Culture

Research findings suggest gut microbes can effect allergic immune responses. Tasuku Ogita who has recently joined Shinshu University is an expert on teas and their effects on gut bacteria. In this study, his team looked at green tea and the abundance of Flavonifractor plautii (FP) bacteria found in the gut. FP has been reported to be a part of the catechin metabolism in the intestines. Catechin is an antioxidant found in a variety of foods including green tea, of which 30 to 42% of its dry weight is catechin.

Tasuku Ogita and his team including supervisor Takeshi Shimosato has found that oral administration of FP strongly suppresses the Th2 immune response to food allergies in vivo. The food we eat effects the complex cocktail of different strains of bacteria in the gut. Drinking green tea increases the abundance of FP (Flavonifractor plautii) which suppresses the Th2 immune response. FP is a strain of the Clostridia family of bacteria, which is known to have effects on the immune system, notably inhibiting inflammation. Some Clostridia strains show promise of lowering blood pressure and some are known to be abundant in lean people and not in heavier people, leading researchers to believe they can be used to regulate weight.

Dr. Ogita has successfully cultured FP which took 6 months to accomplish. It is not easy to grow bacteria that grows inside the intestines out of its environment. Dr. Ogita was delighted when he was able to see the "face" of this FP strain under a microscope. A photo of the FP bacteria did not exist because research into its study is in its infancy. Dr. Ogita believes this is the first photo of FP.

Shinshu University is located in Nagano prefecture, known throughout Japan for having a variety of fermented food items with positive health outcomes. Nagano is unusual in that it does not have direct access to an ocean, so the food culture that has developed here has been unique. Due to its mountainous terrain, residents have had to survive long winters without access to the outside world, cultivating a rich food culture of natural preserves including miso and lacto-fermented pickles.

Nowadays, its residents have the best health and highest longevity in Japan, meaning it is likely a great contender for the area with some of the best health lifestyles in the world. Nagano manages to do this with some of the lowest costs for medical care for the elderly in Japan, meaning people live long but are also healthier longer. Researchers at Shinshu University continue to work to study unique foods indigenous to Nagano and Japan, and metabolic processes in the body scientifically to share this knowledge with others around the world with the hope that they too, can benefit from this culture.

There is potential for the FP strains of bacteria to follow in the steps of lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacterium in being added to foods for their desired functionality. At this point more studies are needed to look into the safety of FP before it can be used as an anti-allergy probiotic.

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have succeeded in restoring mobility and sensation of touch in stroke-afflicted rats by reprogramming human skin cells to become nerve cells, which were then transplanted into the rats' brains. The study has now been published in the research journal PNAS.

"Six months after the transplantation, we could see how the new cells had repaired the damage that a stroke had caused in the rats' brains", says Professor Zaal Kokaia, who together with senior professor Olle Lindvall and researcher Sara Palma-Tortosa at the Division of Neurology is behind the study.

Several previous studies from the Lund team and others have shown that it is possible to transplant nerve cells derived from human stem cells or from reprogrammed cells into brains of rats afflicted by stroke. However, it was not known whether the transplanted cells can form connections correctly in the rat brain in a way that restores normal movement and feeling.

"We have used tracking techniques, electron microscopy and other methods, such as light to switch off activity in the transplanted cells, as a way to show that they really have connected correctly in the damaged nerve circuits. We have been able to see that the fibres from the transplanted cells have grown to the other side of the brain, the side where we did not transplant any cells, and created connections. No previous study has shown this", says Zaal Kokaia, who, even though he and colleague Olle Lindvall have studied the brain for several decades, is surprised by the results.

"It is remarkable to find that it is actually possible to repair a stroke-damaged brain and recreate nerve connections that have been lost. The study kindles hope that in the future it could be possible to replace dead nerve cells with new healthy nerve cells also in stroke patients, even though there is a long way to go before achieving that", says Olle Lindvall.

The researchers have used human skin cells that have been reprogrammed in the laboratory to become nerve cells. They were then transplanted into the cerebral cortex of rats, in the part of the brain that is most often damaged after a stroke. Now the researchers will undertake further studies.

"We want to know more about how the transplanted cells affect the opposite hemisphere of the brain. We also want to take a closer look at how a transplant affects intellectual functions such as memory. In addition, we will study possible side effects. Safety is, of course, extremely important for cell transplantation if it is going to be used clinically in the future", says Zaal Kokaia.

A European Union (EU) programme aimed at reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has made significant progress despite low prices in carbon markets, according to a study at the Universities of Strathclyde and Pittsburgh.

Under the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), introduced in 2005 in response to the Kyoto Protocol, governments set a cap on an allowable total amount of emissions over a certain period. They also issue tradable emission permits, which allow for one ton of CO2.

It is widely considered that carbon markets require high prices to reduce emissions but many observers believe they often set prices which are considered too low. However, the study by Strathclyde and Pittsburgh has found that the EU ETS saved around 1.2 billion tons of CO2 between 2008 and 2016, nearly half of what governments pledged to reduce in their Kyoto Protocol commitments.

The study has been published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America). Strathclyde's home city, Glasgow, is due to host the next United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Dr Patrick Bayer, a Chancellor's Fellow in Strathclyde's School of Government & Public Policy and lead author of the study, said: "The ETS was set up to cover some of the most polluting industries"It has focused on very carbon-intensive energy production and manufacturing but there is evidence in other research suggesting that these industries have started to diversify their business models and to look into adopting carbon-neutral technologies or, at least, are interested in thinking about how to change their operations.

"Firms got an initial endowment of permits free but if they had emissions in excess of what they were allowed, they needed to buy more. If firms are to change their behaviour in the long run, prices of permits should be as high as possible to incentivise them to change away from carbon-intensive production.

"It turned out prices in carbon markets were fairly low, which then caused major concerns for environmentalists and policy-makers, because they felt they might not provide sufficient incentives.

"It depends on the sector or size of firm but we argue that, if firms think of carbon regulation as a long-term project, then they do need to start to change their behaviour."

The study used emissions in sectors not covered by the EU ETS to estimate what emissions would have been in those sectors the system does cover. It found that emissions in covered sectors decreased by between 8.1% and 11.5%, compared to expected emission levels without the EU ETS. This translates to a decrease of around 3.8%, compared with the EU's total emissions during 2008 to 2016.

Dr Bayer said: "In the energy and electricity markets, we have seen even big players thinking about how they can run their operations when becoming less dependent on fossil fuels. But there can be a threat that, whenever prices in those markets go up, an industry or business becomes exposed to high costs.

"The appeal of carbon markets is that, once they are established with the right rules, you can connect them to other markets. Climate is not concerned about whether emissions are reduced in the UK or Germany or China; so long as they are reduced, that helps to address the problem. If you have carbon markets scattered across the world, you might be able to trade across those markets.

"The UK's future place in the ETS is still up for discussion but all options are on the table. Whether any UK carbon market would be connected to the European market isn't clear and would probably depend on negotiations with the EU and how trade will be regulated in future relations. Assuming there were agreement on this and some strong economic integration between the two countries, it would probably make a lot of sense to connect those markets. The UK has been successful in decarbonising its economy in the past decade or so and has a strong role to play in continuing to advocate for future decarbonisation"

"The period our study covered, from 2008 to 2016, included the financial crisis and economic downturn, when demand for the permits reduced. We used a statistical model to account for the effect of the crisis. The emission reductions that we measure are in addition to lower demand for permits due to the economic crisis, energy efficiency targets and climate policies that try to address carbon emissions."

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has published a second ad-hoc-statement entitled "Coronavirus Pandemic - Measures Relevant to Health". The paper focuses on measures, which can contribute to a gradual normalisation of public life. Three measures are particularly important: (1) general use of mouth and nose protection, (2) short-term use of mobile phone data, and (3) increase in testing capacities.

This statement complements the first ad-hoc-statement "Coronavirus Pandemic in Germany: Challenges and Options for Intervention" of the interdisciplinary working group dated March 21, 2020, in which the participating scientists described measures to contain the pandemic, protect vulnerable population groups, and to increase the capacity of the public healthcare system and the public supply of critical goods and services. These recommendations remain valid and are herewith supplemented in light of recent developments.

At present, measures relevant to health are particularly important. In addition, immediate and long-term social and economic consequences must be taken into account for future decisions. The Leopoldina is currently working on further statements with recommendations for a sustainable "restart" of public life and the economy.

In the summer of 2017, Christie Petrenko, an assistant professor and research associate at the University of Rochester’s Mt. Hope Family Center, and Cristiano Tapparello, a research assistant professor in the University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, teamed up to create the first mobile phone app for caregivers of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

Through previous research, Petrenko, who is a recognized expert on a FASD, knew of the many challenges parents and caregivers face: isolation the lack of access to specialized care, limited financial resources, the stigma associated with the disability, and ultimately the caregivers’ quest for readily available and scientifically sound information.

“Many families have little to no access to the kinds of information and parenting strategies that are most helpful in managing the behavior of children with FASD,” Petrenko says. “They also need support from others who understand their experiences.”

Caused by prenatal alcohol exposure, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders affect around 2 to 5 percent of school-aged children in the United States and can result in lifelong developmental, cognitive, and behavioral problems.

Previous studies have pointed out that available online information for parents of children with developmental disabilities may lack in quality, consistency, and readability. In the past two-and-a-half years, the duo has designed, coded, assembled and written the content for their mobile health intervention app, FMF Connect. Its name and content are derived from the scientifically validated Families Moving Forward Program, developed at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of Washington. The researchers took mock-ups of the app to seven focus groups across the country, and then followed up with two beta tests.

The FMF Connect app allows users to easily access five distinct components:

Learning Modules: training for caregivers
Library: fact sheets and resource lists with medically sound advice
Family Forum: a space for users to share advice and ideas
Notebook: a place to save personalized content
Dashboard: includes a customizable avatar that tracks progress through the Learning Modules and charts child behavior.

Now the qualitative findings from the focus groups, recently published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, are in. Generally, the focus groups members—made up exclusively of caregivers of children with FASD— liked what they saw.

“Responses were generally enthusiastic,” says Petrenko. The caregivers liked that the information was easily accessible and organized, they could connect with others, and were able to share information. They also offered some constructive feedback, in particular related to interface design, and privacy concerns and dynamics within the Family Forum.

With this critical feedback in hand, Petrenko and Tapparello have been undertaking a few modifications and tweaks:

Some focus groups participants said they were initially thrown by the app’s smiling sun icon and not sure if they were looking at a game app for children instead. While tweaks have been made to the sun’s face, the icon itself won’t be replaced. After all, says Petrenko, it’s the recognized logo of the Families Moving Forward Program. In the subsequent beta testing stage the design choice was no longer critically mentioned.
The team developed community guidelines for the Family Forum to foster positive group dynamics and address privacy concerns. The team also trained moderators for the forum.
Shortened text on each screen of the app reduced the need for scrolling.
The researchers decided to allow continued user access to the app beyond the completion of the Learning Modules. Caregivers had told them that they wanted to go back to refresh skills and be able to reference key ideas during more challenging parenting situations.
They added a video library, a table of contents, a tip of the day, and streamlined how videos are presented within the modules.
They added a child behavior tracking tool and a daily rating for caregivers that asks about things such as selfcare and finding their child’s positives.

Want to be part of the app’s feasibility trial?

Go to fmfconnect.com to learn more about the study and complete a screening survey.

Journal

Journal of Medical Internet Research

DOI

10.2196/14721

Using a combination of experimental and computational data, researchers discover paths to optimize pulses from highly intense X-ray beams.

Scientists have long pursued the ability to see the structure of a single, free-form molecule at atomic resolution, what many call the ?“holy grail” of imaging. One potential method involves aiming extremely short, highly intense X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses at a sample material. But this ultrafast imaging technique also destroys its target, so time is of the essence.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are advancing the effort with a combination of experiments and computer simulations, looking to understand how XFEL pulses interact with their targets. Recently, a team led by Argonne’s Atomic Molecular Optical Physics group in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering division pinpointed an important and often ignored parameter that can influence experiment outcomes: time. Their paper, ?“The role of transient resonances for ultra-fast imaging of single sucrose nanoclusters,” was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

The ability to examine 3D structures at the atomic scale helps us better understand viruses, for example, and deliver medicine to the body more effectively. Today, this kind of analysis requires putting the material to be studied in crystalline form. Biological particles are fixed in this non-native form so that when an X-ray hits them, the beam scatters, creating a diffraction pattern that can be used to understand the molecular structure.

But many types of biological systems don’t crystallize very well, and the crystals might be too small to generate a good diffraction pattern. Or crystallization might change the structure, preventing the ability to observe a particle in its natural state. To create a scatter pattern without crystallizing the material requires a superintense beam like an XFEL, flashed in mind-bogglingly fast bursts.

“For this type of experiment, you need very intense pulses, which can destroy the sample very quickly,” said Phay Ho, an Argonne physicist who co-authored the paper. ?“With this approach, you need to use very short pulses so you can collect all the scattering signals before the sample is destroyed.”

This race against time is measured in femtoseconds, one of which equals a millionth of a billionth of a second. To study how different parameters can affect an XFEL experiment’s outcome, the cross-disciplinary team of researchers studied single nanoclusters of sucrose using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), an XFEL at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

“The crystals that you observe at a storage-ring based light source such as Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS), as opposed to an XFEL, are typically 10 microns or so in size,” said Linda Young, an Argonne Distinguished Fellow and paper co-author. ?“The structures we are looking at in this study are at least 200 times smaller — nanometers in size.”

The researchers then compared the experimental data with calculations run on the supercomputer Mira at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF). This involved a large ensemble of molecular simulations that tracked 42 million particles interacting with an XFEL pulse — a job for a supercomputer.

“When you have a machine like Mira, you can run a large number of simulations, you can do them all at the same time, and you can run them over the timescales that we needed for this particular study,” said Christopher Knight, a computational scientist with the ALCF and Argonne’s Computational Science division, and a co-author of the paper.

The study found that when it comes to XFEL pulses on sucrose, shorter is better. Scientists looking to amp up the imaging results might use a pulse length of 200 femtoseconds. But it turns out 200 millionths of a billionth of a second might be too leisurely.

“If you use pulses this long, you can actually degrade your signal substantially,” Ho said. ?“In order to do this type of imaging, the pulse should last only a few femtoseconds. It’s important to look not just at the number of photons, but the number of photons per unit of time.”

The computer modeling will help the researchers optimize future experiments, zeroing in on parameters that will produce the best results.

“It’s not easy to get the beam time to do these experiments,” Ho said. ?“This data will be very useful in figuring out the optimal pulse conditions to try next.”

The ALCF, the APS and the LCLS are DOE Office of Science User Facilities.

This work was funded by DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT), the Peter Paul Ewald Fellowship from the Volkswagen Foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the European Research Council and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. Computing time at the ALCF was awarded through DOE’s ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge.

Depression is a common psychiatric disorder and one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Antidepressants are the first-line treatment for moderate to severe major depressive episodes. Despite their effectiveness, only 40% of patients respond to the first antidepressant they try. A recent paper in Nature Communication strongly suggests that a particular protein, GPR56, is involved in the biology of depression and the effect of antidepressants. The McGill led research team believe that this protein could offer a novel target for new antidepressant drugs.

In this study, led by Professor Gustavo Turecki of McGill University and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, an international consortium of researchers and clinicians investigated changes in the activity of genes in the blood in over 400 patients who were being treated with antidepressants. The results showed clearly that there were significant changes in the levels of GPR56 in patients who responded favorably to antidepressants, but not in non-responders, or patients receiving placebo. This discovery is particularly interesting, as GPR56 may represent an easy-to-measure biomarker for response to antidepressants.

Simple blood test could indicate levels of GPR56

The researchers confirmed that GPR56, which can be detected through a simple blood test, was associated with biological changes in the central nervous system by doing experiments with mice, and by studying human brain tissue obtained from the Douglas Bell-Canada Brain Bank. They found that GPR56 was changed in depression, and that it was modified, both in the blood and the brain, when antidepressants were administered. These changes were particularly evident in the prefrontal cortex, an important area of the brain for the regulation of emotions and cognition.

"Identifying new therapeutic strategies is a major challenge, and GPR56 is an excellent target for the development of new treatments of depression," said Gustavo Turecki. "We are hopeful that this will provide an avenue to alleviate the suffering of patients who face this important, and often chronic, mental illness which is also strongly associated with the risk of addiction and an increased risk of suicide."

New research finds that "fake news" inspires consumers to demand corrective action from companies - even if the company is a victim of the fake news story. The study also supports the idea that most people feel they are better at detecting fake news than other people are - and found that fake news increases calls for improved digital media literacy.

"The idea that I am less influenced by fake news than you are is an example of something called the third-person effect," says Yang Cheng, first author of the study and an assistant professor of communication at North Carolina State University.

"The third-person effect predicts that people tend to perceive that mass media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves, and we found that this effect is pronounced among consumers who use social media. We also found that the third-person effect plays a significant role in how people respond to fake news online."

For this study, the researchers enlisted 661 study participants from across the United States who identified as being Coca-Cola consumers. The researchers first gave the participants an example of a fake news story that circulated in Facebook in 2016, which (falsely) claimed that Coca-Cola had recalled bottles of its Dasani-brand water due to the presence of aquatic parasites. The researchers then asked study participants a range of questions designed to ascertain how the participants felt about fake news and what they felt should be done to address it.

"The strongest finding was that consumers expect corporations to take responsibility for combating fake news, even if the company in question was a victim of the fake news story," Cheng says. "This is news that public relations professionals can use. It highlights the need for communication professionals to step up and take an active role in responding to fake news items. That could mean collaborating with reporters to provide them with accurate information, or making correct information directly available to the public, or both. But it suggests that simply being quiet and waiting for the crisis to blow over may be unwise.

"Anyone can spread fake news on social media, and the expectation from consumers is that affected companies should play an active role in addressing it."

The study also found that consumers wanted more to be done to improve media literacy, and that media users should be taught how to evaluate media critically.

The researchers also found that the most powerful factor in triggering these responses from consumers appeared to be the third-party effect. In other words, the people who were most confident in their ability to detect fake news felt most strongly that other people would be influenced by fake news. And highly-confident consumers were the most likely to call for corrective action from corporations and improved media literacy efforts.

"This is an observational study, not an experimental one, so we cannot establish causal relationships," Cheng says. "But the demand for corporate action is clear - and it is most strongly correlated with the third-person effect."

Security guards struggle with PTSD and lack mental health support. New report.

New research shows that thousands of security guards in the UK are suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), having been exposed to frequent episodes of verbal and physical abuse.

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have just released the results of the largest study to date of mental health amongst British private security operatives. They interviewed 750 workers and found that almost 40 per cent of them were showing symptoms of PTSD. Another key finding of the study shows a real lack of provision by security companies for employee mental health and wellbeing services.

The research has been led by Dr Risto Talas and Professor Mark Button, Professor of Criminology in the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth. Professor Button said: "With almost 40 per cent of those surveyed exhibiting symptoms of PTSD, it leaves a very clear message that the issue of mental health is not currently being taken seriously by security managers. There is an emerging picture of a failure by the security industry to address these issues."

The private security industry has transformed in the last 50 years from a small niche sector to a huge global industry. In the UK alone, there are more than 350,000 licensed security guards, with many others working in the sector who don't need a license.

Security guards play a valuable part in many aspects of our daily life. They patrol public streets, shopping areas and transport hubs; police night-time and entertainment venues; guard sensitive and important infrastructure such as government buildings, courts, social security officers, airports and ports; they also transport valuables and prisoners.

Contact with the general public is a key factor in most of the roles. Researchers found this often produces conflict, leading to many challenges. This could be anything from verbal abuse through to violent assault. In extreme cases, security operatives have been killed in the course of their duties.

The research showed:

64.6 per cent of security guards suffered verbal abuse at least once a month. (50 per cent of these were as regular as once a week).

43 per cent of respondents reported threats of violence at least once a month (10 per cent were getting threatened on a daily basis)

More than 30 per cent of those surveyed reported some kind of physical assault in the workplace once a year. (Almost 10 per cent reported a minor physical assault at least once a month).

Professor Button said: "The research has revealed a worrying lack of support provided by the security companies. This must change and more research is required on what the security industry as a whole must do to address this issue before it becomes a larger societal issue, with added pressure on the limited mental health and wellbeing services provided by the NHS."

Chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are being used to treat and prevent COVID-19 despite weak evidence for effectiveness, and physicians and patients should be aware of the drugs' potentially serious adverse events, states a review in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

"Physicians and patients should be aware of several rare but potentially life-threatening adverse effects of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine," says Dr. David Juurlink, Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and a senior scientist at ICES.

The review provides an overview of potential harms associated with these drugs as well as their management based on the best available evidence.

Potential adverse effects include

Cardiac arrhythmias

Hypoglycemia

Neuropsychiatric effects, such as agitation, confusion, hallucinations and paranoia

Interactions with other drugs

Metabolic variability (some people metabolize chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine poorly and a small percentage metabolize them rapidly, which affects the response to treatment)

Overdose (chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are highly toxic in overdose and can cause seizures, coma and cardiac arrest)

Drug shortages (patients with autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other chronic diseases, who take hydroxychloroquine to treat these conditions could have problems accessing this drug)

The review summarizes the poor quality of evidence suggesting that these treatments might be beneficial in patients with COVID-19 and cautions that it is possible that these treatments could worsen the disease.

"Despite optimism (in some, even enthusiasm) for the potential of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19, little consideration has been given to the possibility that the drugs might negatively influence the course of disease," says Dr. Juurlink. "This is why we need a better evidence base before routinely using these drugs to treat patients with COVID-19."

In a policy brief published today in its namesake journal (DOI: 10.1111/jgs.16477), the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) offered a roadmap to guide federal, state, and local governments addressing COVID-19 concerns for a critical--and critically impacted--group: Older adults in nursing homes and long-term care. The brief outlined recommendations based on the latest research and guidance, encompassing actions on resource needs, patient transfers, priorities for public health, and opportunities to better empower health workers on the frontlines of COVID-19 care.

"As we've already learned, outbreaks in nursing homes are a foreseeable consequence of this pandemic, even with experts working as valiantly as they are," notes AGS President-Elect Annie Medina-Walpole, MD, AGSF. "We hope this brief can help policymakers, advocates, and clinicians look at but also beyond the circumstances we can control--and those we can't--to prioritize the innovation, collaboration, and compassion that can put key patients and public health first. That's a cardinal direction for planning in crisis and in calm, for nursing home residents but also for us all as we age."

More than 15,000 nursing homes care for the oldest and most chronically ill Americans, who are also among the most susceptible to COVID-19 and its complications. In reviewing existing research and recommendations, the AGS suggested orienting expertise towards several focal points where tangible action can make a difference:

The AGS called for President Trump to exercises his full authority under the Defense Production Act so the U.S. can move quickly to increase production and distribution of important supplies. These include personal protective equipment and COVID-19 tests, but also supplies for symptom management and end-of-life care.

The AGS reinforced the importance of carefully considering transfers between nursing homes, hospitals, and other care settings. AGS experts noted, for example, that individuals who test positive for COVID-19 should not be discharged to a nursing home unless the facility can safely and effectively isolate the patient and implement adequate infection control for staff and residents. The AGS also urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop guidance regarding transfers to emergency departments, where direction is still needed.

According to AGS experts, more also must be done to integrate key players in public health. These include geriatrics and palliative care experts with the requisite skills in advanced illness care, but also nursing home administrators and those with experience in local coordination and data analysis, which must include information from nursing homes--a key to confronting COVID-19 in communities across the U.S.

The AGS also reinforced the importance of supporting health professionals, our nation's frontline defense for treating and preventing the spread of COVID-19. The AGS encouraged Congress to advance paid family, medical, and sick leave for the whole health workforce, for example, while also enhancing COVID-19 screening and training to protect staff availability.

Finally, as part of ongoing efforts to protect America's economy, the AGS reminded legislators to consider the value of supportive tax relief and payment opportunities targeting long-term care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), for example, should ensure payment to nursing homes caring for residents with COVID-19 can meet the costs of enhanced precautions, just as Congress should also structure tax relief to support nursing home employers and the nurses, therapists, and direct care workers who care for older adults.

Improper removal of faulty brain cells during neurodevelopment may cause lifelong behavioral issues, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests. The finding also could have important implications for a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

UVA neuroscientists have discovered that an unexpected form of cellular cleanup takes place in developing brains. If this process goes wrong - happening too little or too much - it can cause permanent changes in the brain's wiring. In lab mice, this results in anxiety-like behavior, and it may play a role in neurological conditions such as autism in humans.

"You don't want [brain] cells to have genomic compromises. You don't want damaged DNA. So this would be a normal mechanism to expel those cells from being incorporated into the central nervous system," explained researcher Catherine R. Lammert. "When the damage isn't recognized, the cells that have DNA damage live on in the CNS [central nervous system] and can be seen by accumulation of DNA damage in the brain."

Understanding Brain Development

The cellular cleaner the researchers spotted, the AIM2 inflammasome, has been associated primarily with the body's immune response to infections but has not been extensively studied in the brain. But there it plays a critical role in ensuring the developing brain is assembled properly and functions correctly, Lammert discovered in collaboration with principal investigator John Lukens, PhD.

"Neurodevelopment is a very complicated process," said Lammert, a graduate student whose specialized skills were instrumental in the discovery. "This form of cell death actually plays a role in removing unwanted cells from the brain to establish a healthy CNS with the correct connections and the right number of cells."

More than half the neurons created during brain development end up dying, so proper cleanup is essential, noted Lukens, of UVA's Department of Neuroscience. "Too much or too little is thought to underlie everything from autism to intellectual disability - any type of neurodevelopmental disorder," he said.

For example, ataxia is a condition that causes people to lose control of their movements. "There's a potential that this pathway could be contributing to the neuronal loss that is seen in ataxia," said Lukens, a researcher with UVA's Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG). "On the one hand, you need it [the cleanup] but if you have too much of it, it can have negative consequences, like, potentially, ataxia. A lot of the early-onset neurodegenerative diseases are associated with mutations in DNA damage repair proteins, and this pathway could also be involved."

The discovery came about somewhat serendipitously, the result of an observation of the behavior of lab mice while the researchers were investigating traumatic brain injury. But following that unexpected lead has given scientists a better understanding of brain development, and that understanding may one day yield new treatments for neurological diseases.

Lukens, a member of UVA's Carter Immunology Center, cautioned that such treatments are likely a long way off, but he said a therapy based on the discovery might have widespread applications. "Hitting this pathway in the mature brain would likely provide a treatment strategy for any neurodegenerative disease associated with DNA damage," he said. "And that's all the major heavy hitters: Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, ALS."

The Belle II experiment has been collecting data from physical measurements for about one year now. After several years of rebuilding work, both the SuperKEKB electron-positron accelerator and the Belle II detector have been improved compared with their predecessors in order to achieve a 40-fold higher data rate. Scientists at 12 German research institutions are involved in constructing and operating the detector, developing evaluation algorithms, and analyzing the data. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) supported this project by developing and programming special electronics for monitoring the pixel vertex detector.

With the help of Belle II, scientists are looking for traces of new physics that can be used to explain the unequal occurrence of matter and anti-matter and the mysterious dark matter. One of the so far undiscovered particles that the Belle II detector is looking for is the Z? boson - a variant of the Z boson, which acts as an exchange particle for the weak interaction.

As far as we know, about 25 percent of the universe consists of dark matter, whereas visible matter accounts for just under 5 percent of the energy budget. Both forms of matter attract each other through gravity. Dark matter thus forms a kind of template for the distribution of visible matter. This can be seen, for example, in the arrangement of galaxies in the universe.

Link between dark and normal matter

The Z' boson may play an interesting role in the interaction between dark and visible matter, it could be in fact a kind of mediator between the two forms of matter). The Z' boson can - at least theoretically - result from the collision of electrons (matter) and positrons (anti-matter) in the SuperKEKB and then decay into invisible dark matter particles.

The Z' boson can thus help scientists to understand the behavior of dark matter. What's more, the discovery of the Z' boson could also explain other observations that are not consistent with the Standard Model, the fundamental theory of particle physics.

Important clue: Detection of muon pairs

But how can the Z' boson be detected in the Belle II detector? Not directly - that much is sure. Theoretical models and simulations predict that the Z' boson could reveal itself through interactions with muons, the heavier relatives of electrons. If scientists discover an unusually high number of muon pairs of opposite charge after the electron/positron collisions as well as unexpected deviations in energy and momentum conservation, this would be an important indication of the Z? boson. However, the new Belle II data has not yet provided any indication of the Z? boson. But with the new data, the scientists can limit the mass and coupling strengths of the Z? boson with previously unattainable accuracy.

These initial results come from the analysis of a small amount of data collected during the start-up phase of SuperKEKB in 2018. Belle II went into full operation on March 25, 2019. Since then, the experiment has been collecting data while continuously improving the collision rate of electrons and positrons. Once the experiment is perfectly tuned, it will provide considerably more data than in the recently published analyses. The physicists thus hope to gain new insights into the nature of dark matter and other unanswered questions.

Irvine, Calif. - April 8, 2020 - Amyloid is a key feature of Alzheimer's disease, but the accumulation of these sticky proteins may not be the only risk factor for developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study published this week. Other, modifiable risk factors, such as the amount of fats in our blood and how efficiently our bodies generate energy could also play important roles.

One of the largest studies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in people with Down Syndrome (DS-AD), this study revealed metabolic alterations in DS-AD are similar to those seen in late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) found in the general population.

"We found that people with Down Syndrome, who also have Alzheimer's disease, show a deficit in energy metabolism that is similar to people with Alzheimer's disease in the general population," said first author, Mark Mapstone, PhD, from the Department of Neurology at the UCI School of Medicine and member of UCI's Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND). "These findings suggest that the amyloid accumulation, which occurs from birth in Down Syndrome, may not be the only factor determining Alzheimer's risk."

The study, one of the first large-scale blood-based investigation of metabolic factors associated with aging and cognitive status in adults with Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's disease was published today in the Alzheimer's Association journal, Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. It was based on a large cohort of adults with Down Syndrome who were enrolled in the Alzheimer's Biomarker Consortium-Down Syndrome (ABC-DS), a multi-site, longitudinal cohort study of adults with DS over age 25.

"Disruption of metabolic function is a recognized feature of late onset Alzheimer's disease," said Mapstone. "Our discovery could open new avenues for preventing this metabolic deficit in all people at risk for the disease.

Down Syndrome is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder affecting over 250,000 individuals in United States. People with Down Syndrome have a very high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and nearly all have the brain pathology (amyloid plaques) of Alzheimer's at death.

"Their risk is thought to come from the fact that they have three copies of chromosome 21, where a key gene that produces amyloid is found. Because they have three copies of the gene, instead of two, they overproduce amyloid which is the key pathology of Alzheimer's disease," said Mapstone. "By studying Alzheimer's risk in people with Down Syndrome, we can understand how important amyloid is to the development of the disease."

Pregnant women who deliver early are more likely to have a diverse community of vaginal bacteria, finds a new study published in Frontiers in Microbiology. These findings also highlight specific bacteria associated with premature birth and could help identify the women most at risk of giving birth prematurely.

"We show a link between higher vaginal microbial diversity and premature birth, especially in the first trimester of pregnancy," says Marina Sirota, an Assistant Professor at the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at the University of California San Francisco, USA. "In addition to confirming several bacterial species known to be associated with premature birth, we have identified several new ones."

She continues, "Our results shed light on the involvement of the vaginal microbiome and specific bacteria in this process. The findings could aid future diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to help prevent or delay premature birth."

Babies born early, before 37 weeks of gestation, often suffer complicated medical problems - preterm birth is the leading cause of death in newborns. While there are many risk factors, such as maternal stress, maternal age and low maternal body-mass index, exactly how and why it happens is less understood.

"For most of these births, we don't know why the women end up going into labor early and unfortunately, the limited number of therapies are often not effective," explains Sirota. "New ways of identifying women at higher risk is sorely needed."

The role of the vaginal microbiome in relation to premature birth has been investigated before, but these studies have had their limitations.

Dr Idit Kosti, a postdoctoral researcher at the Sirota lab and the first author of this study, explains, "Previous investigations have only examined a small number of women and are often biased towards certain ethnic groups, which makes it hard to apply their findings widely."

"We performed a meta-analysis, which is when you combine data from different studies into one dataset. This gave us a greater amount of information across a more diverse range of women, in terms of ethnicity and stage of pregnancy, than in each study alone."

By merging five different sets of data, equating to more than three thousand samples from over four hundred women, the scientists were able to identify new associations between the vaginal microbiome, specific bacteria and premature birth.

"We found that women who deliver prematurely have a significantly more diverse vaginal microbiome, especially in their first trimester, than those who deliver at full term." reports Kosti.

The researchers also identified specific microbes associated with premature birth. Some have been highlighted by previous studies, such as Lactobacillus, which is more prevalent in women who have a full-term birth, whereas others like Olsenella and Clostridium sensu scricto were newly linked to an early delivery.

Sirota and her team of researchers hope the findings from their research can be used to discover new ways of detecting mothers who are at risk.

"The methods that we have developed can be used to combine even more data together and these results can inform ways of diagnosing those at risk, as well as potential therapies for premature birth."

Notes to Editors

Please link to the original research article in your reporting: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.00476/full

Corresponding author: Marina Sirota

Email: Marina.Sirota@ucsf.edu

Corresponding author's institution: University of San Francisco

About Frontiers

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Journal

Frontiers in Microbiology

DOI

10.3389/fmicb.2020.00476