Earth

 22 April 2020 is National Stephen Lawrence Day which celebrates the life and legacy of the teenager who was killed in a racist attack at just 18 years old. A new report led by Sarah Page, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, reveals concerns that racism experiences are still prevalent 27 years on.

Data was collected through World Café discussion groups with 57 Midlands-based school and college pupils aged 14–17 years. Just under half of the participants were black and minority ethnic (BAME) pupils, and the rest were white British.

“Conversations with counter-extremism leads within the Home Office led us to understand that the extent of race hate and extremism in schools and communities wasn’t really known. We have official statistics from crimes that are reported but we didn’t know exactly what was going on at grass roots level.” Sarah explained.

“Key findings showed that regardless of ethnicity, young people can be victims, witnesses and also perpetrators of race hate crime. The extent of race hate crime was quite apparent, and the effects of race hate crime was also quite shocking to us.”

She added: “Racism was witnessed and experienced via social media according to the young people who took part in the study. With the current COVID-19 lockdown there is concern about possible increased racial abuse taking place online.”

A team of undergraduate students supported the data collection process which is a key approach of the Staffordshire University Crime and Society Research Group.

Pupils described race-hate victimisation that ranged from verbal abuse to physical assault including reports of weapons being used in some of the attacks. Islamophobic abuse such as headscarves being removed was reported along with race-hate between white and BAME pupils and between BAME pupils of different origins.

Inter-school racial conflict was also described. Schools with higher BAME pupil populations were negatively labelled by pupils from white majority schools.

Concerningly, teachers were seen to favour white pupils when incidents occurred on school premises, with some teachers described as ‘racist’.  Young people felt that there needs to be harsher punishments for racist behaviour to reduce harmful behaviour.

Sarah said: “The research shows that racial tension is pervasive in the lives of these young people and that simultaneous intervention is required in school, in the community, on social media and in news reports in order to address racism.”

“We had young people tell us their hair is falling out because of the stress and the trauma from racist verbal abuse. Another concern was that some pupils described some of their teachers – not all – as racist. They recognised that when punishments were distributed in schools there was bias towards white students so they had less of a punishment than a BAME equivalent. That kind of prejudiced behaviour also concerned us."

It is twenty years since the publication of the MacPherson report which championed changes to all public sector organisations, including education to address racism more effectively following the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Sarah believes this new research proves that change is still needed. She is encouraging the government to make concerted efforts to eliminate racism and race-hate related extremism within society and schools.

One suggestion is that the government funds training for all school staff on extremism and race issues - something that currently only some staff receive.

“The extent of race hate is quite clear despite it being twenty years on from the Macpherson report. What we found is that things haven’t been properly addressed and more work needs to be done in that particular area.

Sarah added: “Schools are under-resourced and that has implications for how complaints from pupils get addressed and whether or not a school wants to follow through on punishment, for example. As a result we would also advocate that the government makes sure schools get extra funding to address pastoral support and challenging behaviour.”

Young people also felt that more education for pupils on what constitutes race hate and race hate extremism would be helpful.  They suggested a range of ideas for addressing race hate issues in society.

Read the full report published in the British Journal of Community Justice - ‘People get killed cause of there [their] skin. It cannot be stopped’: A Midlands case study considering racism amongst pupils in UK secondary schools and the community

High-calorie, energy-dense foods are constantly available in our modern society. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne have discovered that a group of nerve cells in the brains of mice promotes the consumption of high-fat food. If these so-called nociceptin neurons in the hypothalamus are activated, the animals start to eat more.

Since the 1980s, we are seeing a worldwide increase in obesity and associated diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research from the laboratory of Jens Brüning have used mice in animal studies to investigate which nerve cells control the overeating of high-calorie, energy dense food. For this purpose, the animals were fed a high-fat diet and examined afterwards." Just three days of a high-fat diet feeding were sufficient to detect increased activity of nociceptin neurons in a specific region of the brain, the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus," says Alexander Jais, first author of the current study.

In a set of experiments, nociceptin neurons of mice were selectively removed from the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus. As a result, these mice no longer "over-consumed" the high-fat diet. The intake of their normal food was not affected. The nociceptin neurons can therefore specifically control the intake of high-fat food.

Following up these findings, the researchers used genetically modified mice in which the activity of the nociceptin neurons in the hypothalamus could be controlled by light. "The activation of these brain cells led to an excessive food intake of the animals," Jais explains. "The activation of nociceptin neurons inhibits certain neurons which regulate satiety and therefore the animals ingest more food."

Does obesity start in the brain?

Consumption of energy-dense food leads to a disruption of energy balance and to an increased intake of calories. "We are constantly surrounded by cheap, palatable, energy-dense foods and our brains are wired in such a way that we particularly prefer these foods," says Jais. "It is still not known why some people manage to eat only as much as they need and others do not. The individual activity of nociceptin neurons could be an important piece to the puzzle. Their activity promotes overconsumption, making them an attractive target for the prevention and treatment of obesity."

"The current Covid-19 pandemic reminds us that obesity and associated metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, are risk factors and therefore a better understanding of the central nervous system control of food intake is urgently needed, with particular emphasis on high-calorie, fat- and carbohydrate-rich foods," says Jais.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Scientists have created a new database to help track the impacts of climate change on fish living in rivers, lakes and other inland waters throughout the world.

The Fish and Climate Change Database -- or FiCli (pronounced "fick-lee") -- is a searchable directory of peer-reviewed journal publications that describe projected or documented effects of climate change on inland fishes.

These wild animals are a vital source of food and income for many people, and an indicator of the health of global aquatic ecosystems. A better understanding of how climate change is affecting these fishes could aid in their future survival, informing conservation efforts.

The FiCli team published a detailed description of the database on April 21 in Scientific Data, an open-access journal. The project was led by Trevor Krabbenhoft, a fish biologist at the University at Buffalo, and Bonnie Myers, a fish biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and PhD candidate at North Carolina State University.

"The Fish and Climate Change Database pulls information together in a way that people can meaningfully use it," says Krabbenhoft, PhD, assistant professor of biological sciences in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and the RENEW (Research and Education in eNergy, Environment and Water) Institute. "The idea is not just to document how fish have been affected by climate change, but to also provide information on management options that can help mitigate some of those effects."

Researchers, fisheries managers, conservationists, journalists and others can use FiCli to find scientific articles based on factors such as fish species, habitat type, location and type of climate change impact (such as a change in temperature or precipitation).

FiCli search results include journal article titles, instructions for accessing publications, and brief summaries of information such as how fish populations have responded to climate change and what management actions are recommended.

According to the paper in Scientific Data, FiCli "currently includes information for 53 freshwater fish families, 232 studies from over 47 countries, and 851 projected and 377 documented responses of individual species or assemblages to climate change."

Curators including Krabbenhoft, Myers and Abigail Lynch, PhD, a research fish biologist at the USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center, will update the database as new studies are published. Users can also contact the team about peer-reviewed papers that are missing from the database and may be a good fit.

"The FiCli project grew, in a way, out of our need for a database as scientists," Krabbenhoft says. "We were trying to understand how climate affects fish, and we had a really hard time identifying the right papers. By synthesizing the available information on how climate change has already affected fish populations, it helps us refine our predictions for how fish are likely to be affected in the future. Hopefully we've created something that will be meaningful for other fishery biologists."

"As researchers, we often try to avoid 'reinventing the wheel' to save valuable time and resources. Compiling and synthesizing published scientific results is an important step in any research project. We hope FiCli serves as a time-saving, informative database that helps advance scientific understanding and management of the impacts of climate change on important aquatic resources and guides future climate adaptation efforts," says Myers, a research fish biologist at the USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center and PhD candidate in the North Carolina State University Department of Applied Ecology and the North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, which is housed at the university.

In addition to Krabbenhoft, Myers and Lynch, co-authors of the Scientific Data paper included:

Jesse P. Wong at George Mason University;

Cindy Chu, PhD, at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry;

Ralph W. Tingley III, PhD, at the Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit housed at the University of Missouri;

Jeffrey A. Falke, PhD, at the Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit housed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks;

Thomas J. Kwak, PhD, at the North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit housed at North Carolina State University;

and Craig P. Paukert, PhD, at the Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

The American Fisheries Society funded workshops that led to the FiCli database, with in-kind support from the USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center and the Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

In May 2018 Kīlauea volcano on the island of Hawaii erupted, touching off months of intense activity. Through August, incandescent lava from fissures spewed hundreds of feet in the air, and billowing ash clouds reached as high as six miles into the atmosphere. Huge lava flows inundated land up and down the Pacific island's southeast coast, destroying hundreds of homes.

Volcanoes erupt when molten rock called magma rises to the surface, and many factors, from the shape of the volcano to the composition of the magma, factor into the timing of eruptions. In the case of Kīlauea , a new, NASA-funded study published April 22 in the journal Nature points to another eruption factor: prolonged, sometimes heavy rainfall in the months leading up to the event.

"We knew that changes to water content in Earth's shallow crust can trigger earthquakes and landslides, and now we know that it can also trigger eruptions," said Falk Amelung, professor of geophysics at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and co-author of the study. "Under pressure from magma, wet rock breaks easier than dry rock inside the volcano. That, in turn, forges pathways for magma to travel to Earth's surface."

First, for the 2018 Kīlauea eruption researchers ruled out a common cause: increased pressure in the magma chamber, which, when it becomes great enough, is able to break through the surrounding rock. Scientists can infer increased magma pressure by observing the inflation, or rise, of the surrounding rock. "This pressurization causes the ground to inflate by a few tens of centimeters," Amelung explained. "As we did not see any significant inflation in the year prior to the eruption, we started to think about alternative explanations, which led us to investigating precipitation."

Using a combination of ground-based and NASA satellite measurements of rainfall, the researchers modeled the evolution of fluid pressure caused by sustained rainfall that accumulated in the volcano's interior--a factor that can directly influence the propensity for magma to break through the surrounding rock, ultimately driving volcanic activity. Based on pre-existing laboratory data and numerical simulations, their model results suggest that, in early 2018, fluid pressure had been at its highest in almost half a century, weakening the volcanic edifice, which the authors propose enabled magma to break through confining rock beneath the volcano and lead to the subsequent eruption.

"Interestingly, when we investigate Kīlauea 's historical eruption record, we see that magmatic intrusions and recorded eruptions are almost twice as likely to occur during the wettest parts of the year," said Jamie Farquharson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Rosenstiel School and lead author of the study. He argues that local rainfall patterns may contribute significantly to the timing and frequency of these phenomena at Kīlauea and perhaps at other volcanoes.

While rainfall infiltration has been linked to small steam explosions and volcanic earthquakes, this is the first time that scientists attribute months of above-average rainfall to explain magmatic processes more than a mile below the surface. In the case of the Kīlauea eruption, the first quarter's total rainfall over the volcano that year was about 2.25 meters compared to the 0.9-meter average for the area in that timeframe over the past 20 years. The authors note that if this process occurs as proposed at Kīlauea , then it is likely to occur elsewhere as well.

A climatic link may also be at play, Farquharson said, as ongoing climate change is predicted to bring about changes in rainfall patterns. In particular, most models project increases in extreme precipitation over most of the globe, an effect that may be further amplified in mountainous volcanic regions. "As a result, we expect that rainfall-induced volcanic activity could become more common."

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Researchers say a new discovery on a U.S. Army project for optoelectronic devices could help make optical fiber communications more energy efficient.

The University of Pennsylvania, Peking University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology worked on a project funded, in part by the Army Research Office, which is an element of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory. The research sought to develop a new design of optical devices that radiate light in a single direction. This single-sided radiation channel for light can be used in a wide array of optoelectronic applications to reduce energy loss in optical fiber networks and data centers. The journal Nature published the findings.

Light tends to flow in optical fibers along one direction, like water flows through a pipe. On-chip couplers are used to connect fibers to chips, where light signals are generated, amplified, or detected. While most light going through the coupler continues through to the fiber, some of the light travels in the opposite direction, leaking out.

A large part of energy consumption in data traffic is due to this radiation loss. Total data center energy consumption is two percent of the global electricity demand, and demand increases every year.

Previous studies consistently suggested that a minimum loss of 25 percent at each interface between optical fibers and chips was a theoretical upper bound that could not be surpassed. Because data centers require complex and interwoven systems of nodes, that 25-percent loss quickly multiplies as light travels through a network.

"You may need to pass five nodes (10 interfaces) to communicate with another server in a typical medium-sized data center, leading to a total loss of 95 percent if you use existing devices," said Jicheng Jin, University of Pennsylvania doctoral student. "In fact, extra energy and elements are needed to amplify and relay the signal again and again, which introduces noise, lowers signal-to-noise ratio, and, ultimately, reduces communication bandwidth."

After studying the system in more detail, the research team discovered that breaking left-right symmetry in their device could reduce the loss to zero.

"These exciting results have the potential to spur new research investments for Army systems," said Dr. Michael Gerhold, program manager, optoelectronics, Army Research Office. "Not only do the coupling efficiency advances have potential to improve data communications for commercial data centers, but the results carry huge impact for photonic systems where much lower intensity signals can be used for the same precision computation, making battery powered photonic computers possible."

To better understand this phenomenon, the team developed a theory based on topological charges. Topological charges forbid radiation in a specific direction. For a coupler with both up-down and left-right symmetries, there is one charge on each side, forbidding the radiation in the vertical direction.

"Imagine it as two-part glue," said Bo Zhen, assistant professor, department of physics and astronomy at University of Pennsylvania. "By breaking the left-right symmetry, the topological charge is split into two half charges - the two-part glue is separated so each part can flow. By breaking the up-down symmetry, each part flows differently on the top and the bottom, so the two-part glue combines only on the bottom, eliminating radiation in that direction. It's like a leaky pipe has been fixed with a topological two-part glue."

The team eventually settled on a design with a series of slanted bars, which break left-right and up-down symmetries at the same time. To fabricate such structures, they developed a novel etching method: silicon chips were placed on a wedge-like substrate, allowing etching to occur at a slanted angle. In comparison, standard etchers can only create vertical side walls. As a future step, the team hopes to further develop this etching technique to be compatible with existing foundry processes and also to come up with an even simpler design for etching.

The authors expect applications both in helping light travel more efficiently at short distances, such as between an optical fiber cable and a chip in a server, and over longer distances, such as long-range Lidar systems.

Oncotarget Volume 11 Issue 16 showed that the sensitivity of H1299 and A549 cells to concomitant treatment with PAC and WFA was greater than that of either PAC or WFA alone.

Interestingly, the synergism of PAC and WFA was not schedule-dependent but was enhanced when cells were pretreated with WFA indicating a chemo-sensitizing effect.

Taken together, the results demonstrate the efficacy of WFA alone or alongside PAC on NSCLC cells and provide a strong rationale for further detailed testing in clinically relevant models for the development of PAC+WFA combination as an alternative therapeutic strategy for advanced NSCLC.

Dr. Ramesh C. Gupta from The Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and The James Graham Brown Cancer Center at The University of Louisville as well as Dr. Farrukh Aqil from The Department of Medicine and The James Graham Brown Cancer Center at The University of Louisville said, "Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among both men and women in the U. S and worldwide."

The therapeutic options for NSCLC following diagnosis are dependent upon the clinical stage at diagnosis with surgical resection being the standard of care for early-stage NSCLC.

This is true primarily because 50% of tumor cells.

Therefore, despite these recent therapeutic advancements, NSCLC remains largely incurable, and the overall clinical benefit of current therapies in NSCLC is still marginal and temporary.

While PAC and cis-Pt display high antitumor potency and efficacy against all subtypes NSCLC, this chemotherapy suffers from a lack of selectivity, dose-limiting toxicity, drug resistance, and metastasis which have plateaued the clinical efficacy at about 10-14 months.

Currently, the findings demonstrate that various combinations of PAC and WFA are highly synergistic against the proliferation of the human NSCLC cells, H1299, and A549.

Moreover, WFA was active against PAC-sensitive and PAC-resistant NSCLC cells thus demonstrating the potential therapeutic efficacy of WFA alone, and in combination with PAC against NSCLC cells and providing a strong rationale for further testing to advance this combination in clinical trials.

The Gupta/Aqil Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Paper that Since cis-Pt alongside PAC is the current first-line chemotherapy for NSCLC without driver genetic mutations, they have shown that PAC with WFA is more potent and more efficacious than the standard of care.

More importantly, WFA was active against both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cells which further broadens the scope and relevance of the PAC+WFA combination in NSCLC.

Depression and long-term stress have been demonstrated to cause changes in the brain which offer a partial explanation for depressive moods, apathy, memory difficulties and other symptoms commonly associated with depression. Unbroken circles of negative thoughts are also often a distinct aspect of the mental status of depressed patients. This is down to very active and selective brain function.

"In turn, this strengthens the neural connections associated with precisely this type of thinking. Less active connections and neural networks supporting normal brain function weaken due to a lack of use, which completes the circle of negativity. The result is an imbalance of activity among neural networks, and clinical depression," says Associate Professor Tomi Rantamäki from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki.

The vicious circle could be broken by guiding the brain back towards a more comprehensive mode of action. Such guidance can be boosted by means of psychotherapy, but the effects manifest slowly. In recent years, rapid-acting modes of treatment for depression have been investigated, potentially offering entirely novel approaches. The latest new product is a nasal spray that contains esketamine, which was just granted a marketing authorisation in Europe.

"What ketamine, psychiatric electroconvulsive therapy, nitrous oxide and certain other therapies already in use or currently being trialled have in common is the fact that they increase the activity of broad cortical areas and strengthen synaptic connections. At their best, they force the broad neural networks of the cerebral cortex into an entirely new kind of interaction, which makes it possible to weaken the previous imbalance," notes Samuel Kohtala, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki.

However, such rapid relief is only temporary, unless the plasticity mechanisms endogenous to the nervous system are utilised.

"According to the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, synapses strengthened during the day undergo a process of renormalisation in deep sleep, which is dominated by slow-wave activity. The most potentiated synapses may retain their relative strength better than weaker synapses, which presents an opportunity for learning new information while purging the network of excessive noise. We think that rapid antidepressant treatments share the ability to regulate both synaptic potentiation and the reciprocal homeostatic mechanisms, which weaken synaptic strength during sleep. Either of these mechanisms can contribute to how the brain can reorganise its activity to defeat depression," Kohtala says.

Based on the studies, molecular mechanisms implicated in neuronal plasticity are particularly activated during periods of slow-wave activity. Thus, slow-wave responses could be a useful measure for determining treatment efficacy and developing novel treatments.

The researchers point out that, boosted by similar mechanisms, brain function may again be derailed during subsequent sleep periods, unless the neural networks driving the depression are sufficiently controlled, for example, by means of psychotherapy.

"The main symptoms of depression can be artificially affected by destabilising the functioning of neural networks. A more permanent effect requires tackling the root causes of the problem as well," Rantamäki emphasises.

A team of Chinese scientists has recently developed two novel compounds that inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) and one of them is a good drug candidate for further clinical studies.

The research, published online in Science on April 22, was conducted by Prof. LIU Hong and Prof. XU Yechun from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Prof. YANG Haitao from the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies of ShanghaiTech University, Prof. ZHANG Lei-Ke from the Wuhan Institute of Virology of CAS, and their collaborators.

As of April 22, more than 2.5 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, with more than 170 thousand deaths. No clinically effective vaccines or specific antiviral drugs are currently available for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

SARS-CoV-2 - the etiological agent responsible for the global COVID-19 outbreak - is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus and SARS-CoV-2 Mpro plays a vital role in its life cycle. Since SARS-CoV-2 Mpro has no human homologue, it is an ideal antiviral drug target.

After analyzing the substrate-binding pockets of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, the scientists designed and synthesized two compounds, 11a and 11b. A fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based cleavage assay was then used to determine their IC50 values. The results revealed excellent SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitory activity for both 11a and 11b, with IC50 values of 0.053 ± 0.005 μM and 0.040 ± 0.002 μM, respectively.

The researchers also employed immunofluorescence, quantitative real-time PCR and plaque assay to monitor the antiviral activity of 11a and 11b. The results all showed that compounds 11a and 11b exhibited good anti-SARS-CoV-2-infection activity in cell culture (e.g., EC50 values were 0.53 ± 0.01 μM and 0.72 ± 0.09 μM, respectively, when using the plaque assay). In addition, these compounds showed good PK properties in vivo, suggesting they are promising drug candidates. However, the lower toxicity of compound 11a makes it particularly promising.

In order to elucidate the inhibition mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro in compounds 11a and 11b, the scientists determined the high-resolution crystal structure of complexes Mpro-11a (PDB: 6LZE) and Mpro-11b (PDB: 6M0K) at 1.5-A resolution. The high-resolution crystal structure of these complexes not only demonstrated SARS-CoV-2 Mpro-11a/11b interactions, but also revealed the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 inhibition. High-resolution analysis of complexes is useful to medicinal chemists in designing novel inhibitors that act against SARS-CoV-2.

This study shows that structure-based drug design is an effective strategy for designing specific antiviral leads against SARS-CoV-2. Preclinical research on compound 11a is now proceeding. The team has decided to share its research data with scientists around the world to accelerate the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs.

In this study, the team led by Profs. LIU Hong, XU Yechun and JIANG Hualiang accomplished the design and synthesis of compounds and evaluated enzyme inhibitory activity; the team led by Profs. YANG Haitao and RAO Zihe determined the high-resolution crystal structure; and the team led by Profs. ZHANG Lei-Ke and XIAO Gengfu tested the antiviral activity. The research was also supported by the National Chengdu Center for Safety Evaluation of Drugs and Frontier Biotechnologies Inc.

On Monday, April 20, 2020, Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Moshe Kantor Database for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism held a press conference via Zoom with the European Jewish Congress to highlight their annual report on the state of antisemitism worldwide.

The conference was led by Prof. Dina Porat, Head of the Kantor Center; Dr. Giovanni Quer, Academic Director of the Kantor Center; and Adv. Arie Zuckerman, Chairman of the Kantor Center Board. Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, made taped opening remarks.

The main points underlined in the report included the following:

There was an 18% rise in violent antisemitic incidents worldwide over 2018, the highest rise since 2014.

There were 456 major violent antisemitic attacks; 53 attacks on synagogues; 169 attacks on individuals; and seven murders.

There is now a new crop of antisemitism: COVID-19-related antisemitism. People are using the pandemic to spread racism, xenophobia and antisemitism. This kind of antisemitism proposes that Jews as a collective and Jews as individuals are behind the spread of the virus or are directly profiting from it.

This "new" antisemitism draws on "classic" antisemitism: medieval blood libels; Jews as responsible for the spread of disease, poisoning wells and controlling the economy.

As people feel the economic effects of the lockdown, they look in tandem for someone/something to blame. This allows conspiracy theories to flourish, with Jewish people and other minorities at the center of these.

Social distancing measures have positioned online platforms as the main mode of communication. The Kantor Center suggests enforcing stricter rules against hate speech online, including but not limited to closing any pages that promote hate speech.

"If leaders do not respond to the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 health crisis, the consequences will be catastrophic not only for the Jewish community but for our societies and our future," Dr. Kantor said in a taped statement.

"There has been a dramatic increase in online hate speech, and what happens on the internet does not stay on the internet," said Dr. Quer. "Major violent attacks have exemplified this. There is a causal link between online hate speech and violence."

"There is a discrepancy between action taken by governments and the impression on the streets. It is our main mission to try to bridge the gap in antisemitism between government and society," said Prof. Porat. "It is terrible what we are being accused of: We are being accused of manufacturing this virus to create a vaccine to sell it to the entire world and make money off of people's suffering. It is terrible, but we must remember we are not alone. Chinese people are being detained everywhere; we are not alone in this. That said, some 40% of young Jewish people are contemplating leaving Europe today, which is very serious."

A new blood test for Alzheimer's disease has been developed under the leadership of researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The method is based on measuring a specific variant of tau protein in ordinary blood samples, which makes the test relatively simple and cheap to perform.

The research behind the test was headed by Kaj Blennow, Professor of Clinical Neurochemistry, and Henrik Zetterberg, Professor of Neurochemistry, at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. The results are published in an article in The Lancet Neurology.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by two pathological changes in the tissue of the nervous system. One is the formation of extracellular clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid. The other is neurofibrils, composed of tau protein, that have stuck together in tiny lesions ("neurofibrillary tangles") in the brain neurons through a biochemical process known as phosphorylation.

The newly developed method is based on measurement of phosphorylated tau -- specifically, the P-tau181 variant -- in ordinary blood samples, performed with an ultrasensitive method known as Single Molecule Array (Simoa). Simoa can measure considerably lower levels of protein biomarkers than other analytical methods.

P-tau181 has long been measurable through testing of cerebrospinal fluid, in which it is found at a considerably higher level than in blood samples. For the past few years, it has also been possible to demonstrate neurofibrils by using the advanced positron emission tomography (PET) medical imaging technique. Tests of cerebrospinal fluid are, however, difficult to perform in primary care, and the high costs of PET scans restrict their use. Being able to establish tau pathology through ordinary blood tests will therefore be highly valuable.

The results now published show that the level of P-tau181 is greatly elevated in Alzheimer's, including at its early stage, known as mild cognitive impairment. However, this raised level was found only in the patients who also had amyloid plaques, as revealed by the PET camera.

The level of specific P-tau181 in blood plasma also proved to correspond very closely with the level of tau tangles in the brain registered with the PET-technique. The blood test also identified people early on in the course of the disease who had plaques, but in whom the PET technique discerned no increased tau levels.

The blood test showed a very good capacity to distinguish Alzheimer's from other brain diseases, such as frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson's disease, where the blood level of P-tau181 was entirely normal.

The blood test developed at the University of Gothenburg produces results similar to those from the blood test that was developed at the U.S. pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. Results from the latter were recently published in Nature Medicine, with Kaj Blennow and Henrik Zetterberg as coauthors.

"We believe that, in the future, one very important use of our blood test will be for screening in primary care. We demonstrated this in one of the studies forming part of our article, in which we looked at patients in primary care with concerns about their failing memory," Blennow says.

"We also think the level of P-tau181 in blood plasma may be a very important marker to show and monitor the efficacy of the new drugs against Alzheimer's that are currently being developed," says Henrik Zetterberg.

Social isolation is linked to a heightened risk of hospital admission for respiratory disease among older adults, suggests research published online in the journal Thorax.

This risk is independent of other potentially influential factors, such as general health and lifestyle, the findings indicate.

Hospital admissions caused by respiratory disease feature prominently in winter bed crises and emergency department overcrowding.

They have risen at three times the rate of admissions for all other causes in the UK in recent years and disproportionately affect the vulnerable in society, including older adults.

Social isolation and loneliness are associated with admission to hospital for various health conditions, but it's not clear if socially isolated adults with respiratory conditions might also be at risk.

To explore this further, the researchers linked up hospital records and death statistics for 4478 people taking part in the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative long term study of older adults.

Social isolation was measured in terms of whether that person lived alone or not (domestic isolation); how much social contact they had with friends and family (social isolation); and how much social engagement they had, including with volunteering, cultural activities, and involvement with community groups. Loneliness was measured using a validated (UCLA) scale.

Information on potentially influential factors was also gathered. Among other things, this included gender; ethnicity; education; household income; area deprivation; underlying health conditions, including undiagnosed COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease); and lifestyle, such as smoking and physical activity levels.

Participants' health was then tracked until January 2018 or death, whichever came first, with the average monitoring period lasting 9½ years.

Around one in 10 (11%) of the study participants were admitted to hospital because of respiratory disease.

After taking account of potentially influential factors, loneliness and levels of social contact with friends and family weren't associated with a heightened risk of admission.

But living alone and poor social engagement were associated with, respectively, heightened risks of 32% and 24%.

This is an observational study, and as such, can't establish cause, but the researchers point out that their findings chime with those of other published studies linking social isolation and loneliness with poorer health.

In a bid to explain the associations they found, the researchers suggest that people who are socially isolated may be more physically inactive and smoke more, and less likely to be prompted to see a doctor when symptoms first appear. Doctors may also be more tempted to admit them to hospital because of the increased risk of falls among those living alone.

"Older adults living alone with existing lung conditions may benefit from additional targeted community support to try and reduce the risk of hospital admissions," suggest the researchers.

"The roll out of social prescribing schemes may present opportunities for referring those individuals to social engagement community activities," they conclude.

Lead author, Associate Professor Daisy Fancourt, of Psychobiology & Epidemiology / Wellcome Research Fellow, Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health, UCL, comments: "Whilst this research study focused on respiratory disease, it does raise questions as to if, and how, hospital admissions for other respiratory conditions such as COVID-19 may be related to social factors such as isolation in addition to biomedical factors."*

The cover for issue 16 of Oncotarget features Figure 6, "Radiation-induced DNA damage measured by γ-H2AX foci formation at a specified time point after 10 Gy irradiation," by Zhang, et al.

HPV-negative UM-SCC4 with and without transfection of HPV E6 oncoprotein, HPV-negative UPCI-SCC-089, and HPV-positive UPCI-SCC-099 cell lines were used in this study.

The survival fraction after 10 Gy was significantly lower for the HPV-positive SCC-099 cells than for the HPV-negative cells.

In contrast, the HPV-positive UPCI-SCC-099 cells displayed persistent -H2AX activity; the expression of -H2AX remained high at 48 hours post-radiation.

HPV-positive SCC-099 cells were more likely to show the classical apoptotic changes of increased cell thickness and increased motility after radiation.

Dr. Angela Hong from The Faculty of Medicine and Health, Central Clinical School at The University of Sydney as well as The Department of Radiation Oncology, Chris O'Brien Lifehouse said, "Human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is clinically and biologically distinct from smoking-related (HPV-negative) OPSCC."

"Human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is clinically and biologically distinct from smoking-related (HPV-negative) OPSCC."

- Dr. Angela Hong, The Faculty of Medicine and Health, Central Clinical School at The University of Sydney and The Department of Radiation Oncology, Chris O'Brien Lifehouse

The overall better prognosis seen in HPV-positive OPSCC may be related to the disease's response to radiation therapy.

Radiation therapy plays an important role in the management of OPSCC, either as definitive therapy or as adjuvant therapy after surgery.

Cellular response to radiation treatment can be observed with a label-free dynamic Holo Monitor, which allows non-invasive visualization and live-cell analysis of radiation responses and the migration potential of cancer cells.

The Hong Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Paper that the enhanced cell motility is due to disruption of the actin-membrane interactions by radiation, initiating the membrane blubbing and generating force to enhance cell motility.

In contrast, the HPV-negative UPCI-SCC-089 cells exhibited cell flattening and enlargement, which are the common cytological features of cell cycle blockage.

Weakened wind patterns likely spurred the wave of extreme ocean heat that swept the North Pacific last summer, according to new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The marine heat wave, named the "Blob 2.0" after 2013's "Blob," likely damaged marine ecosystems and hurt coastal fisheries. Waters off the U.S. West Coast were a record-breaking 4.5 degrees F (2.5 degrees C) above normal, the authors found.

"Most large marine heat waves have historically occurred in the winter," said Dillon Amaya, a postdoctoral Visiting Fellow at CIRES and lead author on the new study out this week in Nature Communications. "This was the first summertime marine heat wave in the last five years--and it's also the hottest: a record high ocean temperature for the last 40 years."

And that wasn't the only record: 2019 also saw the weakest North Pacific atmospheric circulation patterns in at least the last 40 years. "This was truly a 99th-percentile type of event, with impacts like slow winds felt around the North Pacific," Amaya said.

To search for physical processes that might have influenced the formation of Blob 2.0 in summertime, the team paired real world sea surface temperature data with an atmospheric model, and tested the impacts of various possible drivers.

The most likely culprit: weaker winds. In short, when circulation patterns weaken, so does the wind. With less wind blowing over the ocean's surface, there's less evaporation and less cooling: The process is similar to wind cooling off human skin by evaporating sweat. In 2019, it was as if the ocean was stuck outside on a hot summer day with no wind to cool it down.

A thinning of the ocean's mixed layer, the depth where surface ocean properties are evenly distributed, also fueled the Blob 2.0, the researchers found. The thinner the mixed layer, the faster it warms from incoming sunlight and weakened winds. And the impacts can keep accumulating in a vicious cycle: the lower atmosphere above the ocean responds to warmer water by burning off low clouds, which leaves the ocean more exposed to sunlight, which warms the ocean more, and burns off even more clouds.

Warm ocean temperatures have the potential to devastate marine ecosystems along the U.S. West Coast During warmer months, marine plants and animals with a low heat tolerance are at higher risk than during the winter--warm on top of warm can be more harmful than warm on top of cold.

And with our changing climate, we may see more harmful impacts like this in years to come, the authors reported. As global warming continues, heat extremes like last summer's Blob 2.0 are becoming increasingly likely.

"It's the same argument that can be made for heat waves on land," said Amaya. "Global warming shifts the entire range of possibilities towards warmer events. The Blob 2.0 is just the beginning. In fact, events like this may not even be considered 'extreme' in the future."

The researchers hope these results will help scientists and decision makers better predict and prepare for future marine heat waves. "If we understand the mechanisms that drove this summertime event and how it influenced marine systems," Amaya said, "we can better recognize the early warning signs in the future and better predict how heat waves interact with the coast, how long they last and how destructive they might be."

Scientists have developed a new way to map the molecules on tumour cells that flag their presence to the immune system, according to a study published today in eLife.

The findings could make commonly used immunotherapy treatments effective for a much larger population of cancer patients.

Some cancer immunotherapy treatments work by targeting short pieces of proteins called peptides that are displayed in the surface of cancer cells. These peptides are presented on the cell surface by human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) of which there are many different types. However, immunotherapy treatment research tends to focus on a small subset of HLAs only. As not all cancer patients produce these HLAs, they are unable to benefit from existing HLA-based immunotherapies.

"Most studies have focused on HLA proteins that are commonly found in the general population," explains co-first author Kenji Murata, a postdoctoral fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada. "We have developed a new technique that allows the sampling of underrepresented HLA proteins to find peptides or antigens that can induce an antitumour immune response. We can then stimulate the patient's own immune cells with those peptides and give them back to the patient to help treat their cancer."

The team began by isolating white blood cells called T cells from eight patients with melanoma. This patient group spanned 25 different types of HLAs, allowing the team to analyse T cell interactions with more than 800 different antigen peptides. All eight patient samples were positive for at least one of the peptide-HLA combinations. The methods developed here also allowed the team to discover new peptides recognised by the T cells.

Next, the team explored whether the T cells that reacted to the peptides could cause an immune response by measuring the production of an immune-activating molecule called interferon. All except two of the antigens stimulated the T cells to produce interferon as well as stimulate the cells to increase in number. These effects were made more robust by adding to the T cells another type of cell - an artificially engineered antigen-presenting cell (APC) bearing the same antigen, which is a common strategy to stimulate T cells.

In the next stage, the team used the artificial APCs to find the exact immunogenic signal that stimulated the T cells from melanoma patients. They found novel peptide fragments related to two different antigens, called MART1 and NY-ESO1, which are known to contain immunological hotspots. They looked at whether they could engineer T cells to target these novel antigens by taking cells that react against the novel antigens and cloning their T cell receptor (TCR) genes. TCRs are cell-surface proteins that allow T cells to react to antigens. "When we added these cloned TCR genes back into newly isolated T cells, we found that the cells were able to recognise and react to the tumour cells," says co-first author Munehide Nakatsugawa, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

"By querying human melanoma-derived T cells and using novel HLA proteins bearing common tumour antigens, we have been able to discover both new and existing immunologically active antigens in tumours," concludes senior author Naoto Hirano, Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. "Our strategy allows for a more complete examination of the immune response and development of novel cancer vaccines and immunotherapies for a broader group of patients not limited by HLA prevalence or tumour mutation burden."

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder affecting between 8-10 percent of school-age children. In a recent study published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, Stewart H. Mostofsky, M.D., director of the Center for Neurodevelopmental and Imaging Research at Kennedy Krieger Institute, and Karen E. Seymour, Ph.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, found that a mindful movement (Tai-Chi)-based training intervention was associated with significant improvements in school-age children with ADHD and improved their ability to regulate hyperactive, impulsive and inattentive behavior. Findings suggest that motor control may be a biomarker that could be targeted by mindful movement intervention to improve behavior in children with ADHD.

"The findings from this study provide support for a promising new avenue of behavioral intervention for children with ADHD and related difficulties, with mindful movement practice associated with improved ability to control attention and behavior. Crucially, the findings also suggest that mindful movement intervention contributes to parallel improvements in motor control, such that motor examination might serve as a valuable biomarker, helping to monitor response to this promising intervention," said Mostofsky.

Participants ages 8-12 years engaged in an eight-week mindful movement intervention with two 60-minute classes per week. Pre- vs. post-treatment ADHD symptoms were assessed using highly validated parent-ratings. In addition, motor control was assessed using an established objective examination of developmental motor signs. Following the intervention, children showed significant reductions in core ADHD symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention, as well as improvements in associated oppositional-defiant and executive behavior. Children also showed significant improvements on objective measures of motor control. Importantly, there was a robust correlation between these findings, such that the children who showed the largest improvements on motor examination also showed the largest improvements in parent ratings of ADHD behavior.

There have been very few prior studies of mindfulness interventions for children with ADHD, and those prior studies relied exclusively on subjective outcome measures based on self- or parent-report. The findings from this study, revealing improvements in objective measures of motor control that parallel improvements in attention and behavior, provide crucial support for the potential for mindful movement practice for children with ADHD and related difficulties.

An important next step will be to conduct a follow-up clinical trial with a control condition to ensure that efficacy is specific to the mindful movement intervention.