Earth

The Triassic Period, about 252 to 201 million years ago, was a time of volatile change, particularly during an interval known as the Carnian (about 237 to 227 million years ago). Three dramatic events occurred on Earth: the first dinosaurs appeared, gigantic volcanic eruptions called the Wrangellia large igneous province spewed out greenhouse gasses and the climate suddenly shifted to warmer, more humid conditions that scientists call the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE).

Recent work suggests that the Wrangellia eruptions caused the CPE, and that the resulting climate change may have spurred the early diversification of dinosaurs. But the lack of precise absolute dates for many Carnian sediments makes comparisons difficult. Additionally, few detailed paleoclimatic data exist for many regions outside of Europe, making it unclear whether the CPE was truly a global climate event or conclusively linking it to dinosaur diversification.

In a new study in the journal Gondwana Research, an international group led by Adriana Mancuso, a National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) researcher at the Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales in Mendoza, Argentina, demonstrated that the CPE affected the southern hemisphere, specifically South America, which strengthens the case that it was a global climate event. The study was published online on June 15, 2020.

"There are ample Triassic, and specifically Carnian, rocks and fossils in South America, and Argentina in particular, but until now there were no paleoclimatic studies that could conclusively show that the Carnian Pluvial Episode occurred in the southern hemisphere," Mancuso said.

The team, which included researchers at the University of Utah and the Berkeley Geochronology Center, studied Carnian rocks of the Los Rastros Formation, which are preserved in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin in northwest Argentina. For the first time, the team precisely dated volcanic ash preserved in lake sediments and pieced together the paleoclimate at this time.

"Our study focused on these rocks because they had the perfect combination of a good fossil record, dateable ash layers, and rich climate data preserved in lake sediments," said Randall Irmis of the Natural History Museum of Utah and Department of Geology & Geophysics at the University of Utah.

In order to date the ash layer, the scientists isolated small needle-like crystals of zircon, minerals that act like time-capsules. When zircon crystallizes during an eruption, it traps the element uranium in its crystal structure, but never incorporates lead. Any lead preserved in the crystals today is a result of the radioactive decay of uranium. Because scientists know this decay rate, they can measure the ratio of uranium and lead in each zircon crystal and calculate how far back in time the crystals formed. In the present study, this measurement was done on a precise mass spectrometer at the Berkeley Geochronology Center.

The scientists then obtained paleoclimatic data by looking at detailed features in the sediments-- the types of clay preserved, and carbon and oxygen isotopes in freshwater limestone layers. With these measurements, the researchers estimated temperature, humidity and aridity and observed a distinct interval of particularly warm and humid conditions. Based on the absolute date from the same strata, they concluded that it matched in time with the CPE in the northern hemisphere. By using a variety of different analyses, the resulting paleoclimate inferences were more robust than previous assertions made from a single line of evidence.

This warm/humid interval also fortuitously includes layers that preserve fossil footprints of early dinosaurs or their closest relatives.

"Our study suggests that the appearance of dinosaurs in South America could be linked to the CPE, but the data available worldwide remains inconclusive. To make a more robust global link between the CPE and dinosaur diversification will require many more detailed studies of paleoclimate with precise ages like we were able to do for the Los Rastros Formation in Argentina," concluded Mancuso.

PULLMAN, Wash. - The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has a likely connection to bats, and the next viral outbreak probably will too, unless scientists can quickly learn more about the thousands of viruses carried by one of the most diverse mammals on the planet.

Evidence already links different bat species to human outbreaks of SARS, MERS, some Ebola viruses as well as the Marbug, Hendra, Sosuga and Nipah viruses. Beyond these connections, there is very little known, and a recent article in Nature Reviews Microbiology calls for more research into bats' molecular biology and their ecology, to help predict, and hopefully prevent, the next pandemic.

"The more researchers have looked, the more we've found that a lot of these emerging pathogens, at one point or another, originated in bats," said Michael Letko, the lead author and an assistant professor of molecular virology at Washington State University's Paul G. Allen School of Global Animal Health. "Over time, we have accumulated a lot of information about some of the species of bats and some of the viruses they carry, but there are still these huge glaring holes in our knowledge."

With more than 1,400 species, bats represent an extremely diverse mammalian order, second only to rodents, which are also known viral hosts. However, unlike rats and mice, bats are not great lab animals. Simply keeping flying animals in labs is difficult. Also, most of the mammalian cell lines developed for research came from other animals and cannot be used to study viruses found in bats.

This knowledge gap is dangerous as the current pandemic shows. Bats are found almost everywhere scientists have looked, and with expanding human encroachment on their habitat, viral infection is almost inevitable, Letko said.

"We are coming into more contact with animal species around us in general, and then we find out these species are loaded with viruses," he said. "The COVID-19 pandemic is unfortunate, but it's not surprising. We roll the dice for 20 years not doing anything to reduce contact with these animals. It was more or less a matter of time before something like this was going to happen."

In the paper, Letko, and his co-authors including WSU assistant professor Stephanie Seifert and Vincent Munster from Rocky Mountain Laboratories, outline ways to decrease the odds of the next pandemic by increasing research into bats on the smallest, molecular level and on the broader macro-level of the environment.

While many pathogens have been identified, the authors point out the need to move beyond discovery and use the latest genetic technologies to better understand how viruses can be transmitted. This knowledge can increase the ability to develop medicines quickly after a pathogen has been found--or even better, create vaccines to protect against whole virus groups before they emerge.

Letko has already taken a step in this direction. Before the current crisis, he built a platform using synthetic coronavirus particles to test which were most likely to infect human cells. When the current pandemic began, Letko tested the SARS-Cov-2 genome as soon as the sequence was available and quickly identified the likely receptor on human cells. That study, published in Nature Microbiology on Feb. 24, was one of the first to provide functional laboratory data on the new virus, providing researchers with necessary information and tools to help determine which existing drugs might work against SARS-Cov-2 and start development on new ones as well as test various aspects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine efficacy.

Letko is setting up his lab at WSU to continue this work, providing initial screening of bat-borne viruses to help identify those that are most likely to be transmitted to humans.

Beyond the lab, Letko and his colleagues point to the need for better understanding of bat ecology which can lead to solutions that are relatively simple to implement. The researchers cite examples such as the effort to vaccinate horses in Australia to stop the Hendra virus which was spreading from fruit bats to horses and then potentially on to humans. Another intervention in Bangladesh involved simply putting lids on palm sap containers to keep bats out and prevent human outbreaks of Nipah virus.

"Sometimes, you don't need vaccines or drugs. It's just a behavioral change that helps mitigate and reduce the contact between people and the animals," Letko said. "These are some of the kinds of interventions that we can take once we begin to understand what these viruses actually do."

Targeted radionuclide therapy has been found to create a favorable tumor microenvironment in prostate cancer that improves the effectiveness of immunotherapies. The research, presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2020 Annual Meeting, shows that immunomodulation can be achieved with relatively low radiation dose that does not affect the normal immune system.

Due to a significantly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, immunotherapy has had limited success in the treatment of prostate cancer. External beam radiotherapy, which has been shown to remodel the tumor microenvironment of irradiated tumors to make them more immune-susceptible even at low radiation doses, is limited to the localized disease setting.

"Understanding this treatment dynamic, our goal in this study was to demonstrate that systemically delivered targeted radionuclide therapy provides beneficial immunomodulatory effects that may enhance the response of prostate cancer to immunotherapies," said Reinier Hernandez, PhD, assistant professor of medical physics and radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison Wisconsin.

In the study, male mice bearing syngeneic prostate tumor allografts were administered 86Y-NM600 and received positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans at three, 24, 48 and 72 hours after injection. Radiotracer uptake was analyzed in tumors and in healthy tissues, which allowed researchers to estimate the dosimetry for the targeted radionuclide therapy 90Y-NM600.

Groups of mice were administered either a high or low dose of 90Y-NM600, and tumor growth and survival were monitored for 60 days. A separate group of mice received the same 90Y-NM600 doses and were euthanized to analyze the immunological effects (flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry and Luminex cytokine profiling) of the radionuclide therapy on the tumor microenvironment and lymphoid tissues.

Data from PET/CT imaging revealed that 90Y-NM600 immunomodulates the tumor microenvironment of prostate tumors by modifying tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte populations, upregulating checkpoint molecules, and promoting the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. 90Y-NM600's pro-inflammatory effects on the tumor microenvironment were found to be elicited at relatively low radiation doses without incurring systemic toxicity.

"Our results provide a rationale for combining targeted radionuclide therapy with immunotherapies, which, so far, have proven ineffective in prostate cancer. Improving immunotherapy in prostate cancer could bring about a potentially curative treatment alternative for advanced-stage patients. We are actively working to advance the immunomodulation concept into Phase I clinical trials," stated Hernandez.

The study also presents a paradigm change in targeted radionuclide therapy, where the maximum tolerable dose may not always be the most beneficial to patients. "A key finding of our work is that immunomodulation is best achieved with a relatively low radiation dose to the tumor which does not affect the normal immune system," Hernandez noted. "As high radiation doses to normal lymphoid organs can negate the benefits of immunomodulation, estimating the radiation doses imparted to the tumor and normal tissues prospectively by using patient-specific image-based dosimetry techniques is critical. This means that, essentially, a theranostic approach must be implemented."

Abstract 36. "Low-dose TRT reshapes the microenvironment of prostate tumors to potentiate response to immunotherapy," Reinier Hernandez, Hemanth Potluri, Eduardo Aluicio-Sarduy, Joseph Grudzinski, Christopher Massey, Christopher Zahm, Jonathan Engle, Douglas McNeel and Jamey Weichert, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin. SNMMI's 67th Annual Meeting, July 11-14, 2020.

New research explores how lower-latitude oceans drive complex changes in the Arctic Ocean, pushing the region into a new reality distinct from the 20th-century norm.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks and Finnish Meteorological Institute led the international effort, which included researchers from six countries. The first of several related papers was published this month in Frontiers in Marine Science.

Climate change is most pronounced in the Arctic. The Arctic Ocean, which covers less than 3% of the Earth's surface, appears to be quite sensitive to abnormal conditions in lower-latitude oceans.

"With this in mind, the goal of our research was to illustrate the part of Arctic climate change driven by anomalous [different from the norm] influxes of oceanic water from the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, a process which we refer to as borealization," said lead author Igor Polyakov, an oceanographer at UAF's International Arctic Research Center and FMI.

Although the Arctic is often viewed as a single system that is impacted by climate change uniformly, the research stressed that the Arctic's Amerasian Basin (influenced by Pacific waters) and its Eurasian Basin (influenced by Atlantic waters) tend to differ in their responses to climate change.

Since the first temperature and salinity measurements taken in the late 1800s, scientists have known that cold and relatively fresh water, which is lighter than salty water, floats at the surface of the Arctic Ocean. This fresh layer blocks the warmth of the deeper water from melting sea ice.

In the Eurasian Basin, that is changing. Abnormal influx of warm, salty Atlantic water destabilizes the water column, making it more susceptible to mixing. The cool, fresh protective upper ocean layer is weakening and the ice is becoming vulnerable to heat from deeper in the ocean. As mixing and sea ice decay continues, the process accelerates. The ocean becomes more biologically productive as deeper, nutrient-rich water reaches the surface.

By contrast, increased influx of warm, relatively fresh Pacific water and local processes like sea ice melt and accumulation of river water make the separation between the surface and deep layers more pronounced on the Amerasian side of the Arctic. As the pool of fresh water grows, it limits mixing and the movement of nutrients to the surface, potentially making the region less biologically productive.

The study also explores how these physical changes impact other components of the Arctic system, including chemical composition and biological communities.

Retreating sea ice allows more light to penetrate into the ocean. Changes in circulation patterns and water column structure control availability of nutrients. In some regions, organisms at the base of the food web are becoming more productive. Many marine organisms from sub-Arctic latitudes are moving north, in some cases replacing the local Arctic species.

"In many respects, the Arctic Ocean now looks like a new ocean," said Polyakov.

These differences change our ability to predict weather, currents and the behavior of sea ice. There are major implications for Arctic residents, fisheries, tourism and navigation.

This study focused on rather large-scale changes in the Arctic Ocean, and its findings do not necessarily represent conditions in nearshore waters where people live and hunt.

The study stressed the importance of future scientific monitoring to understand how this new realm affects links between the ocean, ice and atmosphere.

PULLMAN, Wash. - Researchers have demonstrated that a fatty acid called dihomogamma-linolenic acid, or DGLA, can kill human cancer cells.

The study, published in Developmental Cell on July 10, found that DGLA can induce ferroptosis in an animal model and in actual human cancer cells. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent type of cell death that was discovered in recent years and has become a focal point for disease research as it is closely related to many disease processes.

Jennifer Watts, a Washington State University associate professor and corresponding author on the paper, said this discovery has many implications, including a step toward a potential treatment for cancer.

"If you could deliver DGLA precisely to a cancer cell, it could promote ferroptosis and lead to tumor cell death," Watts said. "Also, just knowing that this fat promotes ferroptosis might also affect how we think about conditions such as kidney disease and neurodegeneration where we want to prevent this type of cell death."

DGLA is a polyunsaturated fatty acid found in small amounts in the human body, though rarely in the human diet. Compared to other fatty acids, such as those found in fish oil, DGLA is relatively understudied.

Watts has been researching dietary fats including DGLA for nearly twenty years, using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as an animal model. A microscopic worm, C. elegans is often used in molecular research because it is transparent and allows scientists to easily study cell-level activity in a whole animal over its relatively short lifespan. Results found in the C. elegans cells are also often transferable to human cells.

Watts' research team discovered that feeding nematodes a diet of DGLA-laden bacteria killed all the germ cells in the worms as well as the stem cells that make the germ cells. The way the cells died carried many signs of ferroptosis.

"Many of the mechanisms we saw in the nematodes were consistent with the hallmarks of ferroptosis in mammalian systems, including the presence of redox-active iron and the inability to repair oxidized lipids, which are like molecular executioners," said Marcos Perez, a WSU doctoral student and first author on the paper.

To see if the results would translate to human cells, Watts and Perez collaborated with Scott Dixon of Stanford University, who has been studying ferroptosis and its potential for battling cancer for many years.

Taking what they had learned from the nematode work, the researchers showed that DGLA could induce ferroptosis in human cancer cells. They also found an interaction with another fatty acid class, called an ether lipid, that had a protective effect against DGLA. When they took out the ether lipids, the cells died faster in the presence of DGLA.

In addition to this new knowledge, the study also demonstrated that C. elegans can be a useful animal research model in the study of ferroptosis, a field that has had to rely mostly on cell cultures.

To take this research further, Watts' team recently received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate what makes the nematode germ cells so susceptible to DGLA and explore the role of mitochondria, the cell organelles involved in burning fat and regulating metabolism, in ferroptosis.

[Background]

Alkanes are major constituents of natural gas and oil, consisting of carbon and hydrogen atoms only. The C-H bonds of alkanes are chemically stable with low reactivity. Technologies that enable selective functionalization*1) of alkanes for converting alkanes into useful raw materials for chemical products such as alcohols and bromoalkanes are eagerly sought for development of both basic chemical sciences and industries. The bromine molecule (Br2) is widely used for bromination of a variety of organic compounds, where bromination reactions take place via a radical mechanism*2). To attain product selectivity different from that of the radical mechanism, control of electron states of bromine molecule is needed.

Vanadium oxide clusters*3) are a group of materials with various structures that are expected to be useful as functional materials. A hemispherical vanadium oxide cluster having a cavity corresponding to the size of one halogen atom shows special charge distribution where the periphery of the cavity is relatively negatively charged while the inside is relatively positively charged. Although this compound has a large negative charge, it offers stable accommodation of a compound with a negative charge or with functional groups in its cavity. Prof. Yuji Kikukawa of Kanazawa University previously revealed that the hemispherical vanadium oxide cluster took on a bulged structure in the presence of another compound being trapped in the cavity, whereas the structure was collapsed in the absence of a compound in the cavity (Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, 2018, 57, 16051-16055).

[Results]

In the present study led by a research group of Profs. Yuji Kikukawa and Yoshihito Hayashi of Kanazawa University in collaboration with scientists from Ritsumeikan University and High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, it was revealed that a bromine molecule can be stabilized in the cavity of a hemispherical vanadium oxide cluster. In the infrared spectrum, an absorption peak at 185 cm-1 originating from polarization*4) of the bromine molecule trapped in the cavity was observed, although a bromine molecule without polarization would not show such a peak. This is the first spectral observation of the polarized bromine molecule. By analyzing extended X-ray absorption fine structure measurements of the bromine molecule performed at Photon Factory, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), a Br-Br distance of 0.233 nm was suggested, slightly longer than that of 0.228 nm in gas-phase bromine molecules.

By using such a polarized and activated bromine molecule in the cavity of the vanadium oxide cluster, bromination of pentane yielded 2-bromopentane and 3-bromopentane in a ratio of 36:64, which differs from the ratio of 80:20 when bromination was carried out in the absence of vanadium oxide cluster, indicating different selectivity. In addition, concerning another product, 2,3-dibromopentane, which consists of diastereomers*5), the ratio of the threo isomer was higher than when bromine molecules alone were reacted with pentane. Furthermore, bromination could take place with smaller alkanes with shorter carbon chain such as butane or propane.

As above, it was found that the bromine molecule trapped in the vanadium oxide cavity showed a specificity different from the radical mechanism for bromination reaction of alkanes.

[Future prospects]

Metal oxide clusters are able to perform oxidization and reduction while maintaining their structure. It is also possible to conjugate with other metal species and to replace some constituent metal atoms with other atoms. Thus, the characteristics of metal oxide clusters can be regulated. Further developments are expected such as the activation of small molecules using such an atomic dimension cavity through controlling charge distribution in the cavity and the production of highly functional catalysts by controlling molecular-level structures. It is also expected that selective functionalization reactions using methane, which is highly inert but whose efficient chemical modification is highly desirable, can be attained by improving materials that regulate the electron states.

The fundamental process that arguably forms the backbone of life on earth is photosynthesis; every organism is directly or indirectly dependent on this process. On paper, the process is simple: plants (and other organisms that have "chloroplasts," the structures where photosynthesis takes place, and give the characteristic green color to leaves) convert solar energy into chemical energy that helps them grow and flourish, and other "higher" organisms depend on these plants, or on organisms that feed on these plants, for their own sustenance, and so on.

But in practice, and especially at this point in biological history, this process is not so straightforward. The human population is growing at an unprecedented rate; the resources we have are not enough to feed the billions of people on earth today. While policymakers and politicians are trying to optimize the use of existing resources, scientists are doing their bit by figuring out how to improve the resources by exploring whether the natural process of photosynthesis can be modified through the latest technologies to ultimately improve the yield of food crops.

A team of scientists led by Prof Jian Feng Ma from Okayama University, Japan, and Prof Zhichang Chen from Fujian A & F University, China, also set out to explore photosynthesis, but they decided to do this with a twist: while current research predominantly focuses on trying to modify the direct chemical reactions involved in photosynthesis, the team decided to look at the "diel" variations--or the variations that occur over a periodic cycle of 24 hours--in photosynthesis.

That many processes of photosynthesis exhibit 24-hour variations shouldn't come as a surprise, given that the entire process is dependent on sunlight. Apart from external light-dark conditions, these diel changes can also be driven by internal genetic mechanisms.

But what exactly did these scientists look at? "Our study focused on magnesium, and for a diverse set of reasons," explains Prof Ma. "Magnesium is an essential macronutrient for plants, but around 15-35% of total magnesium intake is allocated to chloroplasts, where it functions not only as a structural element of chlorophyll but also as an activator for a number of photosynthetic enzymes." This meant that studying the diel changes in magnesium can shed light on an important functional aspect, and potential target for manipulation, of photosynthesis.

Through gene studies in the rice plant (the results of which are published in Nature Plants), the researchers decided to narrow in on a magnesium ion transporter OsMGT3, found in chloroplasts, and are known to be rhythmically expressed in "mesophyll" cells, the cells specialized for photosynthesis.

They created genetically modified rice plants in which the gene that gives rise to OsMGT3 was absent; they found that these plants showed significantly reduced uptake of magnesium and reduced amplitude of free magnesium ion fluctuations in chloroplasts. This resulted in a decrease in the activity of "ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase," a fundamental enzyme of photosynthesis, naturally leading to a decline in the photosynthetic rate. Next, through genetic engineering techniques, they caused the excessive production of OsMGT3 in mesophyll cells in normal rice plants and found that the photosynthetic efficiency and growth improved in these plants.

These experiments proved that OsMGT3 partially controls the magnesium fluctuations in chloroplasts, and that these fluctuations may contribute to magnesium-dependent enzyme activities for photosynthesis over the daily cycle.

So where does this leave us in terms of optimizing crop yield and feeding the masses? Prof Ma states that the findings open up hitherto unexplored avenues, remarking, "Our studies put magnesium in the limelight. Modifying the magnesium input into chloroplasts could be a potential approach to improving photosynthetic efficiency in plants and can eventually improve crop yield."

This study, along with future studies that would demonstrate how exactly magnesium should be targeted, could be a potential answer to the global food shortage.

Distribution of rights and obligations in the family, opportunities and responsibilities in performing the main family functions is one of the most controversial, but at the same time one of the most important issues in the modern context.

Scientists from the Department of General Sociology and Social Work of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lobachevsky University have been engaged in research on parenthood and the distribution of parental functions for many years.

According to Nadezhda Egorova, Associate Professor at the Department of General Sociology and Social Work of the UNN Faculty of Social Sciences, the so-called traditional or patriarchal family role structure is increasingly subject to criticism and revision in the views of various social groups.

"The formula proposed by the famous American sociologist of the 20th century, Tolcott Parsons, that was very popular until the end of the century, according to which "the role of women is primarily in the performance of their family functions as wives, mothers and housewives, while the role of men is carried out in the professional world, at work..." is increasingly less acceptable in modern conditions that require women's active involvement in the field of labor relations," comments Nadezhda Egorova.

An egalitarian model based on equality and partnership in marriage and parenthood is becoming a more popular alternative to this distribution of roles and power in the family. At the same time, the movement towards equality is not an easy process. It requires finding the answers to the main questions of the study: what do women and men want to do and what are they ready to change? Is gender equality achievable in Russian realities?

UNN scientists' conclusions are based on their research: a questionnaire survey of third and fourth year students of Nizhny Novgorod universities ("Students' ideas regarding a father's role", N=472) and in-depth interviews with men aged 24 to 57 years old who have children ("Social practices of fatherhood in a modern Russian family", N=46) conducted by the authors in 2017-2019.

Research results show that most students are of the same opinion: parenting is the responsibility of both partners. Both young men (78%) and girls (89%) generally support this idea.

"However, the democratization of family relations is taking place at different rates; the need to share parental responsibility is more pronounced in the views of girls than in those of young men. The latter are more oriented towards traditional values, for example, they more often believe that the father does not have to be involved in the daily care of the child, he should bring up the child by his own example (the degree of agreement with this judgment is 40% for young men and 23% for girls). In the girls' opinion, on the contrary, men should share the responsibility for taking care of their children with women (86% vs. 74%)," comments Elena Ryabinskaya, sociologist at the Department of General Sociology and Social Work.

In the family practices of the fathers who have been interviewed, most follow the traditional model of distribution of parental and family responsibilities in general. At the same time, modern men have to adapt to women's active role in the labour market and have to be more frequently involved in family processes, including the upbringing of children.

Studies conducted by Lobachevsky University researchers show that the role of the father involves a wide range of responsibilities that imply men's full participation in the life of their children at various stages of their growing up.

"Fulfilled fathers are aware of the importance and value of paternal involvement in raising their children. In addition to the traditional patriarchal roles of a breadwinner, a disciplinarian, an 'image maker' and a family defender in public settings, today's fathers focus on parental responsibility, direct contribution to looking after their children, hygienic care, playing games, sharing their life experience, and the practice of active involvement of men in parenting becomes quite significant," says Alina Yanak, Assistant at the Department of General Sociology and Social Work.

Lobachevsky University scientists have proved that all young people are willing to be involved in the process of raising and caring for children, but there are certain differences in their approach to this matter.

"Activities related to the organization of children's leisure time throughout the whole stage of their growing up are more attractive for young men than the routine, daily work of providing constant care for young and growing children. This work should probably remain the woman's responsibility. Here, young people's views on parenthood are affected by the continuity of their families' traditions," Elena Ryabinskaya comments on the study's findings.

Thus, the area of competence of the surveyed students' mothers comprised only everyday responsibilities for the care and upbringing of the child, and the area of competence of their fathers mainly included responsibilities related to the organization of the child's leisure time.

Studies have shown that girls are more demanding with respect to men's parenting role, often believing that all these actions should be an integral part of the father's role set.

In their research, scientists from Lobachevsky University have also demonstrated another important aspect of the upbringing process: building relationships with children of different sexes. Most students believe that the amount of attention given to a child should not depend on whether it is a boy or a girl. However, when it comes to specific actions, views on the extent to which a man is involved in raising a daughter and a son can differ. In the actual practices of fathers, this difference becomes both more significant and more understandable.

In general, it is easier for men to adapt to the parenting role in interaction with boys, they can better understand how to structure their behavior with them. Men believe that they will be able to self-realize and self-identify in the role of the father, primarily in the process of raising their son, because they want to be self-projected on their child, want to be an example to him, to develop "male" skills and interests, to communicate 'on equal terms'. "It's easier with a son... A boy is a boy. There are a lot of common interests: some technical stuff, sports, and other things. Can Daddy do that? Yes, he can. Can Daddy teach? He will," one of the fathers says.

Fathers speak of their daughters with some trepidation, they believe that there are more complex nuances in dealing with girls, they need a more attentive, flexible and gentle approach. A father of four had this to say: "I'm very strict... And... it was very difficult for me, when we had a daughter, to change my ways after raising three boys... With boys, it's like in the army: "Attention!", "At ease!" "Dismissed!" But with a girl, it's different. So, at the beginning my wife even offered me to read psychological articles on how I should love my daughter and how I should talk to her...".

"They consciously put themselves on secondary positions with regard to girls, imposing the duty of caring for them on mothers," continues Alina Yanak.
Nizhny Novgorod scientists have shown that the movement towards egalitarianism in the sphere of parenthood is becoming more and more visible both at the level of perceptions and in real family practices. But the process is controversial and nonuniform.

"We are witnessing a gradual inclusion of men in parenting rather than a conscious readiness for equality in this sphere," Nadezhda Yegorova says in conclusion.

The difference in goals and in the process of socialization of boys and girls proved by the studies of Nizhny Novgorod scientists is likely to contribute to the reproduction of the traditional/patriarchal model of family and parenthood.

In thermal equilibrium, iron-platinum (FePt) belongs to the class of invar materials, which hardly expand at all when heated. This phenomenon was observed as early as 1897 in the nickel-iron alloy "Invar", but it is only in recent years that experts have been able to understand which mechanism are driving it: Normally, heating of solids leads to lattice vibrations which cause expansion because the vibrating atoms need more space. Surprisingly, however, heating the spins in FePt leads to the opposite effect: the warmer the spins are, the more the material contracts along the direction of magnetisation. The result is the property known from Invar: minimal expansion.

A team led by Prof. Matias Bargheer has now experimentally compared this fascinating phenomenon for the first time on different iron-platinum thin films. Bargheer heads a joint research group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the University of Potsdam. Together with colleagues from Lyon, Brno and Chemnitz, he wanted to investigate how the behavior of perfectly crystalline FePt layers differs from the FePt thin films used for HAMR memories. These consist of crystalline nanograins of stacked monatomic layers of iron and platinum embedded in a carbon matrix.

The samples were locally heated and excited with two laser pulses in quick succession and then measured by X-ray diffraction to determine how strongly the crystal lattice expands or contracts locally.

"We were surprised to find that the continuous crystalline layers expand when heated briefly with laser light, while loosely arranged nano grains contract in the same crystal orientation," explains Bargheer. "HAMR data memories, on the other hand, whose nano-grains are embedded in a carbon matrix and grown on a substrate react much weaker to laser excitation: They first contract slightly and then expand slightly."

"Through these experiments with ultrashort X-ray pulses, we have been able to determine how important the morphology of such thin films is," says Alexander von Reppert, first author of the study and PhD student in Bargheer's group. The secret is transverse contraction, also known as the Poisson effect. "Everyone who has ever pressed firmly on an eraser knows this," says Bargheer. "The rubber gets thicker in the middle." And Reppert adds: "The nanoparticles can do that too, whereas in the perfect film there is no room for expansion in the plane, which would have to go along with the spin driven contraction perpendicular to the film."

So FePt, embedded in a carbon matrix, is a very special material. It not only has exceptionally robust magnetic properties. Its thermomechanical properties also prevent excessive tension from being created when heated, which would destroy the material - and that is important for HAMR!

Alcohol's popularity and its central place in socialising in Australia obscures the dangers of excessive drinking and possible liver disease, Flinders University experts warn.

As Dry July awareness month highlights the various health risks, the Head of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at Flinders Medical Centre Associate Professor Alan Wigg says alcohol misuse remains a major health challenge in Australia as seen by high in rates of life-threatening liver disease.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data shows 1366 alcohol-induced deaths in 2017, and an additional 2820 deaths where alcohol was listed as a contributing factor to mortality.

"Alcohol was the principal drug-related diagnosis, with the highest number of hospital admissions, in the five years to 2017-18," says Associate Professor Wigg, Head of the Hepatology and Liver Transplantation Medicine Unit at Flinders Medical Centre.

"Managing patients with liver failure due to alcohol is the major clinical workload of staff at our unit, and a major task for many other medical colleagues around the state and country."

At-risk patients need to be actively involved in managing their condition by understanding their treatments and by taking actions such as reducing salt intake and monitoring serum electrolytes, says Flinders researchers in a new study published in US journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

In the past 10-15 years, the number of chronic liver failure cases at South Australia's public hospitals has increased more than three-fold from 422 in 2001 to 1441 in 2015. While alcohol remains the main cause for chronic liver failure, obesity-related liver disease (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) is expected to become a 'modern epidemic' by 2050.

Nationally, more than 6 million Australians suffer from chronic liver disease with more than 7000 deaths a year - all part of the effects of chronic conditions such as alcohol, hepatitis C, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This is forecast to rise to 8 million by 2030.

A previous Deloitte study indicates the cost of managing the rising tide of chronic liver disease - including lost productivity - now exceeds $50 billion a year in Australia alone.

The new study led the Flinders experts to develop a simple seven-point questionnaire for patients to use to raise awareness about managing their condition.

Co-author Professor Richard Woodman, from the Flinders Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, says people living with cirrhosis have varying ability to manage their condition.

"The seven questions relate to three separate aspects of the disease - ascites, variceal bleeding, and hepatic encephalopathy - which then gives clinicians a quick and easy way to assess the patient's knowledge and self-management capabilities," he says.

"This in turn tends to have a major impact on the rate of their disease progression."

Flinders University PhD candidate Jeyamani Ramachandran, who also worked on the study, says there is currently no such validated questionnaire available to assess patients with liver cirrhosis and to reduce emergency hospital admissions.

"Disease knowledge and self-management among patients play a central role in coping with complicated chronic conditions such as cirrhosis," she says.

"The Flinders team developed and validated the easy questionnaire for patients to regularly assess the three major complications of cirrhosis, and further studies will confirm its usefulness in improving patient outcomes."

Biologists from the University of Bayreuth have discovered a uniquely rapid form of regeneration in injured neurons and their function in the central nervous system of zebrafish. They studies the Mauthner cells, which are solely responsible for the escape behaviour of the fish, and previously regarded as incapable of regeneration. However, their ability to regenerate crucially depends on the location of the injury. In central nervous systems of other animal species, such a comprehensive regeneration of neurons has not yet been proven beyond doubt. The scientists report their findings in the journal Communications Biology.

Mauthner cells are the largest cells found in animal brains. They are part of the central nervous system of most fish and amphibian species and trigger life-saving escape responses when predators approach. The transmission of signals in Mauthner cells to their motoneurons is only guaranteed if a certain part of these cells, the axon, is intact. The axon is an elongated structure that borders the cell body with its cell nucleus at one of its two ends. If the injury of the axon occurs close to the cell body, the Mauthner cell dies. If the axon is damaged at its opposite end, lost functions are either not restored at all or only slowly and to a limited extent. However, the Mauthner cell reacts to an injury in the middle of the axon with rapid and complete regeneration. Indeed, within a week after the injury, the axon and its function are fully restored, and the fish is able to escape approaching predators again.

"Such a rapid regeneration of a neuron was never observed anywhere in the central nervous system of other animal species until now. Here, regeneration processes usually extend over several weeks or months," says Dr. Alexander Hecker, first author of the new study and member of the Department of Animal Physiology. This finding clearly disproves the widely accepted view in the scientific community that Mauthner cells are unable to regenerate.

However, the observation that the escape response of zebrafish were fully intact so soon after regeneration did not necessarily prove the functional regenerative capacity of the Mauthner cell. It might be possible that other neurons in zebrafish are able to induce this life-saving escape behaviour and thus take over the lost function of Mauthner cells. However, precisely this possibility was ruled out by findings published by the Bayreuth biologists led by Prof. Dr. Stefan Schuster in PNAS in January 2020. They were able to show for the first time that it is only the Mauthner cells that control the escape behaviour of zebrafish. If the axon is irreversibly destroyed, there are no other cells in the fish that are able to compensate for the loss.

"Mauthner cells now offer us the possibility to investigate the very different responses to injuries of individual cells within the same nervous system: an absence of or insufficient regeneration processes on the one hand, and robust and complete regeneration on the other. Surprisingly, the injuries to the axon, which led to such contradictory responses, were not very far apart. Elucidating the causes is an exciting field of research, which also includes the identification of the genes that are active in the regeneration of neurons. And if we find out the reasons why regeneration processes in Mauthner cells fail to occur, we might also be able to better understand the mechanisms that prevent the regeneration of neurons in humans," said Hecker.

Chameleons are famous for their color-changing abilities. Depending on their body temperature or mood, their nervous system directs skin tissue that contains nanocrystals to expand or contract, changing how the nanocrystals reflect light and turning the reptile's skin a rainbow of colors.

Inspired by this, scientists at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago have developed a way to stretch and strain liquid crystals to generate different colors.

By creating a thin film of polymer filled with liquid crystal droplets and then manipulating it, they have determined the fundamentals for a color-changing sensing system that could be used for smart coatings, sensors, and even wearable electronics.

The research, led by Juan de Pablo, Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering, was published July 10 in the journal Science Advances.

Stretching liquid using thin films

Liquid crystals, which exhibit distinct molecular orientations, are already the basis for many display technologies. But de Pablo and his team were interested in chiral liquid crystals, which have twists and turns and a certain asymmetrical "handedness" -- like right-handedness or left-handedness -- that allows them to have more interesting optical behaviors.

These crystals can also form so-called "blue phase crystals," which have the properties of both liquids and crystals and can in some cases transmit or reflect visible light better than liquid crystals themselves.

The researchers knew that these crystals could potentially be manipulated to produce a wide range of optical effects if stretched or strained, but they also knew that it's not possible to stretch or strain a liquid directly. Instead, they placed tiny liquid crystal droplets into a polymer film.

"That way we could encapsulate chiral liquid crystals and deform them in very specific, highly controlled ways," de Pablo said. "That allows you to understand the properties they can have and what behaviors they exhibit."

Creating temperature and strain sensors

By doing this, the researchers found many more different phases -- molecular configurations of the crystals -- than had been known before. These phases produce different colors based on how they are stretched or strained, or even when they undergo temperature changes.

"Now the possibilities are really open to the imagination," de Pablo said. "Imagine using these crystals in a textile that changes color based on your temperature, or changes color where you bend your elbow."

Such a system could also be used to measure strain in airplane wings, for example, or to discern minute changes in temperature within a room or system.

Changes in color provide an excellent way to measure something remotely, without the need for any sort of contact, de Pablo said.

"You could just look at the color of your device and know how much strain that material or device is under and take corrective action as needed," he said. "For example, if a structure is under too much stress, you could see the color change right away and close it down to repair it. Or if a patient or an athlete placed too much strain on a particular body part as they move, they could wear a fabric to measure it and then try to correct it."

Though the researchers manipulated the materials with strain and temperature, there's also the potential to affect them with voltage, magnetic fields, and acoustic fields, he said, which could lead to new kinds of electronic devices made from these crystals.

"Now that we have the fundamental science to understand how these materials behave, we can start applying them to different technologies," de Pablo said.

BOSTON - The impact and prevalence of heart disease and other critical comorbidities on an aging global population with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have emerged from a suite of articles in The Journal of Infectious Diseases that contains the first swath of important data from the world's largest study of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in people with HIV. This information from the ongoing National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study known as REPRIEVE (Randomized Trial to Prevent Vascular Events in HIV), in which Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is playing a key coordinating role, is giving the field of medicine an advance look at the disproportionate risk of comorbidities like CVD, chronic liver and kidney disease, physical function impairment and frailty, premature reproductive aging, cancer, and obesity in people with HIV from all regions of the world.

"With nearly half of all people living with HIV now over 50, the emphasis among health care providers has shifted over the past 20 years from keeping patients alive through antiretroviral therapy to providing the best possible care for secondary co-morbid conditions encountered over greatly increased lifespans," says Steven Grinspoon, MD, chief of the MGH Metabolism Unit professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and co-principal investigator of REPRIEVE. "The release of this initial baseline data from REPRIEVE will help physicians and researchers to better understand the whole person impact of HIV, and ultimately to develop more effective preventions, treatment strategies and guidelines for cardiovascular risk management in this population. In a very real way, co-morbidities are the newest frontier of HIV."

Sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), both part of NIH, REPRIEVE enrolled 7,770 participants from 2015 to 2019 across more than 100 clinical research sites in 12 countries and five continents, reflective of the ethnic, racial and gender diversity of the global HIV epidemic. This remarkable global collaboration, which also includes the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the pharmaceutical industry, is expected to report its findings to the public in 2023. The study was cited last year in a JAMA Viewpoint by Anthony Fauci, MD, director of NIAID, and colleagues as pivotal to uncovering the mechanisms of, and potential treatments for, ischemic heart disease and other serious cardiovascular conditions in individuals with HIV.

Massachusetts General Hospital is serving as the clinical coordinating center for REPRIEVE while also coordinating data collection for the trial with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. That role includes overseeing serial assessment of coronary atherosclerosis at 30 sites across the U.S. using the latest noninvasive CT angiography technology. "Imaging the specific patterns of coronary artery disease will help us to better stratify cardiovascular risk in the REPRIEVE population," explains Udo Hoffmann, MD, MPH, professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School and co-principal investigator of REPRIEVE.

While a primary goal of REPRIEVE is to reduce major adverse cardiovascular events in people with HIV through a cardiac prevention strategy, the global initiative is also assessing non-CVD comorbidities, many of which are characterized in the first release of data from the set of six articles published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. One article, for example, reports that physical function impairment and pre-frailty are common among middle-aged people with HIV, and that body mass index (BMI) and physical activity are key modifiable risk factors that may prevent further decline in function with aging among this population. Another paper shows that reproductive aging in middle-aged women with HIV is associated with global burden of disease (GBD) region of enrollment, and may predispose these women to increased cardiometabolic risk. The papers also shed light on distinct patterns of antiretroviral use across the globe, unique associations of weight and immune function, and factors contributing to increased kidney dysfunction and increased ectopic fat deposition in the heart among people with HIV. New data on the participation of transgender participants and the cardiovascular risk associated with gender-affirming therapy in this population are also reported.

"This initial compilation of data from the landmark REPRIEVE study offers a rich window on the kinds of diseases physicians find themselves treating at a time when the HIV demographic is changing as the result of effective antiretroviral drugs, increasing life expectancies, and the substantial growth of cardiovascular disease and other comorbidities in a still vulnerable population," says Grinspoon. "By shedding light for the first time on the magnitude and complexity of the problem, we believe this information and more to follow will play a critical role in developing cardiac prevention strategies along with improved health care for the 37 million people living with HIV globally."

Theft law needs reform so the crime is based on consent not dishonesty - reducing the risk of judgements which lack "common sense" - a new study warns.

At the moment technically "putting a can of beans into a shopping basket is acting like a thief", the study warns.
The current law, from 1968, has long-been criticised for being unsuitable because it requires proof property was taken dishonesty, and someone can be guilty of theft even if the victim has not lost their property.

The study says a solution would be to base theft law purely on consent, for it to be "a serious, intentional or reckless interference with another's property without consent". This more closely aligns with the core wrong of theft, and is easier to understand for police, prosecutors and juries trying to decide if someone is guilty of theft.

The study, published in Criminal Law Review, raises concerns about the counter-intuitive consequences of the current law. Currently changing labels on supermarket goods, or taking more money than is due from a proffered wallet, or buying with a forged cheque would be classed as theft.

The new definition, proposed as part of a study by Dr Nathan Tamblyn from the University of Exeter Law School, suggests theft should be taking and keeping, when currently something as trivial as touching can suffice. This would make the law more explicit that borrowing can be theft.

Under the current law a person is guilty of theft if they "dishonestly appropriate property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it". Someone can be guilty of theft even if the property never leaves the owners possession, for example if someone tries to sell something belonging to another person.

Current theft law can cover actions which are ordinary and acceptable. For example, picking up a can of beans from a supermarket shelf to put in a shopping basket technically constitutes an appropriation of property belonging to another with an intention of permanently depriving the supermarket.

Professor Tamblyn said: "The law regarding theft needs reform because it is producing strange results. Partly the problems stem from the fact that the current definition of theft involves an "appropriation" of property, which can be as trivial as merely touching property. Instead, I suggest that theft should be reserved for serious interference with property, like taking and keeping.

"Partly the problems stem from the fact that so much of the work done in defining theft turns upon the need for a person to act dishonestly.

"The courts have struggled to find a helpful explanation of what it means to act dishonestly, advancing different tests over the years. The most recent test is still unhelpfully circular, in effect defining dishonest behaviour as whatever an ordinary decent, honest person would think is dishonest.

"That approach can fail to provide much guidance in advance as to whether contemplated behaviour is dishonest or not. It is unfair to convict a person for behaviour which they could not tell in advance was dishonest. It also means that the law fails to discourage such behaviour, for lack of any clear advance prohibition."

Dr Tamblyn's definition is more similar to that of other offences. It is a crime to damage another's property intentionally or recklessly or commit violence intentionally or recklessly.

The current law is based on a statute which could be replaced. Courts could also revisit their interpretation of that statute, to construe "appropriation" as involving serious interferences with property, and "dishonestly" as meaning without belief that the owner consents.

New research reveals how winners & losers from climate change can be identified based on their ability to adapt to rising future temperatures.

In the first study of its kind published in PNAS, Flinders University evolutionary biologists have shown that resilience or vulnerability to future climates is influenced by the thermal conditions of the climatic regions where species evolved.

The study compared thermal tolerance and gene expression (which genes are activated within a cell) in subtropical, desert and temperate Australian rainbowfishes.

Evolutionary biologist Professor Luciano Beheregaray says subtropical species were the winners in future climates because evolution suits their local conditions given these fish have the ability to turn on and off a larger number of heat stress genes in hotter climates.

The study shows that subtropical species have greater capacity to adapt to future climates than desert species, and that temperate species are the most vulnerable.

By looking at how all the genes are expressed in current temperatures and in temperatures projected for 2070, the researchers produced a catalogue of genes that informs about the adaptive capacity to climate change.

"Resilience or vulnerability to climate change is expected to be influenced by the thermal conditions where species are found, but we knew very little about this, and hardly anything about how this might vary across different climatic regions", says co-author Dr Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo.

"Our results suggest that the vulnerability of species to climate change will be highly influenced by geographic factors, emphasising the value of assessments of climate traits for more accurate estimates of population impacts and the way ecosystems will ultimately respond", says co-author and PhD student Katie Gates.

The findings can also be extended to many non-migratory species, aquatic or terrestrial, under pressure due to climate change.

"This information is important for identifying biodiversity at high risk of extinction and to develop ways to help them to adapt and persist. This includes restoring lost habitat and actively moving populations to more favourable climatic locations, while we still have time", says Professor Beheregaray.