Earth

More and more products carry ethical labels such as fair-trade or organic, which consumers usually view positively. Nevertheless, the sales figures of these products often remain low, even though they offer advantages for the environment or for society. A team of scientists from the University of Göttingen has investigated to what extent factors which affect consumers' own benefit - such as the so-called "Warm Glow of Giving" - influence consumers' purchasing intentions. The "warm glow" is the personal benefit that people feel when they do good. The results were published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, an international scientific publication which covers environmental and sustainable research and practice.

The researchers from the working group "Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products" at the University of Göttingen studied how two groups - one from Germany and one from the United Kingdom - make virtual purchasing decisions. Each group consisted of around 450 consumers. Chocolate was available, which differed in terms of price, country of origin of the cocoa, and country of manufacture, as well as the ethical claims made. The claims were: organic, fair-trade and CO?-neutral. There was also an alternative which did not make any claims. Consumers then answered questions about their purchasing intentions, values and feelings when buying.

The result: in both countries the price is the most important decision criterion, followed by the ethical claims and the country of manufacture. In addition, the "warm glow" has a comparatively large influence on the purchasing intention - the prospect of getting a good feeling clearly attracts many consumers to buy products which make ethical claims. But the intention is often not put into practice: during the actual decision to buy, the influence of the "warm glow" is only relevant for fair-trade chocolate. The researchers assume that this is partly due to the strong association with the common good of the fair-trade label, which supports farmers in developing countries. "Other studies have shown that consumers also associate positive health aspects with organic food," says Sarah Iweala, first author of the study and doctoral student in the "Global Food" research training group. "Of course, this dilutes the label's association with the common good."

In addition, the degree of recognition of the logo seems to be important. Although consumers indicated that they felt good when they reduced their CO? footprint, this good feeling did not lead them to choose the CO? neutral product. This can be explained by the low profile of this particular ethical logo. In both countries, less than 20 percent of the participants stated that they had already seen "carbon neutral" branding while shopping. In contrast, over 90 percent of consumers were aware of the fair-trade logo. "If consumers don't know what a label stands for, they can't feel good about it when they shop and so it can't become a deciding factor in their shopping choices," says Professor Achim Spiller, Head of the working group "Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products".

"Our results show that in the marketing of ethical products, the social benefit should be communicated through a direct approach," the scientists concluded. "It is also important for marketing that labels can only have an effect on the market if they are known. Today's flood of frequently unknown labels is counterproductive".

A University of Oklahoma-led project is showing how citizen science programs provide valuable data on rivers in southwestern United States. The datasets of ecological and hydrological data obtained from intermittent rivers (rivers that dry at some point in space or time) in Arizona are input into a nationwide network. Trained citizen scientists are mapping three rivers in Arizona: the San Pedro River, Cienega Creek and Agua Fria River. The wet and dry data collected yearly from these programs map information on how to best manage water resources under a changing climate.

"It is difficult to get good quality data about how much water is in intermittent rivers. Most of our existing infrastructure for measuring river flows in the United States is geared towards monitoring water levels of perennial rivers, which are those that always flow. Citizen science groups provide valuable contributions to the field of river science, as the data they produce would not be available otherwise. Without that data we wouldn't be able to answer basic research questions like how the length of wet river reaches in these rivers has changed over time, and what these changes might mean for fish that live in these rivers," said Daniel Allen, assistant professor in the Department of Biology, OU College of Arts and Sciences.

In this study, these three groups of citizen scientists divide up and measure the river using a simple method that includes measuring the river from where it begins to where it ends in places where there is at least 30 feet of water. The three long-term wet and dry datasets produced by citizen science river monitoring programs describe landscape drying patterns, examine how they vary over time and use models to quantify landscape drying patterns and temperature, precipitation, stream flow and drought metrics.

While trained citizen scientists conducted the wet and dry surveys on each of these rivers, Friends of the Agua Fria National Monument organize the Agua Fria River surveying effort. The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management organize the upper Cienega Creek surveys, and the Pima County Association of Governments organize surveys of the lowest reaches of Cienega Creek. The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management organize surveys on the San Pedro River.

The data from these surveys is used to generate maps on long-term trends in the three rivers. Two of the rivers measured in this study, the Cienega Creek and the Agua Fria River, showed significant decline. The San Pedro is the only one of three rivers did not decline, which may be due to a groundwater management resource plan in effect. It may be that the declining rivers have no protection and groundwater use has increased during the recent droughts in the area, leading to surface water declines.

Changes in landscape drying patterns in intermittent rivers have strong implications for fish connectivity and bird migration. Drying patterns are likely to decrease connectivity for native fish who need long stretches of unbroken river to reproduce. Rivers in this region are important for the millions of birds that migrate from South America and stop in the region on their way north. The cottonwood and willow trees where they roost during resting periods are typically only found next to rivers where there is water year round. The southwestern United States has experienced large droughts over the past several decades, and the extent of river drying will likely continue as a result of climate change.

Citizen science programs focused on mapping wet and dry sections of rivers and streams are valuable and could be expanded unmonitored intermittent rivers. New technologies, such as smartphone applications, are being developed to improve efforts and aid in integrating data collected by different programs. This type of program could be expanded across the United States to study the variables impacting intermittent rivers in different climates and by different intensities of human water use.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Drug therapy may effectively treat a potentially life-threatening condition associated with cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases, according to a new study by Mayo Clinic researchers. The study was posted in March on Gastroenterology, the online journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Print publication is scheduled for July.

While therapies have been available to treat some forms of liver disease, including hepatitis C and autoimmune hepatitis, options have been more limited for treating portal hypertension, a condition where there is an increase in pressure within the portal vein that carries blood from abdominal organs to the liver. Portal hypertension is associated with cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases.

According to the study, the drug sivelestat may effectively lower portal hypertension, improving symptoms and outcomes for those patients. The study results were obtained from mouse models but have since been confirmed in liver samples from humans, according to Vijay Shah, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and senior author.

"This was an exciting confirmation of our findings and their applicability to human disease," Dr. Shah says. "Sivelestat has been safely used in humans with acute lung injury and bronchopulmonary dysplasia. This suggests that sivelestat and similar drugs constitute a potential means to decrease portal hypertension in patients with chronic liver disease."

The Mayo study showed that deposits of fibrin -- microvascular blood clots -- contributed to portal hypertension, and inflammatory cells known as neutrophils contributed to the formation of fibrin. By inhibiting neutrophil function with sivelestat, they were able to decrease portal hypertension.

"Neutrophils had not previously been identified as significant drivers of portal hypertension," says Moira Hilscher, M.D., the paper's first author. Results were verified in two different models of chronic liver disease.

"The study paves the way for developing new drugs and repurposing of existing compounds to target inflammation in the liver driven by disease-related mechanical forces," says Dr. Hilscher. "Given the increasing prevalence of advanced liver disease due to alcohol and obesity, this is clearly an unmet need."

Teens who choose to spend time alone may know what's best for them, according to new research that suggests solitude isn't a red flag for isolation or depression.

The key factor is choice, say researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Wilmington College: When solitude is imposed on adolescents and young adults, whether as punishment or as a result of social anxiety, it can be problematic. But chosen solitude contributes to personal growth and self-acceptance, they found.

"Solitude has gotten a lot of bad press, especially for adolescents who get labeled as social misfits or lonely," said Margarita Azmitia, professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz and coauthor of a new paper in the Journal of Adolescence. "Sometimes, solitude is good. Developmentally, learning to be alone is a skill, and it can be refreshing and restorative."

Most previous studies confounded solitude with loneliness or shyness, said Azmitia. "There's a stigma for kids who spend time alone. They're considered lacking in social skills, or they get labeled 'loners,' " she said. "It's beneficial to know when you need to be alone and when you need to be with others. This study quantifies the benefits of solitude and distinguishes it from the costs of loneliness or isolation."

Virginia Thomas (PhD, '17, psychology), assistant professor of psychology at Wilmington College, spearheaded the research as a graduate student in Azmitia's lab, where she developed a specialization in the role of solitude in identity development and emotional wellbeing.

When adolescents and young adults choose to spend time alone, solitude can provide an opportunity for self-reflection, creative expression, or spiritual renewal. But it can be challenging when it is imposed on them--when they opt out of social engagement because they lack friends, feel awkward, experience social anxiety, or are being punished, said Thomas.

To distinguish between these motivations, Thomas and Azmitia developed a 14-item survey that asked respondents to rate their motivations for solitude on a four-point scale, posing questions like, "I feel energized when I spend time by myself," and "I enjoy the quiet," versus "I feel uncomfortable when I'm with others," and "I regret things I say or do when I'm with others."

"We got clear results that are pretty reliable indicators of adaptive versus maladaptive solitude," said Thomas. Those who seek solitude because they feel rejected or want to retreat into isolation are at greater risk of social anxiety, loneliness, and depression, and they tend to have lower levels of identity development, autonomy, and positive relationships with others. In contrast, those who seek solitude for positive reasons, such as self-reflection or a desire for peace and quiet, face none of these risks.

Today's fast-paced, device-driven culture emphasizes being connected to friends and associates 24/7, and young people have little practice learning to manage their time alone productively. Imposed solitude is more problematic for adolescents, who often worry about being rejected by their peers or friends or fear that being alone means they are unpopular. However, the capacity for solitude blossoms in young adults, the researchers found.

"These results increase our awareness that being alone can be restorative and a positive thing," said Thomas. "The question is how to be alone without feeling like we're missing out. For many people, solitude is like exercising a muscle they've never used. You have to develop it, flex it, and learn to use time alone to your benefit."

Solitude serves the same positive functions in introverts and extroverts. "Introverts just need more of it," noted Thomas.

"Our culture is pretty biased toward extroversion," she said. "When we see any sign of shyness or introversion in children, we worry they won't be popular. But we overlook plenty of well-adjusted teens and young adults who are perfectly happy when alone, and who benefit from their solitude."

Both researchers encouraged parents to appreciate the benefits of solitude for their children. "Parents can help their children understand that being alone isn't bad. It doesn't mean nobody likes you," said Azmitia. "Solitude can improve the wellbeing of kids who are overstimulated. They can learn to regulate their behavior, on their own, without being told to."

"We need to build our cultural understanding that we don't have to be social all the time," said Azmitia. "Sometimes alone time is good time."

Tropical Cyclone Veronica continued to move toward Australia's Pilbara Coast in Western Australia. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided visible and infrared images of the storm that indicated heavy rainfall.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology, or ABM updated warnings on March 22. The Warning zone extends from Wallal Downs to Mardie including Port Hedland, Karratha and Barrow Island.

The Watch zone extends to the inland Pilbara to include Pannawonica, Marble Bar and Nullagine.

Suomi NPP passed over Savannah on March 22 and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument provided visible and infrared images of the storm. William Straka III, who created some of the images noted "As you would expect, the infrared channel on VIIRS showed large amounts of tropospheric gravity waves and overshooting [cloud] tops associated with the intense convection. In another image Veronica was illuminated by the full moon."

Shortly after the Suomi NPP satellite passed over the storm, the GCOM-W1 satellite also flew over Severe Tropical Cyclone Veronica. "The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer or AMSR2 instrument aboard GCOM-W1 showed a completely enclosed eye as well as the convection around the circulation," Straka said. The microwave instruments provide critical information that is not seen by the infrared or visible imagery for forecasters.

As of 9:02 a.m. EDT (9:02 p.m. AWST local time) on March 22, Severe Tropical Cyclone Veronica was a category 4 storm on the Australian scale. Veronica had sustained winds of 175 kilometers per hour. It was centered near 17.9 degrees south latitude and 116.9 degrees east longitude about 315 kilometers north of Karratha.

ABM noted "Severe Tropical Cyclone Veronica, a Category 4 system, is moving slowly southwards towards the Pilbara coast. During Saturday it is expected to take a more southeast track and reach the coast late Saturday or Sunday. A severe coastal impact is likely."

For updated forecasts, visit ABM: http://www.bom.gov.au/

A diet high in fats and sugars is known for its unhealthy effects on the heart. Scientists now have found that a high-fat, high-sugar diet in mouse mothers before and during pregnancy causes problems in the hearts of their offspring, and that such problems are passed down at least three generations, even if the younger generations only eat a standard mouse chow diet.

The study, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is published March 22 in the journal AJP-Heart and Circulatory Physiology.

The study also suggests that diet-induced heart changes in offspring are not only transmitted to offspring by their mothers. Obese mothers' male offspring that mated with healthy females fed a normal diet also passed on the same heart problems. The specific changes to the heart in these offspring were evident in changes to the heart muscle cells' energy factories, called mitochondria.

"We know that obesity in pregnant mothers raises the risk of future heart problems for her children," said co-senior author Kelle H. Moley, MD, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology. "But we have shown, at least in mice, that these heart problems don't stop with a single generation. They are passed down by both the male and female offspring of obese mothers, even when the offspring eat a normal diet. This was a bit of a surprise -- problems with heart mitochondria seemed likely to be passed down only through females, through the mitochondrial DNA present in the egg that we inherit only from our mothers.

"Now that we've shown that mouse fathers pass this down as well, we have to start studying changes in the DNA of the nucleus in both the egg and the sperm to make sure we understand all the contributing factors," she said.

Notably, the researchers found multigenerational heart problems, even when the mouse offspring were not obese and ate a normal diet throughout their lives. Though perhaps revealing some effects of a healthy diet, the severity of the heart problems diminished slightly over the generations of mice that ate standard chow diets, the researchers noted.

The heart abnormalities induced by maternal obesity included cardiac mitochondria that appeared small and fragmented and that consumed less oxygen than their normal counterparts. The hearts of most of the offspring, though not all, also showed an increase in the weight of the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart. In people, increased left ventricle weight is often a marker of poor heart muscle quality that predisposes one to heart failure, a potentially fatal condition in which the heart does not pump blood as well as it should.

"The cardiac abnormalities seem to dissipate somewhat over the generations, which is intriguing," said co-senior author Abhinav Diwan, MD, an associate professor of medicine. "Problems in echocardiograms and the increase in left ventricle mass were less evident in the females of the youngest generation that we studied. There were also differences in male and female hearts that we can't explain yet. In many ways, this study presents more questions than it answers, and we plan to continue studying these mice to help answer them."

The researchers also used in-vitro fertilization to implant fertilized eggs from obese mice into normal-weight mice to carry the pregnancies. These offspring also showed the heart defects, demonstrating that the problems are specific to the original egg from the mother fed the high-fat, high-sugar diet, and not the gestational environment during the pregnancy or nursing afterward.

Moley and her colleagues suspect that the defects in heart mitochondria are likely caused by so-called epigenetic changes in the DNA of the original obese mother's eggs. The epigenome is an important layer of genetic regulation that governs how DNA instructions are read and executed. And, in theory, these epigenetic changes in the egg would be present in every cell of the offspring, including in their male or female reproductive systems. Indeed, past work by this group confirmed that mitochondrial problems also exist in the skeletal muscle, leading to whole-body metabolic abnormalities, such as insulin resistance, in the offspring of obese mouse mothers and in two subsequent generations.

The researchers plan to study the epigenetic changes in the eggs of obese mothers and tissues of the offspring in an effort to understand what is happening to the mitochondria, but in the meantime emphasize the importance of maintaining a healthy weight before and during pregnancy.

"A big question that people may have is, 'What can I do if my grandmother or great-grandmother was obese?'" said first author Jeremie L.A. Ferey, PhD, a postdoctoral research scholar. "We need more studies to learn if it's possible to reverse these mitochondrial defects, but in general, exercise and a healthy diet are always important for heart health."

A new combination treatment aimed at resistant and recurrent low-grade gliomas slowed tumor growth and killed tumor cells in laboratory and mouse models.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine combined carboplatin, a standard chemotherapy drug that works well against these brain tumors, and everolimus, which blocks an enzyme called mTOR that was shown in earlier research to fuel the growth of these tumors. The combination increased DNA damage and cell death in laboratory models. Their findings were published in the Feb. 14, 2019, issue of Neuro-Oncology.

Pediatric low-grade glioma is the most common brain tumor in children and can often be treated with surgery alone. However, some patients have tumors in locations that make surgery too risky, such as near optic nerves or in the mid-brain area, or have their tumors grow back after surgery.

Eric Raabe, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of oncology and pediatric brain tumor expert at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, says tumors recur in about 50 percent of patients treated for low-grade glioma and require additional treatment with chemotherapy. Recurring tumors are often resistant to chemotherapy. The researchers wondered whether combining carboplatin and everolimus would be more effective.

When treated with carboplatin alone, four different human cell lines of low grade glioma cancer cells did not respond to the drug or kept growing. Similarly, some cell lines were resistant to everolimus alone.

When they treated the same cell lines with a combination of carboplatin and everolimus, the cells died or grew slower, and the researchers saw similar results in mouse models with no added toxicity.

"We saw dramatic growth inhibition after only a low concentration of everolimus was combined with the carboplatin," says Raabe. "We found that everolimus disrupted a key mechanism the cancer cells use to detoxify carboplatin. The ability of everolimus to increase the power of carboplatin suggests this combination could be used effectively in patients."

In a previous clinical study in 2014, Raabe and other researchers were able to confirm the safety of the mTOR-blocking drug everolimus in patients with pediatric low-grade glioma and found some patients responded to the medicine. However, they never tested tumor tissue from those patients to understand the molecular role of mTOR.

"The current nationwide clinical study of everolimus in pediatric low-grade glioma requires that some tumor tissue from each patient be evaluated for expression of mTOR markers that might predict response to everolimus," Raabe says. "In this way, we hope to figure out who is most likely to respond to the drug, so that we can move closer to our goal of giving the right medicine to the right patient at the right time. In the future, we may be able to give everolimus along with carboplatin to patients with high-level mTOR expression. Based on our research, we predict that these tumors will likely be resistant to carboplatin unless we simultaneously block mTOR."

New York, NY (March 21, 2019) -- Researchers from Mount Sinai and IBM have discovered a novel clue in explaining how cancer cells with identical genomes can respond differently to the same therapy. In a Nature Communications paper published today, researchers reveal for the first time that the number of mitochondria in a cell is, in great part, associated with how the cancer responds to drug therapy.

Cancer is the second-leading cause of mortality worldwide, with approximately one in six deaths across the globe attributed to the disease. While treatments for cancer continue to improve as technology advances, researchers and clinicians have been unsuccessful in explaining the diversity of responses in cancer cells to treatments of oncological disease. In many cases, cancer cells with matching genetic makeup will respond differently to the same treatment. Mount Sinai and IBM researchers combined computational and biological methods to uncover a clue to this behavior.

Cells die when met with bacteria, malnourishment, or viruses. But also, to promote normal function, our bodies eliminate billions of cells each day--a process known as "programmed cell death" or apoptosis. Mitochondria, often referred to as the powerhouse of the cell because of their ability to produce cellular energy, can also act as a catalyst in the activation of programmed cell death, and certain anti-cancer drugs work by activating this process. This function encouraged researchers to explore the hypothesis that cancer cells with identical genetic makeup, but different quantities of mitochondria, may have varying susceptibility to death if exposed to the same drugs that promote apoptosis.

In exposing various types of cells to six concentrations of a pro-apoptotic drug and measuring the abundance of mitochondria within the surviving cells, Mount Sinai and IBM researchers discovered that surviving cells had a greater amount of mitochondria than untreated cells. This strongly suggests that cells with fewer mitochondria are more likely to respond to certain drug treatments.

To analyze this data, researchers used a mathematical framework called DEPICTIVE (an acronym for DEtermining Parameter Influence on Cell-to-cell variability Through the Inference of Variance Explained) to quantify variability in the survival or death of cells due to mitochondrial abundance. Overall, the framework determined that the variability of mitochondria explained up to 30 percent of the varying responses to the pro-apoptotic drug.

"Enhancing our understanding of the relationship between mitochondria variability and drug response may lead to more effective targeted cancer treatments, allowing us to find new ways to tackle the problem of drug resistance," said Pablo Meyer, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Team Leader of Translational Systems Biology at IBM Research, and co-corresponding author of the publication. "The outcomes of this study were truly multidisciplinary, and only made possible by the strong scientific collaboration established between Mount Sinai and IBM."

Female birds age more slowly and live longer when they have help raising their offspring, according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

Researchers studied the relationship between ageing and offspring rearing patterns in the Seychelles warbler, and found that females who had assistance from other female helpers benefitted from a longer, healthier lifespan.

The findings help explain why social species, such as humans, which live in groups and cooperate to raise offspring, often have longer lifespans.

The study was led by researchers at UEA and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the University of Leeds, the University of Sheffield, Wageningen University, and with Nature Seychelles.

Prof David S Richardson, from UEA's School of Biological Sciences, said: "There is huge variation in lifespan between different species, and also between individuals within a species. But we know very little about what causes one individual to live a long healthy life, and another to die young. Or indeed, why individuals in one species live much longer than individuals in another similar species.

"Finding out more about what causes biological ageing is really important. And, until now, there has been very little known about the relationship between sociality and ageing within species."

Many species have cooperative breeding systems - in which offspring are cared for not only by their parents, but also by other adult members of the group called 'helpers'. These helpers are often - but not always - grown-up offspring from previous years.

The research team used more than 15 years of data on the breeding patterns of Seychelles warblers living on the small island of Cousin, in the Seychelles, to study associations between cooperative care giving and ageing.

As well as studying how quickly individuals' chances of dying increased as they grow older, the team also used the length of the birds' telomeres as a measure of their condition. Telomeres are found at the end of chromosomes and act as protective caps to stop genes close to the end of the chromosome being damaged - like the hard plastic ends of a bootlace.

Prof Richardson said: "Our previous work has shown that telomere length can be a good indicator of an individual's biological condition relative to its actual age - a measure of an individual's biological age so to speak. So we can use it to measure how quickly different birds are ageing.

"In the Seychelles warbler the majority of helpers are female - and they assist with incubating the eggs and providing food for the chicks. This means that the parents don't need to do as much work when they have help.

"We found that older dominant females really benefit from having female helpers - they lose less of their telomeres and are less likely to die in the near future. This shows they are ageing slower than females without helpers. Interestingly, these older female mothers were also more likely to have female helpers.

"Meanwhile the survival of elderly birds who were not assisted by helpers declined rapidly with age.

"The birds only need one female helper to show the effect of delayed ageing, and indeed most only have either one or no helpers. Very few may have two or three helpers, but there were not enough of those to determine whether there would be a greater benefit in having more helpers."

Dr Martijn Hammers, from the University of Groningen, said: "Our results suggest that for the older mothers, there are real benefits to cooperative breeding. Biologically speaking they stay 'younger' for longer, and they are more likely to live longer.

"These findings may help to explain why social species often have longer lifespans.

"What we don't know yet is why some older individuals have helpers, which enable them to live longer, and some don't despite the obvious benefits. Further research is needed to confirm the causality of the associations we have found."

In a Journal of the American Geriatrics Society study of residents at nursing homes, those who participated in a six-month program of individualized and progressive multicomponent exercise at moderate intensity experienced fewer falls than those in a control group that participated in routine activities.

Also, after the program, there was a lower prevalence of frailty and fewer deaths in the intervention group compared with the control group.

The intervention consisted of one-hour supervised group training sessions twice a week for a six-month period and involved individualized strength and balance exercises. Walking recommendations were also individually tailored in duration and intensity.

"Further research is needed to ascertain whether those who engage in this kind of individualized program ultimately die with better function and lower dependency," the authors wrote.

Skin diseases are ranked as the fourth most common cause of human illness, but many affected people do not consult a physician. A new Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology study estimates the prevalence of skin diseases outside the typical medical setting.

To include people who never or rarely seek medical aid, the study did not rely on health insurance data, but rather on data collected at the Munich Oktoberfest in Germany. Screening examinations were performed randomly on participating visitors.

Of the 2,701 individuals in the study, at least one skin abnormality was observed in 1,662 of the participants (64.5 percent). The most common diagnoses were actinic keratosis (26.6 percent), rosacea (25.5 percent), and eczema (11.7 percent). Skin diseases increased with age and were more frequent in men (72.3 percent) than in women (58.0 percent). Nearly two-thirds of the affected participants were unaware of their abnormal skin findings.

"Skin diseases might be even more prevalent than previously thought. Considering their significant impact on individual, family, and social life as well as their heavy economic burden caused by inadequate self- or non-physician treatment, the public health importance of skin diseases is underappreciated," said senior author Dr. Alexander Zink, of the Technical University of Munich. "Information and awareness campaigns are needed to better address this neglected issue and to reduce the global burden of skin diseases."

NASA's Aqua satellite provided a view of Tropical Cyclone Veronica after it developed off the northern coast of Western Australia.

On March 20, 2019 the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of the storm that revealed bands of thunderstorms spiraling into the center of circulation. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that the system continued to consolidate as rain bands wrapped tighter toward a pinhole formative eye. When Aqua passed over Veronica, the storm's southeastern quadrant was brushing the Dampier Peninsula. That peninsula is located north of Broome and Roebuck Bay in Western Australia and bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west and north and King Sound to the east.

Although there are not yet any warnings in place, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology or ABM has posted a watch area from Pardoo to Mardie, including Port Hedland and Karratha, Western Australia. A Blue Alert is in effect for people in or near communities between Mardie and Pardoo, including Port Hedland, South Hedland, Wickham, Roebourne, Point Samson, Karratha and Dampier. ABM recommends those residents to prepare for cyclonic weather and organize an emergency kit including first aid kit, torch, portable radio, spare batteries, food and water.

At 8:47 a.m. EDT (8:47 p.m. AWST Australia local time) on March 20, 2019, maximum sustained winds near Veronica's center were near 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Trevor was centered near 15.8 degrees south latitude and 118.0 degrees east longitude. That's about 314 miles (505 kilometers) north of Port Hedland. ABM noted "The cyclone is expected to continue tracking west southwest tonight and during Thursday, March 21. On Friday, March 22, the system will intensify further as it adopts a more southerly track, towards the Pilbara coast."

ABM forecasts that Veronica will turn to the south and head toward Karratha by March 23. Residents along the Pilbara coast should prepare for Veronica.

For updated forecasts from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, visit: http://www.bom.gov.au

Tropical Cyclone Trevor appeared to have a cloud-filled eye in visible imagery from NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite.

On March 19, 2019 the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured visible image of Tropical Cyclone Trevor as it continued moving west through the Coral Sea, Southern Pacific Ocean, and toward a landfall in Queensland, Australia's Cape York Peninsula. VIIRS imagery showed powerful thunderstorms wrapping into the low-level center. At the time of the image, Trevor's western quadrant was already over the Peninsula, and the eye appeared covered by high clouds.

After the Suomi NPP image, Trevor crossed the coast in the evening (local time) and remains slow moving just south of Lockhart River.

On March 18 (EDT), the Australian Bureau of Meteorology or ABM posted a warning from Orford Ness to Cape Melville, including Lockhart River and Coen, and Pormpuraaw to Cape York, including Weipa and Aurukun.

At 8:51 a.m. EDT (10:51 p.m. AEST local time, Australia), the ABM noted that maximum sustained winds near the center were 130 kilometers per hour (80 mph). Trevor's center was located near 12.9 degrees south and 143.3 degrees east, about 15 kilometers (8 miles) south of Lockhart River and 160 kilometers (9 miles) east southeast of Weipa. Trevor was moving to the west.

ABM said "The cyclone will weaken as it crosses the northern Peninsula tonight and Wednesday, but is expected to remain a category 1 cyclone until it enters the Gulf of Carpentaria later on Wednesday. It is expected to re-intensify rapidly once it enters the Gulf of Carpentaria and track towards the Northern Territory."

For updated forecasts from ABM, visit: http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/index.shtml

Freshwater biodiversity is rapidly declining worldwide, and nature-based solutions which increase the resilience of ecological communities are becoming increasingly important in helping communities prepare for the unavoidable effects of climate change.

TalTech robotics scientists, together with their colleagues from Lisbon, studied how fish adapt to rapid changes in the surrounding freshwater environment. To conduct the study, the researchers varied the water current and depth in a simulated river with obstacles, and found that fish were able to rapidly adapt to the changes when alone and also when in groups.

The results of the study are published in a prestigious scientific journal PLOS ONE in the article "Fish under pressure: Examining behavioural responses of Iberian barbel under simulated hydropeaking with instream structures".

Researcher at TalTech Centre for Biorobotics and a co-author on the study Jeffrey Tuhtan said, "The findings suggest that cues initiated by obstacles in the flow can be detected by fish to find energetically-beneficial places in the flow even under extreme and rapid environmental change."

The concept of observing fish in simulated rivers as individuals or in groups is not unusual, but the effects of rapid environmental variations, such as quickly changing water depths due to hydropower plant operations or a flash flood remain largely unknown.

One of the main objects of the research - barbel are a common fish species in many European rivers, and are usually found in rocky-bottomed and slow flowing rivers with plenty of dissolved oxygen. "These fish are an important indicator of ecosystem health in the Iberian peninsula and in many other European rivers. Hydropower operations and the uncertainty caused by climate change mean we need to begin to look at the compound effects of rapid changes, from 'the fish's perspective'," a research biologist at the University of Lisbon and first author Maria Joao Costa said.

Fish sense their surroundings using the biological lateral line, which consists of canals and tiny hair-like structures which are sensitive to minute changes in the water motion and pressure near the fish's body. This study was the first to combine biological observations of individuals and groups of fish with a new bioinspired sensing technology. The researchers observed that both individual fish and groups of fish reacted to the changing flow conditions in very clear ways and wondered if their natural flow sensing abilities were guiding their ability to cope with the stressors.

"It was exciting to compare the results of the artificial lateral line with actual observations of fish behavior. This was a very unique opportunity to combine sensor research with real-world biological observations, something which is rarely done," said Juan Francisco Fuentes-Perez, a PhD candidate at TalTech and co-author.

"A fish's sensing abilities have developed over millions of years and are incredibly advanced compared to what engineers have available. This is likely part of the reason they have survived for hundreds of millions of years" said Isabela Boavida, a senior researcher at the University of Lisbon and co-author. When developing nature-based solutions for improving resilience to climate change, it makes sense to look to fish and other ancient organisms who have proved their ability to survive throughout long history.

"Understanding how a fish's advanced sensing system help them react to rapid changes in the flow environment will help scientists develop new designs for nature-based solutions to improve climate change resilience. With more than 500 million years of real-world experience, fish are likely to have learned a few tricks for quickly adapting to challenging conditions" said Prof. Antonio Pinheiro, co-author from the University of Lisbon.

Scientists from the National University of Science and Technology "MISIS" developed nanomaterial, which will be able to rstore the internal structure of bones damaged due to osteoporosis and osteomyelitis. A special bioactive coating of the material helped to increase the rate of division of bone cells by 3 times. In the future, it can allow to abandon bone marrow transplantation and patients will no longer need to wait for suitable donor material. An article about the development was published in Applied Surface Science.

Such diseases as osteoporosis and osteomyelitis cause irreversible degenerative changes in the bone structure. Such diseases require serious complex treatment and surgery and transplantation of the destroyed bone marrow in severe stages. Donor material should have a number of compatibility indicators and even close relationship with the donor cannot guarantee full compatibility.

Research group from the National University of Science and Technology "MISIS" (NUST MISIS), led by Anton Manakhov (Laboratory for Inorganic Nanomaterials) developed material that will allow to restore damaged internal bone structure without bone marrow transplantation.

It is based on nanofibers of polycaprolactone, which is biocompatible self-dissolvable material. Earlier, the same research group has already worked with this material: by adding antibiotics to the nanofibers, scientists have managed to create non-changeable healing bandages.

"If we want the implant to take, not only biocompatibility is needed, but also activation of the natural cell growth on the surface of the material. Polycaprolactone as such is a hydrophobic material, meaning, and cells feel uncomfortable on its surface. They gather on the smooth surface and divide extremely slow", Elizaveta Permyakova, one of the co-authors and researcher at NUST MISIS Laboratory for Inorganic Nanomaterials, explains.

To increase the hydrophilicity of the material, a thin layer of bioactive film consisting of titanium, calcium, phosphorus, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen (TiCaPCON) was deposited on it. The structure of nanofibers identical to the cell surface was preserved. These films, when immersed in a special salt medium, which chemical composition is identical to human blood plasma, are able to form on its surface a special layer of calcium and phosphorus, which in natural conditions forms the main part of the bone. Due to the chemical similarity and the structure of nanofibers, new bone tissue begins to grow rapidly on this layer. Most importantly, polycaprolactone nanofibers dissolve, having fulfilled their functions. Only new "native" tissue remains in the bone.

In the experimental part of the study, the researchers compared the rate of division of osteoblastic bone cells on the surface of the modified and unmodified material. It was found that the modified material TiCaPCON has a high hydrophilicity. In contrast to the unmodified material, the cells on its surface felt clearly more comfortable, and divided three times faster.

According to scientists, such results open up great prospects for further work with modified polycaprolactone nanofibers as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation.