the state. Visit covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu for more information and to sign up for testing.

How can consumers be encouraged to take better care of public goods and resources? That's the question posed in a new research paper co-authored by Colleen P. Kirk, D.P.S., associate professor of marketing at New York Institute of Technology, in the Journal of Marketing.

Caring for the Commons: Using Psychological Ownership to Enhance Stewardship Behavior for Public Goods aims to help solve the "tragedy of the commons," the idea that when goods or resources are shared by many owners they are subject to abuse or neglect.

Sadly, the tragedy of the commons can be seen in many public spaces, such as cemeteries, public housing, fishing areas, and beaches, and has contributed to a number of environmental challenges. One commonly cited environmental issue includes ocean pollution. Because ocean waters are shared by many different nations no single authority has the power to pass laws that protect the entire ocean. Instead, nations manage and protect ocean resources along their coastlines, leaving the much larger shared waters vulnerable to contamination.

Citing available studies on the tragedy of the commons, Kirk joins Joann Peck, Ph.D., of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business; Andrea Luangrath, Ph.D., of the University of Iowa; and Suzanne Shu, Ph.D., of Cornell University in hypothesizing that increased feelings of ownership towards a public good can help ensure that individuals do their part.

PUTTING THEIR THEORY TO THE TEST

The researchers manipulated scenarios in public settings to encourage visitors to view the spaces as their own, rather than as a shared commodity. In each scenario, the investigators found that increasing psychological ownership enhanced stewardship, causing participants to become more likely to take direct action to care for that setting, such as picking up trash, or financial stewardship, such as donating money.

For example, the researchers manipulated psychological ownership of a lake by asking a randomized group of kayak renters to think of and write down a nickname for the lake before renting their boats. Unbeknownst to the kayakers, the researchers had planted anchored floating trash in the lake to test whether naming the lake would create an increased feeling of ownership. Compared to the control group, kayakers who were not asked to name the lake, the "namers" were more likely to do their part in trying to pick up the trash, with 41 percent attempting to remove the planted litter.

In another scenario, study participants were asked to imagine that they were taking a walk in a hypothetical park called Stoneview Park. Researchers showed the control group a park entrance sign that read the generic message, "Welcome to the park." In contrast, the experimental group was shown a sign reading, "Welcome to YOUR park." Each group of "walkers" then completed a survey on how likely they were to remove litter or donate to park maintenance efforts. Once again, when compared to the control group, those exposed to the psychological ownership tactics (YOUR park group) felt a greater need to care for and contribute to maintaining the public space.

A third scenario tested yet another psychological ownership tactic aimed at cultivating stewardship. Cross country skiers and snowshoers at a public park ski rental were asked to plan a route prior to their outing. Following the completion of the park's standard liability waiver, an employee offered them a map, obtained their shoe size, and, in the control group (the "non-planners"), went on to retrieve the ski equipment. However, in the experimental group, before retrieving the skis or snowshoes, the employee asked the renters to plan a route they might take on the map. All renters were then charged for their ski equipment and asked whether they would like to add a dollar to the rental fee to help the park. Donations indicated that individuals who planned their route in advance were more likely to chip in. In addition, a participant survey also revealed that those asked to plan their route were more likely to feel ownership, volunteer, donate in the future, and promote the park to others using social media. The researchers believe that because these skiers played an active role in shaping their experience, they may have felt a greater sense of connection to the park.

Kirk, who has published significant research on psychological ownership and an op-ed in Harvard Business Review, believes the findings can assist marketers in conservation efforts.

"Maintaining the natural environment is a pressing issue facing our planet, and has become more challenging during the pandemic as park services are reduced while the number of people spending time outside has increased," she notes. "Researchers have previously shown that eliciting feelings of ownership in consumers, even in the absence of legal ownership, induces them to value a product more highly. In this research, we document, through a variety of experimental studies in the field and in the laboratory, that individual psychological ownership also motivates caring behaviors for a public good, such as picking up trash from a lake or donating time or money to a park. We encourage marketers and environmentalists alike to reflect on these findings when considering ways to maintain public spaces."

Normally they are among the many harmless organisms found in and on the human body: one in four people have millions of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria on their skin and on the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, without being aware of it. In some cases, however, the harmless bacteria can turn into pathogens, which can lead to skin inflammation and lung infections, or - in the worst cases - sepsis. "This happens especially when the bacteria multiply too fast, for example when a person's immune system is weakened by an infection or injury," says Prof. Oliver Werz of Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany.

The Professor for Pharmaceutical Chemistry and his team have studied the molecular defence mechanisms of the human immune system in the fight against such Staphylococcus aureus infections and made a surprising discovery. As the research team reports in the current issue of the specialist journal "Cell Reports", the toxic cocktail with which Staphylococcus aureus damages cells and tissues also has positive effects: specific immune cells are stimulated by the bacterial toxin to produce specialised messenger substances that help to reduce inflammation and to promote tissue healing. Prof. Werz expects this hitherto unknown mechanism to be significant for future treatments of skin inflammation and chronic wounds.

Immune cells produce anti-inflammatory messenger substances

In their latest study, the researchers from the University of Jena, Jena University Hospital and the Leibniz Institute on Aging - Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI), together with colleagues from Harvard Medical School and the University of Naples, have studied in particular the bacterial toxin "α-Hemolysin" and examined its effect on M2 macrophages. M2 macrophages are immune cells which, in the later stages of an inflammatory reaction, ensure that bacteria that have been killed, and damaged cell components, are removed, and that the tissue regenerates. "They are therefore a kind of cellular waste disposal," says Paul Jordan, doctoral candidate in Werz's team and lead author of the publication, describing the function of these cells.

The researchers showed that α-hemolysin binds to specific receptor proteins on the surface of M2 macrophages and thus triggers the production of anti-inflammatory messenger substances in the cells, which then cause the inflammation to resolve. In the study, the scientists were also able to show that these transmitters promote tissue regeneration in an animal model. The anti-inflammatory messenger substances include resolvins, maresins and protectins that are formed from omega-3 fatty acids.

Autopsy, airway suctioning and cardiopulmonary resuscitation are among the list of medical procedures that pose a risk of spreading COVID-19 from a patient to their health-care provider by creating aerosols, according to new research published in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research by an international team of experts including occupational health, preventive medicine and infectious disease specialists.

The team, led by University of Alberta medicine professor Sebastian Straube, carried out a systematic review of public health guidelines, research papers and policy documents from around the globe to determine which procedures are classified as aerosol-generating.

"What we sought to do was to understand which procedures generate aerosols and therefore require a higher grade of personal protective equipment," said Straube, who also heads the preventive medicine division of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.

"Where there is 80 per cent agreement from a number of different source documents, we are reasonably confident that, yes, the classification of these procedures as aerosol-generating is accurate."

Straube recommended that further research be done on the short list of procedures for which they found no consensus, such as taking throat swabs.

The team of 19 Canadian, British, American and other researchers includes renowned Oxford University primary care expert Trisha Greenhalgh and first author Tanya Jackson, Straube's research associate. They came together to share their expertise at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and have published rapid reviews on the efficacy of respirator masks versus standard surgical masks, eye protection and shoe covers.

"We are providing a summary of the evidence to inform policy-making decisions and guideline development," Straube said.

An aerosol is a suspension of fine solid or liquid particles in air, Straube said. "Larger particles settle in a reasonably short distance, and are referred to as 'droplets' in the infection control context," the paper states. "Smaller particles can travel as aerosols on air currents, remaining in the air for longer and distributing over a wide area."

Straube said the goal is to prevent health-care workers from becoming infected with COVID-19, both to protect them from severe disease as individuals and to maintain staffing levels in health-care systems during the pandemic.

Health-care workers who perform aerosol-generating procedures should wear filtering facepiece respirators, known as N-95 masks in North America, Straube said, along with other personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, gowns and eye protection.

"PPE is typically displayed at the bottom rung of the hierarchy of hazard controls," Straube said.

"Elimination of the hazard or substitution as well as engineering and administrative approaches to hazard control should also be considered."

KINGSTON, R.I. - October 13, 2020 - A survey of maritime infrastructure engineers by University of Rhode Island researchers found that the rising sea level is often not factored into designs of ports, breakwaters, fishing piers and other coastal infrastructure.

"If we're making decisions about infrastructure today and expect it to be serviceable for the next 50 to 75 years, we should be thinking about what the environmental conditions will be like towards the end of the infrastructure's life," said Austin Becker, URI associate professor of marine affairs, who studies how ports are preparing for climate change. "And we know that things are going to be very different along our coasts in the coming years."

In 2019, Becker and graduate student Benjamin Sweeney surveyed 85 engineers at consulting firms, port authorities and government agencies with experience working on port infrastructure projects in the United States. They found that 64% do not have a policy or planning document to guide how to incorporate sea level change into their designs.

"The challenge they face is that they aren't receiving concrete, consistent guidance for what they should be doing to integrate sea level rise projections into their work," Becker said. "They need guidance, they want guidance, they don't want to have to go on the whims of their clients, who may not have expertise in this area. They also don't want to have to weigh potentially conflicting guidance from local, state or federal agencies."

Becker said that without guidance, port engineers are more likely to disregard sea level change projections entirely.

"Formal policies or documents can lend credibility and provide the basis for recommendations," wrote Becker and Sweeney in a research paper in the Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering. "Conversely, engineers without the documented support from their organization may be less willing to take the personal and professional risk that comes with making subjective decisions."

Of the 29% of survey respondents that do have formal guidance from a sea level rise planning document, only 9% said they use it for all of their projects.

"That isn't surprising, but it's worrisome," said Becker, a visiting fellow at the U.S. Naval War College. "It's not surprising because of the times we live in; there's so much conflicting information out there about climate change. But scientists understand that sea levels are actually rising and that there will be ramifications, and it's going to make things much more expensive to not factor those changes into designs now."

The survey also examined the factors that influenced whether engineers incorporate sea level rise into their designs. It found that 54% of respondents said they often or always factor in rising sea levels because it is required by their client, and 46% indicated they do so because it is a regulatory requirement.

More than half of the respondents also said that "a lack of design standards" was the chief barrier to incorporating sea level rise into their infrastructure projects. Other answers included a lack of funding, the client doesn't want sea level rise incorporated, and concerns over the uncertainty of sea level rise projections.

"Regulatory standards and codes remove the burden on engineers to make subjective sea level rise decisions," Becker and Sweeney wrote. "This barrier also renders many of the other barriers less relevant."

Based on the results of the survey, Becker and Sweeney recommend that engineers undertake a life cycle cost analysis that includes sea level rise projections for each project. This methodology can be used to support decision making for climate change adaptation alternatives.

They also suggest that the engineering community collaborate with port authorities and regulatory bodies to create design standards to improve the resilience of port infrastructure.

"Engineers need something they can rely on so they can go to their clients and say, 'this is what we need to follow, and it's not optional,'" Becker said. "The guidance also has to be flexible enough so it can be adapted over time as conditions change, but it gives them something they can hang their hat on today."

A new study suggests that the status of award nominees combined with the level of social connection that they have with members of a judging panel can work both ways towards determining how successful they are - depending on whether or not they are judged publicly or privately.

Professor Simone Ferriani, Professor at the Business School (formerly Cass) and University of Bologna, Professor Gino Cattani from NYU Stern, Professor Erik Aadland from BI Norwegian Business School and Denise Falchetti, Postdoctoral Associate at Boston University evaluated results from eight years of The Silver Tag Awards - Norway's most prestigious monthly digital advertising industry awards - as well as interviews with members of awarding panels to determine factors that ultimately influence success in different settings.

The researchers uncovered three key variables that have significant effects on success:

Status - the extent to which award candidates are held in high regard in the industry

Social connection - the extent to which jury members or decision-makers and award candidates have worked together in the past

Publicity of criteria - the extent to which single jurors' choices are public and open to scrutiny from others in the industry or private and invisible to others

The study indicated that high status and close social proximity to members of a judging panel only significantly impact an individual's chances of winning if deliberations are held in private, and can even have a negative effect in publicly-scrutinised panels for fear of accusations of favouritism. In other words, bias towards certain award entries and nominees is only truly prevalent in settings where judges are not required to explain their decisions.

The authors explained how the study's findings have further-reaching consequences for equality and transparency in public life. Professor Ferriani said:

"Understanding how award allocations may change with the degree of scrutiny to which they are subjected should encourage accountability and transparency in a wider spectrum of decision-making.

"High-status individuals are often assumed to be more competent, more powerful and more frequently attended to.

"Existing evidence would therefore suggest that they are granted more recognition than their lower-status counterparts, but our findings show that this status can work against these individuals as well as for them."

Professor Cattani said:

"The results of our study have implications for many peer-based evaluative settings, including the distribution of prizes, awarding of contracts, approving competitive research and development projects, allocating scientific funding and appointing senior roles - to name a few.

"To avoid favouritism and preferential treatment from creeping into the evaluative process, companies and decision-makers need to design more transparent and fair procedures, such as the creation of an evaluative committee, to mitigate such biases."

Differences in the microstructure of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a region in the brain that plays an important role in processing food and other reward stimuli, predict increases in indicators of obesity in children, according to a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and nine other institutes, all part of the National Institutes of Health. The paper, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is based on data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. The ABCD Study will follow nearly 12,000 children through early adulthood to assess factors that influence individual brain development and other health outcomes.

Findings from this study provide the first evidence of microstructural brain differences that are linked to waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) in children. These microstructural differences in cell density could be indicative of inflammatory processes triggered by a diet rich in high fat foods.

"We know that childhood obesity is a key predictor of adult obesity and other poor health outcomes later in life," said Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of NIDA. "These results extend previous animal studies to reveal what may prove to be a vicious cycle in which diet-related inflammation in brain striatal regions promotes further unhealthy eating behaviors and weight gain."

Evidence from past human imaging studies has demonstrated the relationship between the NAcc and unhealthy eating behavior in adults. In this study, the researchers leveraged new diffusion MRI imaging techniques to examine the cellular structure of areas that comprise the striatal reward pathway in the brain to investigate disproportionate weight gain in youth.

This study included data from 5,366 ABCD Study participants, ages 9- to 10-years-old at baseline, of whom 2,133 returned for a one-year follow-up visit. The mean waist circumference of the participants, used here as a measure of body fat, increased an average of 2.76 centimeters per participant from the baseline through the one-year follow-up. The researchers used a noninvasive MRI technique to show that an alleged marker of cellular density in the NAcc reflected differences in waist circumference at baseline and predicted increased waist circumference at one-year follow-up.

Because the ABCD Study is longitudinal, it will allow to assess if this association holds or changes over the course of adolescent development, and what factors may influence this trajectory.

Obesity in the United States affects approximately 35% of children and adolescents and is associated with negative health consequences, mentally and physically, as well as higher mortality rates. Children who are obese have more than a fivefold likelihood of becoming obese as adults. Predictive models of weight gain in youth, coupled with knowledge about factors that could impact this trajectory, would benefit public health and individual wellbeing.

NASA's Terra satellite obtained visible imagery as Tropical Storm Delta made landfall in Louisiana and moved northeastward soaking the U.S. southeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

NASA Satellite View: Delta's Organization

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Delta on Oct. 11 at 1:30 p.m. EDT. The storm still appeared circular in imagery. At the time, it was centered over northern Alabama. At the time Terra passed overhead, Delta had weakened to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds near 25 mph (35 kph).

Visible imagery from NASA's Terra satellite captured from Oct. 9 to Oct. 12 were compiled into an animation. The animation showed the landfall and movement of Tropical Storm Delta. Delta dissipated over the southeastern U.S. and its remnants moved into the Atlantic states. The animation was created using NASA's Worldview product at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Delta's Landfall on Oct. 9

National Weather Service Doppler radar imagery, Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft data, and surface observations indicated on Oct. 9 that Delta made landfall near Creole, Louisiana, around 7 p.m. EDT with estimated maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph).  Delta was a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Delta's Final Advisory

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued the final advisory on Delta at 11 p.m. EDT on Oct. 11 (Oct. 12 at 0300 UTC). At that time, the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Delta was located near latitude 34.5 degrees north and longitude 84.1 degrees west. It was just 60 miles (95 km) north-northeast of Atlanta, Georgia. The post-tropical cyclone was moving toward the east near 15 mph. Maximum sustained winds were near 15 mph (30 kph) with higher gusts.

NHC said, "Some further weakening is possible tonight as a new surface low develops in the Carolinas, and Delta's surface low is expected to be absorbed by this new low pressure area on Monday, Oct. 12."

About NASA's Worldview and Terra Satellite

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks "right now."

NASA's Terra satellite is one in a fleet of NASA satellites that provide data for hurricane research.

Tropical cyclones/hurricanes are the most powerful weather events on Earth. NASA's expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as hurricane weather forecasting.

For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

By Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Ankush Gosain, MD, PhD, of Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center has focused his research on determining the mechanisms underlying abnormal development of the enteric nervous system in Hirschsprung disease. Gosain recently published a new study in The FASEB Journal delineating interactions between migrating neural crest cells and the extracellular matrix in a model of Hirschsprung disease using a variety of in vitro and in vivo approaches.

Neurons in the wall of the gastrointestinal tract comprise the enteric nervous system, which controls gut motility, digestion, secretion and absorption. During development, neural crest cells, the precursors of neurons in the enteric nervous system, migrate throughout the digestive tract to provide innervation. However, in Hirschsprung disease, neural crest cells fail to migrate into the distal colon, resulting in a lack of innervation in this region. This lack of innervation is a common cause of neonatal bowel obstruction, which can progress to bowel distension, Hirschsprung-associated enterocolitis and death.

Gosain and colleagues specifically focused on abnormalities in laminin expression as laminin is a potential regulator of interactions between migrating neural crest cells and the extracellular matrix in the developing enteric nervous system. The investigators used a mouse model of Hirschsprung disease, the endothelin receptor B knockout mouse, to tease out specific changes in laminin expression.

In the knockout mice, the gene encoding laminin β1 was upregulated more than two fold. By contrast, the receptor for laminin β1, LAMR, showed decreased expression in samples from knockout mice and human patients with Hirschsprung disease. Application of exogenous laminin-111 suppressed NCC migration in an organ culture model, whereas YIGSR, a laminin β1 analog, promoted NCC migration. YIGSR also upregulated expression of LAMR and enhanced NCC migration in midgut slice culture. When LAMR expression was silenced, the beneficial effect of YIGSR was abolished. Furthermore, YIGSR application resulted in colonization of the distal colon in 80% of ex vivo organ cultures from endothelin receptor B knockout mice.

These experiments indicate alterations in LAMR contribute to neural crest cell migration failure in enteric nervous system development. The investigators think YIGSR maysselectively enhance neural crest cell migration through LAMR with LAMR bindingsincreasing LAMR expression and preferentially promoting migration. These results addsto the current body of literature showing interactions between neural crest cells and the extracellular matrix are involved in enteric nervous system development with the extracellular matrix representing a potential target for intervention in Hirschsprung disease.

The experience of police violence is associated with mental and emotional trauma distinct from that caused by other kinds of violence, creating a public health crisis for communities most affected.

Simply put, the experience of police violence puts Black, Latino, Indigenous, and sexual minority communities at higher risk of distinct mental health problems, in addition to greater risk of death at the hands of police, according to the paper.

The study is authored by a group of researchers at several universities, including UC Riverside, who have been examining the mental health effects of police violence at the population level for several years.

"It's a public health issue because police violence is not experienced equally in our society but instead has a disproportionate effect on the mental health of racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities," said Bruce Link, a UC Riverside distinguished professor of sociology and public policy. "The point of our paper is to indicate why the experience of police violence is uniquely stressful and therefore particularly impactful."

Psychologists agree that trauma spurs biological or psychological changes that manifest over time as psychiatric symptoms, particularly when the trauma is sexually or physically violent. Research on stressful life events, especially uncontrollable events, has attempted to provide a broader framework for how stress may affect a person's usual activities, goals, and values, but until recently this approach has not been applied to police violence.

Link, along with Jordan DeVylder of Fordham University and Lisa Fedina of the University of Michigan, reviewed numerous studies of the effects of police violence on mental health in a paper called "Impact of police violence on mental health: a theoretical framework," and identified eight factors distinct to police violence in America.

Police violence is state sanctioned

Unlike most other forms of violence, police violence in America is embedded in a history of state-enforced practices that permitted cruel, unusual, and dehumanizing punishment of individuals deemed to be from so-called "dangerous classes," particularly Blacks. Communities of color and LGBTQ communities have been historically subjected to discriminatory laws, such as Jim Crow laws and sodomy laws, which permitted harassment and excessive and fatal force against individuals from these communities.

The police are a pervasive presence

Police are everywhere, especially in low-income communities of color. People who have experienced violent or stressful encounters with police have no way to avoid being around constant reminders of these painful experiences, or the fear of future encounters.

There are limited options for recourse

People who have experienced police violence have few options for redress. They must report incidents to the same police departments that abused them in the first place. Police are authorized to use force in a wide variety of situations and survivors have to prove that the violence was not legitimate. Because they have few options for reporting an incident, for legal recourse, or for advocacy services and referrals to mental health treatment, any mental health symptoms they have may worsen over time.

Police culture deters internal accountability

Violence committed through institutions, rather than interpersonal relationships, is supported by organizational cultures that condone it. Police often maintain a code of silence around violence and therefore often fail to hold each other accountable. This amounts to gaslighting survivors who do report incidents, potentially worsening mental health symptoms.

Police violence alters deeply held beliefs

Many Americans are taught that police protect them and their communities from various dangers and help in emergencies. A single violent encounter can shatter this belief for an individual, but when police violence is the norm, instead of an isolated incident, the community at large loses trust in the police as an institution and, often correctly, comes to regard them as part of the problem.

Racial and economic disparities in exposure

Police violence is disproportionately directed at people of color, especially Blacks and Latinos, potentially leading to diminished feelings of self-worth and value within American society.

Police violence is stigmatizing

Because police are allowed to use force in many situations, survivors of police violence are often blamed for the encounter. Their actions are heavily scrutinized and faulted to justify the officers' actions, especially by members of groups that benefit from the social order policing upholds. Moreover, many people have friends and relatives who work as police officers, making it feel like a betrayal to report incidents of police violence.

Police are typically armed

Unlike police in many countries, American police carry firearms and police departments have become heavily militarized. Police are given broad latitude to determine when and how to deploy force. Every interaction with police holds the possibility of violence, and for communities subjected to routine overpolicing, this threat brings additional challenges for mental health.

The researchers call for a framework to examine the mental health consequences of police violence that takes into account these points. However, implicit in their analysis are solutions for the public health crisis caused by police violence, such as demilitarizing police, holding police accountable when untoward events occur, ending the overpolicing of communities of color, providing better reporting options and support for survivors of police violence, and policies that build mutual trust between police and the communities they are meant to serve.

A team of researchers from the Florida State University College of Medicine has found that an amino acid produced by the brain could play a crucial role in preventing a type of epileptic seizure.

Temporal lobe epileptic seizures are debilitating and can cause lasting damage in patients, including neuronal death and loss of neuron function.

Sanjay Kumar, an associate professor in the College of Medicine's Department of Biomedical Sciences, and his team are paving the way toward finding effective therapies for this disease.

The research team found a mechanism in the brain responsible for triggering epileptic seizures. Their research indicates that an amino acid known as D-serine could work with the mechanism to help prevent epileptic seizures, thereby also preventing the death of neural cells that accompanies them.

The team's findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

The temporal lobe processes sensory information and creates memories, comprehends language and controls emotions. Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common form of epilepsy in adults and is not improved with current anti-epileptic medications.

"A hallmark of TLE is the loss of a vulnerable population of neurons in a particular brain region called the entorhinal area," Kumar said. "We're trying to understand why neurons die in this brain region in the first place. From there, is there anything that we can do to stop these neurons from dying? It's a very fundamental question."

To help further understand TLE pathophysiology, the Kumar lab studies underlying receptors in the brain. Receptors are proteins located in the gaps, or junctions, between two or more communicating neurons. They convert signals between the neurons, aiding in their communication.

Kumar and his team discovered a new type of receptor that they informally named the "FSU receptor" in the entorhinal cortex of the brain. The FSU receptor is a potential target for TLE therapy.

"What's striking about this receptor is that it is highly calcium-permeable, which is what we believe underlies the hyperexcitability and the damage to neurons in this region," Kumar said.

When FSU receptors allow too much calcium to enter neurons, TLE patients experience epileptic seizures as neurons become overstimulated from the influx. The overstimulation, or hyperexcitability, is what causes neurons to die, a process known as excitotoxicity.

The research team also found that the amino acid D-serine blocks these receptors to prevent excess levels of calcium from reaching neurons, thereby preventing seizure activity and neuronal death.

"What's unique about D-serine, unlike any other drugs that are out there, is that D-serine is made in the brain itself, so it's well-tolerated by the brain," Kumar said. "Many medications that deal with treating TLE are not well-tolerated, but given that this is made in the brain, it works very well."

With assistance from Michael Roper's lab in the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the research team found that D-serine levels were depleted in epileptic animals, indicating that TLE patients may not produce D-serine like they should.

"The loss of D-serine essentially removes the brakes on these neurons, making them hyperexcitable," Kumar said. "Then, the calcium comes in and causes excitotoxicity, which is the reason why neurons die. So, if we provide the brakes -- if we provide D-serine -- then you don't get that loss of neurons."

Kumar's research points to neuroinflammation as the cause for diminished D-serine levels in the entorhinal cortex of the brain. D-serine is typically produced by glial cells, but neuroinflammation experienced as part of TLE causes cellular and molecular changes in the brain that can prevent it from being produced.

The next step in exploring D-serine as a viable therapy is investigating potential administration techniques.

"We have to find creative ways to administer D-serine to that particular region of the human brain," Kumar said. "Getting it to that right place is the challenge. We have to look at what effect it has when administered locally to that region of the brain compared to systemically through an IV, for example."

TLE often results from an injury such as a concussion or other traumatic brain injury. When administered to the appropriate region, D-serine has been shown to work in preventing the secondary effects of such an injury.

"A pie-in-the-sky type idea is a hypothetical scenario where you were to have a nebulizer, or have people inhale D-serine, go play football, and if they experience a concussion, no neurons would be lost because the D-serine would provide a sort of cushion just in case there is a traumatic brain injury that can lead to loss of neurons in the temporal lobe," Kumar said.

"There are some very interesting questions to ask and solve," he added. "The important thing is that we've outlined the basic bread-and-butter mechanisms of why D-serine works. What we've established is the discovery of the receptors, discovery of the antagonist for these receptors (D-serine), how it works and how to prevent the emergence of TLE. The mechanisms and pathophysiology are as relevant to the animal model as they are to human beings, and that's where the excitement lies."

URBANA, Ill. - For vegetable growers, weeds can mean lost income from reduced yield and foreign plant matter contaminating the harvest. But for many crops, particularly vegetable legumes, weed management options are very limited.

Cover crops such as cereal rye reduce weed competition in grain soybean, but most vegetable legume growers have yet to adopt the practice due to the potential for reduced germination and yield in thick cover crop residue. However, a new study from the University of Illinois and USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) shows early-terminated rye could be a promising part of an integrated weed management program for some vegetable legumes, including edamame.

"In general, the more cover crop biomass you have, the better the weed suppression. We found a sweet spot in an earlier experiment with edamame when we terminated rye at tillering and then planted into the stubble. The rye provided measurable weed suppression without harming the crop," says Marty Williams, USDA-ARS ecologist and affiliate professor in the Department of Crop Sciences at Illinois. "We wanted to follow that up with yield experiments for edamame, and decided to broaden to some mainstream vegetable legumes including snap bean and lima bean."

Williams and his research team looked at weed density and biomass in bare soil and in plots planted with a rye cover crop terminated at tillering, about a month before vegetable crops were planted. For three growing seasons, the researchers either sprayed weeds with one of the few registered herbicides; hand-pulled weeds in addition to spraying; or left weeds alone to grow. Then they gathered information on weed suppression, crop establishment and yield, as well as soil moisture and nitrogen.

In edamame and snap bean, early-terminated rye reduced weed biomass by 53% and 73%, respectively, compared with bare soil. And, consistent with his earlier studies, Williams found no reductions in edamame establishment or yield. Yet, the results for snap bean and lima bean were not as rosy. Both lost yield when planted in rye residue, and weed density and biomass actually increased for lima bean, compared with bare soil.

"We found the early-terminated rye system worked well in edamame. The rye suppressed weed biomass without impacting the crop." Williams says. "For lima bean, the system failed. For snap bean, there is room for improvement."

He suspects the poor performance in lima and snap bean is related to the crops' weak ability to fix nitrogen in soils depleted of the nutrient by the cover crop. In turn, poor crop growth and canopy development favored the weeds.

"We had a problem with crop establishment in lima bean in the rye stubble," Williams says. "And while snap bean established well, crop growth was hampered by the nitrogen-starved environment in rye stubble - one of the key traits providing weed suppression."

Edamame, like soybean, can grow without applied nitrogen because it benefits from symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Williams' group is currently doing follow-up research to exploit biological nitrogen fixation in snap bean, which would have implications beyond weed management.

Although early-terminated rye worked well in edamame, the cover crop didn't eliminate the need for other weed control measures.

"Early-terminated rye alone is not going to solve all weed problems," Williams says. "It reduced the weed load, but did not eliminate it. Early-terminated rye roughly halved the weeds compared to bare soil. The weed load was further reduced by using an herbicide, too. Hand-weeding, while generally used as a last-resort tactic, was used in this system to entirely eliminate interference with the crop and weed seedbank additions. That combination is the most effective approach."