Brain

DALLAS, April 30, 2018 -- A new scientific advisory from the American Heart Association reviews current gaps in medical nutrition education and training in the United States and summarizes reforms in undergraduate and graduate medical education to support more robust nutrition education and training efforts.

"Despite evidence that physicians are willing to help educate patients about healthy eating and are viewed as credible sources of diet information, they engage patients in diet counseling at less-than-desirable rates and cite insufficient knowledge and training as barriers, even during their peak learning years," said Karen E. Aspry, M.D., M.S., the lead statement author and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

The National Academy of Sciences recommends undergraduate medical students receive a minimum of 25 classroom hours dedicated to nutrition education, but a 2013 survey found that 71 percent of medical schools provide less than the recommended hours and 36 percent provide less than half that amount.

The advisory provides examples of successful approaches currently being used to integrate clinical nutrition throughout undergraduate and graduate medical education courses, instead of a one-time course. In addition, it also provides information about assessing nutrition knowledge and competencies and outlines nutrition resources and continuing medical education activities.

"Nutrition is a dynamic science with a rapidly evolving evidence base requiring continual updating and renewed translational efforts. The competencies outlined in this statement provide a foundation with flexible options for advancing nutrition knowledge and skills across the learning continuum, and a toolkit for medical school curriculum directors, program directors, faculty, trainees and students," said Linda Van Horn, Ph.D., R.D., co-chair of the writing group and professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. The advisory is published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Kyoto University scientists are one step closer to designing porous materials that can change and retain their shapes--a function known as shape-memory effect.

Shape-memory materials have applications in many fields. For example, they could be implanted in the body and then induced to change shape for a specific function, such as serving as the scaffold for bone tissue regeneration. The shape-memory effect is well documented in some materials, including ceramics and metal alloys. But it is rare and poorly understood in crystalline porous materials.

Now, Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences and colleagues in Japan, Ireland and the US have demonstrated a shape-memory effect in a flexible metal organic material -- only the second such observation ever reported. They describe their findings in the journal Science Advances.

Crystals were made by dissolving a mixture of chemicals and zinc nitrate hexahydrate in a common solvent called dimethylformamide at 120°C for 24 hours. Using an X-ray technique called single-crystal X-ray diffraction, the team studied the crystals' structure. They found they were formed of slightly distorted paddlewheel-shaped lattices, which were made of central zinc ions linked to surrounding organic molecules. This 'alpha phase' of the crystal had 46% porosity, meaning that 46% of its volume was available for accepting new molecules; the property that makes porous materials suitable for a variety of applications.

When the team heated the alpha crystal at 130°C in a vacuum for 12 hours, the crystal became more dense, its lattices became more distorted, and its porosity was reduced to only 15%. They called this phase of the crystal its beta phase.

They then added carbon dioxide to the crystal at a temperature of -78°C. Carbon dioxide was adsorbed into the crystal's pores and the crystal's shape changed to less-distorted lattices than those in the beta phase. The available volume for accepting guest molecules increased to 34%. When the team added and removed carbon dioxide from the crystal over ten consecutive cycles, they found that it retained its shape. They called this phase of the crystal its 'shape-memory' gamma phase.

Adding nitrogen or carbon monoxide under varying temperatures also induced the transformation of the crystal from its beta to its gamma phase.

The team was able to revert the crystal's gamma phase back to its beta phase by heating it at 130°C in a vacuum for two hours. To revert to the alpha phase, the gamma phase of the crystal was soaked in dimethylformamide for five minutes.

The team's analyses of the crystal allowed them to have a better understanding of how its function changes along with structure. The researchers note their work could provide the basis for designing more examples of shape-memory porous materials.

SAN DIEGO, APRIL 26, 2018 - Two new studies examined seasonal variations in cardiac-related hospitalizations specifically for aortic dissection and ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarctions (STEMI). The results of both studies revealed winter as the most common time for hospital admissions and used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database (NIS) for analysis. Results were presented at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) Scientific Sessions in San Diego.

Aortic dissection is a serious condition where there is a tear in the inner lining of the aortic vessel and if left untreated, is associated with a high mortality rate of nearly 50 percent at 48 hours (NCBI). Additionally, STEMI is a serious type of heart attack during which one of the heart's major arteries is blocked--making it one of the leading causes of deaths in the U.S. contributing to about 735,000 American heart attacks each year (CDC).

One study, led by Dr. Dhara Patel, Central Michigan University College of Medicine in Mount Pleasant, MI, estimated an annual number of patient hospitalizations for aortic dissection from 2000-2012. The frequency of hospitalization per month over the 12 years was calculated and divided by the number of days to determine the mean hospitalizations per day for each month. An estimated 6,199 hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of aortic dissection occurred with the number of hospitalizations per day stratified by season. Results of this study show hospitalizations highest in winter (January) and lowest in summer (June).

"While earlier studies have shown seasonal variations for other cardiac conditions, this is the first time we found an impressive pattern of seasonal variation in hospitalizations in the U.S. specifically for aortic dissection," said Dhara Patel, MD. "Our results show a notable increase in hospital rates in the winter, and now we need to work to truly understand why this is happening. It is our hope that by understanding the connection between colder months and aortic dissection, we can ultimately prevent future cases and help improve patient outcomes."

A second study reviewed patients from the NIS database admitted with STEMI from 2007 to 2011. Patients were assessed by weekday and weekend and also stratified by month. Of the 827,196 STEMI patients identified, 595,452 were admitted during the weekday, and 231,745 during the weekend. The results for in-hospital mortality rates ranged by month and showed patients admitted with STEMI having a higher mortality rate in winter months than in summer months. Mortality rates in June to August ranged from 6.1-6.7 percent, whereas in winter months, December to February, mortality rates ranged from 7.2-7.6 percent.

"Our study is the largest of its kind to look at the effect of admission day/month on STEMI outcomes, and our results show a higher mortality rate in winter months," says lead author, Chowdhury Ahsan, MD, University of Nevada Las Vegas, School of Medicine. "Patients included in this study transferred locations at some point while receiving care, which only stresses the vital importance of having an interconnected healthcare system to decrease mortality rates during winter months and deliver optimum patient care."

Further research is warranted to understand the connection between seasonal variations, aortic dissection, and STEMI and to identify underlying risk factors causing an increase in cardiac events in the winter. With more data, clinicians will have a better understanding of the correlation and help decrease mortality rates among patients with these cardiac conditions.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A new way of taking images in the mid-infrared part of the spectrum, developed by researchers at MIT and elsewhere, could enable a wide variety of applications, including thermal imaging, biomedical sensing, and free-space communication.

The mid-infrared (mid-IR) band of electromagnetic radiation is a particularly useful part of the spectrum; it can provide imaging in the dark, trace heat signatures, and provide sensitive detection of many biomolecular and chemical signals. But optical systems for this band of frequencies have been hard to make, and devices using them are highly specialized and expensive. Now, the researchers say they have found a highly efficient and mass-manufacturable approach to controlling and detecting these waves.

The findings are reported in the journal Nature Communications, in a paper by MIT researchers Tian Gu and Juejun Hu, University of Massachusetts at Lowell researcher Hualiang Zhang, and 13 others at MIT, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and the East China Normal University.

The new approach uses a flat, artificial material composed of nanostructured optical elements, instead of the usual thick, curved-glass lenses used in conventional optics. These elements provide on-demand electromagnetic responses and are made using techniques similar to those used for computer chips. "This kind of metasurface can be made using standard microfabrication techniques," Gu says. "The manufacturing is scalable."

He adds that "there have been remarkable demonstrations of metasurface optics in visible light and near-infrared, but in the mid-infrared it's moving slowly." As they began this research, he says, the question was, since they could make these devices extremely thin, "Could we also make them efficient and low-cost?" That's what the team members say they have now achieved.

The new device uses an array of precisely shaped thin-film optical elements called "meta-atoms" made of chalcogenide alloy, which has a high refractive index that can form high-performance, ultrathin structures called meta-atoms. These meta-atoms, with shapes resembling block letters like I or H, are deposited and patterned on an IR-transparent substrate of fluoride. The tiny shapes have thicknesses that are a fraction of the wavelengths of the light being observed, and collectively they can perform like a lens. They provide nearly arbitrary wavefront manipulation that's not possible with natural materials at larger scales, but they have a tiny fraction of the thickness, and thus only a tiny amount of material is needed. "It's fundamentally different from conventional optics," he says.

The process "allows us to use very simple fabrication techniques," Gu explains, by thermally evaporating the material onto the substrate. They have demonstrated the technique on 6-inch wafers with high throughput, a standard in microfabrication, and "we're looking at even larger-scale manufacturing."

The devices transmit 80 percent of the mid-IR light with optical efficiencies up to 75 percent, representing significant improvement over existing mid-IR metaoptics, Gu says. They can also be made far lighter and thinner than conventional IR optics. Using the same method, by varying the pattern of the array the researchers can arbitrarily produce different types of optical devices, including a simple beam deflector, a cylindrical or spherical lens, and complex aspheric lenses. The lenses have been demonstated to focus mid-IR light with the maximum theoretically possible sharpness, known as the diffraction limit.

These techniques allow the creation of metaoptical devices, which can manipulate light in more complex ways than what can be achieved using conventional bulk transparent materials, Gu says. The devices can also control polarization and other properties.

Mid-IR light is important in many fields. It contains the characteristic spectral bands of most types of molecules, and penetrates the atmosphere effectively, so it is key to detecting a wide range of substances such as in environmental monitoring, as well as for military and industrial applications, the researchers say. Since most ordinary optical materials used in the visible or near-infrared bands are totally opaque to these wavelengths, mid-IR sensors have been complex and expensive to make. So the new approach could open up entirely new potential applications, including in consumer sensing or imaging products, Gu says.

Cybergossiping occurs when two or more people make evaluative comments on a digitial device about a third person who is not present. This kind of online behavior is common among adolescents when they are instant messaging and on social networking sites. Cybergossiping directly impacts the group, and can just as easily foster as damage the quality of the relationships among its members.

What is known as gossiping among friends, that is to say teenagers talking to each other about other people, is a kind of dialog considered fun and casual, and tends to be quite popular. These kinds of conversations have a bad name but happen in all cultures. But gossiping also has to be interpreted as a mechanism that unites the group, facilitates information transfer, strengthens bonds and influences the behavior of the group's members. Since gossiping is entertaining, it is also satisfying. However, cybergossiping can also lead to risky cybernetic behavior such as cyberbullying, which implies intentional harm among peers online. This statement is one of the conclusions drawn from the study led by University of Cordoba Developmental and Educational Psychology Professor Eva Romera.

Professor Romera is also a member of the Laboratory of Coexistence and Violence Prevention Studies (LAECOVI in Spanish). The study looks closely at online behavior and evaluative comments made by teenageers between 12 and 19 years of age when they are gossiping.

Scientific research thus far that has assessed the nature of this interactive behavior among teens has been limited and is almost always focused on negative behavior, implying indirect assaults that are intentionally hurtful. This study by Professor Romera and a group of collaborators, which was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, has come to turn the tables on this belief. According to Romera, though this research does not rule out the fact that cybergossiping can lead to negative behavior (such as excluding someone from the group or harming their reputation), its "socializing function" also has to be valued. Accordingly, making evaluative comments online about somebody who is not present can have a positive influence among teens because it lets them "feel better, feel more integrated in the group, better understand what others think and learn more about the people around them." Ultimately, according to the study, cybergossiping should be interpreted in a broad sense of the word, in which besides being considered a risk, "it is a social learning mechanism" that fosters new ways of social interaction.

Cybergossiping is a way to practice online communication skills, which are useful in building positive virtual relationships, because the complexity of this communication also usually includes critically reviewing and looking for ways to reconcile the contributions of each interlocutor.

In order to carry out this study, done in collaboration with the University of Seville and the University of Nariño (Colombia), a thorough literature review on gossip and cybergossip was done. Then, a questionnaire was designed and validated, by interviewing 3,747 Spanish and Colombian secondary school students. The final questionnaire consists of nine questions, chosen from a much higher number by means of rigorous statistical analysis. This method of self-report survey, according to the University of Cordoba professor "allows for confidential responses regarding something linked to trust and discretion."

The analyses point to the notion of cybergossiping being similar in both countries and that it is done at the same rate among males and females, thereby dismissing the idea that females are "bigger cybergossips" than males. A lower rate of cybergossiping among Colombian adolescents was detected in comparison to Spanish adolescents. The reasons for this last finding reside in the fact that, according to the study, in Colombia there is a greater tendency to abide by the rules and a lower rate of teenage social network use.

Another conclusion reached by the researchers is that cybergossip should be addressed in the classroom. Romera explains that the current educational system should include "learning how to interact on social networking sites. Tools that can allow for healthy, quality virtual relationships should be offered and these tools would promote the learning of new ways to interact. While the relation between cybergossiping and other kinds of risky behavior has been confirmed, the potential of cybergossiping should be considered when proposing educational ideas, and this potential should be researched further.

Scientists at King's College London are encouraging parents and carers to ensure even more rigorous protection of children against the harmful effects of the sun. The comments follow a study which has suggested that children may experience much more significant DNA damage from small amounts of sun exposure than adults.

Published in the British Journal of Dermatology, the new study of 32 children under the age of 10 was undertaken at a 12-day summer camp in Poland. Children's skin types ranged from pale white skin that burns easily to olive skin that burns minimally. Researchers, led by Professor Antony Young at King's College London, measured levels of vitamin D alongside a urine biomarker of DNA damage that can lead to skin cancer, known as CPD, which is produced as a result of the skin repairing this damage.

The scientists, in an EU funded collaboration with Professor Joanna Narbutt of the Medical University of Lodz, Poland and Dr Peter Philipsen of the Bispebjerg University Hospital in Copenhagen, measured exposure to UV rays via an electronic device on the wrist that absorbed the rays. Children filled in diaries with information about sunbathing, sunscreen use and sunburn.

The study, found a 25% increase in average vitamin D concentrations in blood but measured nearly thirteen times more CPD on average at the end of the 12-day beach holiday in comparison to levels at the start.

The final levels of CPD in the children were similar to those measured in Danish adults as part of a different study conducted by the same researchers which looked at sun exposure on a shorter holiday in Tenerife, despite the fact that the weather was not particularly sunny during the course of the children's summer camp.

The NIHR-supported researchers think the results may suggest that either children are more sensitive to the damaging effects of the sun than even previously thought, or that they could be better at repairing the damage.

Sun exposure is the main source of vitamin D, which is absolutely essential for healthy bone development in children. However, sunburn in childhood is a recognised risk factor for skin cancer in older age so researchers suggest that the findings support the need for a better understanding of the impact of UV rays on children, even in less sunny conditions. This is of concern because the incidence of skin cancer is increasing in most Western countries.

'Many parents are already very careful about protecting their children from the harmful impact of the sun,' commented the study's senior author, Professor Antony Young from the St John's Institute of Dermatology at King's College London, 'but it can be a confusing message when trying to balance this with the need for children to be healthy, exercise, play outside and produce sufficient levels of vitamin D.'

'Our study suggests that only small amounts of exposure to the sun are needed to ensure vitamin D sufficiency so we should make sure that children always have ample sun protection when playing outside for long periods. This should be in the form of sunscreen, clothing and hats and the use of shade, even when you may not judge the weather to be that sunny.'

Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said: 'We would recommend that parents use a number of methods to prevent sun damage. The first line of defence for children should be protective clothing, such as hats, t-shirts, and sunglasses. In addition to this, it's important to make good use of shade between 11am and 3pm.

'You should bolster this protection with sunscreen. Look for one with a minimum SPF of 30 and good UVA protection. It should be applied 15 minutes before going outside and then again shortly after heading outdoors to cover any missed patches. Reapply it at least every two hours, and immediately after swimming, perspiring and towel drying or if it has rubbed off.

'If you are concerned about maintaining your family's vitamin D levels then the answer isn't to stop using sun protection, but consider options such as vitamin D supplements.'

Another recent study by Professor Young's team, led by Dr Damilola Fajuyigbe from King's College London, suggested that people with very fair skin should be routinely using sunscreen products with a protection factor (SPF) of around 60 or more in order to reduce skin cancer incidence to the very low levels usually seen in people with dark brown or black skin.

The scientists were examining the way in which melanin is distributed in different skin types and found that 70-80% of melanin in the skin was concentrated in the deepest layer (the basal layer that contains the crucial stem cells). For participants with black skin, who have higher overall concentrations of melanin, this equated to protection from DNA damage that was the equivalent of around SPF 60.

A researcher from Florida Atlantic University is the first to document that two genetically distinct species of guenon monkeys inhabiting Gombe National Park in Tanzania, Africa, have been successfully mating and producing hybrid offspring for hundreds maybe even thousands of years. Her secret weapon? Poop.

Prior studies and conventional wisdom have suggested that the physical characteristics of guenon monkeys with a variety of dazzling colors and very distinct facial features like bushy beards and huge nose spots are a function of keeping them from interbreeding. The idea is that their mate choices and the signals they use to select a mate are species specific and that they share common traits linked to their species.

So if their faces don't match, they shouldn't be mating, right? Wrong, according to evidence from a novel study published in the International Journal of Primatology.

For the study, Kate Detwiler, Ph.D., author and an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology in FAU's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, who first studied these monkeys in Gombe National Park in 1994, examined the extent and pattern of genetic transfer or gene flow from "red-tailed" monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) to "blue" monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) due to hybridization.

These two species are the only forest guenons that colonized the narrow riverine forests along Lake Tanganyika that characterize Gombe National Park. They co-exist in the same forests as Jane Goodall's chimpanzees and baboons. Detwiler identifies hybrid monkeys by their combined markings from both parental species. She estimates that about 15 percent of this population is made up of hybrids, which is very unusual.

Using mitochondrial DNA, extracted non-invasively from the feces of 144 red-tailed monkeys, blue monkeys, and hybrids, Detwiler is the first to show the movement of genetic material from one guenon species to another in an active hybrid zone. After examining the fecal samples, she found that all of the monkeys - hybrids, red-tails and blues have red-tailed mitochondrial DNA - all traced back to female red-tailed monkeys.

For this lineage of monkeys, it is the first time that science shows that not only is the DNA there, but so are the hybrids. Detwiler used mitochondrial DNA because it is more abundant than nuclear DNA in fecal samples, and only comes from the mother - indicating the maternal species in the hybridizing pair.

"There's a lot of promiscuity taking place in Gombe National Park. Red-tails are mating with blues, blues are mating with red-tails, blues are mating with blues, red-tails are mating with red-tails, and hybrids are mating with everyone," said Detwiler. "But we're just not seeing any negative consequences from these two very different species repeatedly mating and producing offspring on an ongoing basis. If the differences in their facial features are so important and signal that they shouldn't be mating, then why is this happening and why do I keep finding hybrid infants?"

A key finding from the study shows that the blue monkeys in Gombe National Park emerged out of the hybrid population, tracing their origins back to hybridization events between resident red-tails and blues most likely from outside the park. For her control groups, Detwiler collected and examined feces from blue monkeys from a park to the north and a park to the south where hybrids do not exist. These monkeys only had blue monkey mitochondrial DNA.

Detwiler speculates that red-tailed monkeys got to Gombe National Park first and thrived in the environment. Male blue monkeys outside the park had to find new homes after they were kicked out of their groups, which happens when they reach sexual maturity. Sex-driven, they ventured out into the landscape to find appropriate mates - female blue monkeys. Instead, they found the red-tailed females. Apparently, some female red-tailed monkeys were attracted to novel males with different faces and welcomed the sexual advances from these male blue monkeys.

"I keep coming back to the idea that if they are only supposed to mate with their own kind, then why did these red-tailed monkeys mate with the blue monkeys, especially if they had males of their own species around," said Detwiler. "The female red-tailed monkeys present as willing partners and they are not coerced or forced into copulation with blue monkeys."

Today, Gombe is an isolated forest habitat. Because they are very social and have had to share close quarters for decades or even centuries, Detwiler believes that they have socially learned that if you grow up in a hybrid group it is okay to mate with everyone.

"The Gombe hybrid population is extremely valuable because it can be used as a model system to better understand what hybridization looks like and how genetic material moves between species," said Detwiler. "We have this amazing laboratory in nature to help us answer many questions about hybridization and how species boundaries are maintained. This research is very timely because hybridization often occurs in response to environmental changes, as we are seeing with climate change and modified landscapes -- it is nature's way to respond."

Making tiny changes to existing diabetes treatments can alter how they interact with cells, and potentially make the medicines more effective.

The findings come from early-stage studies in both human cells and mice in which researchers tweaked the structure of an existing treatment for type 2 diabetes.

This tweak enabled the researchers, from Imperial College London, to hack into the 'traffic system' that shuttles drugs in and out of cells. This increased the effectiveness of the drug, and led to more insulin being released.

The team, who include a number of international institutions, say a similar approach is already being applied to develop more effective versions of other existing medications, including pain treatments. The technique could also potentially reduce the number of drug side effects.

Patients with type 2 diabetes are unable to effectively control their blood sugar levels. The most commonly prescribed drug is called metformin, but if this doesn't work, or triggers side effects, patients are usually offered other drugs. These include a class of drugs called "incretin mimetics", which stimulate the release of insulin from specialised cells in the pancreas, called beta cells.

In the latest study, researchers focused on one of these compounds, a drug called exenatide, which patients inject twice-daily or weekly, depending on the formulation. The compound acts by binding to and activating a type of docking point - called GLP-1 receptors - found on the surface of beta cells, which stimulate the cells to release insulin.

In a paper, published this week in the journal Nature Communications, researchers explain how switching a few of the building blocks of exenatide could generate new compounds with slightly different properties, changing how they interact with the GLP-1 receptors and making the drugs more effective.

Normally, when GLP-1 receptors are activated - such as when a compound like exenatide binds to them - they move from the cell membrane to the inside of the cell, where they are either degraded, or recycled, i.e. they re-join the cell membrane ready to start the whole process again. This process, called receptor trafficking, can have a big impact on the effect of a drug and the degree of its side effects.

"Under normal conditions, we may not want cells to be continually activated, so these receptors are internalised and no longer accessible to naturally occurring GLP-1 outside of the cell," explained Dr Ben Jones, from the Bloom Lab at Imperial, and first author of the study. "However, when you have a disease where we can get benefit from continual stimulation of receptors, then avoiding this internalisation process could be an advantage.

The team found that one of their compounds, called "exendin-phe1", altered the GLP-1 receptor trafficking process. In trials with human beta cells in the lab they found that their compound reduced the degree to which the receptors left the membrane, leading to more receptors available on the cell surface to bind to the drug.

With the standard treatment, an estimated 90 per cent of GLP-1 receptors would move from the membrane into the cell, with only around 10 per cent being recycled. With the new compound, however, just 30 per cent of the receptors moved into the cell and the majority of those were recycled, returning to the cell membrane.

In mouse studies, the researchers found that while their new compound increased the amount of insulin being secreted from the animals' beta cells in the pancreas, it appeared to have no increased effect on GLP-1 receptors elsewhere in the body - namely GLP-1 receptors in the brain, which are associated with nausea.

"We have harnessed a new mechanism based on receptor trafficking to develop a drug more effective for type 2 diabetes that doesn't appear to carry an increased risk of side effects," explained Dr Jones. "If this treatment were to make it to market, the advantage is that it could be more effective for treating diabetes compared to the existing treatment, and that extra effectiveness would not be accompanied by greater nausea and other side effects."

According to the researchers, tweaking drugs to influence receptor trafficking could lead to improvements for a host of existing treatments. For example, morphine can provide pain relief by targeting opioid receptors in the body, but it can have a number of off-target effects, including constipation and other gastrointestinal effects, as well as depressing the respiratory system.

By changing the structure of opioid drugs to alter receptor "bias" (a phenomenon related to trafficking), researchers have been able to reduce these effects, while maintaining the pain-relieving properties of the drugs.

The Imperial team is now planning a small study with healthy human volunteers to further explore the mechanism of receptor trafficking and how it could be used, which is expected to begin within the coming months.

Dr Alejandra Tomas, a Lecturer in Professor Guy Rutter's Section and co-senior author of the study, said: "We have found that making small changes to drug molecules can dramatically alter receptor trafficking. Ultimately, we're interested in using these compounds as tools to try and understand receptor biology and generate even more effective drugs in the future."

San Diego (April 22, 2018)--Older people should drink more water to reap the full cognitive benefits of exercise, new research suggests. The study, to be presented today at the American Physiological Society (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2018 in San Diego, explores the association between hydration status before exercising and exercise-enhanced cognition in older adults.

Dehydration has been shown to impair exercise performance and brain function in young people, but less is known about its impact on older populations. "Middle-age and older adults often display a blunted thirst perception, which places them at risk for dehydration and subsequently may reduce the cognitive health-related benefits of exercise," a team of New England-based researchers wrote.

The researchers recruited recreational cyclists (average age 55) who participated in a large cycling event on a warm day (78-86 degrees F). The cyclists performed a "trail-making" executive function test--quickly and accurately connecting numbered dots using paper and pencil--before and after the event. Executive function includes the skills needed to plan, focus, remember and multitask. Exercise has been shown to improve intellectual health, including executive function.

The research team tested the volunteers' urine before they exercised and divided them into two groups--normal hydration and dehydrated--based on their hydration status. The normal hydration group showed noticeable improvement in the completion time of the trail-making test after cycling when compared to their pre-cycling test. The dehydration group also completed their post-cycling test more quickly, but the time reduction was not significant. "This suggests that older adults should adopt adequate drinking behaviors to reduce cognitive fatigue and potentially enhance the cognitive benefits of regular exercise participation," the researchers wrote.

Brandon Yates, MS, of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, will present the poster "Dehydration impairs executive function task in middle-age and older adults following endurance exercise" on Sunday, April 22, in the Exhibit Hall of the San Diego Convention Center.

San Diego (April 22, 2018)--Differences in the way women with obesity burn calories during pregnancy may be a contributor to long-term postpartum weight retention in black moms, according to researchers in Baton Rouge, La. Their new study shows that despite similar levels of food intake and activity levels--and a higher proportion of fat-free mass--obese black women burned fewer calories than their white counterparts. The findings, which suggest a need for more individualized pregnancy weight gain recommendations for obese women, will be presented today at the APS annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2018 in San Diego.

Women with obesity--defined as a body mass index of 30 or above at the start of pregnancy--are at increased risk for gaining too much weight during their pregnancy and retaining weight after they give birth. In many cases, retained "baby weight" eventually becomes regular weight that may further exacerbate preexisting obesity and related health problems.

Researchers at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge measured energy expenditure, body composition and markers of metabolic health in 66 black and white pregnant women with obesity.

The women were comparable in age (average age 27), BMI (approximately 37) and body fat percentage (approximately 45 percent). The black women were heavier and had a higher amount of fat-free mass (muscle, bone, skin, etc.), which suggest that they had a higher metabolism and would burn more calories. While the black women ate roughly 300 fewer calories per day, the composition of their diet and daily energy expenditure was similar to their white counterparts. However, when the researchers compared energy expenditure--assuming that body mass was the same in black and white women--they found that black women burned roughly 230 fewer calories during the day and 80 fewer calories while sleeping.

The researchers think that the findings may be partly due to the composition of the fat-free mass in black women. Previous research has shown that while black women have a higher proportion of calorie-burning muscle, they may have a smaller liver and kidney, two organs that expend more energy than muscle. "Another hypothesis is that African-Americans are more efficient in the use of energy during activity. This can be compared to a more fuel-efficient car, which consumes less gas for the same performance," lead researcher Jasper Most, PhD, of Pennington Biomedical, explained.

Clinicians commonly recommend that pregnant women add an additional 300 to 500 calories per day and that obese women aim to gain between 11 and 20 pounds during the course of a normal pregnancy. These findings could have implications on current non-race-specific calorie intake recommendations for pregnant women.

"The weight gain recommendations for pregnancy are based on weight gain in relation to pregnancy outcomes such as healthy fetal size and in the absence of pregnancy complications. Therefore, our findings cannot immediately contribute to suggestions on healthy weight gain," Most said.

"However, our findings might indeed influence the recommendations for energy intake during pregnancy. The estimated energy-intake requirements to achieve healthy weight gain are the sum of energy that a pregnant woman expends and what she stores (in fat tissue and for fetal growth, for example).

"We show that the energy expenditure is less in African-American women and therefore energy intake requirements should probably be smaller for African-American women. We estimate if African-American women eat the amount of calories recommended for pregnant women, they would likely gain more weight in pregnancy (up to 7 kg/15 lbs. more) than what is considered healthy," Most said.

Jasper Most, PhD, of Pennington Biomedical, will present the poster "Propensity for excess gestational weight gain in African-American women may be explained by hypometabolic factors in early pregnancy" on Sunday, April 22, in the Exhibit Hall of the San Diego Convention Center.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Brown University researchers have developed a new theory to explain why stretching or compressing metal catalysts can make them perform better. The theory, described in the journal Nature Catalysis, could open new design possibilities for new catalysts with new capabilities.

Catalysts are substances that speed up chemical reactions. The vast majority of industrial catalysis involves solid surfaces, often metals, that catalyze reactions in liquids or gases. A catalytic converter on a car, for example, uses metal catalysts to pluck toxins out of exhaust fumes. There's also interest in using metal catalysts to convert carbon dioxide into fuels, make fertilizers from atmospheric nitrogen and drive reactions in fuel-cell cars.

Research in recent years has shown that applying a strain to metal catalysts -- either compression or tension -- can in some cases change the way they perform.

"Strain is a really hot topic in catalysis right now," said Andrew Peterson, an assistant professor in Brown's School of Engineering and co-author of the research. "We've starting seeing things happening under strain that aren't easily explained by the traditional theory of how catalysts work. That got us thinking about an alternative framework for this question."

A metal catalyst works by causing reactants to bind to its surface, a process known as adsorption. Adsorption breaks chemical bonds of the reactant molecules, enabling various stages of a chemical reaction to take place on the metal's surface. After the reaction stages are complete, the final product is released from the catalyst through the reverse process, called desorption.

A catalyst's key property is its reactivity, meaning how tightly it binds chemical molecules to its surface. Catalysts need to be somewhat reactive for binding to happen, but not too reactive. Too much reactivity causes the catalyst to hold molecules too tightly, which may hinder some stages of the reaction or make it so the final products can't desorb.

It's been shown in recent years that applying a strain to a catalyst can tune its reactivity, and there's a well-established theory for how it works. Generally speaking, the theory predicts that tensile strain should increase reactivity, while compression should reduce it. However, Peterson and his group kept encountering systems that aren't easily explained by the theory.

That got the researchers thinking about a new way to view the problem. The traditional theory describes things on the level of electrons and electron bands. The new theory zooms out a bit, focusing instead on the mechanics of how molecules interact with a catalyst's atomic lattice.

Peterson and his team showed that molecules bound to a catalyst's surface will tend to either push atoms in the lattice apart or pull them closer together, depending upon the characteristics of the molecules and the binding sites. The different forces produced by molecules have interesting implications for how external strain should affect a catalyst's reactivity. It suggests that tension, which stretches a catalyst's atomic lattice, should make a catalyst more reactive to molecules that naturally want to push the lattice apart. At the same time, tension should decrease reactivity for molecules that want to pull the lattice together. Compression -- squeezing the lattice -- has an inverse effect.

The new theory not only helps explain previously puzzling results, it makes important new predictions. Specifically, it predicts a way to break traditional scaling relations between catalysts and different types of molecules.

"Scaling relations mean that, under normal circumstances, when you increase a catalyst's reactivity for one chemical, it increases the reactivity for other chemicals as well," Peterson said. "Similarly, if you decrease reactivity for one chemical, you decrease it for others."

Those scaling relations cause troublesome tradeoffs when trying to optimize a catalyst. Getting the perfect reactivity for one chemical could cause another chemical to bind too tightly (or too loosely), potentially inhibiting some stages of a reaction. But this new theory suggests that strain can break those scaling relations -- enabling a catalyst to simultaneously bind one chemical more tightly and another more loosely, depending on the chemical's natural interaction with the catalyst's atomic lattice and the way that the strain field is engineered on the catalyst surface.

"Now you can start to think about really fine tuning catalysts to perform better throughout different reaction steps," Peterson said. "That could dramatically improve a catalyst's performance, depending on the chemicals involved."

Peterson's team has started putting together a database of common reaction chemicals and their interactions with different catalyst surfaces. That database could serve as a guide for finding reactions that could benefit from strain and the breaking of scaling relations.

In the meantime, Peterson hopes the work they've done thus far will provide that catalysis community with a new way of thinking about strain.

"We're trying to give a framework that provides a more intuitive understanding how strain works in catalysis," Peterson said. "So as people design new catalysts, they can think of ways to better harness these strain effects."

BOULDER, CO, USA: As Curiosity rover marches across Mars, the red planet's watery past comes into clearer focus.

In early 2017 scientists announced the discovery of possible desiccation cracks in Gale Crater, which was filled by lakes 3.5 billion years ago. Now, a new study has confirmed that these features are indeed desiccation cracks, and reveals fresh details about Mars' ancient climate.

"We are now confident that these are mudcracks," explains lead author Nathaniel Stein, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Since desiccation mudcracks form only where wet sediment is exposed to air, their position closer to the center of the ancient lake bed rather than the edge also suggests that lake levels rose and fell dramatically over time.

"The mudcracks show that the lakes in Gale Crater had gone through the same type of cycles that we see on Earth," says Stein. The study was published in Geology online ahead of print on 16 April 2018.

The researchers focused on a coffee table-sized slab of rock nicknamed "Old Soaker." Old Soaker is crisscrossed with polygons identical in appearance to desiccation features on Earth. The team took a close physical and chemical look at those polygons using Curiosity's Mastcam, Mars Hand Lens Imager, ChemCam Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS), and Alpha-Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS).

That close look proved that the polygons -- confined to a single layer of rock and with sediment filling the cracks between them -- formed from exposure to air, rather than other mechanisms such as thermal or hydraulic fracturing. And although scientists have known almost since the moment Curiosity landed in 2012 that Gale Crater once contained lakes, explains Stein, "the mudcracks are exciting because they add context to our understanding of this ancient lacustrine system."

"We are capturing a moment in time," he adds. "This research is just a chapter in a story that Curiosity has been building since the beginning of its mission."

SAN DIEGO, CA--Researchers from the San Diego Natural History Museum (The Nat) and the non-profit organization Terra Peninsular A.C. have rediscovered the San Quintin kangaroo rat (Dipodomys gravipes) in Baja California; the Museum is partnering with the organization and local authorities on a conservation plan for the species.

The San Quintin kangaroo rat was last seen in 1986, and was listed as endangered by the Mexican government in 1994. It was held as an example of modern extinction due to agricultural conversion. In the past few decades, San Quintin, which lies 118 miles south of Ensenada, has become a major agricultural hub, converting huge areas of native habitat into fields and hot houses for tomatoes and strawberries.

Despite active searches and monitoring over the years, there had been no sign of the animal until this past summer, when Museum Mammalogist Scott Tremor and Research Associate Sula Vanderplank were in the field conducting routine monitoring of small mammal communities. Having read the field notes of the person who had seen it decades ago, they were aware of its former occurrence in the area, but were amazed to find four individuals by using traditional field techniques and live traps.

This animal is about 5 inches in length with a tufted tail. It is an herbivore that lives in arid lowlands and gets its name from its large, powerful hind feet that propel the animal in large bounds (like a kangaroo). It is larger than other kangaroo rats in the region, and is feistier than its relatives.

"Not only is this discovery a perfect example of the importance of good old-fashioned natural history field work, but we have the opportunity to develop a conservation plan based on our findings," said Tremor. "The ability to take our research and turn it into tangible conservation efforts is thrilling. It is a commitment to preserving the uniqueness of the Baja California Peninsula."

The discovery will be highlighted in an article by Tremor, Vanderplank, and Dr. Eric Mellink of the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada, Baja California (CICESE) in the scientific journal Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences.

Since the initial discovery, the San Quinton kangaroo rat has been found to also persist inside the Valle Tranquilo Nature Reserve just south of San Quintín, which is owned and managed by the local non-profit organization Terra Peninsular A.C. This reserve is recognized as an area voluntarily destined for conservation by the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and will protect the future of the species into perpetuity.

The Nat will work with Terra Peninsular and Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra, director of the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS), on a conservation plan for the small mammal communities of the area, with an emphasis on the San Quintin kangaroo rat.

"Terra Peninsular has been monitoring the nature reserves looking for this species. You can't imagine how happy we are to find out that after all these efforts and with the help of The Nat we can be part of this rediscovery and continue working on its protection," said Jorge Andrade, adaptive manager coordinator at Terra Peninsular, who has also been involved in the project. "It's very gratifying for us to think that the San Quintin kangaroo rat persists in the area to some extent, thanks to the efforts of the staff, board members, and associated researchers of our organization."

This plan, which is made possible with critical support from The JiJi Foundation Fund at the International Community Foundation, will be developed cooperatively with a working group created by Terra Peninsular and composed of local authorities, academic institutions and staff members. It will be written in both English and Spanish, will include restoration strategies, habitat improvements, molecular analysis of population health, land protection strategies and outreach and educational materials, and will identify key concerns for the future of the species.

The Museum's research department, the Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias, conducts field explorations and engages in collections-based research to document and conserve our region's natural history and biodiversity. This is the third mammal that was thought to be extinct that museum staff have rediscovered in the Baja California Peninsula in the recent past: others include the high elevation California vole (Microtus californicus huperuthrus) and the round-tail ground squirrel (Xerospermophilus tereticaudus apricus).

"These rediscoveries speak to hope and resilience in a changing world," said Vanderplank, who is also a science advisor at Terra Peninsular. "We are learning so much about this animal and its ecology, and we're delighted to know that it is permanently protected in the Valle Tranquilo Nature Reserve."

Adherence to masculine honour among young Italian men is a strong indication they are likely to engage in contact with the mafia-type groups, new research led by a University of Kent psychologist has shown.

The research, conducted by Dr Giovanni Travaglino, of the University's School of Psychology and Dr Libby Drury of Birkbeck, University of London, reveals that masculine honour-related values among young men in Southern Italy are likely to play a key role in steering them towards contact with criminal organisation members.

The findings may also prove useful in understanding why some individuals engage with other criminal actors, such as terrorist groups and gangs, and inform education programmes aimed at preventing young people's involvement with such groups.

Criminal organisations such as the mafia or Camorra emphasise their adherence to honour and masculinity to gain consensus among those sections of the population who endorse related values.

Previous research by Dr Travaglino showed that young adults and adolescents who endorse values of masculinity and honour also report lower intentions to oppose criminal organisations, a phenomenon known as omertà in Italy.

Now, in this latest research, Dr Travaglino studied a sample of adolescents over a period of five months and found that participants who reported higher levels of adherence to values of masculinity and honour were more likely to gravitate to actual contact with members of criminal organisations.

The research also demonstrated that contact with criminal organisations is associated with a more romanticised view of these criminal groups. Young adults and adolescents who experience more frequent contact with criminal organisation members are more likely to perceive those members as 'embodying norms of honour and masculinity and as being more embedded within the social fabric of the region', the study found.

The research, entitled Connected guys: Endorsement of masculine honour predicts more frequent contact with members of criminal organisations (Giovanni A. Travaglino, School of Psychology, University of Kent and Libby Drury, Department of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London) is published in the journal European Journal of Social Psychology. See: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ejsp.2389

A study published today in Health Care for Women International shows how the Transcendental Meditation technique can empower women's lives, using measures of self-efficacy, perceived stress, and mental and physical quality of life.

The practice was shown to help single, disadvantaged, illiterate mothers in Uganda deal with high levels of physical and psychological stress in their daily lives while improving their health, well-being, and ability to support themselves and their children.

"Transcendental Meditation has been in the news in recent years, with many celebrities talking about how they've benefitted," said lead author Leslee Goldstein. "Moreover, many educational institutions and organizations around the world have successfully adopted Transcendental Meditation in programs for students, veterans, and the general population. This pioneering research shows that it can also aid vulnerable women in Africa who've never before heard about meditation."

Impoverished mothers able to help themselves

A top leader in the Uganda Ministry of Health, Dr. Grace Nambatya, said the findings are extremely important in showing how this simple meditation technique can provide a platform for impoverished mothers to help themselves.

"There is a significant need for evidence such as this to help us improve women's health and promote empowerment for vulnerable women in Uganda and worldwide," she said. "Given the global impact of stress on women's health and self-efficacy, this study has wide, interdisciplinary applicability."

How it began: Uganda NGO introduces Transcendental Meditation

The research was conducted under the auspices of the United Women's Platform for Empowerment and Development (UWOPED), a registered non-governmental organization (NGO) that offers training and educational programs to impoverished women to build practical skills to help empower their lives and increase their competencies and productivity.

UWOPED founder Brenda Nakalembe learned the Transcendental Meditation technique in 2012, and due to the benefits she experienced, decided to offer it as one of her training programs for women to help them cope with the challenges they face.

"These women face serious deprivation, and have so much stress in their lives that they become hopeless," Ms. Nakalembe said. "The result is that it's a real challenge for them to engage in meaningful action."

Ms. Nakalembe collaborated with the African Women and Girls Organization for Total Knowledge (AWAGO) to provide instruction in the Transcendental Meditation technique. Licensed in 2011, AWAGO offers programs, including Transcendental Meditation, to develop the full potential of women and girls in Uganda.

Single-blind, controlled study

AWAGO's certified Transcendental Meditation teachers initially taught the technique to 60 women in the village of Nsambya in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. After observing the benefits experienced by their neighbors, 81 more women requested to learn. UWOPED and AWAGO then elected to invite these 81 women to participate in a single-blind, controlled study.

Of these 81, 42 of the women learned Transcendental Meditation immediately, and the rest (39), were put on a waitlist to learn the technique after three months, serving as a control group. All subjects were assigned to groups without known bias, and there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of demographics or study outcomes at baseline. The women on average were 28 years old and instruction was conducted in their mother tongue. The participants practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique twice a day for about 20 minutes. Twice a month they attended group follow-up meetings.

Improvements in self-efficacy, stress, and mental/physical health

Assessment after three months of practicing Transcendental Meditation found benefits on standardized measures of self-efficacy, perceived stress, and mental and physical quality of life. Further questionnaires after 8 and 36 months suggested that the women enjoyed improved health, better relationships with others, and increased employment rates.

A total of 71 participants completed the three-month post-test. The primary outcome was a significant improvement in self-efficacy in the Transcendental Meditation group, as measured by the 10-item General Self-Efficacy Scale, which assesses the ability to cope with difficult life challenges. These outcomes are particularly relevant because self-efficacy is considered a critical element of empowerment.

"This Self-Efficacy Scale, which has been in use for nearly 40 years, is a good way of getting a sense of how optimistic a person is, and how much belief a person has that she or he can overcome obstacles," Dr. Goldstein said. "Those in the Transcendental Meditation group clearly had a changed attitude and greater confidence in their ability to overcome difficult demands in life."

Secondary outcomes in the study included the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale, which measures the degree to which situations are perceived as stressful and the Medical Outcomes Survey, which measures general physical and mental health as well as social functioning. Again, there was a significant difference between the Transcendental Meditation group and controls.

"These instruments used in the study measured energy and vitality, decision-making, problem-solving, and how overloaded the respondents feel," Dr. Goldstein said. "What's really interesting is that the participants simply learned a meditation technique that's been shown scientifically to provide deep rest and relieve stress. After three months of practice so many aspects of the participant's lives were greatly improved."

Long-term benefits

A follow-up questionnaire was completed by 54 of the original 81 participants after 8 months, and 56 of the original participants completed a questionnaire after three years. All of the women who completed the questionnaire at three years were still practicing Transcendental Meditation.

The women's self-reported benefits included improved general physical health, fewer headaches, better sleep, greater ability to deal with HIV, greater calm and peace, and less worry and anxiety. There were also reports of decreased drug use and prostitution.

Furthermore, women reported that their employment situations improved, as did their social relationships at home, at work, and in their community - such as more cooperation, love, respect, trust, and friendliness.

Comments from participants

"I used to be stressed to get enough to eat. I would cry and argue with my husband. I used to get so angry I would get a headache and fever from the stress. TM has calmed me down and I feel happy from inside because I can manage stress better. I am thankful for my TM training for giving me self-control and a better feeling about myself as a woman and that I can do something to take care of myself and my children." (NA)

"Before TM I was unable to get myself going to find work, I couldn't even think of working. TM has opened up my mind, and help me think better, and now I have a job selling bananas and my children are going to school and feeling happy." (NG)