Culture

TROY, N.Y. -- Women are underrepresented in leadership positions throughout the information technology industry. While more and more women are earning degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math -- or STEM -- fields, they don't necessarily pursue careers in IT, because they don't see opportunities for growth.

New research from the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute published in Information Systems Research examines how gender affects the likelihood of promotions in the context of the IT industry.

Using a five-year dataset of the promotions, demographics, performance, and training records of more than 7,000 employees at a leading IT services firm in India, Nishtha Langer, an assistant professor of business analytics at Rensselaer, determined that gender is a strong predictor of promotion.

"Contrary to our theoretical expectations, we find that women were more likely to be promoted," Langer said.

Learn more about Langer's research in this video.

Little prior research has examined archival data to understand the interplay of gender, performance, and training affects promotions in the IT industry to this extent. Even as IT firms embrace fairer organizational policies and egalitarian work environments, the study finds that that subtle discrimination against women in IT continues to exist. However, the study also points out effective strategies women in IT can use to forge ahead in their chosen career paths.

Langer conjectures that women are likely promoted more often because they are considered more helpful and trustworthy compared to men, and because -- as a result of disparities in pay -- they are often a lower-cost option.

However, when it comes to promotions based solely on performance improvements, Langer said her findings were less encouraging for women.

"Beyond all this good news for women in IT, men continue to show a higher likelihood of promotion from performance improvements," Langer said. "So, to me, that speaks to a more subtle form of discrimination compared to more overt forms of discrimination."

A more effective tool for women to signal their preparedness for promotion, Langer said, is to take training courses. They are more likely to be promoted than men who take the same training. According to the research, women may be more opportunistic when it comes to enrolling for courses that ensure faster promotions. They may also be more adept at translating knowledge gains into promotability.

Although Langer's study focuses on IT labor markets, she said her findings are generalizable to women in other male-dominated industries, particularly those in STEM areas.

Individuals with social anxiety disorder have markedly different personality traits than others. Emotional instability and introversion are hallmarks, according to a new study from Uppsala University published in PLOS ONE.

"Social anxiety disorder seems to be a problem that is strongly intertwined with personality, but at the same time it shows great variation," says Professor Tomas Furmark from the Department of Psychology at Uppsala University, who led the study.

Researchers have long been looking for the connection between personality factors and the risk of developing psychiatric illnesses. In psychological science, personality is typically described using five well-established dimensions: neuroticism, also known as emotional instability; extraversion, which deals with how outgoing a person is; openness; agreeableness; and conscientiousness - the 'Big Five'.

A study from Uppsala University, now published in PLOS ONE, shows that personality is strongly intertwined with the diagnosis of social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia.

The study involved 265 individuals with the diagnosis. They filled out comprehensive personality instruments, including the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). They were also compared with healthy control subjects and Swedish norm data. The results showed that individuals with social anxiety disorder had markedly different personality traits, in particular, high neuroticism and introversion, in other words, a tendency to be emotionally unstable and inward turning.

At the same time, the study showed that there was a great deal of variation in personality traits among the socially anxious individuals. Three personality groups could be distinguished, based on cluster analysis of the Big Five personality dimensions.

The first group, with prototypical social anxiety, was both highly anxious and introverted - which may be seen as the typical form of social anxiety disorder. However, these individuals accounted for only one-third (33 per cent) of the total patient sample.

Individuals in the second group (29 per cent), with introvert-conscientious social anxiety, were very introverted but more moderately anxious and also had high levels of conscientiousness.

Individuals in the third and largest group (38 per cent), with unstable-open social anxiety disorder, were anxious while having almost normal levels of extraversion. Comparisons with norm data also showed that these individuals scored high on the personality trait openness.

"It is possible that the causes of social anxiety differ for the three groups, for example, with regard to abnormalities in brain neurotransmitter levels and genetic factors. It may also be that different treatment efforts are needed for the different types of social anxiety disorder, but further studies are needed to clarify this," says Furmark.

SALT LAKE CITY - To replace aging and worn cells, the body primarily uses a process called mitosis, in which one cell divides into two. When a cell is ready to divide, it duplicates its DNA so a complete copy is available for each of the daughter cells. In this process, the DNA pieces, or chromosomes, must be precisely apportioned into the daughter cells. If one cell has an incomplete copy of the DNA or if the DNA becomes damaged, genetic disorders and diseases such as cancer can result.

For cell division to occur, the two sets of DNA must be localized to opposite sides of the cell. First, the compartment that normally contains the DNA, the nucleus, disassembles its protective coating. Then the chromosomes are separated by an apparatus of fibers. A new nucleus forms around each DNA set. Finally, the cell splits into two, each with its own re-formed nuclear compartment inside.

Scientists at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) and collaborators at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) published research in the journal Nature extending our understanding of the intricate process of cell division. They discovered the protein LEM2 has two important functions during cell division. First, LEM2 creates seals in the protective coating of forming nuclei that keep the two sets of DNA shielded from damage. Second, LEM2 recruits factors that disassemble the apparatus of fibers responsible for separating the DNA sets. HCI's Katharine Ullman, PhD, and UCSF's Adam Frost, PhD, collaborated over the last six years on this work.

To visualize LEM2's role in mitosis, the Ullman Lab used colored fluorescent markers to label the different components: LEM2, the fibers, and the DNA. This process allowed the team to film LEM2--from when it first associates with intact fibers until the time of their disassembly. They observed LEM2 proteins concentrating and forming a gel-like seal with other proteins (ESCRTs) at holes where fibers traverse the protective coat of the nucleus. This LEM2 "O-ring" effectively sealed off the re-forming nuclear coat, safeguarding each set of DNA from material surrounding the nucleus.

"Using our imaging methods, we were able to see a process that only occurs over the course of about five minutes during cell division, something that would have been very difficult to study otherwise," said Dollie LaJoie, PhD, a researcher in Ullman's research group and a co-author on the study.

"This work was strengthened by the fact that both teams worked on this project using different approaches to better explain the role of LEM2," Ullman said. "My research group focused on this process in live cells while Frost's research group worked to understand more about the protein itself."

The authors note that this novel type of gel-like separation may prove important for other critical cell functions that LEM2 participates in, including higher-level DNA organization.

The authors also showed that disruptions to LEM2 as it assembles the nucleus resulted in DNA damage--which jeopardizes normal cell function.

"This work opens a door to identifying new pathways for DNA to be damaged, which in some cases may contribute to the development of cancer," said Ullman.

Moving forward, the Ullman and Frost Labs will build on this work by investigating the connection between improper nucleus formation and DNA damage. They will examine how cancer cells may lack the proper regulation of both nuclear assembly and nuclear repair.

(Boston)--In an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and to optimize allocation of healthcare resources, researchers are improving ways to treat patients with acute large vessel occlusion strokes in a safe manner that also better protects health care workers.

Developed by a team from the Society of Vascular & Interventional Neurology (SVIN) and led by a Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researcher, the new guidance statement is divided into four phases: pre-hospital to the emergency department, pre-thrombectomy procedure, thrombectomy intra-procedure and post-reperfusion therapy.

"Every opportunity and detail to recalibrate our acute neurological workflow to protect our frontline health care workers, our families, our colleagues and our patients should be sought, implemented and adapted to a resource-constrained environment," explained corresponding author Thanh Nguyen, MD, professor of neurology, neurosurgery and radiology at BUSM and director of the neuroendovascular service at Boston Medical Center.

Among the recommendations:

Screen every acute stroke patient for COVID-19 adhering to local EMS, emergency department (ED) protocols.

Use of remote tele-stroke technology to obtain history and perform neurological examination, post reperfusion monitoring, if available.

Minimize the number of people at an acute stroke or thrombectomy code: one person in protective equipment with patient, another at computer/phone to help coordinate care.

Consider low-dose chest computerized tomography (CT) as the same time as head CT/CTA to facilitate COVID-19 diagnosis.

Implement a "direct to the angiography suite" approach for stable transferred patients with stroke symptoms onset within 24 hours to minimize exposure to ED and CT personnel.

Consider conscious sedation as first-line to protect anesthesiologists from exposure, and to protect patients from unnecessary intubation as well as conserving mechanical ventilator resources.

If patients exhibit pulmonary symptoms, lower threshold to intubate patients in a controlled manner in a negative pressure room.

Defer any tests that won't change management until the patient has ruled out for COVID-19.

Consider repatriation of select patients back to primary stroke centers to recover after thrombectomy for hospitals overwhelmed with critical care or intensive care unit bed shortages. This can help maintain thrombectomy access.

According to the researchers, these new workflow applications are based on shared best practices, consensus among academic and non-academic practicing vascular and interventional neurologists and literature review, and could be adapted to the available resources of a local institution.

"The acute stroke patient is a vulnerable group to address because these patients often come emergently from the community with little information. Radical changes are necessary to optimize the safety of the providing team and our patients, limit unnecessary tests, conserve personal protective equipment (PPE) resources and mechanical ventilator usage," added David Liebeskind, MD, director of the UCLA Comprehensive Stroke Center and SVIN president.

Nguyen believes it is incumbent upon all of us to protect each other so that we are not unknowingly exposed or spread to our most vulnerable patients, while at the same time, providing optimal care, patient safety, and access to treatment for stroke patients. This guidance statement pertains to current practice and can change as new evidence arises.

This guidance statement appears online in the journal Stroke.

Researchers from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and the University of Cologne in Germany published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that explains which factors influence media coverage of CSI events.

The study forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing is titled "When Does Corporate Social Irresponsibility Become News? Evidence from More than 1,000 Brand Transgressions Across Five Countries" and is authored by Samuel Stäbler and Marc Fischer.

Consumers beware! Media outlets do not report corporate misconduct, such as environmental offences, corruption, or violations of societal standards around human rights or employee working conditions, consistently and independently. Instead, media are often influenced by their own interests, including advertising revenues paid by offending companies.

Cases of corporate misconduct, often called Corporate Social Irresponsibility or CSI, are usually newsworthy events with high news value for the media. This study examined media coverage of 1,054 CSI events in 77 leading media outlets from five countries (USA, Mexico, Germany, Great Britain, and France). Results show that media reporting is not impartial. Overall, the online and offline newspapers and magazines studied most frequently report on the ethical misconduct of popular companies with well-known brands as well as misconduct by foreign companies, which are reported 39% and 80% more frequently, respectively. Also, liberal media report more frequently on CSI than conservative media.

Importantly, if these media have close advertising partnerships with a company, media report significantly less often on its CSI events. In fact, the probability of reporting falls by 45% to a level as low as 9.5%.

Unfortunately, the media seem to be unaware of this distortion. Interviews with editors of leading media in Germany uncovered the view that neither advertising revenues nor the political orientation of the newspaper influenced reporting. Our large-scale study shows the opposite.

As might be expected, these reporting patterns have important economic consequences for companies. According to the study, the average financial loss on the U.S. stock exchange due to a CSI event amounts to $321 million if four or more U.S. media report on the event.

When coverage is not based on the newsworthiness of the event, but on the popularity of the brand and whether it involves a foreign company, these economic consequences are unfairly distributed. Worse yet, if news media do not cover CSI events for their advertising partners, media coverage is compromised by a conflict of interest. Stäbler remarked, "The media fulfill an important role in democratic societies in that they contribute to the formation of public opinions. Consumers have the right to be informed about potential firm misbehavior in a transparent and balanced manner. Our study shows that media coverage varies significantly when it comes to reporting about a CSI event."

The media ideally fulfill an important role in democratic societies in that they contribute to the formation of public opinions. Consumers have the right to be informed about potential firm misbehavior in a transparent and balanced manner. Fischer added, "Our results call into question the self-proclaimed independence of the media. Among other things, it was astonishing how much more frequently the misconduct of foreign companies is reported, while in comparison, domestic companies are less frequently the subject of CSI reporting. The media exert a great deal of pressure and demand compliance with the highest ethical standards and social norms from public figures and companies. Our research on CSI reporting shows that media companies themselves do not always adhere to the high ethical standards they demand of others."

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, the University of South Carolina and other institutions have identified tobacco smoking as a potential risk factor for infection of the COVID-19 virus.

Co-corresponding authors Dr. Christopher I. Amos, director of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Research at Baylor, Dr. Guoshuai Cai, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, and their colleagues analyzed datasets of the RNA expressed by various types of lung tissue, comparing current and former smokers and non-smokers.

They looked at the expression of ACE2, the molecule in the respiratory tract that the COVID-19 virus uses to attach to and infect human cells. They also looked at the expression of FURIN and TMPRSS2, human enzymes known to facilitate COVID-19 virus infection.

The researchers report in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine a 25 percent increase in the expression of ACE2 in lung tissues from ever-smokers, people who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes during their lives, when compared with nonsmokers. Smoking also increased the presence of FURIN, but to a lower extent compared to ACE2. TMRPSS2 expression in lungs was not associated with smoking. They also found that smoking remodeled the gene expression of cells in the lungs so that the ACE2 gene was more highly expressed in goblet cells, cells that secrete mucus in order to protect the mucous membranes in the lungs.

The significant smoking effect on ACE2 pulmonary expression identified in this study indicates not only an increase in the entry points for the COVID-19 virus but also may suggest an increased risk for viral binding and entry of the virus in the lungs of smokers. The findings provide valuable information for identifying potentially susceptible populations.

"We hypothesized that the worse outcomes of COVID-19 infections in regions of the world with high levels of cigarette smoking may reflect host factors," Amos said. "Studies of COVID-19 patients would help resolve the influence of smoking on COVID-19 outcomes."

New Rochelle, NY, April 29, 2020--Researchers have reported a significant and positive relationship between the amount of virus present in a throat swab sample and the severity of COVID disease. The higher the relative viral load in the sample, the greater the organ damage, and the longer it would take for the viral RNA count to turn negative, according to the results published in Viral Immunology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the Viral Immunology website through May 30, 2020.

In "Correlation Between Relative Nasopharyngeal Virus RNA Load and Lymphocyte Count Disease Severity in Patients with COVID-19" Wei Zhang and coauthors from The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University (Jiangxi, China), collected nasopharyngeal samples from patients with mild and severe COVID-19. They measured the level of viral RNA in the sample, also known as the viral load. Viral load correlated positively with the severity of disease symptoms and with increased inflammatory factors. There was a negative correlation between SARS-CoV-2 viral load and lymphocytes, such as CD4+ and CD8+T lymphocytes, which fight infection.

David L. Woodland, PhD, Editor-in Chief of Viral Immunology and Adjunct Member of the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake, NY, states: "We currently have only a limited understanding of why some patients with the SARS-CoV-2 virus develop severe, life-threatening symptoms, whereas others do not. In this paper, Zhang and colleagues present data correlating viral loads in the nasopharynx with disease severity and progression. These important findings potentially offer medical professionals with crucial information when deciding on treatment options for COVID-19 patients."

As the COVID-19 curve shows signs of flattening in the U.S. and elsewhere, public health officials are trying to grasp just how many people have been infected. Now, a proof-of-concept study in ACS' Analytical Chemistry describes a quick, sensitive test for antibodies against the coronavirus in human blood. The test could help doctors track a person's exposure to the disease, as well as confirm suspected COVID-19 cases that tested negative by other methods.

Because COVID-19 symptoms range from mild to severe, with some people apparently having no symptoms, the number of people who have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus at some point is likely much higher than the number of confirmed cases. As U.S. states begin to ease lockdown restrictions, widespread testing of the general population will be important to identify people at early stages of disease, or people who lack symptoms but can still infect others. Also, although more research needs to be done, it is possible that people with antibodies to the virus could be immune to future COVID-19 outbreaks. To help identify people with current or past exposure to SARS-CoV-2, Lei Yu, Yingsong Wu, Guanfeng Lin and colleagues wanted to develop a fast, sensitive antibody test.

The researchers based their test on a technique called a lateral flow immunoassay (LFA); a home pregnancy test is an example of this kind of assay. They attached a viral coat protein to a specific region on a strip of nitrocellulose, and then added human serum. The serum flowed from one end of the strip to the other, and any antibodies against the viral protein bound to that region on the strip. Then, the team detected the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies with a fluorescently labeled antibody. This fluorescence-based detection is much more sensitive than some other LFAs, such as pregnancy tests, that can be read by the naked eye. The researchers tested the new assay on seven serum samples from COVID-19 patients and 12 samples from people who had tested negative for the disease by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), a common diagnostic test that occasionally fails to detect positive cases. The new assay correctly diagnosed all seven samples as positive -- as well as an additional "negative" case that had suspicious clinical symptoms -- in only 10 minutes per sample. The immunoassay could be helpful in confirming negative diagnoses, monitoring a patient's recovery, studying past exposures, and identifying recovered individuals with high levels of antibodies as potential convalescent plasma donors, the researchers say.

Each year, researchers from around the world visit the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to conduct hundreds of experiments in chemistry, materials science, biology and energy research at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser. LCLS creates ultrabright X-rays from high-energy beams of electrons produced in a giant linear particle accelerator.

Experiments at LCLS run around the clock, in two 12-hour shifts per day. At the start of each shift, operators must tweak the accelerator's performance to prepare the X-ray beam for the next experiment. Sometimes, additional tweaking is needed during a shift as well. In the past, operators have spent hundreds of hours each year on this task, called accelerator tuning.

Now, SLAC researchers have developed a new tool, using machine learning, that may make part of the tuning process five times faster compared to previous methods. They described the method in Physical Review Letters on March 25.

Tuning the beam

Producing LCLS's powerful X-ray beam starts with the preparation of a high-quality electron beam. Some of the electrons' energy then gets converted into X-ray light inside special magnets. The properties of the electron beam, which needs to be dense and tightly focused, are a critical factor in how good the X-ray beam will be.

"Even a small difference in the density of the electron beam can have a huge difference in the amount of X-rays you get out at the end," says Daniel Ratner, head of SLAC's machine learning initiative and a member of the team that developed the new technique.

The accelerator uses a series of 24 special magnets, called quadrupole magnets, to focus the electron beam similarly to how glass lenses focus light. Traditionally, human operators carefully turned knobs to adjust individual magnets between shifts to make sure the accelerator was producing the X-ray beam needed for a particular experiment. This process took up a lot of the operators' time - time they could spend on other important tasks that improve the beam for experiments.

A few years ago, LCLS operators adopted a computer algorithm that automated and sped up this magnet tuning. However, it came with its own disadvantages. It aimed at improving the X-ray beam by making random adjustments to the magnets' strengths. But unlike human operators, this algorithm had no prior knowledge of the accelerator's structure and couldn't make educated guesses in its tuning that might have ultimately led to even better results.

This is why SLAC researchers decided to develop a new algorithm that combines machine learning - "smart" computer programs that learn how to get better over time - with knowledge about the physics of the accelerator.

"The machine learning approach is trying to tie this all together to give operators better tools so that they can focus on other important problems," says Joseph Duris, a SLAC scientist who led the new study.

A better beam, faster

The new approach uses a technique called a Gaussian process, which predicts the effect a particular accelerator adjustment has on the quality of the X-ray beam. It also generates uncertainties for its predictions. The algorithm then decides which adjustments to try for the biggest improvements.

For example, it may decide to try a dramatic adjustment whose outcome is very uncertain but could lead to a big payoff. That means this new, adventurous algorithm has a better chance than the previous algorithm of making the tweaks needed to create the best possible X-ray beam.

The SLAC researchers also used data from previous LCLS operations to teach the algorithm which magnet strengths have typically led to brighter X-rays, giving the algorithm a way of making educated guesses about the adjustments it should try. This equips the algorithm with knowledge and expertise that human operators naturally have, and that the previous algorithm lacked.

"We can rely on that physics knowledge, that institutional knowledge, in order to improve the predictions," Duris says.

Insights into the magnets' relationships to each other also improved the technique. The quadrupole magnets work in pairs, and to increase their focusing power, the strength of one magnet in a pair must be increased while the other's is decreased.

With the new process, tuning the quadrupole magnets has become about three to five times faster, the researchers estimate. It also tends to produce higher-intensity beams than the previously used algorithm.

"Our ability to increase our tuning efficiency is really, really critical to being able to deliver a beam faster and with better quality to people who are coming from all over the world to run experiments," says Jane Shtalenkova, an accelerator operator at SLAC who worked with Duris, Ratner and others to develop the new tool.

Beyond LCLS

The same method can be extended to tune other electron or X-ray beam properties that scientists may want to optimize for their experiments. For example, researchers could apply the technique to maximize the signal they get out of their sample after it's hit by LCLS's X-ray beam.

This flexibility also makes the new algorithm useful for other facilities.

"The nice thing about this machine learning algorithm is that you can do tech transfer relatively easily," says Adi Hanuka, a SLAC scientist who has been testing the technique at three other accelerators: SPEAR3, the accelerator ring powering SLAC's Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL); PEGASUS at the University of California, Los Angeles; and the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at DOE's Argonne National Laboratory.

"This tool now exists in several labs," Hanuka says. "Hopefully, we'll be integrating it into even more labs soon."

The COVID-19 pandemic has exploded across the globe, leaving healthcare staff, policy makers and ordinary people struggling. We still don't completely understand why some people are more severely affected by the virus than others.

So far, the elderly and those with certain pre-existing conditions appear to be at greater risk. A new study in open-access journal Frontiers in Public Health is the first to examine gender differences in COVID-19 patients. The study finds that men and women are equally likely to contract the virus, but men are significantly more likely to suffer severe effects of the disease and die. The results suggest that additional care may be required for older men or those with underlying conditions.

While most people with COVID-19 experience mild symptoms, identifying the factors that predispose people to severe disease and death could help society to protect and treat those most at risk.

So far, researchers have confirmed that older COVID-19 patients and those with certain underlying conditions, such as heart disease and respiratory conditions, are at greater risk of severe disease and death. However, Dr. Jin-Kui Yang, a physician at Beijing Tongren Hospital in China, noticed a trend among COVID-19 patients who died.

"Early in January we noticed that the number of men dying from COVID-19 appeared to be higher than the number of women," said Yang. "This raised a question: are men more susceptible to getting or dying from COVID-19? We found that no-one had measured gender differences in COVID-19 patients, and so began investigating."

Yang and a group of colleagues analyzed several patient datasets to see if there were differences in how men and women respond to COVID-19. This included data on 43 patients who the doctors had treated themselves and a publicly available dataset on 1056 COVID-19 patients.

The virus responsible for COVID-19 is similar to the virus behind the 2003 SARS outbreak, and it attaches to the same protein, called ACE2, on cells it attacks. Given this similarity, the doctors also analyzed a dataset of 524 SARS patients from 2003.

Among the COVID-19 patients, the researchers confirmed that older people and those with specific underlying conditions tended to have more severe disease and were more likely to die. The age and numbers of infected men and women were similar, but men tended to have more severe disease.

Strikingly, in the largest COVID-19 dataset, over 70% of the patients who died were men, meaning that men had almost 2.5 times the death rate of women. And interestingly, being male was a significant risk-factor for worse disease severity, regardless of age.

In the SARS dataset from 2003, the researchers found a similar trend, with a significantly higher mortality rate amongst males compared with females. Interestingly, levels of ACE2, the protein involved in the viral attack in both SARS and COVID-19, tends to be present in higher levels in men, and also patients with cardiovascular disease and diabetes, all of whom have worse outcomes in COVID-19.

However, further research is needed to determine exactly why men with COVID-19 tend to fare worse than women. While the current study has a small sample size, and larger studies are needed to confirm the results, this is the first preliminary indication that male gender is a significant risk factor for COVID-19 severity and death.

The study may have important implications for patient care. "We recommend that additional supportive care and prompt access to the intensive care unit may be necessary for older male patients," said Yang.

With the coronavirus pandemic temporarily shuttering hair salons, many clients are appreciating, and missing, the ability of hair dye to cover up grays or touch up roots. However, frequent coloring, whether done at a salon or at home, can damage hair and might pose health risks from potentially cancer-causing dye components. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed a process to dye hair with synthetic melanin under milder conditions than traditional hair dyes.

Melanin is a group of natural pigments that give hair and skin their varied colors. With aging, melanin disappears from hair fibers, leading to color loss and graying. Most permanent hair dyes use ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, small-molecule dyes and other ingredients to penetrate the cuticle of the hair and deposit coloring. Along with being damaging to hair, these harsh substances could cause allergic reactions or other health problems in colorists and their clients. Recently, scientists have explored using synthetic melanin to color human hair, but the process required relatively high concentrations of potentially toxic heavy metals, such as copper and iron, and strong oxidants. Claudia Battistella, Nathan Gianneschi and colleagues at Northwestern University wanted to find a gentler, safer way to get long-lasting, natural-looking hair color with synthetic melanin.

The researchers tested different dyeing conditions for depositing synthetic melanin on hair, finding that they could substitute mild heat and a small amount of ammonium hydroxide for the heavy metals and strong oxidants used in prior methods. They could produce darker hues by increasing the concentration of ammonium hydroxide, or red and gold shades by adding a small amount of hydrogen peroxide. Overall, the conditions were similar to or milder than those used for commercially available hair dyes. And the natural-looking colors deposited on the hair surface, rather than penetrating the cuticle, which is less likely to cause damage. The colored layer persisted for at least 18 washes.

DALLAS, April 29, 2020 -- Using e-cigarettes damages the arteries and blood vessel function much like smoking traditional cigarettes, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association, and funded through the Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science of the American Heart Association, the leading voluntary health organization devoted to a world of longer, healthier lives.

"Many people believe e-cigarettes are safer than combustible cigarettes. In fact, most e-cigarette users say the primary reason they use e-cigarettes is because they think e-cigarettes pose less of a health risk," said study author Jessica L. Fetterman, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, Boston. "Meanwhile, the evidence from scientific studies is growing that e-cigarettes might not be the safer alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes when it comes to heart health. Our study adds to that evidence."

Fetterman and colleagues studied over 400 men and women, ages 21 to 45 years, who had not been diagnosed with heart disease or heart disease risk factors. Study participants included 94 nonsmokers, 285 cigarette smokers, 36 e-cigarette users and 52 dual users who smoke combustible cigarettes and use e-cigarettes. Combustible cigarette smokers and dual users were older than non-smokers and e-cigarette users, while e-cigarette users were more likely to be younger, male and white. All e-cigarette users were former smokers of traditional cigarettes.

"We studied measures of blood vessel function in e-cigarette and dual users who had been using e-cigarettes for at least three months. Most studies to-date have looked at the impact of acute use of e-cigarettes on blood vessel function measured right before and after use, whereas our study evaluated blood vessel function in chronic e-cigarette use among young, healthy adults," Fetterman said.

The researchers found that former smokers who switched to e-cigarettes and dual users had an augmentation index similar to traditional cigarette users, which means that their arteries were just as stiff.

"Stiffening of the arteries can cause damage to the small blood vessels, including capillaries, and puts additional stress on the heart, all of which can contribute to the development of heart disease," Fetterman said.

The researchers also found that the cells that line the blood vessels, called endothelial cells, appeared to be equally as damaged whether people used e-cigarettes, combustible cigarettes or both.

"The endothelial cells from e-cigarette users or dual users produced less of the heart-protective compound nitric oxide, compared to non-tobacco users. Their cells also produced more reactive oxygen species, which cause damage to the parts of cells such as DNA and proteins," Fetterman said. "Our study results suggest there is no evidence that the use of e-cigarettes reduces cardiovascular injury, dysfunction or harm associated with the use of combustible tobacco products."

She noted longer-term studies are needed to determine if vascular damage from e-cigarettes alone changes over time.

A new article published in Nature Communications applies stable isotope analysis to a collection of fossil human teeth from the islands of Timor and Alor in Wallacea to study the ecological adaptations of the earliest members of our species to reach this isolated part of the world. Because the Wallacean islands are considered extreme, resource poor settings, archaeologists believed that early seafaring populations would have moved rapidly through this region without establishing permanent communities. Nevertheless, this has so far been difficult to test.

This study, led by scientists from the Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI SHH), alongside colleagues from the Australian National University and Universitas Gadjah Mada, used an isotopic methodology that reveals the resources consumed by humans during the period of tooth formation. They demonstrate that the earliest human fossil so far found in the region, dating to around 42,000-39,000 years ago, relied upon coastal resources. Yet, from 20,000 years ago, humans show an increasing reliance on tropical forest environments, away from the island coasts. The results support the idea that one distinguishing characteristic of Homo sapiens is high ecological flexibility, especially when compared to other hominins known from the same region.

Pleistocene hominin adaptations in Southeast Asia

Over the last two decades, archaeological evidence from deserts, high-altitude settings, tropical rainforests, and maritime habitats seem to increasingly suggest that Late Pleistocene humans rapidly adapted to a number of extreme environments. By contrast, our closest hominin relatives, such as Homo erectus and Neanderthals, apparently used various mixtures of forests and grasslands, albeit from as far apart as the Levant, Siberia, and Java. However, this apparent distinction needs testing, especially as finds of another closely related hominin, the Denisovans, have been found on the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau.

As one of the corresponding authors on the new paper, Sue O'Connor of Australian National University says, "The islands beyond Wallace's Line are ideal places to test the adaptive differences between our species and other hominins. These islands were never connected to mainland Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene, and would have ensured that hominins had to make water crossings to reach it." Tropical forest settings like those in Wallacea are often considered barriers to human expansion and are a far cry from the sweeping 'savannahs' with an abundance of medium to large mammals that hominins are believed to have relied on.

Fossils and stone tools show that hominins made it to Wallacean islands at least one million years ago, including the famous 'Hobbit,' or Homo floresiensis, on the island of Flores. When our own species arrived 45,000 years ago (or perhaps earlier), it is thought to have quickly developed the specialized use of marine habitats, as evidenced by one of the world's earliest fish hooks found in the region. Nevertheless, as co-author Ceri Shipton puts it "the extent of this maritime adaptation has remained hotly debated and difficult to test using snapshots based on, often poorly preserved, animal remains."

Stable isotope analysis and Late Pleistocene humans

This new paper uses stable carbon isotopes measured from fossil human teeth to directly reconstruct the long-term diets of past populations. Although this method has been used to study the diets and environments of African hominins for nearly half a century, it has thus far been scarcely applied to the earliest members of our own species expanding within and beyond Africa. Using the principle 'you are what you eat,' researchers analyzed powdered hominin tooth enamel from 26 individuals dated between 42,000 and 1,000 years ago to explore the types of resources they consumed during tooth formation.

The new paper shows that the earliest human fossil available from the region, excavated from the site of Asitau Kuru on Timor, was indeed reliant on maritime resources, suggesting a well-tuned adaptation to the colonization of coastal areas. "This fits with our existing models of rapid human movement through Wallacea on the way to Australia," says co-author Shimona Kealy of the Australian National University.

From around 20,000 years ago, however, human diets seem to have switched inland, towards the supposedly impoverished resources of the island forests. Although some individuals maintained the use of coastal habitats, the majority seemingly began to adapt to the populations of small mammals and tropical forest plants in the region. As co-author Mahirta at Universitas Gadjah Mada puts it, "Coastal resources such as shellfish and reef fish are easy to exploit and available year-round, however growing populations likely forced early island occupants to look inland to other resources."

A species defined by flexibility

This study provides the first direct insights into the adaptations of our own species as it settled in a series of challenging island environments in Wallacea. "Early human populations here, and elsewhere, could not only successfully use the enormous variety of often-extreme Pleistocene environments," suggests Patrick Roberts, lead author of the study and Group Leader at MPI SHH, "they could also specialize in them over substantial periods of time. As a result, even if some local populations did fail, the species as a whole would go on to become tremendously prolific."

As dense tropical rainforests replaced mixed grass and woodlands, other hominins in Southeast Asia went extinct. Ecological flexibility, supported by unique technologies and the capacity for social relationships and symbolism, seem to have carried Homo sapiens through the climactic fluctuations of the Late Pleistocene, however. The authors concede that more work is needed to conclusively test the ecological distinction between hominin species. The discovery of Denisovan populations in the tropical environments of Asia or application of this isotopic approach to other hominins in the tropics could yet show Homo sapiens to be less exceptional. Nonetheless, for the time being it seems that it was our species that could best adapt to the variety of environments across the face of the planet, leaving it, by the end of the Pleistocene, the last hominin standing.

Developers may struggle to find enough land to offset the biodiversity impacts of future development, according to a University of Queensland study.

UQ's Dr Laura Sonter said the challenges were evident worldwide and could significantly limit the ability to achieve global conservation goals.

"Most countries now have offsetting policies requiring developers to revegetate or protect areas of habitat and ecosystems, to compensate for biodiversity losses caused by their projects," Dr Sonter said.

"When these activities create as much biodiversity as that lost to development, the offsets are said to achieve no net loss of biodiversity.

"The problem is that in many cases, there simply is not enough land to completely offset the huge biodiversity losses expected from expected future development.

"For example, in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, twice the amount of land that is currently available for revegetation would be required to compensate for losses from proposed developments, in order to achieve no net loss of biodiversity - and we found similar results in Mozambique and Brazil.

"For places like these, it is inevitable that development will result in an overall loss of biodiversity, because land availability constraints make no net biodiversity loss impossible to achieve."

Dr Sonter said, as offsetting policies become stricter, some policies require more conservation for every unit of biodiversity lost, meaning that even more land is required.

"Other policies limit conservation activities to already rare habitats to prevent extinctions, so they rapidly run out of land for offsetting," she said.

Professor Martine Maron said the findings have implications for reconciling development with crucial global biodiversity conservation goals.

"If offsetting policies are strictly enforced and countries run out of land for these activities, any new proposed development projects will not be permitted, potentially slowing global biodiversity losses," Professor Maron said.

"The more likely scenario is that if land availability becomes a constraint, then offsetting requirements will be relaxed, enabling development with less compensation, and biodiversity losses will soar.

"This detracts from broad conservation goals, and particularly, a move towards 'global no net loss of ecosystems', which nations of the world are looking to commit to under the Convention on Biological Diversity."

Dr Sonter said there are two ways forward but avoiding biodiversity losses is key.

"The consequences of offset failure for rare species and habitats that have limited opportunities for offsetting are disproportionally large, and include near-certain extinction.

"However, since development is essential in many instances, we recommend governments explicitly account for land availability constraints in their offset policies and making decisions about projects.

"A key step forward in addressing these challenges is designing offset policies so that they are directly linked to national biodiversity goals."

An international study led by Melbourne researchers has discovered nine new genes linked to the most severe type of childhood speech disorder, apraxia.

The research analysed the genetic make-up of 34 affected children and young people, and showed that variations in nine genes likely explained apraxia in 11 of them. The genetic variations were caused spontaneously and not inherited from their parents.

The research, led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), the University of Melbourne and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, was published in X, 2020, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

MCRI Speech and Language Group Leader Professor Angela Morgan, who is also Professor of Speech Pathology at the University of Melbourne, said one in 1000 children has apraxia, and despite intensive investigation the genetic origins of this debilitating speech disorder have remained largely unexplained, until now.

"Eight of the nine genes are critical in a process which turns specific language genes "on" or "off" by binding to nearby DNA," Professor Morgan said.

"We found these eight genes are activated in the developing brain. This suggests there is at least one genetic network for apraxia, all with a similar function and expression pattern in the brain."

Professor Morgan said the new genetic findings would help neuroscientists and speech pathologists develop more targeted treatments for children.

"Apraxia is a distinctive, socially debilitating clinical disorder, and understanding its molecular basis is the first step towards identifying precision therapy approaches," she said.

Children with apraxia fail to learn to speak clearly and combine sounds properly. The timing and sequencing of their words are also affected.

"Kids with apraxia typically have problems developing speech from infancy, with a history of poor feeding, limited babbling, delayed onset of first words, and highly unintelligible speech into the preschool years. Diagnosis is usually made when they are around age three," Professor Morgan said.