Culture

NOAA/NASA's Suomi NPP satellite captured two images that tell the story about the smoke coming off the fires in California. One instrument on the provided a visible image of the smoke, while another analyzed the aerosol content within. The images were captured on August 30, 2020.

The first image captured by the Suomi NPP satellite using the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) Corrected Reflectance imagery shows a true-color image (called true-color or natural color because this combination of wavelengths is similar to what the human eye would see) of the wildfires still burning across large swaths of the state. Smoke is pouring off the fires and traveling in two different directions. Some of the smoke is traveling northeast into Nevada and as far east (in this image) as Salt Lake City, Utah, and some is traveling west into the Pacific Ocean.

The second image was captured by Suomi NPP with the OMPS Aerosol Indexer and shows not only the direction of the smoke's travel but the thickness of the aerosol layer that has moved outward from the fires. The OMPS (Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite) Aerosol Indexer on Suomi NPP is an instrument that indicates the presence of ultraviolet-absorbing particles in the air coming from dust (desert) or, as in this case, soot from fires. The Aerosol Indexer found on the image as a scale is unitless, that is, the lowest and highest range do not relate directly to each other. It just indicates whether the scale is low or high. In this image of smoke coming off the California fires, the aerosols found were mostly in the moderate range (yellow) with some higher range areas (red). Higher concentrations can reduce visibility and impact human health. The Aerosol index is also useful for tracking long-range transport of these aerosols that move along jet streams.

NASA's satellite instruments are often the first to detect wildfires burning in remote regions, and the locations of new fires are sent directly to land managers worldwide within hours of the satellite overpass. Together, NASA instruments detect actively burning fires, track the transport of smoke from fires, provide information for fire management, and map the extent of changes to ecosystems, based on the extent and severity of burn scars. NASA has a fleet of Earth-observing instruments, many of which contribute to our understanding of fire in the Earth system. Satellites in orbit around the poles provide observations of the entire planet several times per day, whereas satellites in a geostationary orbit provide coarse-resolution imagery of fires, smoke and clouds every five to 15 minutes. For more information visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/missions/index.html

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." Actively burning fires, detected by thermal bands, are shown as red points. Image Courtesy: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS).

A team of scientists from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center has developed the first drug-like compounds to inhibit a key family of enzymes whose malfunction is associated with several types of cancer, including an aggressive form of childhood leukemia.

The enzymes -- known as the nuclear receptor-binding SET domain (NSD) family of histone methyltransferases -- have long been an attractive drug target, but efforts to attack them have previously proved elusive because the shape of the binding sites in these enzymes makes it difficult for drug-like molecules to bind to it.

The research team -- led by Tomasz Cierpicki, Ph.D., and Jolanta Grembecka, Ph.D. -- used a variety of techniques including X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance to develop first-in-class inhibitors of a key protein known as NSD1, according to findings published in
Nature Chemical Biology.

The team's lead compound -- known as BT5 -- showed promising activity in leukemia cells with the NUP98-NSD1 chromosomal translocation that is seen in a subset of pediatric leukemia patients.

"Our study, which was years in the making, demonstrates that targeting this key enzyme with small-molecule inhibitors is a feasible approach," says Cierpicki, an associate professor of biophysics and pathology at U-M. "These findings will facilitate the development of the next generation of potent and selective inhibitors of these enzymes, which are overexpressed, mutated or undergo translocations in several types of cancer."

Florida State University researchers have developed a new material that could be used to make flexible X-ray detectors that are less harmful to the environment and cost less than existing technologies.

The team led by Biwu Ma, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, created X-ray scintillators that use an environmentally friendly material. Their research was published in the journal Nature Communications .

"Developing low-cost scintillation materials that can be easily manufactured and that perform well remains a great challenge," Ma said. "This work paves the way for exploring new approaches to create these important devices."

Biwu Ma, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
X-ray scintillators convert the radiation of an X-ray into visible light, and they are a common type of X-ray detector. When you visit the dentist or the airport, scintillators are used to take images of your teeth or scan your luggage.

Various materials have been used to make X-ray scintillators, but they can be difficult or expensive to manufacture. Some recent developments use compounds that include lead, but the toxicity of lead could be a concern.

Ma's team found a different solution. They used the compound organic manganese halide to create scintillators that don't use lead or heavy metals. The compound can be used to make a powder that performs very well for imaging and can be combined with a polymer to create a flexible composite that can be used as a scintillator. That flexibility broadens the potential use of this technology.

"Researchers have made scintillators with a variety of compounds, but this technology offers something that combines low cost with high performance and environmentally friendly materials," Ma said. "When you also consider the ability to make flexible scintillators, it's a promising avenue to explore."

Ma recently received a GAP Commercialization Investment Program grant from the FSU Office of the Vice President for Research to develop this technology. The grants help faculty members turn their research into possible commercial products.

BOSTON- A recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine, led by researchers Todd Allen, PhD, a professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and group leader at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, and Jim Riley, PhD, a professor of Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, describes a new Dual CAR T cell immunotherapy that can help fight HIV infection. The paper's first authors are Colby Maldini, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and Daniel Claiborne, PhD, a research fellow at the Ragon Institute.

"This study highlights how relatively straightforward alterations to the way T cells are engineered can lead to dramatic changes in their potency and durability," Riley said. "This finding has significant implications for using engineered T cells to fight both HIV and cancer."

The global HIV epidemic impacts more than 35 million people around the world. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a daily treatment that can control, but not cure, HIV infection. However, access and lifelong adherence to a daily regimen is a significant barrier for many people living with HIV. A major hurdle to HIV cure is the viral reservoir, copies of HIV hidden away in the genome of infected cells. If ART treatment is stopped, the virus is able to rapidly make new copies of itself, ultimately leading to the development of AIDS.

CAR T cells are a powerful immunotherapy, currently used in cancer treatments, in which a patient's own immune T cells are engineered to express Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs). These CARs re-program the T cells to recognize and eliminate specific diseased or infected cells, such as cancer cells or, potentially, HIV-infected cells.

Allen's and Riley's research groups worked together to design a new HIV-specific CAR T cell. They needed to design a CAR T cell that would be able to target and quickly eliminate HIV-infected cells, survive and reproduce once in the body, and resist infection by HIV itself, since HIV's primary target is these very same T cells.

"By using a stepwise approach to solve each issue as it arose, we developed protected Dual CAR T cells, which provided a strong, long-lasting response against HIV-infection while being resistant to the virus itself," Allen said.

This Dual CAR T cell, a new type of CAR T cell, was made by engineering two CARs into a single T cell. Each CAR had a CD4 protein that allowed it to target HIV-infected cells and a costimulatory domain, which signaled the CAR T cell to increase its immune functions. The first CAR contained the 4-1BB co-stimulatory domain, which stimulates cell proliferation and persistence, while the second has the CD28 co-stimulatory domain, which increases its ability to kill infected cells.

Since HIV frequently infects T cells, they also added in a protein called C34-CXCR4, developed in the lab of James Hoxie, MD, a professor of Hematology-Oncology at Penn. C34-CXCR4 prevents HIV from attaching to and then infecting the cell. The final CAR T cell was long-lived, replicated in response to HIV infection, killed infected cells effectively, and was partially resistant to HIV infection.

When the protected Dual CAR T cells were given to HIV-infected mice, the team saw slower HIV replication and fewer HIV infected cells than in untreated animals. They also saw reduced amounts of virus and preservation of CD4+ T cells, HIV's preferred target, in the blood of these animals. In addition, when they combined Dual CAR T cells with ART in HIV-infected mice, the virus was suppressed faster, which led to a smaller viral reservoir than in mice who were only treated with ART.

"The ability of these protected Dual CAR T cells to reduce the HIV burden in a variety of tissues and cell types, including long-lived memory CD4+ T cells, we believe supports the approach of using CAR T cell therapy as a new tool to target the HIV reservoir towards a functional cure for HIV," said Allen.

 A consortium of researchers funded by Brazil’s National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and FAPESP has sequenced the genome of Frieseomelitta varia, a native stingless bee (common name: marmelada). The feat extends scientists’ understanding of the evolution of stingless bees (Meliponini) and paves the way for the breeding of commercially useful species.

The researchers are affiliated with six Brazilian universities. The findings are published in BMC Genomics in a paper coauthored by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo State University (UNESP), the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), the Federal University of Alfenas (UFAL), the Federal University of Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys (UFVJM), and the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR).

“We chose a species to test our ability to sequence a whole genome in a pilot project. F. varia is an emblematic species because its workers are completely sterile. This is a trait that distinguishes it from the vast majority of species in the tribe Meliponini,” said Klaus Hartmann Hartfelder, a professor in the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP) and corresponding author of the paper.

The study was part of a project supported by FAPESP. The principal investigator for the project was Zilá Luz Paulino Simões, a professor in the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto School of Philosophy, Science and Letters (FFCLRP-USP) and a coauthor of the paper. The sequencing was performed at the Central Laboratory for High-Performance Technologies in Life Sciences (LaCTAD) at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), also with FAPESP’s support.

The sequencing revealed a large number of repeated noncoding long RNAs, which have a regulatory function. In humans, for example, these RNAs are associated with processes that regulate development of the central nervous system, among others. In F. varia, the researchers believe that these sequences may be linked to the lack of ovaries that makes the workers sterile. The queen is highly fertile, of course.

“As in the vast majority of social insects, the eggs are all the same. Any egg can develop into a worker or queen. During the larval stage, however, some molecular signaling pathways diverge so that the bees differentiate into two types of individuals, one fertile queen and many infertile workers,” Hartfelder said. “In the Western honeybee Apis mellifera, this is engineered by giving the queen different food in the larval stage, but in stingless bees, it seems to be more a matter of the amount of food.”

Evolutionary advantage

The group also found a high degree of conservation (synteny) in a block of genes described in A. mellifera related to pollen hoarding by colonies. This is typical of highly social species, whereas others collect only enough pollen to feed their larvae.

“The finding surprised us, given that A. mellifera and stingless bees diverged into different lineages more than 70 million years ago. That’s a long time for a species to conserve a trait as it evolves,” Hartfelder said. “We want to see if the same is true of other bees and if it happened by chance or afforded an evolutionary advantage.”

Another interesting finding was the difference between the stingless bee species studied and other bees in terms of the arrangement of genes in the mitochondrial genome, which was also sequenced as part of the study. The alteration of the cellular energy factory’s gene order may have evolutionary implications worthy of being studied in greater depth in the future.

Pollination of food crops

The nests built by colonies of F. varia are coated on the outside with plant resin that acts as a repellent to keep away ants and other potential invaders. The species produces little honey but is docile and sufficiently widely distributed, especially in the southeast of Brazil, to be used as a pollinator of high-added-value food crops grown in hothouses. The Western honey bee has not adapted well to indoor environments.

The discoveries regarding the genome of F. varia will also help guide the search for desirable traits in other species of commercial interest, such as Tetragonisca angustula (common name: jataí).

In the study, the group used the experience acquired by international consortia in sequencing bee genomes. In 2006, the researchers took part in the sequencing of A. mellifera’s genome. The result was published in Nature.

In 2015, they participated in a study, reported in Science, that sequenced ten bee genomes, including that of Melipona quadrifasciata, the first Brazilian stingless bee genome ever sequenced. In the same year, they participated in the sequencing of the genomes of two bumblebees (Bombini), which belong to the same lineage as honeybees (Apini) and stingless bees.

The next step in the research will entail a more detailed study of some regions of F. varia’s genome that drew attention. In addition, thanks to the knowledge gleaned from previous studies, the group have already selected five other species whose genomes will be sequenced.

August 31, 2020-- A new research letter published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society examines whether asthma is a significant risk factor for developing COVID-19 that is severe enough to warrant hospitalization and intubation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, individuals with asthma are at higher risk for hospitalization and other severe effects from COVID-19, similar to the elevated risk from such health conditions as obesity, hypertension and diabetes.

In "Asthma in COVID-19 Hospitalizations: An Overestimated Risk Factor?," Fernando Holguin, MD, MPH, and co-authors compared the prevalence of asthma among patients hospitalized for COVID-19, as reported in 15 peer-reviewed studies, with that of the corresponding population's asthma prevalence. They also correlated the study's asthma prevalence with the four-year average asthma prevalence in influenza hospitalizations in the United States. In addition, they analyzed the medical records of 436 COVID-19 patients admitted to the University of Colorado Hospital to evaluate the likelihood that patients with asthma would be intubated more often than patients without asthma.

"The CDC places people with asthma at higher risk for COVID-related hospitalization," said Dr. Holguin, professor, Asthma Clinical & Research Program, Pulmonary Division, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

"However, many international studies show low numbers of asthmatics among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. These findings challenge the assumption about asthma as a risk factor."

The researchers performed a focused review of English-language scientific literature in order to identify studies reporting asthma prevalence among patients hospitalized for COVID-19 infection. Three independent reviewers agreed on 15 studies to include in the analysis. Using local data from hospitalized COVID-19 patients, they performed a statistical analysis to determine the relationship between asthma status and intubation, once they took into account patients' age, gender and body mass index (BMI).

The authors stated, "We found that the proportion of asthmatics among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is relatively similar to that of each study site's population asthma prevalence. This finding is in stark contrast to influenza, in which asthmatics make up more than 20 percent of those hospitalized in the United States."

"Using data from our hospital, we also observed that among COVID-19 patients, those with asthma, which had a 12 percent prevalence rate, did not seem to be more likely to be intubated than non-asthmatics," they added.
Dr. Holguin and colleagues theorize that the corticosteroid inhalers many people with asthma use make it more difficult for coronaviruses to enter their airways.

Specifically, these individuals may have lower levels of expression of ACE2, a protein that binds to SARS-CoV-2, the virus caused by COVID-19. People with asthma that is related to allergies may also have lower expression of ACE2, whether or not they use corticosteroids.

"The contribution of ACE2 receptor expression levels to COVID-19 susceptibility is still unclear, however, it should certainly be further investigated," said Dr. Holguin.
Dr. Holguin adds that the asthma-COVID-intubation risk relationship should be studied further.

Where you live can increase your risk for experiencing delirium after surgery. So said a study that showed older adults who live in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods are two times more likely to experience delirium after surgery than their counterparts from more affluent communities. These findings by researchers from the Aging Brain Center in the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research (Marcus Institute) at Hebrew SeniorLife were published today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Franchesca Arias, Ph.D., Assistant Scientist, and Sharon K. Inouye, M.D., Director of the Aging Brain Center, were lead and senior authors respectively on the study.

Delirium is a clinical syndrome characterized by acute decline in cognition, which can present as inattention, disorientation, lethargy or agitation, and perceptual disturbance. Delirium among older hospitalized patients can lead to poor outcomes, including prolonged hospital stays, deep psychological stress for patients and their families, functional decline, and in worst cases, death. To date, however, the association between delirium and community-based factors that can influence health outcomes, such as resources, health care access, and local economic conditions, has not been well-examined.

The study enrolled a prospective observational cohort of 560 patients aged 70+ undergoing major non-cardiac surgery between June 2010 and August 2013 at two academic medical centers in Boston. The research team used the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) to characterize participant's neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage.

ADI uses 17 United States Census indicators of poverty, education, employment, and physical environment to characterize the socioeconomic disadvantage of a census block group. This study found that neighborhood characteristics, such as poverty, lack of infrastructure, and density contributed to the two-fold increase in the number of patients who developed delirium after surgery. When compared with other social and economic risk factors for diminished health outcomes in older adults, including income and level of education, neighborhood characteristics emerged as the strongest predictor of delirium incidence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the consequences of economic health care disparities in the U.S., and this study is yet another example of how social, economic, and environmental marginalization impacts the health of those who live in disadvantage communities.

"Our hope is that by building awareness of barriers to care present in disadvantaged neighborhoods, clinical teams will tailor support and treatment recommendations based on the resources available within a patient's community," said Dr. Inouye.

"Patients with higher ADI percentiles may benefit from having additional support and periodic check-ins with treatment teams prior to surgery and/or participating in rehabilitation programs postoperatively," said Dr. Arias.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - People enjoy witnessing extraordinary individuals - from athletes to CEOs - extend long runs of dominance in their fields, a new study suggests. But they aren't as interested in seeing similar streaks of success by teams or groups.

"Everyone wants Usain Bolt to win another gold medal for sprinting. Not so many people want to see the New England Patriots win another Super Bowl," said Jesse Walker, lead author of the study.

The reason? "Extraordinary success by individuals inspires awe in people in a way that team success does not," said Walker, an assistant professor of marketing at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

"When we see Usain Bolt win three gold medals in a row, it expands what we thought was the limit of human potential. Team winning streaks don't change as much what we think humans can achieve," he said.

"People appear to be more moved by individual success than group success and so they're more interested in seeing individual success continue."

Walker and Thomas Gilovich, professor of psychology at Cornell University, did nine studies involving 2,625 Americans. Their results appear in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In one study, they examined people's views on the success of Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who won the 100-meter dash in the last three Olympics. Bolt was also a member of a team that won the gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay at those same Olympic games.

Many more people reported they would prefer to see Bolt win the gold medal in the individual event in the next Olympics than in the relay event, results showed.

But the preference for seeing individual streaks continue doesn't just apply to famous athletes in familiar sports. In one study, participants were told about an obscure Italian sport called Calcio Fiorentino.

Participants who were told about an individual version of the sport - and read about a fictional superstar who had won the championship six times in a row - were more likely to say they wanted him to win a seventh time, compared to those who read about a team that had won the championship six times in a row.

And it is not just sports superstars that inspire people to want to cheer on winning streaks.

Studies showed people supported individual runs of dominance over team dominance in the British Quizzing Championship and in the best closure rates on homicide cases in U.S. police departments.

This preference has implications in the business world, as well.

In one study, participants read about the real electronic components manufacturer AVnet, one of the 350 largest companies in America.

Half the participants were told that a (fictional) CEO of the company had guided the company for the last couple of decades, making a series of shrewd and successful decisions that led to AVnet's success. The other half were told a group of executives had guided the company, making the same shrewd decisions.

Participants who read that Avnet's success could be attributed to its CEO thought the company should command a greater share of the market than did the participants who were told the company's success was tied to a group of executives.

"This could be one of the reasons why customers connect personally with companies like Apple that are identified with their founders and CEOs," Walker said.

"Successful companies like IBM or Samsung that are more faceless have a harder time connecting with people on such a personal level and inspiring people to root for their continued success."

Other studies looked at why people feel differently about individual versus team winning streaks.

Results showed that people attributed individual streaks of success to the people themselves, while team success was attributed to situational factors.

"When an individual is on a streak of success, it is a lot easier to pinpoint who is responsible - they own their success. With a group or team, there are so many people involved and so many moving parts that it is less clear. There could be any number of factors that account for a group's success," Walker said.

"We found that people view individual streaks as attributable directly to the talents or efforts of the individuals involved, which inspired feelings of awe that they presumably enjoy and would like to continue."

Natural wetlands continue to disappear due to city and human development and are being replaced with manmade swales, ponds and canals. This degradation and replacement of natural wetlands suggest that urban areas may be imperative to wetland species, especially when natural conditions are unpredictable. Wetland birds are often seen in and around cities; however, they have been largely ignored in urban wildlife studies. In their historic ranges, wetland birds inhabit dynamic marshes, traveling long distances to locate food. Yet, does their ability to forage for food in natural environments translate to their ability to do so in an urban environment?

Using the Wood Stork (Mycteria americana), a large American wading bird found throughout southeastern swamps and wetlands, scientists from Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science compared city storks with natural wetland storks to gauge their success in urban environments based on their diet and food opportunities.

Results of the study, published in Scientific Reports, provide evidence and a systematic understanding of how a wetland species persists and even thrives in an urban environment, by switching to human foods like chicken wings and hot dogs when natural marshes are in bad shape.

For the study, researchers sampled 160 nests during the 2015-2017 nesting seasons. Of the 160 sampled nests, 106 nests were in three urban colonies and 54 nests were in two natural wetland colonies in South Florida where a vast freshwater wetland, the Everglades, is located adjacent to a large urban area. They compared urban and natural wetland storks' productivity, body condition, reproductive performance, breadth of diet, and tested whether stork diets changed during suboptimal natural wetland conditions.

They found that storks were able to exploit urban areas when natural food resources were scarce. This ability to switch between habitats and thus resources allowed for better reproductive performance during periods of low natural food availability. Furthermore, body condition did not differ significantly between urban and natural wetland nesting birds during either optimal or suboptimal conditions, suggesting that supplemental environmental resources do not negatively impact body condition. These findings indicate that urban areas can buffer a species from the unpredictability of natural food resources.

"During suboptimal conditions, urban birds expanded their diets to include more prey types, including anthropogenic food, suggesting that urban birds were able to exploit urban areas during low natural wetland prey availability," said Betsy A. Evans, Ph.D., a natural resources specialist with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and lead author, who conducted the study as a graduate student in FAU's Department of Biological Sciences with co-author Dale E. Gawlik, Ph.D., a professor in biology and FAU's Environmental Science Program. "The ability of urban birds to switch their diet to include different prey types such as human-provided food that included chicken wings and hot dogs likely allowed them to produce more chicks during poor natural wetland prey availability conditions than their non-urban counterparts."

Evans and Gawlik discovered that not only were urban storks able to access human-provided food such as trash, but they also increased the proportion of amphibians such as frogs in their diet when natural wetland conditions were suboptimal. Larval frogs (tadpoles) occur in a wide range of wetland types in the study region; however, they were 10 times more abundant in roadside created wetlands such as swales, ponds and canals than in natural wetlands during the time-period of this study. This suggests that storks may also have been accessing created wetlands along roadways during suboptimal natural wetland conditions.

"Behavioral flexibility and the ability to travel long distances and exploit resources in dynamic systems may give wetland birds an ecological advantage in urban environments," said Gawlik. "Our findings demonstrated that urban storks expanded their diets during times of low natural wetland prey availability to include resources commonly found in urban areas, partially dampening the natural wetland food limitation on wading bird populations. Natural wetland birds, however, paid a greater reproductive penalty during suboptimal conditions than their urban counterparts. Furthermore, this ability to switch diets between resource pulses may reduce population fluctuations and lower the risk of extinction."

The study demonstrates that urban environments may support biodiversity in a variety of ways. To mitigate potential threats from urbanization it will be important to understand how species exploit new resources as well as how they are affected by loss of resources from human activities.

For the study, the researchers visited two natural wetland colonies and three urban colonies one to two times per week during the 2015-2017 breeding seasons (approximately March through June). They selected these study colonies based on their range of hydrological conditions and history of repeated use by nesting storks. They describe colony landscape type broadly as either "urban" or "natural wetland" with natural wetland colonies occurring within Everglades National Park and urban colonies occurring within the urban east coast corridor of South Florida. At each colony location, they marked individual nests from which they collected productivity, body condition, and diet information.

New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine is shedding light on the development of the brain's immune defenses - and how those defenses respond to strokes that strike one in 4,000 babies in the first month of life.

The brain's frontline defenders are immune cells known as microglia. These cells make up 10%-15% of all cells found in the brain. But their origins have been hotly debated. UVA's Chia-Yi "Alex" Kuan, MD, PhD, has discovered that many were previously white blood cells known as monocytes. During brain development - and in response to infant strokes - the monocytes undergo an amazing conversion into troops to defend the brain.

"Most people believe that blood monocytes only come into the brain after injury to provoke damage, and then they either die or leave the brain. Some even say monocytes and microglia live in parallel universes," said Kuan, of UVA's Department of Neuroscience and its Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG). "But our results showed that many microglial cells actually come from the blood monocytes, both in normal development and after newborn brain injury."

The Brain's Immune Defenders

The finding is the latest from UVA's Department of Neuroscience and BIG center, which have in recent years revolutionized our understanding of the brain's relationship with the immune system. To explore the origins of the brain's immune defenses, Kuan and his colleagues developed an innovative new lab model that should greatly benefit future research. That model allowed his team to trace the origins of microglia in the brains of lab mice.

The researchers found that many monocytes transform into microglia over the course of brain development. This was a surprise - prior to UVA's discovery, scientists widely believed that microglia do not come from the blood monocytes. But Kuan's team used a process called "fate mapping" to reveal the microglia's secret origins.

In addition, Kuan's team found that monocytes rush to the rescue during neonatal stroke. Neonatal strokes are interruptions of blood flow to the baby's brain in the first 28 days after birth. Such strokes have a wide variety of causes, from blood clots to developmental abnormalities. Common symptoms include seizures and extreme sleepiness, though in some cases there are no symptoms until much later in life, when children can develop speech difficulties and balance problems.

In such strokes, Kuan found, there is an initial rush of monocytes, which then gradually become more like microglia. This lasts at least 62 days after the brain injury. Some of these monocytes are ultimately reprogrammed to join the brain's defense forces, the UVA researchers determined.

"But do monocyte-descended microglia continue to impair brain development in infants that suffered from newborn stroke, leading to neurological deficits? Can we target these disguised monocytes to improve the outcomes of newborn brain injury?" said researcher Hong-Ru Chen, PhD, the first author of the new study. "These are fascinating questions that beg for more research."

"Food systems have the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability; however, they are currently threatening both." This sentence, the opening statement of the EAT-Lancet Report published last year, reflects a growing consensus among global experts on food, nutrition and the environment: Our food system is broken and we need to fix it, fast.

To do so, the EAT-Lancet authors propose a "universal healthy reference diet" that is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts; and low on red meat, sugar, and highly processed foods. Undertaken at a global scale, this diet would be both good for the planet and the 10 billion people predicted to live on it by 2050.

The good news is this massive food systems transformation is possible.

The bad news is that putting it into action will require an unprecedented level of global cooperation.

Operationalizing the EAT-Lancet diet will require research and bold action on at least five broad themes: economics, politics, cultural norms, equity and governance, according to a group of authors that includes members of the EAT-Lancet commission.

Their analysis was published in Nature Food in August and was led by Christophe Béné of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. The article will be open-access until early September.

"If we really want to enact this change we need to look beyond the technological advances that will contribute to food system transformation," said Béné. "There is a whole series of tricky and challenging changes that come along with it."

In outlining the five priorities, the authors not only point to knowledge gaps but also emphasize real-world actions, some of which are already happening, that will be integral to systemic change.

"To fully realize the recommendations laid out in the EAT Lancet report, policymakers will need to prioritize food systems as a top development agenda. Researchers have an important role in providing the evidence of what works and potential trade-offs to policymakers so they can adapt and prioritize to their own local context," said Jessica Fanzo, Professor at Johns Hopkins University, EAT-Lancet co-author and the Lead of the 2017 High Level Panel of Experts Report on Nutrition and Food System.

Co-authors included Lawrence Haddad, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and recipient of the 2018 World Food Prize.

Economics

EAT-Lancet's reference diet works for people with access to, the money to buy, and the time to prepare healthier meals. But an estimated 1.6 billion people today do not have the money needed for a healthier diet, according to one study.

The costs of the transformation are unknown: changing land use and food production practices, and reducing food waste (which makes up about 30 percent of all food produced), and research is needed to estimate these costs.

For poor consumers, an already productive strategy has been the provision of discounts for healthy foods, perhaps rerouting production subsidies to the demand side of the economy. Land tenure rights, which incentivize productivity and are critical to conservation goals, could be guided by international technical guides.

Policy

The "global syndemic" of obesity, undernutrition and other health risks caused by poor diets - which together are the leading cause of poor health globally - require a thorough shakeup of the food system's status quo. This will require a complex combination of regulation and incentives to guide industrial food production toward healthier food products.

Often overlooked players in the food system, such as the world's 500 million smallholders, can contribute if there is scaled-up support to produce and consume a greater variety of healthy food.

More public research and development funding should be invested in non-staple, nutritious foods that can benefit small producers, the authors argue.

Other trends that must continue include increased public sentiment in favor of buying local and holding multinational food producers accountable for their role in unhealthy diets.

"The difficulties in implementing the required food transformations may therefore not be so much about the technicalities of the change, as they may be about the realpolitik of that change," the authors write.

Cultural norms

Consumers will be a key driver of the food system transformation. But increased wealth in middle-income countries is already driving transformation in the wrong direction - toward higher meat consumption and away from traditional, healthier foods that are deemed "foods of the poor."

"Unhealthy norms emerge all the time, as foods high in fat, sugar and salt become more widely available and marketed at lower prices throughout the world," write the authors. "Guiding cultural norms towards sustainability may also be challenging, more so because of the infinite diversity of diets from place to place, and the weak or incomplete evidence base on which to encourage these changes."

Equity

A 50 percent reduction in global red meat consumption is core to the EAT-Lancet diet. Such a dramatic shift would improve health and help conserve land that would be otherwise cleared for meat production.

But rural poor in many parts of the world would see their diets improved by consuming more animal-sourced protein, showing that any policies related to meat consumption need to be adapted to local contexts. Poorly nourished women and young children in low-income countries should increase their meat consumption, according to numerous studies.

"Beyond this specific example, the food transformation debate also needs to consider issues of social justice while averting promoting the message that changes involve only high-income countries," write the authors.

Women tend to represent a higher proportion of food system workers. They need additional protections, as do migrant laborers who are vital to harvest seasons worldwide. Child labor and slavery are not uncommon in the seafood industry.

Governance

Finally, the paper says that building the capacities of societies and decision-makers to navigate these different challenges may not be easy but it will be necessary. Grabbing the attention of governments that already need to focus on numerous, often competing priorities - including poverty, migration, security, natural disasters and pandemics - will not be easy.

"There is an urgent need to equip decision-makers at all levels with knowledge and skills to operate in this space," writes Béné.

The authors conclude: "The EAT-Lancet report did an excellent job of waking the world up to the interlinked issues of health and environment and showed that diets are the common denominator. But, at the crux of the great food transformation is the critical issue of science-policy interactions."

Osaka, Japan - As countries around the world race to develop a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, researchers are working to understand exactly how it causes the myriad of symptoms that seem to linger long after active viral infection. In a study published in scientific journal PNAS, researchers led by Osaka University identified an effective treatment for the deadly over-activation of the inflammatory response seen in many severe COVID-19 patients.

Cytokines are a group of small proteins that can either enhance or inhibit our body's immune response to infection, trauma, and diseases such as cancer. One of their main roles is to stimulate inflammation, which initiates the healing process. The problem is, overstimulation of the inflammatory response has an array of harmful complications, ranging from asthma to severe autoimmune diseases. One such complication, called cytokine release syndrome (CRS), is seen in patients suffering a hyperimmune response to microbial infection or trauma and can lead to multiple organ failure and even death.

"Despite knowing which cytokines are involved, there is still no specific immunotherapy for CRS and treatment is limited to supportive care," says study lead author Sujin Kang. "To better understand the molecular mechanisms of CRS pathogenesis, we first studied the cytokine profiles of 91 patients diagnosed with CRS associated with bacterial sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or burns."

Strikingly, patients from all three groups had elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and MCP-10, as well as a protein called PAI-1, which causes small blood clots in vessels throughout the body, including the lungs. Importantly, increased PAI-1 levels are associated with more severe cases of pneumonia, a common cause of death among COVID-19 patients.

Because IL-6 was positively associated with the levels of the other cytokines and PAI-1, the researchers concluded that IL-6 signaling is crucial for the development of CRS following infection or trauma, and may play a role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

"Examination of cytokine profiles in severe COVID-19 patients revealed an increase in IL-6 early in the disease process, causing release of PAI-1 from blood vessels," says study senior author Tadamitsu Kishimoto. "Interestingly, PAI-1 levels were significantly higher in COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory impediment."

Most significantly though, when severe COVID-19 patients were treated with a human monoclonal antibody-based drug called Actemra®, which blocks IL-6 signaling, PAI-1 levels rapidly declined and severe disease symptoms were alleviated. IL-6 signaling blockade could therefore prove useful for the treatment of both CRS and the severe respiratory complications of COVID-19.

About half of the individuals of cowslip (Primula veris) have flowers with a short style, while the other half of individuals produce flowers with a long style. Recent discoveries have suggested that the loss and fragmentation of habitats may shake this optimal balance of morphologically different plants. This, in turn, decreases the reproductive success of plants and jeopardizes their future viability.

As the primary habitat, cowslips prefer semi-natural grasslands, which have experienced a dramatic area loss over the last hundred years throughout Europe. The study coordinated by the ecologists of the University of Tartu and the Estonian Fund for Nature aimed to examine whether this drastic landscape change has led to deviations in morph balance. To collect data across Estonia, they decided to implement a citizen science approach. A specifically designed web platform http://www.cowslips.eu facilitated an easy upload of data. "In addition, the task and importance of the cowslip observation campaign were explained in detailed guidelines, numerous videos, social media, and other communication platforms," commented Tsipe Aavik, the lead researcher of the heterostyly project.

Novel insight into fundamental research

Nearly 1,700 observations obtained during the campaign led to unexpected discoveries, is now published in the Journal of Ecology. First, data revealed a systematic dominance of short-styled morphs over long-styled morphs. Second, morph frequencies were more likely to deviate in smaller populations and deviations increased in landscapes with higher human population density.

"We are very thankful to all participants who helped to collect heterostyly data at such an unprecedented scale," commented Tsipe Aavik. "Although the first discoveries on heterostyly were made already by Darwin more than 150 years ago, data obtained in the citizen science campaign has helped us to add novel aspects into this fascinating topic with a long history of research."

The findings brought novel insights into fundamental research: the systematic dominance of the short-styled morphs is an intriguing but previously undescribed aspect in this otherwise well-studied plant mating system. However, perhaps even more important are the implications of these findings for conservation because deviating morph frequencies are likely to jeopardize the viability of heterostylous plants. The findings thus describe another threat in the list of negative consequences of habitat loss.

Perhaps Europe could be looking for cowslips one day

The surprising findings of the study have seeded an idea to widen the geographic scope of the study to examine whether the observed patterns are confirmed in other European countries. Furthermore, the discovery about the role of human population density altering morph balance encourages to look at the patterns of heterostyly in landscapes with more intense human impact than Estonia with its relatively low human population density. "In the spring of 2020, when we repeated the campaign, Latvian citizen scientists warmly welcomed the opportunity to contribute to heterostyly observations. But perhaps one day we all can participate in a project 'Europe is looking for cowslips'," adds Aavik with a hope that there still are places in Europe where one can find this beautiful and intriguing plant, cowslip.

'Dead' coral rubble can support more animals than live coral, according to University of Queensland researchers trialling a high-tech sampling method.

UQ's Dr Kenny Wolfe said that reef rubble habitat was often overlooked as desolate, unattractive and 'dead', however reef rubble was very much alive.

"When people think of coral reefs they often think of larger invertebrates that are easily found, such as sea cucumbers, starfish and giant clams," Dr Wolfe said.

"But interestingly, dead coral rubble supports more of what we call 'cryptic' animals than live coral.

"Cryptic animals are simply hidden creatures, that include tiny crabs, fishes, snails and worms - all of which hide in the nooks and crannies of the reef to avoid predation.

"And just like on land with small insects and bugs, biodiversity in the sea can be dominated by these tiny invertebrates."

As these creatures try to remain hidden, finding and surveying them requires particular care and attention.

Dr Wolfe teamed up with UQ Innovate to design 3D-printed coral stacks called RUBS (RUbble Biodiversity Samplers), to survey cryptic animals on coral reefs.

The 3D-printed 'coral' mimics the surrounding reef rubble, seamlessly inviting hidden reef organisms to be unknowingly monitored.

"Every piece of coral or rubble is different," Dr Wolfe said.

"RUBS provide a uniform method to survey the hidden majority on coral reefs.

"By sampling the RUBS' structures over time, the team were able to identify changes in the cryptic population, adding pieces to the puzzle and filling in the unknowns of coral reef food webs.

"This data fills important knowledge gaps, such as how small cryptic animals support coral reefs from the bottom of the food chain, all the way up to bigger predators."

Dr Wolfe believes that the new technique is another step in better understanding our precious reefs - whether considered 'alive' or 'dead'.

"We're really pulling back the curtain on just how alive these 'degraded' reefs are," he said.

"These are important habitats, which support coral reef biodiversity and important food webs.

"This new technology is a new opportunity for reef management, particularly for reef education and awareness.

"We're excited to learn about and celebrate the diversity of life in this misunderstood habitat."

A new study has shed light on the link between the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and the shortening of telomeres; sections of chromosomes that can be used as a marker of biological age. The work was conducted by Lucia Alonso-Pedrero and colleagues with the supervision of Professor Maira Bes-Rastrollo and Professor Amelia Marti, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.

The research, being presented at this year's European and International Conference on Obesity (ECOICO 2020), held online this year (1-4 September), indicates that telomeres were twice as likely to be short in individuals who had a high consumption (more than 3 servings per day) of UPFs. Short telomeres are a marker of biological ageing at the cellular level, and the study suggests that diet may be causing the cells to age faster.

Telomeres are structures formed from a strand of DNA together with specialised proteins, and which are located at the ends of the chromosomes. Each human cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes that contain our genetic code, and while the telomeres do not contain genetic information themselves, they are vital for preserving the stability and integrity of chromosomes and by extension, the DNA that every cell in our body relies on to function. As we get older, our telomeres get shorter since each time a cell divides, part of the telomere is lost, thus telomere length (TL) is considered to be a marker of biological age.

Worldwide, fresh food consumption is decreasing while UPF intake is rising. UPFs are industrial formulations of food-derived substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, protein isolates) that contain little or no whole food and often include flavourings, colourings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives. The processes and ingredients used in the manufacturing of UPFs make them highly convenient (ready-to-consume, almost imperishable), highly attractive for consumers, and highly profitable (low cost ingredients, long shelf-life) for their manufacturers. These properties also result in them being nutritionally poor or unbalanced, and liable to be over-consumed, often at the expense of less processed and more nutritious alternatives.

Research has associated UPFs with serious diseases including hypertension, obesity, metabolic syndrome, depression, type 2 diabetes, and various cancers. These conditions are often age-related and are linked to oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular ageing which can also influence TL. Despite this, there have been few studies into the effects of UPF consumption on TL, but those that have been conducted found associations between the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), alcohol, processed meats and other foods rich in saturated fats and sugar with having shorter telomeres. These studies are far from conclusive however, as other research has not shown a link between UPF and TL.

The authors objective was to evaluate the association between UPF consumption and the risk of TL within an elderly study population using the NOVA system method for classifying the degree of processing of different foods.

Data were obtained from participants in the SUN Project: an open prospective cohort of graduates from the University of Navarra and other Spanish universities. Recruitment began in 1999 and is permanently open to any graduate age 20 years old or more, with data collection being done via self-reported questionnaires mailed out every 2 years. This research is based on the analysis of a genetic study performed in May 2008 which all SUN Project participants over the age of 55 were invited to take part. In total, 886 individuals provided saliva samples for DNA analysis as well as accurate records of their daily food intake.

In total 645 men and 241 women with an average age of 67.7 years were included in the analysis and were grouped into 4 groups of equal size (quartiles) from 'low' to 'high' based on their UPF consumption: less than 2 servings/day, 2 to 2.5 servings/day, more than 2.5 to 3 servings/day, and more than 3 servings/day.

Those in the 'high' quartile were more likely to have family history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, and abnormal blood fats, and to snack more in between meals. They also consumed more fats, saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, sodium, cholesterol, SSBs, fast food, and processed meats while consuming less carbohydrates, protein, fibre, olive oil, fruits, vegetables, and other micronutrients. Participants who ate more UPFs were observed to be less likely to adhere to the 'Mediterranean diet' which has been linked to improved general health, and in particular a reduced risk of CVD.

The team found that as UPF consumption increased, the likelihood of having shortened telomeres rose dramatically with each quartile above the lowest having a risk increase of 29%, 40%, and 82% for the 'medium-low', 'medium-high', and 'high' UPF consumption groups respectively. The authors also found that UPF intake was associated with the risk of depression (especially in patients with low levels of physical activity), hypertension, overweight/obesity, and all-cause mortality.

The authors conclude: "In this cross-sectional study of elderly Spanish subjects we showed a robust strong association between ultra-processed food consumption and telomere length. Further research in larger longitudinal studies with baseline and repeated measures of TL is needed to confirm these observations."