Brain

In the digital age, data traffic is growing at an exponential rate. The demands on computing power for applications in artificial intelligence such as pattern and speech recognition in particular, or for self-driving vehicles, often exceeds the capacities of conventional computer processors. Working together with an international team, researchers at the University of Münster are developing new approaches and process architectures which can cope with these tasks extremely efficient. They have now shown that so-called photonic processors, with which data is processed by means of light, can process information much more rapidly and in parallel - something electronic chips are incapable of doing. The results have been published in the "Nature" journal.

Background and methodology

Light-based processors for speeding up tasks in the field of machine learning enable complex mathematical tasks to be processed at enormously fast speeds (10¹² -10¹? operations per second). Conventional chips such as graphic cards or specialized hardware like Google's TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) are based on electronic data transfer and are much slower. The team of researchers led by Prof. Wolfram Pernice from the Institute of Physics and the Center for Soft Nanoscience at the University of Münster implemented a hardware accelerator for so-called matrix multiplications, which represent the main processing load in the computation of neural networks. Neural networks are a series of algorithms which simulate the human brain. This is helpful, for example, for classifying objects in images and for speech recognition.

The researchers combined the photonic structures with phase-change materials (PCMs) as energy-efficient storage elements. PCMs are usually used with DVDs or BluRay discs in optical data storage. In the new processor this makes it possible to store and preserve the matrix elements without the need for an energy supply. To carry out matrix multiplications on multiple data sets in parallel, the Münster physicists used a chip-based frequency comb as a light source. A frequency comb provides a variety of optical wavelengths which are processed independently of one another in the same photonic chip. As a result, this enables highly parallel data processing by calculating on all wavelengths simultaneously - also known as wavelength multiplexing. "Our study is the first one to apply frequency combs in the field of artificially neural networks," says Wolfram Pernice.

In the experiment the physicists used a so-called convolutional neural network for the recognition of handwritten numbers. These networks are a concept in the field of machine learning inspired by biological processes. They are used primarily in the processing of image or audio data, as they currently achieve the highest accuracies of classification. "The convolutional operation between input data and one or more filters - which can be a highlighting of edges in a photo, for example - can be transferred very well to our matrix architecture," explains Johannes Feldmann, the lead author of the study. "Exploiting light for signal transference enables the processor to perform parallel data processing through wavelength multiplexing, which leads to a higher computing density and many matrix multiplications being carried out in just one timestep. In contrast to traditional electronics, which usually work in the low GHz range, optical modulation speeds can be achieved with speeds up to the 50 to 100 GHz range." This means that the process permits data rates and computing densities, i.e. operations per area of processor, never previously attained.

The results have a wide range of applications. In the field of artificial intelligence, for example, more data can be processed simultaneously while saving energy. The use of larger neural networks allows more accurate, and hitherto unattainable, forecasts and more precise data analysis. For example, photonic processors support the evaluation of large quantities of data in medical diagnoses, for instance in high-resolution 3D data produced in special imaging methods. Further applications are in the fields of self-driving vehicles, which depend on fast, rapid evaluation of sensor data, and of IT infrastructures such as cloud computing which provide storage space, computing power or applications software.

Toronto - New research from UHN's Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC) shows statins, commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, may also protect the heart from damaging side-effects of early breast cancer treatment.

Published Jan. 6, 2021 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an observational study found women already taking statins and treated with either anthracyclines or trastuzumab were half as likely to be hospitalized or visit an Emergency Department for heart failure within five years after chemotherapy.

"Our job is to protect the heart and ensure it has the greatest fighting chance to get through chemotherapy," says Dr. Husam Abdel-Qadir, lead author of the paper and a cardiologist at the PMCC and Women's College Hospital. He notes prior observational studies have reported measures of heart strength in statin-treated women after chemotherapy, but only focused on a single centre.

"Our study focused on women across Ontario. We went beyond just a number indicating a weaker heart - we focused on heart failure severe enough for women to come to an Emergency Department or be hospitalized."

Anthracyclines and trastuzumab are effective therapies for many women with breast cancer. However, increased risk of cardiotoxicity has limited their use, and damage can be severe enough to lead to heart failure.

Using several health databases in Ontario, researchers reviewed the occurrence of heart failure in women aged 66 and older who received trastuzumab or anthracyclines for newly diagnosed early breast cancer between 2007 and 2017.

In the 666 pairs of women treated with anthracyclines, those taking statins were 55 per cent less likely to be treated at the hospital for heart failure. In the 390 pairs of women treated with trastuzumab, those taking statins were 54 per cent less likely, which suggested a protective trend but did not meet statistical significance.

Oxidative stress is believed to be one of the mechanisms in which cancer treatment eventually leads to damage of the heart muscle. It is defined as the imbalance of free radicals, compounds which can harm your body if levels are too high, and antioxidants, molecules that fight free radicals.

In addition to lowering cholesterol, statins may also protect the body against the effects of oxidative stress. If statins can stop this imbalance, they may decrease the likelihood the heart sustains damage due to cancer treatment.

"In order to know whether it's a true cause and effect relationship, we need to do a proper randomized control trial," says Dr. Abdel-Qadir, who is also part of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (TRCHR) Cardiotoxicity Prevention Program.

"For the time being, if a woman is supposed to be starting treatment for breast cancer and already has an established indication to be on a statin, there's now additional motivation to start it or stay on it."

As for next steps, Dr. Dinesh Thavendiranathan, cardiologist at the PMCC, lead of the TRCHR Cardiotoxicity Prevention Program and senior author on the study is currently recruiting for the SPARE-HF randomized control trial, which will assess whether pre-treatment with statins before anthracycline-chemotherapy can prevent cardiotoxicity in high-risk patients.

"It's part of the larger principles we try and apply within the TRCHR Cardiotoxicity Program, which is ideally you shouldn't change the cancer treatment, you let the oncologist pick the best treatment for the patient," says Dr. Abdel-Qadir.

"We try to reduce the risks that come with it. Our vision is that patients should be able to get the best cancer treatment while reducing concerns for the heart as much as possible."

The world has experienced dramatic urbanization in recent decades. According to the latest report from the United Nations (UN), the global population in 2018 was 7.6 billion and the urban population was 4.2 billion. By 2050, the global population is expected to soar to 9.7 billion, with 68% of the population living in urban areas. (Note 1)

In the first-ever study on the characteristics of urbanization in large cities around the world, researchers at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) analyzed cities' urban built-up areas (BUAs) expansion, population growth and greening BUA changes, and revealed a hugely uneven pace of urbanization in those cities in the last two decades. They warn against major challenges posed to sustainable development if the urban problems are not dealt with in a timely manner. The findings have been published in Nature Communication.

The study, conducted by Professor CHEN Ji at the Civil Engineering Department of the Faculty of Engineering, HKU, in collaboration with the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, analysed the development of 841 large cities throughout the world with BUAs of over 100 km2 (Note 2) based on MODIS satellite data from 2001 to 2018 obtained under the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.

Breakdown of the 841 large cities by country income-levels

353 cities (42.0%) from high-income countries (e.g. New York in US, Tokyo in Japan)

340 cities (40.4%) from upper-middle-income countries (e.g. Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Beijing in China, Sao Paulo in Brazil)

127 cities (15.1%) from lower-middle-income countries (e.g. New Delhi in India, Cairo in Egypt, Lagos in Nigeria)

21 cities (2.5%) from low-income countries (e.g. Kathmandu in Nepal, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania)

The findings revealed unevenness between built-up areas expansion (BUAE), which reflects the pace of infrastructure development, and urban population growth among the cities; and a widening gap between rapid urban population growth and slow urban greening, represented by features including new parks, green spaces and green roofs.

Cities in the upper-middle-income countries demonstrated the highest BUA expansion, which was more than three times that of high-income countries. Urban expansion and urban population growth in high-income countries remained the lowest. Cities in the low-income and lower-middle-income countries had the highest urban population growth on average, but were substantially lagging behind in BUA expansion and infrastructure development, resulting in serious urban problems such as slums and crowding.

The findings also revealed rapid urbanization of large cities in China in the last two decades. The country had undergone the biggest urban expansion in the period, between 2001 and 2018, its BUA increase accounted for 47.5% of the total expansion in the world. In 2018, the country has 19% of the total BUA of large cities in the world.

"Due to the rapid economic growth in the study period, China invested a large amount of resources into infrastructure construction for advancing the urban living environment. Its progress in greening has been impressive, benefitting at least 108 million city dwellers, accounting for 32% of the total greening at BUAs in the large cities over the world." Professor Chen said.

Of the 841 cities studied, 325 showed significant greening with more than 10% of greening BUAs. Among them 101 are located in China. The largest greening BUAs are Pearl River Delta (PRD)(Note 3), Tokyo, Yangtze River Delta (YRD, Note 4), Miami, Beijing, Chicago, Seoul, Tianjin, Sao Paulo, and Osaka. In 2018, cities in the highest quarter of greenness range accommodated only 12% of the total city population; about 69% of the total population lived in areas with a lower greenness.

"China will reach carbon emission peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, and large cities with a significant greening trend play an important role in neutralizing carbon emission and mitigating the impact of global climate change in urban areas. For the majority of the developing countries, understanding the uneven urbanization in the past decades can provide scientific references for urban management, helping to strike a balance between urbanization, population growth and environmental changes." Professor Chen said.

"Our research provides a low-cost method for monitoring sustainable urban development globally, and the quantitative findings contribute to a better understanding of how to achieve rational urbanization and sustainable development in various cities. The findings also serve as a warning that continuing and rapid urban development without proper and long-term planning can be detrimental and the urgent need is to strengthen urban planning and governance, especially in developing and least developed countries." Professor Chen added.

Memphis, Tenn. (January 5, 2021) - A paper written by Arash Shaban-Nejad, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor, and Nariman Ammar, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow, both at the Center for Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, was recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research - Medical Informatics. The paper discussed how an artificial intelligence system developed by the researchers was used to diagnose and treat children and adults who suffer from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Their research study was named among the Top Milestones on Explainable AI In 2020.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, negative events and processes that an individual might encounter during childhood and adolescence, have been proven to be linked to increased risk of a multitude of negative health outcomes and conditions in adulthood. Drs. Shaban-Nejad and Ammar implemented an artificial intelligence platform called Semantic Platform for Adverse Childhood Experiences Surveillance (SPACES), which assists medical practitioners and health care workers with diagnosing ACEs in the early stages by using real-time data captured through conversations during in-person consultations.

Many AI platforms don't provide enough explanation to interpret and justify decisions, prolonging the diagnosis and treatment processes. The SPACES platform has functions that can mitigate many of these difficulties. It can detect patient health disparity variants (geographic location, sexual identity, socioeconomic status, etc.), recommend intervention plans to health professionals, and allocate resources as needed.

"Current treatment options are long, complex, costly, and most of the time a non-transparent process," Dr. Shaban-Nejad said. "We aim not only to assist health care practitioners in extracting, processing, and analyzing the information, but also to inform and empower patients to actively participate in their own health care decision-making process in close cooperation with medical and health care professionals."

A recent study finds that, while youth think all bullying is bad, non-immigrant adolescents object less to bullying when the victim is an immigrant. However, the study found that the more contact immigrant and non-immigrant children had with each other, the more strongly they objected to bullying.

"We know that bystanders can play a key role in stopping bullying, and wanted to better understand bystander responses to bias-based bullying," says Seçil Gönülta?, first author of the study and a Ph.D. student at North Carolina State University. "What role does a victim's background play? What role does the bystander's background play? Are children more or less likely to intervene if they come from different backgrounds?"

To explore these questions, the researchers conducted a study with 179 children, all of whom were in either sixth grade or ninth grade. Seventy-nine of the study participants were of immigrant origin, meaning that at least one of their parents was born outside of the United States. Researchers categorized the remaining 100 participants as non-immigrants for the purposes of this study, meaning both of their parents had been born in the U.S.

Study participants read three different scenarios and were then asked a range of questions to assess what they thought of the interactions in each scenario and how they would have responded in each situation.

In the first scenario, a non-immigrant child socially bullies an immigrant child because of his or her immigrant status. In the second scenario, a non-immigrant child socially bullies another non-immigrant child for being shy. And in the third scenario, a non-immigrant child socially bullies an immigrant child for being shy. Social bullying involves verbal or emotional abuse, rather than physical abuse. Immigrant youth in the fictional scenarios were born outside of the U.S.

"In general, the kids thought bullying was not acceptable," says Kelly Lynn Mulvey, co-author of the study and an associate professor of psychology at NC State. "But non-immigrant youth thought bullying immigrant peers was more acceptable than bullying of other non-immigrant peers. Immigrant origin youth thought bullying any of the kids was equally wrong."

"On a positive note, we found that there were two things that made a difference," Gönülta? says. "First, we found that the more contact children in one group had with children in another group, the less accepting they were of bullying and the more likely they were to intervene to stop the bullying. That was true for immigrant origin and non-immigrant youth."

"We also found that children who scored higher on 'Theory of Mind' were more likely to intervene," Mulvey says. "Theory of Mind is an important part of understanding other people's perspectives, so we suspect this is likely tied to a child's ability to place themselves in the victim's shoes.

"Ultimately, we think this study is valuable because it can help us develop more effective anti-bullying interventions," Mulvey adds. "For example, these findings suggest that finding ways to encourage and facilitate more positive interactions between groups can help kids to understand that all bullying is harmful and to encourage kids to step in when they see it."

One sweaty, huffing, exercising person emits as many chemicals from their body as up to five sedentary people, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study. And notably, those human emissions, including amino acids from sweat or acetone from breath, chemically combine with bleach cleaners to form new airborne chemicals with unknown impacts to indoor air quality.

"Humans are a large source of indoor emissions," said Zachary Finewax, CIRES research scientist and lead author of the new study out in the current edition of Indoor Air. "And chemicals in indoor air, whether from our bodies or cleaning products, don't just disappear, they linger and travel around spaces like gyms, reacting with other chemicals."

In 2018, the CU Boulder team outfitted a weight room in the Dal Ward Athletic Center--a campus facility for university student athletes, from weightlifters to cheerleaders--with a suite of air-sampling equipment. Instruments collected data from both the weight room and supply air, measuring a slew of airborne chemicals in real time before, during and after workouts of CU athletes. The team found the athletes' bodies produced 3-5 times the emissions while working out, compared to when they were at rest.

"Using our state-of-the-art equipment, this was the first time indoor air analysis in a gym was done with this high level of sophistication. We were able to capture emissions in real time to see exactly how many chemicals the athletes were emitting, and at what rate," said Demetrios Pagonis, postdoctoral researcher at CIRES and co-author on the new work.

Many gym facilities frequently use chlorine bleach-based products to sanitize sweaty equipment. And while these cleaning products work to kill surface bacteria--they also combine with emissions from sweat--mixing to form a new cocktail of chemicals.

The team was the first to observe a chemical group called N-chloraldimines--a reaction product of bleach with amino acids--in gym air. That meant chlorine from bleach cleaner sprayed onto equipment was reacting with the amino acids released from sweating bodies, the authors report.

And although more research is needed to determine specific impacts this might have on indoor air quality, chemically similar reaction products of ammonia with bleach can be harmful to human health.

"Since people spend about 90 percent of our time indoors, it's critical we understand how chemicals behave in the spaces we occupy," said Joost de Gouw, CIRES Fellow, professor of chemistry at CU Boulder and corresponding author on the paper. Although the researchers collected all data for this study pre-pandemic, the team says their results illustrate that a modern gym with low occupancy and good ventilation may still be relatively safe for a workout, especially if masks are used.

BEER-SHEVA, Israel...January 5, 2021 - Reopening Florida elementary and high schools in September was followed by increased COVID-19 infections, according to data analyzed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Harvard Medical School and Tel Aviv University researchers.

The findings were just published in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Florida is one of the few states that provides incidence of infections by exact age and county.

Comparing schools that reopened with those that remained closured, the researchers discovered infections had risen nearly 30 percent in high school children ages 14-17. The increase was lower--around 20 percent--in infection rates among the elementary school children ages 6-13.

Study lead author Oren Miron, a Ph.D. student in the BGU Department of Health Systems Management tracked data from 10 days prior to 20 days after reopening. He is a student of Prof. Davidovitch who heads the department and is a member of the team of experts advising the Israeli government on its COVID-19 policy.

"Our analysis has implications for countries trying to determine whether to keep physical schools open as they battle rising infection rates," Miron says. "Vaccines will not be given to children initially, so managing infection rates through temporary remote learning is of paramount importance."

"The education system plays a critical role in children's cognitive and emotional development," says Prof. Davidovitch. "Therefore, the required resources should be invested in the system during the difficult times in which we find ourselves."

Improving solar cell design is integral for improving energy consumption. Scientists have lately focused on making solar cells more efficient, flexible, and portable to enable their integration into everyday applications. Consequently, novel lightweight and flexible thin film solar cells have been developed. It is, however, not easy to combine efficiency with flexibility. For a material (usually a semiconductor) to be efficient, it must have a small "band gap"--the energy required to excite charge carriers for electrical conduction--and should absorb and convert a large portion of the sunlight into electricity. Till date, no such efficient absorber suitable for thin film solar cells has been developed.

Typically, charge carriers in a semiconductor are generated in pairs of negatively charged electrons and positively charged "holes" (essentially, the "absence" of electrons). For efficient electrical conduction, these electrons and holes need to be separated. A class of materials called "ferroelectrics" can greatly facilitate this separation, thanks to their spontaneous "electric polarization," a phenomenon analogous to spontaneous magnetization in iron. However, due to large band gaps and poor light-to-electricity conversion, they have seen limited photovoltaic applications.

In a new study published in Applied Materials and Interfaces, scientists from Korea addressed this issue and proposed a novel solution in the form of "antiperovskite" oxides, denoted as Ba4Pn2O, with Pn as stand-in for Arsenic (As) or Antimony (Sb). Using density functional theory calculations, scientists investigated various physical properties of the antiperovskite oxides and revealed that they exhibit spontaneous electric polarization, making them ferroelectric in nature. Prof. Youngho Kang from Incheon National University, who led the study, explains, In the minimum energy configuration of the Ba4Pn2O structure, we found that the O ions and the Ba ions are displaced from their original positions in opposite directions. These displacements gave rise to a non-zero electric polarization, a classic signature of ferroelectricity."

Since the spontaneous polarization assists in the separation of electron-hole pairs, this implied that antiperovskite oxides could efficiently extract charge carriers. In addition, the calculations showed that their band gaps are ideal for efficient sunlight absorption, allowing even a very thin layer of Ba4Pn2O to yield substantial photocurrent.

Such promising results have excited the scientists about the future prospects of thin film solar cells. Prof. Kang surmises, "Our results are a firm confirmation that antiperovskites can make for efficient absorbers for thin-film solar cells. Given their versatility, there can be several real-life applications for these solar cells, even to charge cell phones when sunlight is available. Moreover, their flexibility can allow for making self-driving wearable devices like smartwatches."

An emerging type of alloy nanoparticle proves more stable, durable than single-element nanoparticles.

Catalysts are integral to countless aspects of modern society. By speeding up important chemical reactions, catalysts support industrial manufacturing and reduce harmful emissions. They also increase efficiency in chemical processes for applications ranging from batteries and transportation to beer and laundry detergent.

As significant as catalysts are, the way they work is often a mystery to scientists. Understanding catalytic processes can help scientists develop more efficient and cost-effective catalysts. In a recent study, scientists from University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory discovered that, during a chemical reaction that often quickly degrades catalytic materials, a certain type of catalyst displays exceptionally high stability and durability.

“We have state-of-the-art facilities, and we want to deliver state-of-the-art science as well.” — Argonne scientist Yuzi Liu

The catalysts in this study are alloy nanoparticles, or nanosized particles made up of multiple metallic elements, such as cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum. These nanoparticles could have multiple practical applications, including water-splitting to generate hydrogen in fuel cells; reduction of carbon dioxide by capturing and converting it into useful materials like methanol; more efficient reactions in biosensors to detect substances in the body; and solar cells that produce heat, electricity and fuel more effectively.

In this study, the scientists investigated “high-entropy” (highly stable) alloy nanoparticles. The team of researchers, led by Reza Shahbazian-Yassar at UIC, used Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science user facility, to characterize the particles’ compositions during oxidation, a process that degrades the material and reduces its usefulness in catalytic reactions.

“Using gas flow transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at CNM, we can capture the whole oxidation process in real time and at very high resolution,” said scientist Bob Song from UIC, a lead scientist on the study. “We found that the high-entropy alloy nanoparticles are able to resist oxidation much better than general metal particles.”

To perform the TEM, the scientists embedded the nanoparticles into a silicon nitride membrane and flowed different types of gas through a channel over the particles. A beam of electrons probed the reactions between the particles and the gas, revealing the low rate of oxidation and the migration of certain metals — iron, cobalt, nickel and copper — to the particles’ surfaces during the process.

“Our objective was to understand how fast high-entropy materials react with oxygen and how the chemistry of nanoparticles evolves during such a reaction,” said Shahbazian-Yassar, UIC professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the College of Engineering.

According to Shahbazian-Yassar, the discoveries made in this research could benefit many energy storage and conversion technologies, such as fuel cells, lithium-air batteries, supercapacitors and catalyst materials. The nanoparticles could also be used to develop corrosion-resistant and high-temperature materials.

“This was a successful showcase of how CNM’s capabilities and services can meet the needs of our collaborators,” said Argonne’s Yuzi Liu, a scientist at CNM. “We have state-of-the-art facilities, and we want to deliver state-of-the-art science as well.”

An effective response to a pandemic like the COVID-19 will only be successful if people voluntarily follow the rules and guidelines of decision-makers and experts. Many of the required measures, such as avoiding social contact and significantly changing our daily habits require a strong commitment. Other necessary actions, such as regular hand washing, are often impossible to monitor and enforce. Adherence to the guidelines thus depends on people's personal commitment.

The ability of policy makers and experts to communicate convincingly to citizens has a strong influence on whether people voluntarily motivate themselves to change their behaviour and maintain new behaviours.

Based on a large body of existing research, four leading researchers of self-determination theory, Frank Martela (Aalto University), Nelli Hankonen (University of Helsinki), Richard M. Ryan (Australian Catholic University) and Maarten Vansteenkiste (Universiteit Gent) have crystallised 13 communication principles to foster voluntary compliance in a crisis such as COVID-19. The Communication Principles have been approved for publication in the prestigious European Review of Social Psychology.

'While the overall tone of politicians and officials on COVID-19 has been relatively calm and neutral in Finland, where I'm based, at times communication has not been very transparent. There also hasn't been enough clarity about the assessments and research on which the recommendations are based. This creates unnecessary rumors and counter-arguments,' says Frank Martela, a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University.

'Different countries have had different strengths and weaknesses as regards their way of communicating. This checklist could help them to identify areas of improvements to increase public motivation to comply,' he adds.

'I'm not sure how widely citizens initially understood why, for example, asymptomatic people should use face masks. In order for people to make sensible choices in their daily lives, they need to understand the mechanisms of spreading and controlling the disease. In order to optimise communications, we would need up-to-date information on what are the most serious misunderstandings or concerns of citizens,' Assistant Professor Nelli Hankonen from the University of Helsinki says.

The 13 principles of communication that the researchers have crystallised are based on self-determination theory, a widely studied and applied theory of the human motivation and its social determinants. Hundreds of empirical studies from different areas of life, from health care to working life, have shown that supporting autonomy is essential to getting people to voluntarily commit to guidelines. The communication principles developed within the theory have been shown to provide tangible health-related outcomes in, for example, diabetes prevention, tobacco cessation and long-term medication adherence.

The communication guidelines developed by the research team are structured around how they support the three human psychological needs: autonomy (a sense of volition and self-endorsement), competence (a sense of effectiveness and mastery), and relatedness (a sense of mutual care and interpersonal connection). In particular, experts and decision-makers should make sure that their way of communication doesn't awaken defiance. While many of the guidelines have not been directly tested in policy communication contexts, they are based on currently available evidence from other domains and, as such, likely to have positive effects on motivation.

Plants can perceive and react to light across a wide spectrum. New research from Prof. Nitzan Shabek's laboratory in the Department of Plant Biology, College of Biological Sciences shows how plants can respond to blue light in particular.

"Plants can see much better than we can," Shabek said.

Plants don't have dedicated light-detecting organs, like our eyes. They do have a variety of dedicated receptors that can sense almost every single wavelength. One such are the blue light photoreceptors called cryptochromes. When the cryptochrome detects an incoming photon, it reacts in a way that triggers a unique physiological response.

Cryptochromes probably appeared billions of years ago with the first living bacteria and they are very similar across bacteria, plants and animals. We have cryptochromes in our own eyes, where they are involved in maintaining our circadian clock. In plants, cryptochromes govern a variety of critical processes including seed germination, flowering time and entrainment of the circadian clock. However, the photochemistry, regulation, and light-induced structural changes remain unclear.

In a new study, published Jan. 4 in Nature Communications Biology, Shabek's lab determined the crystal structure of part of the blue-light receptor, cryptochrome-2, in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. They found that the light-detecting part of the molecule changes its structure when it reacts with light particles, going from a single unit to a structure made of four units linked together, or tetramer.

Rearrangement leads to gene activation

"This rearrangement process, called photo-induced oligomerization, is also very intriguing because certain elements within the protein undergo changes when exposed to blue light. Our molecular structure suggests that these light-induced changes release transcriptional regulators that control expression of specific genes in plants," Shabek said.

The researchers were able to work out the structure of cryptochrome-2 with the aid of the Advanced Light Source X-ray facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The Shabek lab broadly studies how plants sense their environment from the molecular to the organismal levels.

"This work is part of our long-term goals to understand sensing mechanisms in plants. We are interested in hormone perceptions as well as light signaling pathways," Shabek said.

The team first solved the crystal structure of the blue light receptor two years ago, using X-ray crystallography and biochemical approaches. With recent advances in plant sciences and structural biology, they were able to update the model and reveal the missing piece of the puzzle.

People with certain genetic conditions are likely to have significant symptoms of autism, even if they do not meet all diagnostic criteria, a study concludes.

Researchers at Cardiff University say their findings show clinical services need to adapt so that people diagnosed with autism-linked genetic conditions are not denied access to vital support and interventions.

Published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, the international study analysed data from 547 people who had been diagnosed with one of four genetic conditions, also known as copy number variants (CNVs), associated with a high chance of autism - 22q11.2 deletion, 22q11.2 duplication, 16p11.2 deletion and 16p11.2 duplication.

CNVs happen when a small section of a person's DNA is missing or duplicated. Certain CNVs have been linked to a range of health and developmental issues. They can be inherited but can also occur at random.

The results showed a high prevalence of autism in individuals with these four genetic conditions, ranging from 23% to 58%. The prevalence of autism in the general population is 1%.
Using clinical cut-offs, the team also found 54% of people with these genetic conditions who did not meet full autism diagnostic criteria nonetheless had elevated levels of autistic symptoms. There was also considerable variability in symptoms of autism between those who had the same genetic condition.

Dr Samuel Chawner, based at Cardiff University's MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics said: "Our study shows that an individualised approach is needed when assessing the needs of people with genetic conditions. Although many of those who were included in this study would not have met all of the criteria which define someone as having autism, more than half of those with these genetic conditions had significant symptoms associated with it - such as social and communication difficulties or repetitive behaviours.

"There is a danger that being too prescriptive with how autism is diagnosed will result in these individuals slipping through the net and being denied important services. Sadly, many families we have met through doing this research describe longstanding struggles in accessing autism support for their child. This is often due to a lack of integration between genetic testing services and autism diagnosis services.

"Low awareness of genetic conditions can also be a barrier. It is important that clinicians are aware of the risk of autism associated with certain genetic conditions in order to improve opportunities for early diagnosis and support."

Data for the study was pooled from eight clinical research centres around the world, which had used the "Autism Diagnostic Interview - Revised (ADI-R)" and IQ tests on study participants.

The ADI-R is used internationally in research as well as in clinical settings for making autism diagnoses. It involves an interview with the parent or guardian and asks about the child's developmental history across areas of social skills, communication skills and repetitive behaviours.

It is estimated that 15% of autistic people and 60% of people with developmental delay have a genetic condition.

Helen Hyde's 16-year-old daughter, Hermione, was diagnosed with 22q.11.2 Deletion when she was four. Her genetic diagnosis first came to light after it was found she had a cleft palate, which affects her speech. She has Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD), which causes difficulties with how she processes and communicates language. As a consequence Mini attends a school for pupils with language disorders where she is fully supported in her education. She has also been diagnosed with comorbid anxiety.

Mini, as she's known to her family, wasn't formally diagnosed with autism until last year, even though researchers at Cardiff University and her school had previously flagged that she had autistic traits. The family have been involved in studies with Cardiff University's Copy Number Variant research group for eight years.

"In many ways, the physical diagnosis of Mini's cleft palate has been easier to deal with than the autism and mental health issues," said Helen, also mum to Olivia, 19 and Edward, 23.

"People have less of an understanding of Mini's autistic traits and it's been much harder to get the right support for her.

"That's why Cardiff University's research in this area is so vital. It's giving us the tools to be able to fight Mini's corner so that she fulfils her potential."

Mini said: "At first I did not know what 22q was but now I understand more. My main problem is my speech. Sometimes people don't understand me and that can make me cross. Sometimes I find lessons difficult and I need a lot of help at school. I know they can learn lots of things from these studies and this will help people with 22q in the future."

Tracy Elliot, Head of Research and Information at charity Cerebra, said: "We know many children and families frequently have problems in accessing autism support services or face very long delays. We welcome the findings of this research that indicate that individuals with different genetic conditions could benefit from the same autism support. This reinforces the case for improved support and should ease the path for parents and children with rare conditions."

While the world has its eyes on vaccines to stop the spread of coronavirus, therapeutics are still necessary to treat hospitalized patients. One of these treatments, remdesivir, is the first and only antiviral agent of its kind that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved so far for COVID-19.

Research at the University of Cincinnati, however, contends that this antiviral drug is being used too indiscriminately when treating patients hospitalized with the virus. The study is published in the journal Fundamental & Clinical Pharmacology.

The FDA approved remdesivir, marketed as Veklury, for emergency use authorization in May 2020 to treat COVID-19 and granted full approval for treatment in October 2020. The World Health Organization came out in November 2020 with a conditional recommendation advising against its use entirely citing: "More research is needed, especially to provide higher certainty of evidence for specific groups of patients."

In the UC study, lead author Bingfang Yan, a pharmaceutical scientist, and his UC graduate students Yue Shen and William Eades, found that the drug permanently stops the activity of an enzyme called CES-2, which is found in the intestine, liver and kidney and is needed for the breakdown of many medications.

"This enzyme normally breaks down and activates medicines in certain antivirals or inactivates other medicines such in certain anticoagulants," says Yan, professor at the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy. On the other hand, he says this breakdown increases the toxicity of many more medications such as with heart medicines and anticancer drugs.

An antiviral is a drug against viruses and an anticoagulant is a drug that hinders the clotting of blood.
What further complicates the issue, Yan says, is that when delivered through an IV, remdesivir does not treat the virus unless the body has additional specific enzymes, which are not found in all patients. It can also cause other antiviral drugs, such as those used for HIV/AIDs and hepatitis C, to not work properly.

Remdesivir is only administered through the veins in a hospital setting, with the FDA typically recommending a dose of once a day, for approximately 10 days, and "intravenous injection of remdesivir can cause safety concerns because of high initial concentrations of the drug in the system," says Yan, noting, "If physicians use it, they have to use it with caution."

He adds, "Clearly, the treatment should be used for the right patients and in the proper dosages with care when used in combination with other medications."

When toddlers begin to use a spoon to eat by themselves, what kind of interactions occur between them and their caregiver to facilitate this behavior?

An international research collaboration led by Kobe University's Professor NONAKA Tetsushi (Graduate School of Human Development and Environment) and the University of Minnesota's Professor Thomas A. Stoffregen investigated the interactions between toddlers learning to use a spoon and their caregivers during mealtimes at a daycare center in Japan.

The research findings were published in Developmental Psychobiology on December 11, 2020.

Research Findings

A 10-month longitudinal observation of 12 toddler-caregiver dyads during mealtimes was carried out at a daycare center in Japan. The onset of independent spoon-feeding was identified for each toddler (mean age: 17.88 months). The researchers then investigated the temporal relationship between the following terms in the video data of mealtimes immediately after this onset: 1. The caregiver's assistive actions, 2. The toddler's spoon usage, and 3. The toddler's gaze towards the caregiver.

Analysis of the results showed that toddlers were more likely than chance to move their spoons towards the food immediately after the caregiver had changed the position of the plates or the food on them in order to give the toddler the opportunity to try to feed themselves. The researchers also found that the amount of time that toddlers spent looking at the caregiver's hands was significantly longer than the time spent looking at their face. Moreover, toddlers were 8 times more likely to look at the caregiver's hands than perform any other action when the caregiver was moving items around on the table.

In addition, the researchers found a clear difference between the circumstances in which toddlers looked at the caregiver's face and the circumstances in which they looked at the caregiver's hands. Toddlers were most likely to look at the face in order to check whether or not the caregiver was watching their behavior, either after the toddler had fed themselves with the spoon or after they had played with the spoon in a manner unrelated to eating. These incidences of toddlers' checking caregiver reactions were too numerous to be chance occurrences.

These results show that during mealtimes, toddlers' gazes towards the hands and gazes towards the face have different roles in communication. The emergence of the toddler's ability to appropriately use a spoon to eat by themselves is the result of the following reciprocal interactions involving the caregiver's behavior and the toddler's attention: 1. The caregiver's manipulation of the surroundings and the toddler's attention to the caregiver's hands, and 2. The reaction of the caregiver to the toddler's behavior and the toddler's attention to the caregiver's face.

In a recent study, researchers from Imperial College London developed a model to assess the effect of different measures used to curb the spread of the coronavirus. However, the model had fundamental shortcomings and cannot be used to draw the published conclusions, claim Swedish researchers from Lund University, and other institutions, in the journal Nature.

WATCH: Three reasons why mathematical models failed to predict the spread of the coronavirus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwT8_CyIcSI

The results from Imperial indicated that it was almost exclusively the complete societal lockdown that suppressed the wave of infections in Europe during spring.

The study estimated the effects of different measures such as social distancing, self-isolating, closing schools, banning public events and the lockdown itself.

"As the measures were introduced at roughly the same time over a few weeks in March, the mortality data used simply does not contain enough information to differentiate their individual effects. We have demontrated this by conducting a mathematical analysis. Using this as a basis, we then ran simulations using Imperial College's original code to illustrate how the model's sensitivity leads to unreliable results," explains Kristian Soltesz, associate professor in automatic control at Lund University and first author of the article.

The group's interest in the Imperial College model was roused by the fact that it explained almost all of the reduction in transmission during the spring via lockdowns in ten of the eleven countries modelled. The exception was Sweden, which never introduced a lockdown.

"In Sweden the model offered an entirely different measure as an explanation to the reduction - a measure that appeared almost ineffective in the other countries. It seemed almost too good to be true that an effective lockdown was introduced in every country except one, while another measure appeared to be unusually effective in this country", notes Soltesz.

Soltesz is careful to point out that it is entirely plausible that individual measures had an effect, but that the model could not be used to determine how effective they were.

"The various interventions do not appear to work in isolation from one another, but are often dependent upon each other. A change in behaviour as a result of one intervention influences the effect of other interventions. How much and in what way is harder to know, and requires different skills and collaboration", says Anna Jöud, associate professor in epidemiology at Lund University and co-author of the study.

Analyses of models from Imperial College and others highlight the importance of epidemiological models being reviewed, according to the authors.

"There is a major focus in the debate on sources of data and their reliability, but an almost total lack of systematic review of the sensitivity of different models in terms of parameters and data. This is just as important, especially when governments across the globe are using dynamic models as a basis for decisions", Soltesz and Jöud point out.

The first step is to carry out a correct analysis of the model's sensitivities. If they pose too great a problem then more reliable data is needed, often combined with a less complex model structure.

"With a lot at stake, it is wise to be humble when faced with fundamental limitations. Dynamic models are usable as long as they take into account the uncertainty of the assumptions on which they are based and the data they are led by. If this is not the case, the results are on a par with assumptions or guesses", concludes Soltesz.