Earth

Fibroblasts present in different pancreatic diseases are genetically distinct and their functions are 'programmed' by the unique environment of each disease, according to new research from the University of Liverpool (UK).

As well as different genetic profiles, the team found to their surprise, that disease-specific fibroblasts retain their unique gene expression following isolation and culture. As fibroblasts are a key drug development target for these diseases, the findings have important implications for how research is conducted.

Fibroblasts are the most common cells within the body's connective tissues and play a critical role in wound healing. But they can also be recruited by cancer cells to help them grow, spread and evade the body's immune system.

Funded in part by the UK charity Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, the Liverpool team is the first to isolate, characterise and compare the properties of fibroblasts found in pancreatic cancer, chronic pancreatitis and periampullary tumours (a rare cancer affecting the area between the bile duct, pancreas and small intestine).

Lead researcher Professor Eithne Costello said: "It's long been thought that fibroblasts from different pancreatic diseases were very alike and have similar functions. But we've been able to show for the first time that this is absolutely not the case. While fibroblasts from distinct diseases share many properties, each disease changes the fibroblast in a different way and it's clear that researchers using fibroblasts for disease-specific research should ensure they use appropriate ones for their work."

The study, published in the journal Cancer Research, found that less than one quarter of activated genes were shared between fibroblasts isolated from different disease groups, compared to fibroblasts found in normal tissue. When comparisons were restricted to disease-associated fibroblasts only, less than one per cent of differentially expressed genes were common across disease types.

Fibroblasts are particularly abundant in pancreatic cancer, secreting growth factors and other chemicals to promote the growth of a fibrous scar-like coating around the tumour - the stroma - which prevents drugs from reaching the cancer cells within.
It is this key role in the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer tumours and their complex interaction with surrounding cells that makes fibroblasts an important focus of research for finding potential drug targets.

When the team analysed blood samples from 230 patients with different pancreatic diseases and healthy donors, they found that pancreatic cancer patients had much higher levels of a protein produced by fibroblasts in the samples, compared to patients with chronic pancreatitis.

The protein - known as TNC - is one of the main proteins produced by fibroblasts to aid the growth of the stroma in pancreatic cancer. But intriguingly, when the team knocked down this protein from fibroblasts, and assessed its effect on the migration of pancreatic cancer cells, the cancer cells began to migrate more.

"It suggests that TNC in fibroblasts is somehow inhibiting the migration of cancer cells which is something that has not been reported before and warrants further investigation. It also underlines just how complex the interaction between fibroblasts and pancreatic cancer cells is," said co-researcher Dr Lawrence Barrera.

However, while TNC's potential as a therapeutic target remains unclear, the research team believes that the distinct difference in the levels of TNC found in the blood of patients with pancreatic cancer and those with chronic pancreatitis may be a potential biomarker to distinguish between the two diseases - something that currently can only be determined clinically or by a tissue biopsy.

Urban insect populations would need to increase by a factor of at least 2.5 for urban great tits to have same breeding success as those living in forests according to research published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology.

Researchers at the University of Pannonia, Hungary and the University of Sheffield, UK found that providing high quality supplementary food to urban great tits, in the form of nutritionally enriched mealworms, can dramatically boost their breeding success.

"Urban nestlings had considerably higher survival chance and gained an extra two grams of body mass when provided with an insect-rich diet, an increase of 15% compared to the weight of chicks that didn't receive extra food. This is a substantial difference." said Dr Gábor Seress, lead author of the research. "This greater body mass when leaving the nest may increase the chicks' chance of surviving to spring and breeding themselves."

These beneficial effects of food supplementation were not seen in forest dwelling great tits where high quality nestling food is abundant. Although the free meals were also readily received by forest parents.

Reduced breeding success in urban bird populations is well documented but this study is the first to show that insect-rich supplementary food during nestling development largely mitigates these habitat differences. The findings indicate that food limitation in urban environments plays a crucial role in reducing the breeding success of insect-eating birds.

Dr Seress said: "Given the popularity of year-round bird feeding and the abundance of anthropogenic food sources in cities it might seem unlikely that urban birds have limited food. But quantity is not quality. Most songbirds require an insect-rich diet to successfully raise many and vigorous young, and urban areas generally support fewer insects than more natural habitats, especially caterpillars, which are key components of the optimal nestling diet for many species."

The authors say that artificially providing insect-rich food for birds in cities may not be the best solution. "Instead of directly supplying high-quality bird food to enhance urban birds' breeding success, we believe that management activities that aim to increase the abundance of insects in the birds' environment, would be more effective. Insects are the cornerstone of healthy and complex ecosystems and it is clear that we need more in our cities." said Dr Seress.

Increasing insect populations in cities in no easy task. The authors highlight that most urban green spaces are often highly managed which can reduce insect abundance. Modifying how green spaces are managed and encouraging practices like planting trees is likely to benefit both insect-eating birds as well as people.

In the experiment, the researchers studied great tits in nest boxes at urban and forest sites in Hungary, 2017. The urban sites were in the city of Veszprém with nest boxes placed in public green spaces such as parks and cemeteries. The forest site was three kilometres outside of Veszprém in deciduous woodland. At both sites there were broods that did not receive supplementary food to act as controls.

For the supplementary fed broods, the researchers provided nutritionally enhanced mealworms throughout brood rearing period on a daily basis, adjusting the amount in accordance to the brood size to meet 40-50% of food requirements. When nestlings were 15 days old (a few days from leaving the nest) the researchers recorded the size, weight and survival rate of chicks.

To estimate the amount of supplementary food consumed by the chicks and their parents, the researchers mounted small, hidden cameras on the nest boxes.

While the findings demonstrate that providing high quality additional food can boost breeding success, it is unclear to what extent this could increase population size and stability, further work is needed to explore this.

Further research into the reduced abundance of insects in cities is also needed. Dr Karl Evans, co-author of the research, said "There is a clear need for additional research to understand which of the many aspects that differ between urban and more natural areas causes the reduced abundance of insects in our cities and towns. This is essential in order to improve the habitat quality of urban environments for nesting birds".

Cats are twice as likely to survive a venomous snakebite than dogs, and the reasons behind this strange phenomenon have been revealed by University of Queensland research.

The research team, led by PhD student Christina Zdenek and Associate Professor Bryan Fry, compared the effects of snake venoms on the blood clotting agents in dogs and cats, hoping to help save the lives of our furry friends.

"Snakebite is a common occurrence for pet cats and dogs across the globe and can be fatal," Dr Fry said.

"This is primarily due to a condition called 'venom-induced consumptive coagulopathy' - where an animal loses its ability to clot blood and sadly bleeds to death.

"In Australia, the eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis) alone is responsible for an estimated 76 per cent of reported domestic pet snakebites each year.

"And while only 31 per cent of dogs survive being bitten by an eastern brown snake without antivenom, cats are twice as likely to survive - at 66 per cent."

Cats also have a significantly higher survival rate if given antivenom treatment and, until now, the reasons behind this disparity were unknown.

Dr Fry and his team used a coagulation analyser to test the effects of eastern brown snake venom - as well as 10 additional venoms found around the world - on dog and cat plasma in the lab.

"All venoms acted faster on dog plasma than cat or human," Mrs Zdenek said.

"This indicates that dogs would likely enter a state where blood clotting fails sooner and are therefore more vulnerable to these snake venoms.

"The spontaneous clotting time of the blood - even without venom - was dramatically faster in dogs than in cats.

"This suggests that the naturally faster clotting blood of dogs makes them more vulnerable to these types of snake venoms.

"And this is consistent with clinical records showing more rapid onset of symptoms and lethal effects in dogs than cats."

Several behavioural differences between cats and dogs are also highly likely to increase the chances of dogs dying from venomous snake bite.

"Dogs typically investigate with their nose and mouth, which are highly vascularised areas, whereas cats often swat with their paws," Dr Fry said.

"And dogs are usually more active than cats, which is not great after a bite has taken place because the best practice is to remain as still as possible to slow the spread of venom through the body."

The researchers hope their insights can lead to a better awareness of the critically short period of time to get treatment for dogs envenomed by snakes.

"As dog lovers ourselves, this study strikes close to home but it also has global implications," Dr Fry said.

"I've had two friends lose big dogs to snakebites, dying in less than ten minutes even though the eastern brown snakes responsible were not particularly large specimens.

"This underscores how devastatingly fast and fatal snake venom can be to dogs."

Mojito, appletini or a simple glass of fizz - they may take the edge off a busy day, but if you find yourself bingeing on more than a few, you could be putting your physical and mental health at risk according new research at the University of South Australia.

Examining the drinking patterns of 479 female Australian university students aged 18-24 years, the world-first empirical study explored the underlying belief patterns than can contribute to Drunkorexia - a damaging and dangerous behaviour where disordered patterns of eating are used to offset negative effects of consuming excess alcohol, such as gaining weight.

Concerningly, researchers found that a staggering 82.7 per cent of female university students surveyed had engaged in Drunkorexic behaviours over the past three months. And, more than 28 per cent were regularly and purposely skipping meals, consuming low-calorie or sugar-free alcoholic beverages, purging or exercising after drinking to help reduce ingested calories from alcohol, at least 25 per cent of the time.

Clinical psychologist and lead UniSA researcher Alycia Powell-Jones says the prevalence of Drunkorexic behaviours among Australian female university students is concerning.

"Due to their age and stage of development, young adults are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours, which can include drinking excess alcohol," Powell-Jones says.

"Excess alcohol consumption combined with restrictive and disordered eating patterns is extremely dangerous and can dramatically increase the risk of developing serious physical and psychological consequences, including hypoglycaemia, liver cirrhosis, nutritional deficits, brain and heart damage, memory lapses, blackouts, depression and cognitive deficits.

"Certainly, many of us have drunk too much alcohol at some point in time, and we know just by how we feel the next day, that this is not good for us, but when nearly a third of young female uni students are intentionally cutting back on food purely to offset alcohol calories; it's a serious health concern."

The harmful use of alcohol is a global issue, with excess consumption causing millions of deaths, including many thousands of young lives.

In Australia, one in six people consume alcohol at dangerous levels, placing them at lifetime risk of an alcohol-related disease or injury. The combination of excessive alcohol intake with restrictive eating behaviours to offset calories can result in a highly toxic cocktail for this population.

The study was undertaken in two stages. The first measured the prevalence of self-reported, compensative and restrictive activities in relation to their alcohol consumption.

The second stage identified participants' Early Maladaptive Schemes (EMS) - or thought patterns - finding that that the subset of schemas most predictive of Drunkorexia were 'insufficient self-control', 'emotional deprivation' and 'social isolation'.

Powell-Jones says identifying the early maladaptive schemas linked to Drunkorexia is key to understanding the harmful condition.

These are deeply held and pervasive themes regarding oneself and one's relationship with others, that can develop in childhood and then can influence all areas of life, often in dysfunctional ways. Early maladaptive schemas can also be influenced by cultural and social norms.

Drunkorexic behaviour appears to be motivated by two key social norms for young adults - consuming alcohol and thinness.

"This study has provided preliminary insight into better understanding why young female adults make these decisions to engage in Drunkorexic behaviours," Powell-Jones says.

"Not only may it be a coping strategy to manage social anxieties through becoming accepted and fitting in with peer group or cultural expectations, but it also shows a reliance on avoidant coping strategies.

"It is important that clinicians, educators, parents and friends are aware of the factors that motivate young women to engage in this harmful and dangerous behaviour, including cultural norms, beliefs that drive self-worth, a sense of belonging, and interpersonal connectedness.

"By being connected, researchers and clinicians can develop appropriate clinical interventions and support for vulnerable young people within the youth mental health sector."

Overview

A research group of Assistant Prof. Yuu Hirose of the Department of Applied Chemistry and Life Science at Toyohashi University of Technology, Niigata University, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), and the National Institute of Polar Research, has revealed the community structure of microorganisms living around freshwater lakes in the Langhovde and Skarvsnes ice-free areas of Antarctica. An analysis of samples collected from lake shores, puddles, etc. using a next-generation sequencer has verified that cyanobacteria and tardigrades are widely distributed and specific eukaryotic algae are dominant in certain sites. This knowledge will contribute to clarification of adaptation mechanisms of microorganisms to severe physical stresses in Antarctica, e.g. low temperatures, ultraviolet irradiation and freeze-thaw cycles.

Details

Most of Antarctica is covered with thick snow and ice, however; there are ice-free areas where land is exposed. The ice-free areas occupy only about 0.2% of the area in Antarctica, but a variety of microorganisms have been observed, and the areas are also called "Antarctic oases". Two ice-free areas called Langhovde and Skarvsnes exist near Showa Station, Antarctica, and there are 50 or more large and small lakes in these areas (Fig. 1). Water does not freeze at the bottom of these lakes throughout the year and a unique ecosystem called "moss pillar," that mainly includes moss and fungi, is distributed. Assistant Prof. Yuu Hirose and others of the Department of Applied Chemistry and Life Science at Toyohashi University of Technology focused on shores of freshwater lakes and also puddles and streams from snow meltwater. These environments are completely frozen during the winter season and accordingly are under more extreme stress (e.g. freezing and thawing and temperature changes), than that at the bottom of lakes.

In recent years, a technique for analyzing microbial community structure in environments using a next-generation sequencer has been developed. This method has a higher sensitivity and better quantitative properties than those of conventional techniques such as microscope observation. Assistant Prof. Hirose used this method to analyze microbial community structures at a total of 13 sites in the vicinity of Antarctic freshwater lakes (Fig. 2). The results revealed that filamentous cyanobacteria were widely distributed, and also that the proportion of unicellular cyanobacteria and cyanobacteria with cell differentiation capacity (called heterocysts*1), was small. The most widely distributed eukaryote was tardigrades with resistance to dryness and low temperatures. It was verified that specific eukaryotic algae such as cryptophyceae and green algae were dominant in some sites. There were also sites including nematodes feeding on algae. It is interesting that the fungi most dominant in moss pillars were not majority in these areas. The above results revealed that a variety of organisms lived even under severe environments e.g. the shallower parts of lakes, and puddles and streams.

*1Heterocyst: Cells dedicated to nitrogen fixation in filamentous cyanobacteria and formed mostly under nitrogen-deficient conditions.

Future Outlook

Clarification of the molecular mechanism how microorganisms living in these areas adapt to severe stresses is expected in the future. It is important to clarify the relationship between environmental factors, such as temperature and light conditions, and community structures of microorganisms. The monitoring and maintenance of the Antarctic ecosystem based on these information are also important.

Tiny sea skaters, as insect ocean pioneers, may hold the secret to developing improved water repellant materials. A KAUST study also provides insights into the insect's physical features, including the hairs and waxy coating that cover its body, and its movement to evade the sea's dangers.

"Our multidisciplinary study is the first of its kind to investigate two marine skater species, the ocean-dwelling Halobates germanus, and a coastal relative, H. hayanus," says Gauri Mahadik at the Red Sea Research Center, who worked on the study with colleagues, under the supervision of Himanshu Mishra, Carlos Duarte and Sigurdur Thoroddsen. "We wanted to understand how these insects had evolved to survive in harsh marine environments where others failed."

Faced with crashing waves, ultraviolet radiation, rain, salt water, and predatory birds and fish, insects need a specialized set of adaptations to survive in the ocean. The team captured the two Halobates species from the Red Sea and coastal mangrove lagoons at KAUST and acclimatized them to an aquarium environment.

"It is difficult to keep marine Halobates in the lab, and there was considerable trial and error before we got it right," says Mahadik. "These insects are cannibalistic, so it was important to keep them well fed. We spent hours trying to capture their natural behaviors on film because they jump around a lot."

The researchers used high-resolution imaging equipment, including electron microscopy and ultrafast videography, to study the insects' varied body hairs, grooming behavior and movements as they evaded simulated rain drops and predators. The insect's body is covered in hairs of different shapes, lengths and diameters, and it secretes a highly water-repellant waxy cocktail that it uses to groom itself.

"The tiniest hairs are shaped like golf clubs and are packed tightly to prevent water from entering between them. This hairy layer, if the insect is submerged accidentally, encases it in an air bubble, helping it to breathe and resurface quickly", says co-author Lanna Cheng, from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

"In its resting state, not even five percent of the insect's total leg surface is in contact with the water; so it is practically hovering on air." says Mishra.

If water droplets land on the creature they roll off or, as the KAUST team caught on camera, the insect jumps and somersaults to shed the drops. The researchers were surprised by how fast it moved to evade predators and incoming waves.

"While taking off from the water surface, we observed H. germanus accelerate at around 400 m/s2," says Thoroddsen. "Compare this with a cheetah or Usain Bolt, whose top accelerations taper off at 13 m/s2 and 3 m/s2, respectively. This extraordinary acceleration is due to the insect's tiny size and the way it presses down on the water surface, rather like using a trampoline, to boost its jump."

The wax secreted by the insect is of great interest to the team's materials scientists, who are exploring new approaches for liquid repellent technologies. The insect's hair structures are also informing the design of new materials.

"Inspired by the mushroom-shaped hairs of Halobates, my group is developing greener and low-cost technologies for reducing frictional drag and membrane fouling," says Mishra.

There is high variability in access to, and quality of, bone density scanning facilities worldwide, according to a landmark global study carried out at the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit (MRC LEU, University of Southampton) in collaboration with the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and the International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD).

A global survey of 121 fracture liaison services (organisations which identify and provide treatment for patients at risk of secondary fractures) from 31 countries was conducted to assess the quality of their bone scanning facilities. These services participated in the Capture the Fracture® Best Practice Framework which provides globally-endorsed standards for fracture liaison services.

Low bone density, measured using Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), is common among older people and is associated with increased risk of osteoporotic fractures. Osteoporotic fractures are associated with disability, mortality and significant economic costs.

The study, published in Osteoporosis International, found that most fracture liaison services reported that DXA access met needs. However, adherence to basic DXA quality and reporting procedures was confirmed by only around 50% of services and over 50% required ongoing education for DXA machine operators and interpreters.

Professor Christopher Shuhart, co-author and Immediate Past President of ISCD stated: "Although DXA service access meets needs, many centres are falling short of quality standards. The findings emphasise the need for educational initiatives targeting DXA measurement technology and reporting, such as adoption of the joint IOF-ISCD Osteoporosis Essentials course."

Professor Cyrus Cooper, Director of the MRC LEU and President of IOF, said:

"This unique, ground-breaking study is exactly the sort of health quality assessment required in our field. It is a wonderful example of collaboration between IOF and ISCD to generate a unique global perspective."

Scientists have pioneered a new technique to expose hidden biochemical pathways involving single molecules at the nanoscale.

A team of researchers from the University of Exeter's Living Systems Institute used light to establish a means to monitor the structure and properties of individual molecules in real time.

This innovative approach has allowed the team to temporarily bridge molecules together to provide a crucial lens into their dynamics.

The study is published in the leading journal Nature Communications.

The structure of individual molecules and their properties, such as chirality, are difficult to probe.

In the new study, led by Professor Frank Vollmer, the group was able to observe reactions at the nanoscale which would otherwise be inaccessible.

Thiol/disulfide exchange - or the principal way disulfide bonds are formed and rearranged in a protein - has not yet been fully scrutinised at equilibrium at the single-molecule level, in part because this cannot be optically resolved in bulk samples.

However, light can circulate around micron-sized glass spheres to form resonances. The trapped light can then repeatedly interact with its surrounding environment. By attaching gold nanoparticles to the sphere, light is enhanced and spatially confined down to the size of viruses and amino acids.

The resulting optoplasmonic coupling allows for the detection of biomolecules that approach the nanoparticles while they attach to the gold, detach, and interact in a variety of ways.

Despite the sensitivity of this technique, there is lacking specificity. Molecules as simple as atomic ions can be detected and certain dynamics can be discerned, yet we cannot necessarily discriminate them.

Serge Vincent remarks: "It took some time before we could narrow down how to reliably sample individual molecules. Forward and backward reaction rates at equilibrium are counterbalanced and, to certain extent, we sought to lift the veil over these subtle dynamics."

Reaction pathways regulated by disulfide bonds can constrain interactions to single thiol sensing sites on the nanoparticles. The high fidelity of this approach establishes precise probing of the characteristics of molecules undergoing the reaction.

By placing linkers on the gold surface, interactions with thiolated species are isolated for based on their charge and the cycling itself.

Sensor signals have clear patterns related to whether reducing agent is present. If it is, the signal oscillates in a controlled way, while if it is not, the oscillations become stochastic.

For each reaction the monomer or dimer state of the leaving group can be resolved.

Surprisingly, the optoplasmonic resonance shifts in frequency and/or changes in linewidth when single molecules interact with it. In many cases this result suggests a plasmon-vibrational coupling that could help identify individual molecules, finally achieving characterisation.

Professor Frank Vollmer said: "This excellent work by my PhD student, Serge Vincent, paves the way for many future single-molecule analysis techniques that we have only been dreaming about. It is a crucial step for our project ULTRACHIRAL. ULTRACHIRAL seeks to develop breakthroughs in how we use light to analyse chiral molecules."

The proverbs related to environmental issues traditionally used by the local population in rural areas of Spain are currently considered imprecise and unreliable due to climate change impacts. This is the result of a study carried out by the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) that presents a novel way of using the local knowledge embodied in popular proverbs to explore climate change impacts at local scales.

The study, published in the journal Regional Environmental Change, took place in Sierra Nevada (Granada, Southern Spain); a perfect location to study climate change through the view of local people for two main reasons. First, because high mountainous regions are some of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world to climate change, and second because Sierra Nevada historically has been a region in which local knowledge has been of great importance for water management and agricultural production.

Traditionally weather forecasting methods were critical to better cope with weather variability. "I was particularly impressed by the numerous indicators (clouds, wind patterns, animal behaviour) that, still nowadays, people in the area use for weather forecasting", says María Garteizgogeascoa who led the study that also included the involvement of ICTA-UAB researchers Victoria Reyes-García and David García del Amo. Although these indicators are still used by local people, their perceived reliability is changing. "I no longer pay attention to water signals because they are no longer credible" or "In the past, cattle used to announce the rain; but now they only know when it rains after they get wet, as rain now is unpredictable", are some of the statements made by the inhabitants of Sierra Nevada who participated in this study.

The study used information contained in local proverbs to explore the impacts of climate change on climatic aspects of the environment such as precipitation, on physical aspects like snow cover; and finally, on biological aspects, such as flowering periods.

For example, the proverb por Todos los Santos la nieve en los altos, por San Andrés la nieve en los pies indicates the arrival and abundance of snow cover. So, according to the proverb, at the beginning of November (Todos los Santos is celebrated on November 1st) snow can be found on the peaks of the mountains, and by the end of the month (November 30th) it normally reaches lower altitudes. When they asked participants about their current perception of the accuracy of this proverb, many stated that the proverb barely reflects the current situation, as snow arrives now later and it is less abundant. And indeed, the scientific data and literature for the region shows a delay in snow periods.

The proverb "Septiembre o lleva los puentes o seca las fuentes", describes rain variability during the month of September. In this way, September could be a time of the year in which it either rains a lot (the bridges are washed away) or barely rains (the fountains dry up). Participants explained that the proverb is no longer accurate, as there is hardly any rain in the month of September now.

Certainly, the scientific data and literature for the region shows that precipitation has decreased during that time of the year. The same could be said for 19 of the 30 proverbs used in the study.

Moreover, some of the proverbs examined provided information about climate change impacts not yet described by scientists. For example, "Cuando vienen los vilanos es conclusion del verano" encodes knowledge of the flowering period (end of August, beginning of September) of the cardus flower and other plants of the same genus that produce thistledown (small fluffy seeds that are transported by the wind). This proverb was considered not accurate nowadays by most of participants due to variations in flowering periods. However, we could not find local literature reporting those variations.

The study reveals that although the selected proverbs were still generally well recognized, many informants considered them not accurate nowadays. Specially, older informants and people working in the primary sector thought that the proverbs they use to guide their decisions in the past are not reliable anymore. The study documents how this perception of lack of accuracy goes in line with trends documented by local, regional and scientific literature and impacts of climate change documented through a Global Change Observatory established in the area in 2007. And how for others, the perceived accuracy provides novel information for scientifically undocumented climate change impacts in the area.

"Very few studies, and none in Spain, have ventured to study climate change at local scales through songs, stories or proverbs. However, this work shows that, despite some limitations, these traditional ways of encrypted local knowledge could be a useful source to do so and a window of opportunity to engage with local communities. During my work in the field, proverbs proved to be a useful tool to engage participants in discussions about climate change issues", says María Garteizgogeascoa. She hopes that this study, together with the increasing literature around climate change and local knowledge, will "contribute to bring visibility to the benefits and needs of having a climate change science that integrates different knowledge systems in part to develop a more democratic and targeted policy making".

According to researcher Victoria Reyes-García, "in the absence of meteorological data from the past, traditional knowledge collected in proverbs and other forms of popular knowledge can be an alternative source of information to understand the impacts of climate change."

Many colors in nature are produced using pigments that absorb light to varying degrees and reflect the rest, creating shades of red and brown, for instance. Our clothes and other objects are colored the same way, using chemical dyes. But the iridescent blue and green colors found on insects and other animals are different. These organisms have somehow evolved the ability to grow complex nanostructures that scatter or diffract light to produce metallic-looking colors.

Scientists are not sure how this surprising process evolved over time, but a team of researchers from Singapore and Ireland are determined to find out. Recently they came a giant step closer, using the powerful X-rays at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, to analyze 13,000-year-old beetle fossils.

“The APS is one of the best places in the world to look at 3D nanostructures. The beamline can be optimized to look at structures at these length scales. It’s super-fast and super-precise, with no sample damage.” — Vinod Kumar Saranathan, Yale-NUS College, Singapore

The team looked at the wing casings of two fossilized weevils (a species of small beetle) from the late Pleistocene era found on the shore of a lake called Lobsigensee in Switzerland, perfectly preserved in sediment. They found that the expected photonic nanostructures — repeating microscopic arrangements of crystal-like material — were also perfectly preserved, giving scientists a window into the way these structures may have evolved over time.

What they discovered, according to Vinod Kumar Saranathan, an assistant professor of life sciences at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, was that the blue and green structural colors they studied had not changed in 13,000 years.

“We compared these samples to modern beetle wings of the same genus and found them to be very similar,” said Saranathan, who led this research in collaboration with paleobiologists Maria McNamara and Luke McDonald of University College Cork in Ireland. “That’s a long time for insects, nearly 50,000 generations, and the color has not changed.”

While different families of insects grow different kinds of nanostructures, they all converge on similar lustrous qualities. These are not colors made with pigments, so they don’t fade with time. The crystalline structures reflect light in such a way that the colors are iridescent, brighter and more arresting than the colors we can produce chemically. Finding a way to replicate this process could lead to brighter, longer-lasting and eco-friendly colors for manufacturing.

According to Saranathan, it is believed that the weevils’ green colors first evolved as camouflage millions of years ago when the insects began eating plant sap and leaves. Over time, they began to use these iridescent colors as a way of signaling to potential mates and warding off predators. Weevils are not the only animals to have evolved these complex 3D nanostructures -- Saranathan's previous research has found them in butterflies as well, for instance.

Key to studying these structures are the ultra-bright X-ray beams generated by the APS. The research team used X-ray scattering techniques to probe the structures and combined those results with data gathered with electron microscopes and optical modeling.

Saranathan first began bringing fossils of animals and birds to the APS in 2008 and has been working with Suresh Narayanan, physicist and group leader, and Alec Sandy, associate division director for X-ray science technologies, both of Argonne’s X-ray Science Division (XSD), ever since. Both Narayanan and Sandy are co-authors on the recent weevil research, which was published in Biology Letters. The APS portion of the research was performed at XSD beamline 8-ID-I.

“The APS is unique in that we have a small and clean, but very intense, X-ray beam that can survey an area of 10-15 microns,” said Narayanan. “A clean beam helps in probing micron scale structures, which is crucial for this type of study.”

Narayanan sees this research as a testament to the work done at DOE User Facilities around the country.

“User facilities don’t just do one kind of science,” he said. “They touch on areas across every discipline. Working on this research, we are able to contribute to the understanding of evolution.”

Saranathan says that the APS’ ability to probe large numbers of samples at once with great precision while preserving the samples themselves — something that is not guaranteed with other methods of analysis — keeps him coming back to Argonne for his research.

“The APS is one of the best places in the world to look at 3D nanostructures,” he said. “The beamline can be optimized to look at structures at these length scales. It’s super-fast and super-precise, with no sample damage.”

Saranathan has been studying these crystalline nanostructures for more than a decade, and his goal, he said, is to definitively figure out the reasons that they evolved. In order to do that, however, he will need more fossil samples, and they’re hard to come by.

This is only the second time that 3D images of photonic nanostructures have been studied in the fossil record, Saranathan said. He and McNamara were the ones who led the first set as well. The latest fossils were preserved by coincidence, Saranathan said. The beetles died along the lakeshore, and the sediments they were found in were accessible.

“This is a proof of concept,” Saranathan said. “It’s more difficult because these samples are rare, but we know we can learn more about how these nanostructures evolved.”

(Millbrook, NY) In the Grand Canyon reach of the Colorado River, two species play an outsized role in the fate of mercury in the aquatic ecosystem, and their numbers are altered by flood events. So reports new research, published in Science Advances, that is among the first to meld ecotoxicology and ecosystem ecology to trace how mercury flows through aquatic food webs and then spreads to land.

Mercury is an environmental contaminant that occurs in ecosystems globally. In its organic form, it is a potent neurotoxin that can harm people and wildlife. Mercury accumulation in animals and how it magnifies along food chains is well studied. Less well understood are the pathways mercury takes through food webs to reach top predators, such as fish and birds, and how those pathways might change after large ecosystem disturbances, such as floods.

Emma Rosi is an aquatic ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and co-lead author on the paper. She explains, "By combining data on mercury concentrations in aquatic life with well-studied food webs, we were able to reveal how mercury moves through an ecosystem. We found that flooding and an invasive species both influenced the flow of this contaminant of global concern."

The traits of organisms living in an ecosystem - their physiology, what they eat, and what eats them - determine contaminant movement and exposure. These factors have rarely been included in models of contaminant flux and fate. "Pairing contaminant concentrations and highly detailed food webs has the potential to improve the management of contaminants in ecosystems," Rosi notes.

To study these pathways, the research team developed mercury-based food webs for six sites spanning 225 miles of the Colorado River, extending downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam in Grand Canyon National Park. Food web sampling took place seasonally over two years. At each site, they measured algae, invertebrates, and fish to determine who was eating what - and what that meant for mercury exposure at each level of the food web.

Insects (blackflies and midges) and invasive New Zealand mudsnails were the dominant invertebrates in the river. These animals play a vital role in moving energy and contaminants from the bottom of the food web to fish predators at the top. Fish included native Bluehead Sucker, Flannelmouth Sucker, Speckled Dace, and Humpback Chub, as well as non-native species such as Common Carp, Fathead Minnow, and Rainbow Trout.

The stomach contents of invertebrates and fish were assessed to identify what they ate and in what amounts. Algae, detritus, and animals were analyzed for mercury concentrations and, combined with the diet data, the team estimated the amount of mercury that animals were consuming throughout the year.

Food web complexity varied across the study sites. Just below the Glen Canyon Dam, food webs were simple with few species and food web connections. Further downstream, food webs had higher species diversity and more connections. Across the study sites, regardless of food web complexity, relatively few species were key players in the movement of mercury.

Algae and tiny particles of detritus were the source of 80% of mercury flowing to invertebrates. In sites closest to the dam, invasive mudsnails dominated the food webs. Trout were the only fish in this part of the river, and they are unable to digest mudsnails. Mercury accumulated by the snails did not move up the food chain. Because the snails are fully aquatic, mercury cycled back into the river's detrital food web when they died.

Blackfly larvae were the source of 56-80% of the mercury flowing to fish. Blackflies are preferred prey for fish, such as Rainbow Trout, and blackflies had higher mercury contaminations compared to other invertebrates. Blackflies that escape predation and emerge from the river as flying adults move mercury from the river to land. This can expose terrestrial predators, such as birds and bats, to mercury that started out in the river.

The amount of mercury that blackflies moved to land was dependent on the number of hungry fish in any part of the river. At some sites, fish ate nearly 100% of the blackfly larvae, leaving few left to emerge. At other sites, there were a lot more blackflies than the fish could eat. When these blackflies emerged as adults, the mercury inside them hitched a ride to terrestrial food webs along the river.

One year into sampling, the study sites were flooded as part of a planned dam release. The team was able to explore the effects of the flood on mercury movement in the food webs. At sites near the dam, the flood washed away large numbers of New Zealand mudsnails and led to a boom in blackfly populations. With the rise in blackflies, more mercury flowed to trout. Because trout gobbled up nearly all the blackflies in their larval form, very little of the mercury accumulated in these abundant insects was transported to land by the flying adults.

Rosi explains, "Changes to the animal populations in an ecosystem will impact how mercury moves through a food web. This was especially apparent at sites where flooding changed the proportion of blackflies relative to fish. Flooding dramatically altered mercury pathways in the simple tailwater food web near the dam, but not in the more complex food webs downstream."

"Invasive species and dams are common in rivers globally, and both factors were at play in the Grand Canyon reach of the Colorado River," Rosi says. "We found that flooding changed the species present at our study sites, and mercury flow changed with those shifts."

"Understanding the factors that control the movement of mercury through food webs can help resource managers protect ecosystems that are susceptible to mercury pollution," says David Walters, USGS scientist and co-lead author of the study.

Rosi concludes, "This study is exciting because it sheds light on the depth of understanding we can achieve when we merge ecological and ecotoxicological thinking. Species traits, animal populations, predator-prey interactions, and disturbance can all influence the movement of contaminants in the environment. Understanding the complex interplay of these factors can improve risk management of animal exposures in the environment."

With several high-quality serological assays for SARS-CoV-2 now available, the key challenge in using them to help people return to "normal life," write Florian Krammer and Viviana Simon in this Perspective, will be to apply them in a strategic manner - one that considers their unique sensitivity and specificity levels, acknowledges the questions they don't yet answer, and more. Serological assays - which detect SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in recovered peoples' blood - will be important to informing questions around prevalence of the virus in certain populations and of immunity to it. It has been proposed that individuals with robust antibody responses in these assays could safely return to work, for example. However, though several assays have received emergency use authorization, these tools still don't fully answer questions about whether all infected individuals mount a robust antibody response, whether antibody titers to the virus correlate with protection from reinfection, and how long any such protection would last. It is "a matter of urgency" to conduct studies that better answer these questions, Krammer and Simon write. Otherwise, they say, "decisions about deploying the workforce may be based on incomplete information and guided by incorrect assumptions." Krammer and Simon describe ways to use these tools best. For example, each one has variable levels of sensitivity (how many true positives are detected) and specificity (the proportion of false positives). Studies of the results of serosurveys should account for this, and also for the estimated prevalence of infections in the study population, they say. As well, it is important to consider these tools' more politically charged applications (i.e., for "immune passports," for those who show immunity through one test or another). Krammer and Simon acknowledge the promise of serological assays but also note that any results generated from them in the immediate future should be interpreted with caution.

Grasslands across the globe, which support the majority of the world's grazing animals, have been transitioning to shrublands in a process that scientists call "woody plant encroachment."

Managed grazing of drylands is the most extensive form of land use on the planet, which has led to widespread efforts to reverse this trend and restore grass cover due to the belief that it results in less water entering streams and groundwater aquifers.

A new study led by Adam Schreiner-McGraw, a postdoctoral hydrology researcher at the University of California, Riverside, modeled shrub encroachment on a sloping landscape and reached a startling conclusion: Shrub encroachment on slopes can increase the amount of water that goes into groundwater storage. The effect of shrubs is so powerful that it even counterbalances the lower annual rainfall amounts expected during climate change.

Until now, researchers have thought that woody plants like trees and shrubs have deeper roots than grass. This belief stemmed from scientists performing their related studies on flat ground.

"It is striking that ecosystem composition is what controls projected future changes to groundwater recharge," Schreiner-McGraw said. "This does not mean that climate change is not important, but that vegetation change is potentially more important and something that scientists and land managers should focus more effort on understanding."

Co-author Hoori Ajami, an assistant professor of groundwater hydrology at UC Riverside, said the paper looks at the combined effects of climate and vegetation change on groundwater-recharge processes in arid environments.

"Most studies to date have looked at these changes in isolation," Ajami said. "Here we illustrate that the combined effects of vegetation change and climate change could be greater or less than the sum of its parts."

The intrusion of shrubs into grasslands is often considered a problem because it reduces the amount of forage available for livestock grazing and can lead to more bare ground patches and subsequent increase in soil erosion. This process of creating more bare ground is called "xerification." Climate change contributes to xerification, but fire suppression and overgrazing play the biggest roles.

It makes sense that shrubs, which have deep root systems along with thick stems and many leaves, capture more water than grass does as it percolates down through the soil, leaving less available water to replenish the underground aquifers. Research on "diffuse recharge," the process by which water replenishes groundwater supplies over a large area, seems to bear this out for flat landscapes. Xerification of grasslands has thus been viewed as bad for both livestock and the water cycle.

"We approached this research with a simple premise that topography plays a role in redistributing available water, and this should affect the outcomes of xerification," said co-author Enrique R. Vivoni, a professor at Arizona State University.

The group looked at focused recharge, which occurs when hillslopes funnel water into concentrated areas, such as streambeds. Streambeds often have sandy bottoms, which allow water to quickly infiltrate and prevent the deep-rooted shrubs from sucking it up.

Data from a highly monitored desert mountain slope in New Mexico was used to simulate the effects of woody plant encroachment and climate change on water resources. The team discovered that not only did the shrubs increase focused groundwater recharge, but that they did so even under conditions where climate change reduced the amount of rainfall.

They also modeled a more extensive form of shrub encroachment called thicketization, in which plants grow in dense stands with no bare patches, and found, as in prior flat landscape research, the shrubs reduced the amount of groundwater recharge on slopes as well.

On hillslopes, bare soil in between patches of shrubs is necessary to drive water into streambeds. Increased runoff increases focused groundwater recharge.

"We were surprised to find that a transition from grassland to shrubland can increase sustainability of groundwater aquifers," said Schreiner-McGraw. "The best way to increase focused recharge in this system is to increase the amount of runoff from hillslopes that gets concentrated in the streambeds."

Climate change will most likely increase groundwater recharge by making rainstorms larger, but less frequent. Larger storms increase the amount of runoff that reaches sandy-bottom channels and increases groundwater recharge. Findings from this study suggest vegetation will also play an important part in groundwater recharge in the future.

Though the study took place in New Mexico, Schreiner-McGraw said it applies to similar environments. Large parts of California are also desert savannahs. Southern California and the Central Valley have landforms similar to those found in the New Mexico study site. These areas could experience similar hydrological processes, though atmospheric rivers create storms very different from monsoon storms, so more research is required.

"The study highlights the role of long-term monitoring in understanding water balance dynamics of watersheds, and the role that process-based modeling plays in understanding system dynamics," Ajami said.

What The Study Did: This study used survey responses from 7,000 adults to examine what limitations on self-care, mobility and household activities occurred among adults 65 and older with dementia and impaired vision.

Authors: Joshua R. Ehrlich, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2020.1562)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the articles for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflicts of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Science, has published in its January issue two papers by Associate Prof. Emma Schymanski, Head of the Environmental Cheminformatics research group at the University of Luxembourg. This is a glowing acknowledgement of the relevance of the research focus of her team: developing methods to identify unknown chemicals and their effects on health and disease.

In the two contributions to Science, Prof. Schymanski and her co-authors present the exposome, a recent concept aiming to capture the diversity of environmental factors that can affect us. They also summarise new technological advances and analytical tools used to identify chemicals and understand their impact.

The sum of all environmental factors

The exposome is the sum of all the environmental drivers of health and diseases: a combination of external factors such as chemicals contained in the air, water or food, and of internal components produced by our organism in response to various stress factors. This very complex set of elements is continually evolving, and to map it fully is a challenging undertaking. A first paper1 describes recent progress that will help with this task, such as the development of high-resolution mass spectrometry, a technology that can detect tens of thousands of compounds in biological and environmental samples. Associated with growing databases on all known chemicals and powerful computational tools to analyse large amounts of data, these recent technological advances could revolutionise environmental monitoring.

A complex network of chemicals

This first paper also highlights that a network approach is needed to take into account the large number of chemical exposures in our daily lives and the complex way they interact with our cells. This is why the second review2 describes ways to characterise groups of chemicals in diverse samples, from water and soil to biological tissues, and to identify mixtures that pose a combined risk. "Innovative sampling techniques such as hand wipes or silicon bracelets can be used to measure personal exposure," Prof. Schymanski explains. "We also mentioned the importance of non-targeted analyses to identify unknown contaminants and showed the potential of in-vitro bioassays to assess the toxicity of complex mixtures, even if chemical identities remain unknown."

"Both papers are a call for a research effort at a scale comparable to what was done for the human genome, to get in-depth knowledge of the cocktail of substances we are exposed to and their intricate interactions with living organisms," Prof. Schymanski points out.

There are still many challenges ahead: databases have to be harmonised and made fully accessible, statistical tools need refining in order to account for the constellation of chemicals coming from related sources, and methodologies should be standardised. But despite the difficulties, the perspectives are tremendous.

Need for research on environmental quality and health

According to the European environment -- state and outlook 2020, we face environmental challenges of unprecedented scale. The number of new chemicals has risen from 20 to 156 million from 2002 and 2019. Pesticides, industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals can enter the environment and the food chain, possibly causing unwanted effects and disease. Medical research estimates that every year nine million deaths are related to pollution. This highlights the need for research to address the chemical complexity of our world and elucidate the multiple links between environmental quality and health.

Just like large scale genomic studies allowed the detection of many genetic variations linked to diseases, the implementation of exposome-wide association studies with hundreds of thousands of participants would help identify the strongest chemical risk factors and understand their impact on individual health. It will enable the establishment of environmental risk scores, which could be used to develop individual prevention and treatment strategies. "On top of providing crucial information for individual patients, research on the exposome will also support the necessary shift in existing policies," Prof. Schymanski says. By helping regulatory bodies to focus on the chemicals with the most adverse effect and elucidating their combined effect, it will help minimise the impact on our health and on the ecosystems we live in. LCSB director Prof. Rudi Balling concludes: "We are proud that with Prof. Schymanski, Luxembourg is now at the forefront of this exciting and significant research field."