Earth

DGIST announced that Professor Jong Kyong Kim's team in the Department of New Biology participated in a joint research by South Korea, Austria, and the United Kingdom and discovered the characteristics of gastric isthmus stem cells. The results are drawing huge attention for their applicability in identifying the causes of gastrointestinal disorders and cancer as well as in developing treatments.

While the epithelium of the gastric isthmus layer inside the stomach is damaged as food passes through it, gastric isthmus stem cells located in epithelial gland recovers the damaged part through cell regeneration. Scientists discovered that stem cells exist only in the upper 'gland' of epithelium, but it was very difficult to identify the exact location as additional stem cells were found from the 'basis,' the lower gland.

It is extremely difficult to identify location due to the low accuracy of marker genes for distinguishing stem cells in the glands. The research team found locations in another way as well as the characteristics of each stem cell by location, successfully tracking the gastric epithelial cells of a mouse using 'Multi-Color Mouse Confetti Reporter System' to locate based on the characteristics of cell division instead of marker genes.

Stem cells are identified by colors. Tamoxifen was injected into a mouse, and cell divisions and movements were observed by a microscope. Then a stem cell was marked in one of the colors. The daughter cells which were formed from stem cell division and movement have the same color as the original stem cells, showing a colorful, confetti-like gland. Using this principle, the research team clarified two different types of gastric isthmus stem cells in the upper and lower gland, which is very meaningful because it solved a challenging problem in the related field.

The research team also defined the molecular characteristics of upper and lower gastric isthmus stem cells using 'single-cell transcriptional analysis.' The team especially succeeded in identifying the characteristics of
upper gland cell regeneration through the fast division of upper stem cells and lower gland cells through the slow division of lower stem cells. Such gland regeneration affects the regeneration of gastric isthmus layer regeneration, expecting to greatly help identify the causes of related diseases and develop treatment.

DGIST Professor Jong Kyong Kim in the Department of New Biology said "We identified the location of two types of gastric isthmus stem cells which have different roles and characteristics as well as their molecular characteristics through this researcher. We expect this research to be useful for understanding the causes of gastric diseases and gastric cancer as well as for developing their treatment."

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in South Africa and the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, succeeded in using cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) as a substitute for petroleum in organic synthesis. Their aim was the development of a sustainable synthesis of soluble organic UV filters.

The ultraviolet (UV) region of solar radiation is a potential health risk for humans and livestock. Extensive exposure may result in premature aging of the skin and even life-threatening forms of cancer. Moreover, the destructive power of natural UV radiation can also damage paints, coatings, and even plastics. One option to prevent radiation-induced damage is to employ chemical UV filters. These can either be mineral pigments such as titanium dioxide (titanium white) or organic compounds containing carbon atoms. Both are used as active ingredients in sunscreen, as paint additives, or as additives for the materials to be protected.

Currently, both classes of UV filters are under fire for different reasons. The toxicity of some of the organic filters towards aquatic life is problematic. Unfortunately, practically all organic filters - and the vast majority of all other organic chemicals around - are being produced from petroleum.

The international team of researchers led by Professor Till Opatz of the JGU Institute of Organic Chemistry and Professor Charles de Koning from Johannesburg used CNSL instead as a renewable starting material for the production of new UV filters. CNSL is produced in large quantity during the production of the nuts and cannot be used as food or feed. Thus, there is no competition between the use as a chemical raw material and the production of foodstuff. The utilization of CNSL can be regarded as an example of xylochemistry, in which woody biomass serves as the carbon source for chemical synthesis.

The application of these chemically well-defined UV absorbers produced in this fashion in sunscreens, their compatibility with human skin, and their effects on various life forms remain to be investigated. This research, however, is beyond the scope of the current project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the South African partner organization NRF and will require the collaboration with industry.

The quantum internet promises absolutely tap-proof communication and powerful distributed sensor networks for new science and technology. However, because quantum information cannot be copied, it is not possible to send this information over a classical network. Quantum information must be transmitted by quantum particles, and special interfaces are required for this. The Innsbruck-based experimental physicist Ben Lanyon, who was awarded the Austrian START Prize in 2015 for his research, is researching these important intersections of a future quantum Internet. Now his team at the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck and at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences has achieved a record for the transfer of quantum entanglement between matter and light. For the first time, a distance of 50 kilometers was covered using fiber optic cables. "This is two orders of magnitude further than was previously possible and is a practical distance to start building inter-city quantum networks," says Ben Lanyon.

Converted photon for transmission

Lanyon's team started the experiment with a calcium atom trapped in an ion trap. Using laser beams, the researchers write a quantum state onto the ion and simultaneously excite it to emit a photon in which quantum information is stored. As a result, the quantum states of the atom and the light particle are entangled. But the challenge is to transmit the photon over fiber optic cables. "The photon emitted by the calcium ion has a wavelength of 854 nanometers and is quickly absorbed by the optical fiber", says Ben Lanyon. His team therefore initially sends the light particle through a nonlinear crystal illuminated by a strong laser. Thereby the photon wavelength is converted to the optimal value for long-distance travel: the current telecommunications standard wavelength of 1550 nanometers. The researchers from Innsbruck then send this photon through a 50-kilometer-long optical fiber line. Their measurements show that atom and light particle are still entangled even after the wavelength conversion and this long journey.

Even greater distances in sight

As a next step, Lanyon and his team show that their methods would enable entanglement to be generated between ions 100 kilometers apart and more. Two nodes send each an entangled photon over a distance of 50 kilometers to an intersection where the light particles are measured in such a way that they lose their entanglement with the ions, which in turn would entangle them. With 100-kilometer node spacing now a possibility, one could therefore envisage building the world's first intercity light-matter quantum network in the coming years: only a handful of trapped ion-systems would be required on the way to establish a quantum internet between Innsbruck and Vienna, for example.

Tokyo, Japan - A research team at The University of Tokyo has introduced a powerful method for actively breaking chemical bonds using excitations in tiny antennae created by infrared lasers. This process may have applications throughout chemistry as a way to direct chemical reactions in desired directions. In particular, the reactions used in the energy, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing sectors may become much more efficient by increasing yields while reducing waste.

Chemistry is a messy undertaking, since there may be a variety of ways the starting chemicals can react, and each pathway might lead to the formation of a different product. Over the years, chemists have developed many tools--including changing the temperature, concentration, pH, or solvent--to nudge the reaction to maximize the yield of the desired molecules.

However, if given the ability to selectively control the making or breaking of individual bonds within a molecule, scientists could greatly enhance the efficiency of these reactions, while minimizing unwanted side products. "Being able to control chemical reactions on a molecular level--that is, the ability to selectively break or form chemical bonds, is a major goal for physical chemists," says first author Ikki Morichika.

One way to control which bonds are broken during a chemical reaction is to get molecules vibrating by exciting them with infrared laser light. Since each type of chemical bond absorbs a particular wavelength of light, they can be activated individually. Unfortunately, it is difficult to deliver enough energy throughout the sample to generate the vibration intensity required. The team at The University of Tokyo was able to overcome this problem by fabricating tiny gold antennae, each just 300 nanometers wide, and by illuminating them with infrared lasers. When infrared light of the right frequency was present, the electrons in the antennae oscillated back and forth in resonance with the light waves, which created a very intense electric field. This phenomenon is called a "plasmonic resonance," and requires that the antennae be just the right shape and size. The plasmonic resonance focused the laser's energy on nearby molecules, which started vibrating. The vibration was further boosted by shaping the waveform of the infrared laser so that the frequency changed rapidly in time, reminiscent of the chirping of birds. "This successfully demonstrated that the combination of ultrafast optics and nano-plasmonics is useful for efficient, selective vibrational excitation," says senior author Satoshi Ashihara.

In the future, this technique may be applied to the production of cleaner fuels or cheaper pharmaceuticals as the chemical processes become optimized.

A study led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has revealed the effects of the stress of parenting in the brains of both mothers and their children.

The researchers analysed the brain activity of 31 pairs of mother and child from Singapore while they were watching children's animation clips together.

They found that mothers who reported higher levels of parenting stress had less synchrony in brain activity with their child (all aged around 3 years old) than those who reported lower levels of parenting stress.

The specific brain region monitored for synchrony was the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with the ability to understand others' point of view.

In general, when the parent and child show highly similar brain activity in the same area(s) of the brain (i.e. greater synchrony), it suggests that both are highly tuned in to each other's emotional states.

Parenting stress occurs when the demands of parenting exceed the coping resources that a parent perceives they have available. Excessive parenting stress can block maternal sensitivity, lead to reactions that punish the child and negatively affect the parent-child relationship for the long term.

Senior author of the research Assistant Professor Gianluca Esposito, from the School of Social Sciences who leads the Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab (SAN-Lab) at NTU Singapore, said, "Our study shows that parenting stress may very well weaken mother-child communication early in the process of social interaction. Our observations likely stem from the stressed mother's reduced ability to share her child's perspective. This inability to appreciate the child's viewpoint may reduce the quality of parental engagement and undermine the mother-child relationship in the long run."

The study, done in collaboration with researchers from the United States' National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Italy's University of Trento and University of Padova, was published in Nature Scientific Reports in August 2019.

How the study was done

The researchers used functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) caps as a non-invasive way to measure brain activation based on blood concentration levels in the brain. They combined the use of the caps with a recently developed method called tandem hyperscanning that simultaneously records the brain activity of two people.

Before starting the experiment, mothers answered a questionnaire that aims to measure parenting stress. The mother-child pairs then wore the fNIRS caps with the child sitting on the mother's lap while both watched animation clips from Brave, Peppa Pig and The Incredibles together.

The NTU research team compared the mother's and child's brain activity to calculate brain-to-brain synchrony and found that for those parents reporting higher levels of parenting stress, the degree of mother-child synchrony in part of the prefrontal cortex was diminished, compared to those parents reporting lower stress who had better synchrony.

The paper's first author Ms Atiqah Azhari, a PhD candidate at the SAN-Lab at NTU, said, "Our study brings us a step closer to uncovering how parenting stress weakens the mother-child relationship on a day-to-day basis. We did not expect to find a clear relationship between parenting stress and brain synchrony when the mother and child did something as simple as watching animation together. This suggests that the mother's mental wellbeing is important for optimal mother-child engagement at the cognitive level."

The team now intends to study the effects of parenting stress on father-child brain synchrony.

The development of new bone can be a multistep process: first, stem cells differentiate into cartilage cells. Next, the cartilage cells become bone cells. But that's not all: the cells must experience some mechanical stresses during the transformation in order to transform efficiently from stem cells to bone cells.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania and Case Western University, have been working on a unique system that delivers stem cells to sites of bone defects and uses flexible fixators -- pins and rods that are used to hold bones together -- to provide tunable amounts of mechanical stress.

Now, these researchers, led by Eben Alsberg, the Richard and Loan Hill Professor of Bioengineering and Orthopaedics in the UIC College of Engineering, and Joel Boerckel, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, have come up with a way to provide timed release of two growth factors that mimic the bone formation process that occurs during embryonic bone development in a rat model.

Together, the stem cells, flexible fixators and timed release of growth factors could one day help heal large bone defects or breaks in people. Their results are published in the journal Science Advances.

"What we are doing, in effect, is delivering the right growth factors at the right time to encourage the development of bone from stem cells in the same way that it happens during natural bone healing and development," said Alsberg, who is a corresponding author on the paper along with Boerckel.

In previous work, Alsberg's group at UIC and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania developed the flexible fixators and stem cell "condensates," which are masses of stem cells connected to one another so that they can be moved as sheets or plugs. The condensates allow the stem cells to be placed in specific areas of the body, such as within bone gaps or defects without the risk of floating away, as is often the case when stem cells are delivered to sites in the body through an injection of cell-containing liquids. When used together, the condensates and flexible fixators allowed for enhanced healing of bone defects in a rat model.

In the current research, Alsberg and colleagues added another layer to their system: they incorporated multiple growth factors into the condensates -- one that helps transform stem cells into cartilage cells called transforming growth factor beta1 of TGF-beta1, and another that promotes the transition of this cartilage into bone called bone morphogenic protein 2 or BMP-2.

In rats with bone gaps in their femurs, the application of Alsberg's system, including the growth factors, helps encourage the growth of new bone with enhanced function at 12 weeks compared with rats where growth factors weren't included or only a single growth factor was included in the condensate/flexible fixator system.

"The bone formation achieved was comparable to that which occurs when BMP-2 is soaked in a collagen sponge and applied to bone breaks, which is currently an FDA-approved tissue engineering product for spinal fusion," Alsberg said. "The collagen product can result in bone-forming where it's not wanted, but in our system, bone only formed in the areas where we placed the growth factor-infused condensates."

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Young people clash with older adults when it comes to bathroom policies related to gender identity, a University of Michigan study suggests.

As "bathroom bills" are debated around the country, eight in 10 young people aged 14-24 years polled (79%), say that bathroom use by transgender people should not be restricted, according to the findings in the Journal of Homosexuality.

The findings are in sharp contrast to a recent Gallup poll that surveyed 1,017 Americans ages 18 and over which found that about half (51%) of surveyed adults think transgender individuals should use the bathroom that correlates with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Michigan researchers analyzed data from 683 respondents of a weekly text messaging survey, "MyVoice," which includes youth from across the U.S., but predominately from Southeast Michigan.

"Contrary to current policy in many schools, the young people we polled do not support restrictions on bathroom use by transgender people," says lead author Halley Crissman, M.D., M.P.H., an obstetrician gynecologist at the U-M Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital.

"The majority of respondents believe bathroom use is a personal and private decision and a matter of equality, freedom and human rights. This suggests that young people's views on bathroom use by transgender individuals differ from the narratives often represented in public debates."

Young people in support of the right of transgender people to use the bathroom they feel most comfortable with also said that transgender people are not sexual predators, and that forcing them to use particular bathrooms may put transgender people at risk.

Crissman says researchers decided to explore the issue based on previous data suggesting that as a whole, young people may be becoming more accepting of people who are transgender.

"The adult dialogue we hear in the media often includes a lot of fear and guesswork about how this issue may impact children in schools," she says.

"We wanted to tap into the beliefs, experiences and voices of youth surrounding current policies. Youth are the ones most impacted by school policies and they are also upcoming voters."

An estimated 150,000 13-24 year olds in the U.S. identify as transgender, previous data suggests. Nearly 60 percent of transgender youth say they have been required to use the restroom corresponding with the gender they were assigned at birth, and 70 percent report avoiding public bathrooms because of feeling unsafe and uncomfortable.

Crissman says that research shows that transgender youth who grow up in social situations where they feel supported in their gender identity have improved mental health outcomes--including rates of depression similar to those of non-transgender youth.

Given that social support impacts the mental health outcomes of transgender youth, experts say peer support is likely an important factor.

"If there is indeed peer support among youth for allowing transgender individuals to use bathrooms that match their gender identity - as our study suggests - there may be profound positive implications for upcoming generations of transgender youth," Crissman says.

"Children spend a lot of time in school every day with peers-- peer support really matters and has the potential to significantly impact the well-being of transgender youth."

Even the tone of discussions around current policies in the news could influence psychological stress experienced by people who are transgender.

Says Crissman: "While transgender youth continue to face harassment at levels far beyond peers, the school environment may gradually be becoming a less hostile space for these students."

BRAZZAVILLE, REPUBLIC OF CONGO (August 28, 2019) - Human Ebola epidemics, like the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are known to start from a contact with wildlife infected with Ebola virus. In the early 2000s a series of such outbreaks in Central Africa began from different infected animal sources. In response, WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and NIH (National Institutes of Health) scientists partnered with the Republic of Congo Ministry of Health to develop a low-cost educational outreach program and surveillance system for wildlife mortality that has continued now for over a decade. While the region is a high-risk zone, Republic of Congo has not had a human case or detection of Ebola virus since 2005. The study authors provide the first description of the early warning system for Ebola in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

Comprised of a mix of public health and conservation experts, the authors recognized the utility of monitoring great ape health early on. During Ebola outbreaks from 2001-2005, surveys of closely monitored gorilla populations in Central Africa found mortality from Ebola reached over 90 percent. In fact the western lowland gorilla is classified as critically endangered and the chimpanzee as endangered in part because of Ebola. If an Ebola outbreak among wildlife, or an epizootic, could be detected early on, measures could be put in place to prevent the virus from spilling over and causing a human outbreak.

According to Eeva Kuisma, Health Program Coordinator, WCS Congo Program, "The multitude of challenges facing the current DRC outbreak highlight the value of early detection and proactive prevention and education. These are at the core of our community-based wildlife mortality surveillance program and the only way to succeed is to work together with multi-sectorial partners and in mutual cooperation with the communities."

A long-term wildlife mortality surveillance system coupled with community education was built over the ensuing years. To date the program has reached over 6,600 people living in rural northern Republic of Congo, and in total the surveillance effort covers an area of approximately 50,000 km2. The surveillance network is comprised of hunter-gathers, park rangers, and WCS-affiliated project personnel who report great ape and mammal carcasses they encounter to a trained response team. To establish and maintain the hunter-gatherer surveillance network the response team visits villages, with permission of the village chief, and delivers a verbal presentation on the basics of Ebola virus transmission to all interested community members. The emphasis is, 'do not touch, move or bury the carcass and contact the surveillance network immediately'.

Said Dr. Alain Ondzie, Program Veterinarian, WCS Congo Program: "If we want to detect animal mortalities in the forest, both in search of animal diseases and in order to proactively protect communities from animal diseases that can transmit to people, it is crucial to involve hunters, field biologists, rangers, and forest personnel."

When a report is called in, the team first checks in with the village chief. Then using biosafety methods and lessons learned from past outbreaks, the carcass is sampled and the sample sent for molecular testing at the National Public Health Laboratory in Brazzaville. Test results are available within 3-4 days and communicated back to the village. All 58 carcasses tested to date have been negative for Ebola virus.

Said Dr. Jean-Vivien Mombouli, the General Manager of the National Public Health Laboratory: "Our community outreach and surveillance for potential Ebola virus circulation in animals is helping prevent further Ebola outbreaks in the Republic of Congo. Clearly, the global public health community should take note of these cautionary measures to prevent Ebola based health emergencies across sub-Saharan Africa."

This pro-active approach engages communities where consumption of animals found dead has been traced to prior Ebola outbreaks. It provides education about Ebola to local communities and they participate in surveillance by reporting carcasses. It is also an extremely cost-efficient surveillance method, particularly given the expense of dealing with a response to a human outbreak. At the time of writing, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo the second largest outbreak of Ebola viral disease ever recorded is nearing 2,800 cases, with 1,900 fatalities. Despite increasing control efforts and deployment of an effective vaccine the epidemic is predicted to continue for months with mounting cost in human lives and aid money.

While not every Ebola outbreak will be proceeded by wildlife deaths, this early warning system for wildlife mortality is building trust and awareness and it may help give future responders an upper hand.

Climate change affects not only the temporal pattern of floods, but also their magnitude. This is shown by an international study which evaluated data from more than 3,700 flood monitoring stations throughout Europe over a period of 50 years. According to the data, flood events are increasing in northwestern Europe and decreasing in southeastern Europe. The study, in which Bruno Merz of GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences was also involved, appears in the journal Nature.

Rivers overflowing their banks cause around 100 billion dollars of damage worldwide every year. And researchers have long suspected that climate change could exacerbate the problem. But there was a lack of data. "Two years ago, we were able to show that temporal patterns are changing. Now, together with international colleagues, we have demonstrated that the severity of events is also influenced by climate change," says Bruno Merz, head of the Hydrology Section at GFZ. He was involved in the study, which was led by Günter Blöschl from Vienna. Blöschl, who conducts research at the Vienna University of Technology, was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the GFZ for six years and is a Helmholtz International Fellow at the GFZ. The Austrian flood expert says: "Regardless of the necessary efforts of climate change mitigation, we will see the effects of these changes in the next decades. Flood management must adapt to these new realities."

The study in which 35 European research groups were involved evaluated data from 3738 flood monitoring stations throughout Europe. The data cover fifty years between 1960 and 2010: "It has long been suspected that climate change has an impact on the extent of flooding, as a warmer atmosphere can store more water," explains Günter Blöschl. "But that is not the only effect, flood changes are more complicated.

In central and north-western Europe, between Iceland and the Alps, floods are increasing as precipitation increases and soils become more humid. In Southern Europe, on the other hand, flood levels tend to fall - climate change leads to decreasing precipitation and higher temperatures lead to increased evaporation of soil water. In the case of small rivers, however, flooding can increase due to more frequent thunderstorms and changes in land management (e.g. deforestation).

In the more continental climate of Eastern Europe, flooding levels are also decreasing due to less snow in winter. "There are clear flood risk patterns across Europe that match the projected impacts of climate change," says Blöschl. So far, data have not been sufficient to determine whether both the extent and timing of flood events are changing across Europe. Now the authors say: Yes, the effects of climate change are clearly visible here.

The extent of the flood changes is remarkable: they range from a decline in expected flood levels of 23% per decade to an increase of 11% per decade (compared to long-term averages). If these trends continue in the future, significant effects on flood risk are expected in many regions of Europe.

Scientists have made a new discovery that challenges previous understanding of the relationship between the polar Southern Ocean, next to Antarctica, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Their findings show that, contrary to existing assumptions, biological processes far out at sea are the most important factors determining how the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide. The results are published this week (28 August 2019) in the journal Science Advances.

Carbon dioxide is absorbed in the surface ocean and stored in the deep seas over a timescale of 100s to 1000s years. The Southern Ocean plays a critical role in how this carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere and knowing how it functions helps scientists understand dramatic climate transitions in the past, such as the ice ages, and better predict future climate change. It is commonly thought that the transformation of the water from light to dense - caused by cooling at the ocean's surface - is crucial in determining whether carbon is released to the atmosphere or trapped in the deep ocean. As a result, current research is often focused on the shallow seas right next to the Antarctic continent, where most of this transformation takes place.

The team, led by the University of Southampton with British Antarctic Survey, University of East Anglia and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, studied the ocean circulation and carbon concentration of the Weddell Gyre, a region of critical importance for carbon removal from the atmosphere lying east of the Antarctic Peninsula. They studied data collected as part of the ANDREX project (Antarctic Deep water Rates of Export) which measured the physical, biological and chemical properties of the water of the waters in the gyre between 2008 and 2010.

By studying this data, the team showed that the dominant factor driving the uptake of carbon from atmosphere to ocean is not related to dense water formation in the shallow seas immediately next to Antarctica, but rather to biological processes further out to sea. As phytoplankton in the centre of the gyre grow then sink, they remove carbon from the surface of the ocean, causing an uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - a process known as the 'biological carbon pump'. The data considered in this study showed unambiguously that, in the Weddell Gyre, this is the dominant process enabling the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and its removal to the deep ocean.

Graeme MacGilchrist, who led the study for the University of Southampton said:

"The results carry implications for our understanding of how the high-latitude Southern Ocean, close to the Antarctic continent, influences atmospheric carbon and global climate on 100 to 1000-year timescales. This is important both for our understanding of climate transitions in the past, such as the ice ages, as well as our projections of future climate change. We also expect that it will help to shift the focus of future research towards the critical processes taking place in the Antarctic Gyres, rather than the historical focus on the shelf-sea regions"

Michael Meredith from British Antarctic Survey said:

"The Southern Ocean is a hugely important region for the drawdown of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with major impacts on global climate. This study overturns a commonly-held belief relating to how this works, and emphasises the need for joined-up biological and physical studies in the open-ocean regions some distance offshore from the Antarctic continent. This will be a key priority going forward, in order to improve our ability to reliably predict future climates."

The impact of a changing climate on the severity of flooding has been demonstrated in the largest-scale study of its kind - with parts of northern Britain seeing the largest increase in Europe.

A multinational research team, which looked at river flow data from thousands of locations over a 50-year period, found that flood events are becoming increasingly severe in north-western Europe, including the UK, but decreasing in severity in southern and Eastern Europe.

The change ranges from an 11 per cent increase per decade in flood levels in northern England and southern Scotland to a 23 per cent reduction in parts of Russia, with the researchers saying their findings provide the clearest evidence yet, at the European scale, of the link between climate change and flooding.

The study - published in the journal Nature - was led by the Vienna University of Technology and involved research institutions in 24 European countries, including the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH); the University of Bath; and the University of Liverpool from the UK.

Link to climate change

The lead author, Professor Günter Blöschl of the Vienna University of Technology, says: "We already knew that climate change is shifting the timing of floods in a year, but the key question had been, 'Does climate change also control the magnitude of flood events?'. Our study did in fact find there are consistent patterns of flood change across Europe and these are in line with predicted climate change impacts, such as a contrast between increasing severity of flooding in the north and decreases in the south."

Scientists have long suspected that human-induced climate change is having an impact on the magnitude of flood waters because a warmer atmosphere can store more water, although this is not the only factor leading to flood changes in a warming world. However, until now, the extent to which climate change affects the severity of floods across Europe has not been clear because previous studies have been on a smaller scale due to a lack of access to data from parts of the continent.

But, thanks to a large-scale European collaboration involving almost 50 scientists from 35 institutions in 24 countries, the new study has been able to draw upon a huge amount of data, with the researchers analysing records from 3,738 flood measurement stations across Europe from the period 1960 to 2010.

Jamie Hannaford of the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, one of the scientists who was involved in the research, says: "This timely study adds to a growing body of evidence that shows that flood magnitude has increased in the UK over the last five decades, particularly in parts of northern and western Britain.

"We show this is part of a continent-wide pattern of changes in flooding which is in line with what we may expect in a warming world. This highlights the importance of long-term hydrological monitoring and the benefits of data sharing and collaboration at a European scale in order to better understand the mechanisms behind observed changes in flooding."

Regional differences

The evaluation of data from the measurement stations over the 50-year period studied revealed trends in different regions of Europe.

In central and north-western Europe, floods are increasing because precipitation (rain, snow, sleet or hail) is increasing and soils are becoming wetter.

In southern Europe, on the other hand, flood levels are decreasing, as climate change results in declining precipitation and the higher temperatures cause increased evaporation of water in the soil.

However, in Mediterranean areas, for small rivers floods may be becoming larger due to more frequent thunderstorms and land management changes such as deforestation.

In Eastern Europe, flood levels are also decreasing, which is due to shallower snow packs in winter associated with the higher temperatures.

Future trends

If the trends in changing severity of flooding continue into the future, major increases in flood risk can be expected in many regions of Europe. The total annual bill from flood damage ¬- estimated currently to be $100 billion worldwide - is continuing to rise, along with the devastating impact on communities. The researchers therefore advise policymakers to include their findings in their flood management strategies.

Dr Neil Macdonald of the University of Liverpool, a co-author of the study, says: "Flood management must adapt to the realities of our changing climate and associated flood risk over the coming decades."

Dr Thomas Kjeldsen of the University of Bath, another co-author, adds: "Incorporating the evidence of increasing flood risk into engineering design and general flood management would ensure we are better prepared for future changes - a point also raised in the Government's National Flood Resilience Review."

Baltimore, Md., August 28, 2019 - Lung transplantation can prolong the lives of patients with end-stage lung disease, but the median survival rate after lung transplant is less than six years, which has improved only slightly in recent decades. To see what might help lung transplant recipients live longer, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) developed a novel epidemiological analysis of lung transplant data in the United States focused on regimens that prevent the body's immune system from attacking the transplanted lung. The study has identified a drug combination that appears to significantly extend patient survival.

"We postulated that an infrequently used regimen may make a difference in outcome," said Aldo T. Iacono, MD, the Hamish S. and Christine C. Osborne Distinguished Professor in Advanced Pulmonary Care at UMSOM, Medical Director of the Lung Health Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center and senior author of the study, published in JAMA Network Open. "What we found could improve survival of lung transplant patients on a larger scale."

To prevent chronic rejection, the most common cause of death after a lung transplant, patients must take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives. Immunosuppression, in turn, may predispose patients to infections and cancers, the second- and third-leading causes of post-lung transplant death. Few outcome studies have been done in the field of lung transplantation to determine what works best. Further, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved any immunosuppressive drugs or drug regimens specifically for use in patients with a lung transplant.

Using a database of over 9,000 lung transplant patients maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the researchers categorized patients by their immunosuppression regimen and compared survival rates. They singled out an immunosuppressive drug called sirolimus, in a class of drugs called cell cycle inhibitors, based on a few small, long-term studies that found dramatically improved survival, reduced incidence of chronic rejection, and improved lung function in lung transplant patients who took sirolimus.

The database study compared sirolimus outcomes with the most commonly used cell cycle inhibitor mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). "According to our study, sirolimus appears to offer a survival advantage of almost two years over MMF," said first author Marniker Wijesinha, PhD, a UMSOM post-doctoral fellow. "The survival improvement with sirolimus was driven by fewer deaths from the top three causes: chronic rejection, infections, and cancer."

Another immunosuppressive medication, tacrolimus, is currently used in the vast majority of lung transplant recipients and was common to all patients in the study. "The typical regimen consists of three drugs: tacrolimus, a cell cycle inhibitor, and steroids (prednisone)," said Dr. Wijesinha. "The variable in this study was the cell cycle inhibitor."

Sirolimus plus tacrolimus was associated with a better median survival than MMF plus tacrolimus (8.9 years vs 7.1 years).

The majority of patients in the database, nearly 5,800, were given MMF plus tacrolimus, a combination that has become the de facto standard immunosuppression after lung transplant. Sirolimus plus tacrolimus maintenance therapy was provided to slightly more than 200 patients.

One downside for sirolimus, though, is that it interferes with wound healing, a potentially life-threatening complication if the drug is administered in the initial days and weeks following transplant surgery. For this reason, prophylactic sirolimus maintenance therapy is typically not started until three to 12 months after surgery. The researchers accounted for this delayed initiation so sirolimus would not appear to yield a false survival advantage.

"Sirolimus is relatively novel in lung transplantation. Physicians and surgeons in the transplant community have little experience with it," said Dr. Iacono. "Because of that, many physicians may not have confidence in it. However, if we can extend the life of a lung transplant recipient by two years, you're talking a major accomplishment."

The study also considered induction therapy, an optional addition to maintenance therapy used in over half of transplant centers in the U.S. In induction therapy, patients are given a high dose of immunosuppression at the time of transplantation for a short duration - three to 14 days, with drugs such as basiliximab, daclizumab, alemtuzumab, or antithymocyte globulin.

The group that came out with the highest survival of all combinations was given sirolimus plus tacrolimus for maintenance therapy without induction therapy. These patients lived over three years longer on average than patients receiving MMF maintenance with induction therapy.

"This study illustrates the value of searching through large databases to discern patterns and practices that may not be immediately obvious, but can have a major impact on patient care," said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, University Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor. "Further studies of patients undergoing lung transplantation are needed to confirm the findings associated with sirolimus, but this research is a great start."

"A particularly useful direction for a future study would be to investigate the optimal dosages of sirolimus and tacrolimus in lung transplant patients (which may vary according to patient characteristics)," said Dr. Wijesinha. "Our study, unfortunately, could not do this because there were no data on this."

On the clinical front, Dr. Iacono and his UMSOM colleagues have begun applying the findings of the study to their standard treatment regimen for lung transplant recipients, switching to sirolimus in combination with tacrolimus for long-term prevention of chronic rejection.

Bottom Line: Estimated total cigarette consumption in England fell by almost one-quarter between 2011 and 2018 in a study comparing survey and sales data. That estimated decline is equal to about 1.4 billion cigarettes per year. Cigarette smoking is a leading risk factor for illness and death worldwide. Limitations of the study include data that may have overestimated or underestimated cigarette consumption, and the study focused only on cigarettes and not other tobacco products or nicotine alternatives such as electronic cigarettes.

Authors: Sarah E. Jackson, Ph.D., University College London, United Kingdom, and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.10161)

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

Researchers have described a new mechanism which induces the self-killing of cancer cells by perturbing ion homeostasis. A research team from the Department of Biochemical Engineering has developed helical polypeptide potassium ionophores that lead to the onset of programmed cell death. The ionophores increase the active oxygen concentration to stress endoplasmic reticulum to the point of cellular death.

The electrochemical gradient between extracellular and intracellular conditions plays an important role in cell growth and metabolism. When a cell's ion homeostasis is disturbed, critical functions accelerating the activation of apoptosis are inhibited in the cell.

Although ionophores have been intensively used as an ion homeostasis disturber, the mechanisms of cell death have been unclear and the bio-applicability has been limited. In the study featured at Advanced Science, the team presented an alpha helical peptide-based anticancer agent that is capable of transporting potassium ions with water solubility. The cationic, hydrophilic, and potassium ionic groups were combined at the end of the peptide side chain to provide both ion transport and hydrophilic properties.

These peptide-based ionophores reduce the intracellular potassium concentration and at the same time increase the intracellular calcium concentration. Increased intracellular calcium concentrations produce intracellular reactive oxygen species, causing endoplasmic reticulum stress, and ultimately leading to apoptosis.

Anticancer effects were evaluated using tumor-bearing mice to confirm the therapeutic effect, even in animal models. It was found that tumor growth was strongly inhibited by endoplasmic stress-mediated apoptosis.

Lead author Dr. Dae-Yong Lee said, "A peptide-based ionophore is more effective than conventional chemotherapeutic agents because it induces apoptosis via elevated reactive oxygen species levels. Professor Yeu-Chun Kim said he expects this new mechanism to be widely used as a new chemotherapeutic strategy. This research was funded by the National Research Foundation.

A gene newly associated with the migratory patterns of golden-winged and blue-winged warblers could lend insight into the longstanding question of how birds migrate across such long distances.

A new study led by researchers at Penn State and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the first to combine whole genome sequencing and migration tracking technology to pinpoint a single gene associated with the complex suite of traits that determine migratory behavior. These findings may have important conservation implications for the declining populations of golden-winged warblers. The paper appears online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and describes the gene, which is associated with a neurological disorder in humans.

"The great migrations of the world have been inspiring people for hundreds of years," said David Toews, assistant professor of biology at Penn State and leader of the research team. "The migration of birds is particularly fascinating because small species primarily navigate alone, at night, and at high altitudes, so people do not always see it happening. They are in your backyard, and then they are gone."

Migration programming in birds is incredibly complex, encompassing a suite of neurological, physiological, and behavioral traits. Researchers have known for a few decades that there is a genetic component to migration. Recent studies in birds have identified large regions of the genome, encompassing hundreds of genes, associated with migration, but it has been more difficult to pinpoint the specific roles of any single gene.

"In this study, we found only one gene associated with the final wintering destination of golden-winged and blue-winged warblers," said Toews.

The researchers studied migration patterns in golden-winged warblers and blue-winged warblers, genetically-similar species that breed in the Midwest and northeastern United States. Some birds of each species migrate to wintering grounds in Central America, from Panama to Guatemala, while others travel further to South America, primarily Venezuela. Birds will usually return to similar breeding grounds and wintering sites each year.

Members of the research team from the University of Toledo previously determined the specific locations where these birds were wintering. They placed geolocators, essentially small backpacks with light sensors, on birds caught at breeding grounds in the U.S. The geolocators recorded light levels of their environment, which the researchers analyzed when the birds were captured the next year at their breeding sites.

"These light levels allow you to calculate the approximate location of birds along their migration track and at their wintering grounds, based on sunrise and sunset times and a few other factors," said Henry Streby of the Toledo team. "This information is particularly important for conservation management of golden-winged warblers, whose numbers are rapidly declining in the Appalachian Mountains. Conservation efforts have focused on protecting the breeding grounds, which is important, but declines also appear strongly related to habitat alteration and destruction in the wintering grounds."

"The global attention on the fires in the Amazon highlights the importance of these South American habitats, and these migratory birds illustrate an inextricable link between hemispheres," said Toews.

Importantly, the team from Toledo took genetic samples from the migrating birds, which allowed the group to investigate genetic differences between birds that winter in Central America and those that winter in South America. The majority of these differences occurred in a small region on the bird's Z chromosome, a sex-determining chromosome like the X and Y chromosomes in humans. Only one gene, called VPS13A, was present in this region.

Although the gene does not yet have any known function in birds, in humans it is associated with the neurodegenerative disorder chorea-acanthocytosis, which affects movement.

"As we come to better understand the role of this gene in humans, we may also gain important insights to its role in migration in birds," said Toews. "This is very speculative at this point, but we think it could be involved in clearing reactive oxygen species, which are free radicals that can build up during a prolonged migration and damage cells. We would like to perform additional studies to know when and in what tissues this gene is expressed in these birds. But because golden-winged warblers are facing declines, we may first investigate whether this gene is associated with migration in any of the other 50 or so migratory species of warblers, which may provide a more tractable way to study the gene."

According to the researchers, the gene appears to be a target of natural selection in birds that winter in South America.

"And that's really cool, because we don't always see natural selection operating on contemporary timelines for something like migratory traits that have been around for a long time."