Culture

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Two brain-signaling molecules control how anemonefish dads care for their young and respond to nest intruders, researchers report in a new study. Because there are many similarities in brain structure between fish and humans, the findings offer insight into the fundamental nature of parental care, the scientists say.

"One of the benefits of studying fish is that their behaviors are simpler," said Ross DeAngelis, a former graduate student who conducted the work in the laboratory of Justin Rhodes, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "By exploring these systems, we can understand the broader implications on vertebrate behavior."

Anemonefish live in pairs on sea anemones in the wild. Female anemonefish are more aggressive than their mates and help protect the nest from intruders. Fathers have a more nurturing role. See video.

"Male anemonefish are spectacular fathers," said Rhodes, who led the research. "They nourish the eggs by fanning them to provide oxygen and clear debris, and they nip at the eggs to clean them. When a predator is around, they switch their behavior to become aggressive - they try to bite and fight the predators away."

Previous research focused on only one facet of parental care: either nourishment or defense. The new study aims to understand both aspects together in the presence of intruders.

Two hormones play a role in guiding the trade-off between caring for one's offspring and defending them. Arginine vasotocin increases aggression, while isotocin boosts egg care. Their effects on parental behavior in the presence of intruders was previously unknown.

The researchers used inhibitory compounds, known as antagonists, to block the binding of arginine vasotocin or isotocin to their receptors in the brain. They injected these compounds into the abdomens of the fish. From there, the antagonists were carried to the brain through the blood.

"Blocking arginine vasotocin reduced aggression and increased parental care in male anemonefish," DeAngelis said. "This is an unusual result because they are such good dads - we didn't think it was possible for them to be even better."

Blocking isotocin had the opposite effect. It increased aggression, and the fish spent less time nipping and fanning their eggs, DeAngelis said.

"The results are similar to what we see in humans," Rhodes said. "Oxytocin, which is the human version of isotocin, is known to be important for nurturing. Arginine vasopressin, which is the human version of arginine vasotocin, plays a role in social and affiliative behavior in the slightly different context of mating."

The two hormones have very similar structures and bind to similar receptors in the brain, so the researchers cannot be certain that the antagonist for one isn't also affecting the other. They also have not yet determined how the hormones specifically modify brain-signaling.

"Individuals across the animal kingdom have to make decisions on how to maximize their fitness, and most of those decisions are based on environmental context," DeAngelis said. "It is interesting to see that the neurochemical pathways can be modulated by the current social context."

Scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered a pulsating ancient star in a double star system, which will allow them to access important information on the history of how stars like our Sun evolve and eventually die.

The discovery of the first ever pulsating white dwarf star in an eclipsing binary by physicists at Sheffield means the team can see how binary evolution has affected the internal structure of a white dwarf in detail for the first time.

An eclipsing binary, or double star system, is made up of two stars orbiting each other and periodically passing in front of each other as seen from the Earth.

White dwarf stars are the burnt out cores left behind when a star like the Sun dies. This particular white dwarf could provide key insights into the structure, evolution and death of these stars for the first time.

Most white dwarfs are thought to be made primarily of carbon and oxygen, but this particular white dwarf is made mostly of helium. The team think this is a result of its binary companion cutting off its evolution early, before it got a chance to fuse the helium into carbon and oxygen.

The pulsations from this star were discovered using HiPERCAM, a revolutionary high-speed camera developed by a team led by Professor Vik Dhillon from the University of Sheffield's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

HiPERCAM can take one picture every millisecond simultaneously in five different colours and is mounted on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the world's largest optical telescope on La Palma. This allowed the researchers to detect the rapid and subtle pulsations from this particular white dwarf.

The pulsations of the white dwarf star and the eclipsing binary system allowed the team to investigate the structure of it using two techniques, asteroseismology and eclipse studies.
Asteroseismology involves measuring how fast sound waves travel through the white dwarf.

Dr Steven Parsons, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Physics and Astronomy, who led the study said: "Determining what a white dwarf is made of is not straightforward because these objects have about half of the mass of the Sun, packed into something about the size of the Earth. This means that gravity is extremely strong on a white dwarf, around one million times larger than here on Earth, so on the surface of a white dwarf an average person would weigh about 60,000,000kg. The gravity causes all of the heavy elements in the white dwarf to sink to the centre, leaving only the lightest elements at the surface and so the true composition of it remains hidden underneath.

"This pulsating white dwarf we discovered is extremely important since we can use the binary motion and the eclipse to independently measure the mass and radius of this white dwarf, which helps us determine what it is made of. Even more interestingly, the two stars in this binary system have interacted with each other in the past, transferring material back and forth between them. We can see how this binary evolution has affected the internal structure of the white dwarf, something that we've not been able to do before for these kinds of binary systems."

The next step of the research is to continue observing the white dwarf to record as many pulsations as possible using HiPERCAM and the Hubble Space Telescope.

A good indicator of dysregulation in live cells is a change in their RNA expression. MicroRNA (miRNA), a special type of RNA, is considered a biomarker for carcinogenic cells. A team of scientists from China has found a way to amplify miRNA in live tumor cells for bioimaging. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, their assay is based on a robust cellular autocatalytic biocircuit triggered by synthetic DNA and nanoparticles.

Diagnosing cancer before a tumor becomes visible has been one of the long-standing goals in medicine. One of the biomarkers for carcinogenicity in a cell is its RNA expression pattern or, more precisely, the change in RNA expression, which causes metabolic degeneration. There are many types of RNA, among which a short noncoding RNA called miRNA promotes or impedes the translation of nucleus-encoded genetic information into protein. Accordingly, the detection of a changed miRNA expression profile is thought to be a reliable indication of the degeneration of a cell.

However, the detection of a particular miRNA is difficult because it is present in the cell only in tiny amounts and must by amplified and connected to a signaling entity, such as a fluorescence dye, for visualization. A team of scientists at Wuhan University, China, led by Fuan Wang, have discovered a suitable amplification-detection mechanism for miRNA, which relies on an autocatalytic biocircuit activated by synthetic DNA, leading to a strong fluorescence signal that flags tumor cells.

RNA is usually synthesized in the nucleus of the cell and transported to the cytoplasm where it conveys genetic information. However, when synthetic DNA is present in the cytoplasm, RNA can bind to a matching nucleotide sequence of the DNA strand; a fact that is exploited in, for example, antiretroviral treatment to silence viral RNA expression. Wang and his coworkers did the opposite. By matching synthetic DNA strands with miRNA, they triggered an autocatalytic amplification circuit--called autocatalytic DNAzyme biocircuit--to form DNA-miRNA assemblies. These assemblies grew further to form DNAzyme nanowires that carry the fluorescence dyes.

After administering the DNAzyme detection kit, the authors observed bright fluorescence in a mouse model at the location where a tumor was developing.

To make the DNAzyme enter the tumor cells, the authors used nanoparticles--tiny parcels that can deliver drugs and other molecular freight to the cells--made of manganese dioxide with a honeycomb-like structure. According to the authors, this composition and architecture has the advantage that the nanoparticle can be readily activated by glutathione, which is a chemical found in abundance in tumor cells. Another advantage is that the released manganese ions would sustain the autocatalytic DNAzyme biocircuit, the authors write.

The scientists emphasize that their self-enhanced bioimaging system could be developed as a powerful tool to visualize tumor cells with biomarkers. This is especially promising as many different miRNAs can be selectively targeted to investigate different cancers or other cell dysfunction.

(New York, March 16) A new CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) survey released today found that 60% of New York State residents believe their chances of contracting the novel Coronavirus are low or very low. The survey of 1000 New York households, conducted between March 13-15, 2020 and considered accurate within a range of 3%, also found that more than half (55%) of all respondents live in households with one or more members over age 60, the highest risk age group for Coronavirus infection. However, just more than one-fourth (27%) of them believed that they were living with someone who has a high chance of becoming sick. In general, a bare majority of New Yorkers (51%) said they have some knowledge of Coronavirus, while 34% believed they know a lot about it.

A substantial majority of New York residents believe that current policies help in containing the virus, including closing schools and universities (68%), limiting travel to and from certain countries (69%), and two weeks of quarantine for people exposed to the virus (71%).

Messages about ways to prevent the spread of the virus have led many residents to change their plans and routines in the past week. Almost one-fourth (24%) of respondents reported they did not attend an event they had paid for due to concerns about the virus, and almost two in five respondents (39%) decided to stay home instead of going to work or changed existing travel plans (40%). Almost three in five (57%) said they had stayed at home instead of going to a restaurant or movie, and almost two-thirds (64%) say they have avoided shaking hands or hugging. The single recommendation that most respondents reported following regarded handwashing. Nine out of ten (88%) of New Yorkers reporting they increased the frequency of which they wash their hands or used hand sanitizer.

Almost three New Yorkers in ten (29%) rated television news ranked as the most trusted source of information about Coronavirus, followed by the CDC at 26%, and the WHO at 15%. Only 7% of respondents reported that President Trump was their most trusted source of information.

While an equally low percentage of respondents said social media were their most trusted information source, most people (51%) reported that they do share information on Coronavirus on these platforms at least once a day. Three in ten (30%) said they have passed along information on social media about Coronavirus without knowing it was accurate. The most frequently used online media sources respondents reported using were news media posts (36%), followed by friends (27%) and the government (20%).

"We conducted this survey and will update it regularly over the course of this public health crisis as a part of our unique mission within the City's largest public university," said CUNY SPH Dean Ayman El Mohandes. "Working together promoting evidence-based communication with innovative approaches for individual and community action, we can and will help address the threat of COVID-19."

The complete survey results and related commentary can be found at https://sph.cuny.edu/research/covid-19-tracking-survey/week-1/ and at JHC Impact, an initiative of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives.

The CUNY SPH survey was conducted by Emerson College Polling from March 13-15, 2020. The sample for the NY Statewide results, n=1,000, with a Credibility Interval (CI) similar to a poll's margin of error (MOE) of +/- 3 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, age, ethnicity, education and region based on the 2018 1-year American Community Survey model. It is important to remember that subsets based on gender, age, ethnicity and region carry with them higher margins of error, as the sample size is reduced. Data was collected using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines (n=477), SMS-to-online (n=360) and an online panel provided by MTurk and Survey Monkey (n=166).

The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is committed to teaching, research and service that creates a healthier New York City and helps promote equitable, efficient and evidence-based solutions to pressing health problems facing cities around the world.

Toxic personality is a term used to describe people who behave greedily, immodestly and unfairly and take the truth very lightly. Dr. Mareike Kholin, Bastian Kückelhaus and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Blickle from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bonn found out why such people can still succeed in their careers. The trick that leads to the top is social skill. The results are presented online in advance in the journal "Personality and Individual Differences". The print version will be published in April.

Social skills are in themselves a good thing in the workplace. They can open locked doors and help to cope with daily stress. But they can also be used to deceive others, abuse trust or construct a façade of harmlessness beyond which actually lurks deceitfulness. Dr. Mareike Kholin and the research team determined that toxic personalities who are considered socially adept by their colleagues were considered more capable by their superiors and occupy a higher hierarchical position. "We have to get used to the idea that social skills can be a double-edged sword," says Kholin.

In personality tests, "toxic" persons have low scores in the categories "honesty" and "modesty". "Such personalities tend to focus on themselves all the time," says Blickle. "Good social skills enable them to deceive others." On the other hand, those who are distinctly honest and modest are a real joy for their team: Such individuals behave fairly and allow colleagues to share in their successes.

Low values for the characteristics "honesty" and "modesty"

Psychologists from the University of Bonn investigated the phenomenon by interviewing various work teams: First the participants completed an anonymous online survey and assessed themselves on the characteristics "honesty" and "modesty", among others. Then colleagues provided information on the social skills of the participant. The participant's supervisor then gave an appraisal of his work performance. The researchers were able to collect data from a total of 203 of such "trios" of employees, colleagues and superiors.

The results showed that workers with low values for honesty and modesty can nonetheless succeed in their careers if they balance the toxic parts of their personality with social skills. Bastian Kückelhaus: "Trickery, disguise and deception are the dark side of social skills."

How can toxic personalities be assessed more accurately?

But how can companies and teams respond to these findings? "In order to slow down the ascent of toxic personalities, more attention should be paid to actual performance and less to the good impression when selecting staff and making assessments," advises Prof. Blickle. This is particularly difficult in activities where it is important to impress and arouse interest, such as in sales or leadership positions. "Here, it makes sense for instance to also look at the sickness and notice rate of employees, or customer loyalty," Blickle adds.

KNOXVILLE --The best bargains for conserving some of the world's most vulnerable salamanders and other vertebrate species can be found in Central Texas and the Appalachians, according to new conservation tools developed at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

The study involves a suite of computer algorithms that surf across many different kinds of data to create maps of top priorities and projections of what species would benefit the most from increases in conservation dollars.

An interdisciplinary team of computer programmers, biodiversity data scientists, conservation decision makers, economists, and others from around the globe convened at NIMBioS to develop the optimization tool, which was published in the journal Ecological Applications.

The study is available at https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2118

Determining where the best protection payoffs are to be found has traditionally been a challenge for conservation, especially when budgets are stretched thin.

"The challenge for conservation practitioners is how to best combine many really disparate kinds of data and do so in a way that lets them compare possible options for protection--the goal being to find opportunities where conservation efforts offer the greatest bang for the buck," said the study's lead author, UT Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Paul Armsworth.

The algorithm considers data including land acquisition costs, future development patterns, budget allocations for conservation, and the presence of threatened species.

The new approach could prove valuable to conservation and natural resource managers looking to optimize conservation dollars.

"It's basically a giant bargain-hunting formula for biodiversity conservation," said Joe Fargione, science director for the North American region at the Nature Conservancy, a leading conservation organization. "The authors are finding important bargains--places where the most good for the most species can be done, sometimes at very low cost."

When comparing many possible scenarios and models, the researchers found that some priority areas for protection arose repeatedly. In the United States, those appeared to be in counties around Austin, Texas, and parts of the southern Appalachians.

The unique geology and complex groundwater systems around Austin provide habitats for highly specialized species. Many salamander species found there occur nowhere else in the world, with some receiving protection under the US Endangered Species Act because of their vulnerability to extinction.

The ancient mountains of southern Appalachian Mountains provided a refuge for species through past Ice Ages. The rich topography and diversity of habitats in the region provide a global hotspot for many different groups of species.

"Both areas offer very good deals if you only have a limited budget to work with and are trying to protect vulnerable species. Adding more protection into these places wouldn't be too expensive. And these habitats could be in trouble in the future if additional protection isn't undertaken," Armsworth said.

Crick and Imperial researchers have found that a key antibiotic widely used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis does not work as expected - a finding which could be used to develop new drugs. The study was part-funded by the Francis Crick Institute and the Wellcome Trust.

The research, published in Nature Chemical Biology, found that contrary to current understanding, an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis is unable to permanently prevent one of the enzymes it targets from functioning. By uncovering how this enzyme is re-activated, the research could lead to the development of improved versions of the drug which could be used against antibiotic resistant bacteria.

For more than 50 years, the antibiotic D-cycloserine has been used to treat cases of TB that are resistant to first-line drugs. It had been thought that this drug in part worked by irreversibly preventing an enzyme, alanine racemase, from helping to build TB bacteria's cell walls.

However, this study found that despite being exposed to D-cycloserine, about 10% of the alanine racemase enzyme was later able to function effectively again. This enzyme is capable of regaining activity by inactivating the drug, in a process called hydrolysis. This change means the modified drug can no longer bind to and block the enzyme.

The drug however can still treat TB because it also inhibits another enzyme involved in building TB cell walls, D-Ala:D-Ala ligase.

"You could say that alanine racemase acts like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. When first exposed to the drug, it's Dr Jekyll, as it is a good target for the drug, and this stops the bacteria for a time. However, over time it turns into Mr Hyde, as it stops the drug from targeting it and so it can function again. If it weren't for the drug also blocking a separate target, it would be ineffective against TB," says Luiz Pedro Carvalho, group leader in the Mycobacterial Metabolism and Antibiotic Research Laboratory at the Crick.

These findings could lead to the development of new drugs. One new route, for example, would be to develop similar molecules that cannot be hydrolysed and therefore would irreversibly inhibit alanine racemase. Various bacteria have the same enzyme or a version of it, so such drugs could provide a new way to treat these diseases.

"For decades, it's been thought this drug worked in one way, that its action could not be reversed, so it's rather incredible that we've found it gets inactivated by one of its targets," further explains Luiz Pedro Carvalho. "The fact this has been missed for so long demonstrates how important it is to work with the right protein derived from the organism you want to understand."

Cesira de Chiara, principal laboratory research scientist in Luiz's lab, says: "The key here is that tuberculosis takes a relatively long time to replicate, about 20 hours, so there's enough time for this enzyme to be inhibited and then re-activated. Previous studies missed this re-activation as they haven't studied the process of inactivation of the enzyme by the drug over such a long period.

"If we could create a tweaked version of this drug that can permanently block this family of enzymes, we could further improve its effectiveness against the raising threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria, perhaps reducing the doses and, with them, the risk of potentially toxic side-effects."

Philadelphia, March 16, 2020 - An e-cigarette carried in the left breast shirt pocket of a patient with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) caused magnetic reversion, interrupting the ICD's ability to detect and treat dangerous heart rhythm problems, clinicians report in HeartRhythm Case Reports, published by Elsevier. The patient was not aware that the e-cigarette has an integrated magnetic component, and it had suspended detection of heart rhythm problems by the ICD four times before he reported it to his healthcare team.

"To our knowledge this is the first reported case of magnetic reversion of an ICD by an e-cigarette," stated senior investigator Usha B. Tedrow, MD, MPH, and lead authors Julie B. Shea, MS, RNCS, Martin Aguilar, MD, and William Sauer, MD, from the Cardiovascular Arrhythmia Service at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. "Given the increasing use of e-cigarettes worldwide, recognition of this potentially serious interaction appears clinically important."

A 48-year-old male with an ICD reported that he heard his device "beep" several times, both at home and at his office. There were no adverse symptoms associated with the beeping, and remote monitoring found the device was working normally. The patient denied any magnetic exposure, but data provided by the ICD manufacturer found four instances of magnet interactions with the device, corresponding with when the patient heard the tone.

Upon further questioning, the patient recalled using his e-cigarette (JUUL vape device), which he frequently stored in his left breast pocket, overlying the ICD. When the healthcare team held the device up to his ICD, it triggered the steady magnet tone. The patient was educated about the importance of keeping any type of magnet away from his ICD. JUUL's website does recommend keeping e-cigarettes away from key cards, credit cards, and other items with magnetic strips, as well as pacemakers.

"Magnets are ubiquitous in commercially-available electronic devices. They can be integrated in ways that are difficult to recognize. Although manufacturers are not routinely required to specify the strength of the magnetic fields and safety information for interference with medical-grade devices, the general recommendation is that any portable electronic or magnetic device be kept at least six to 12 inches away from an implant," noted Dr. Tedrow and Ms. Shea.

There are commercially available magnetic field meters, and even several smartphone applications, that can be used to estimate the strength of a magnet. Practically speaking, most cardiac implantable devices have a magnetic exposure upper limit of 10G, and manufacturers typically recommend a 2:1 safety margin for safe clinical operation. "As such, finding the distance at which the magnetic field is 5G or less would, in principle, provide adequate clearance for safe clinical operation of cardiac implantable devices," Dr. Aguilar added.

"Practitioners should remain vigilant regarding the use of new technology by their ICD patients. In our case, there was no adverse effect from the interaction of the e-cigarette with the device, but if it had happened during a tachycardia episode, it could have had serious, perhaps even fatal consequences," cautioned Dr. Tedrow and Ms. Shea.

Finally, some good news has emerged about the novel coronavirus that has spread to about 50 countries across the world. Chinese professors report in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics that it doesn't appear that the viral infection is transmittable from pregnant mothers to newborns at birth.

The study is the second out of China within the last month to confirm that mothers infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during pregnancy did not infect their babies.

All four mothers in the current study, which focused on the health of the newborns, gave birth at Wuhan's Union Hospital while infected. Wuhan in Hubei Province is believed to be the epicenter of the current outbreak that has sickened more than 100,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,400 -- most of them in China.

None of the infants developed any serious symptoms associated with COVID-19 such as fever or cough, though all were initially isolated in neonatal intensive care units and fed formula. Three of the four tested negative for the respiratory infection following a throat swab, while the fourth child's mother declined permission for the test.

One newborn did experience a minor breathing issue for three days that was treated by non-invasive mechanical ventilation. Two babies, including the one with a respiratory problem, did have body rashes that eventually disappeared on their own.

It's impossible to conclude whether there's a connection between these other medical issues and COVID-19. "We are not sure the rash was due to the mother's COVID-19 infection," said study co-author Dr. Yalan Liu at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. She also works in the Department of Pediatric at Union Hospital.

All four infants remain healthy, and their mothers also fully recovered.

In the previous retrospective study on nine pregnant mothers infected with COVID-19, researchers also found no evidence that the viral infection can pass to the child. All nine births were done by cesarean section. Three of the four pregnancies in the current study were also brought to term by C-section.

"To avoid infections caused by perinatal and postnatal transmission, our obstetricians think that C-section may be safer," Liu said. "Only one pregnant mother adopted vaginal delivery because of the onset of the labor process. The baby was normal. Maybe vaginal delivery is OK. It needs further study."

In previous coronavirus outbreaks, scientists found no evidence of viral transmission from mother to child, but SARS and MERS were both associated with "critical maternal illness, spontaneous abortion, or even maternal death," according to Liu.

Globally, an estimated 3.4 percent of reported COVID-19 cases have died, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization. In comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1 percent of those infected. However, COVID-19 does not appear to spread as easily as influenza. Note that transmission and fatality rates are currently subject to change and revision as more research is done on the virus.

The authors said further investigations into other aspects of potential COVID-19 infection in newborns and children are needed. For example, the sensitivity of the current diagnostic test for detecting the virus is about 71 percent, so they suggest evaluating its reliability in children.

Toward that end, the researchers are collecting additional samples from the newborns, including placenta, amniotic fluid, neonatal blood and gastric fluid, among others, to detect possible receptors for the virus.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Experts recommend starting conversations about inappropriate touching during the preschool years, but less than half of parents of preschoolers in a national poll say they've begun that discussion.

Meanwhile, one in four parents of elementary school-age children say they have not yet begun talking about inappropriate touching, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at the University of Michigan.

The report is based on responses from 1,106 parents who had at least one child age 2-9 years.

"This is a conversation parents should be having multiple times in age-appropriate ways," says Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark.

Three in five parents agree that the preschool years is the right time to talk about inappropriate touching. But among parents of preschoolers who have not talked about it, 71% believe their child is too young.

Many parents also say they want more help navigating the conversation - but two in five say they haven't received any information on how to talk with their child about inappropriate touching. Just a quarter of parents have received such information from a health care provider.

"Many parents have not gotten any information about how to talk with children about inappropriate touching. Without practical tips or suggestions, parents may be at a loss for how to begin."

Clark notes that parents may start this process during the preschool years by teaching the anatomically correct names for body parts and explaining what parts are private.

Among parents of elementary school-age children who have not talked about inappropriate touching, the most common reason was just not getting around to it (39%). Another 18% said that discussions are unnecessary because inappropriate touching of children rarely happens.

"Parents shouldn't disregard the reality of child sexual abuse," Clark says. "Statistics show that up to 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18."

Other common reasons for not talking about inappropriate touching with school-age children include feeling the child is still too young (36%), not wanting to scare the child (21%), and not knowing how to bring it up (18%).

"It's clear that this is a challenging area for many parents. However, it's essential to help children understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching, and that they should tell mom or dad if any inappropriate touching occurs. Failure to do so leaves children unequipped to deal with one of the gravest dangers of childhood."

In addition to discussions, Clark says parents should think about family rules that can reinforce the concept of personal boundaries. For example, parents shouldn't force children to accept hugs, kisses or other physical contact from anybody, including family members and friends.

Sixty percent of parents said they'd like their child's school to teach students about the topic, and 76% want the school to provide information for parents.

"In the past, talking about appropriate vs inappropriate touching was probably something that parents would want to keep in the family," says Clark. "However, it's clear that parents want information and resources on how best to approach this sensitive topic. Schools and child health providers have a substantial role in helping families recognize and confront child sexual abuse."

A unique rock carving found in the Teymareh rock art site (Khomein county) in Central Iran with six limbs has been described as part man, part mantis. Rock carvings, or petroglyphs, of invertebrate animals are rare, so entomologists teamed up with archaeologists to try and identify the motif. They compared the carving with others around the world and with the local six-legged creatures which its prehistoric artists could have encountered.

Entomologists Mahmood Kolnegari, Islamic Azad University of Arak, Iran; Mandana Hazrati, Avaye Dornaye Khakestari Institute, Iran; and Matan Shelomi, National Taiwan University teamed up with freelance archaeologist and rock art expert Mohammad Naserifard and describe the petroglyph in a new paper published in the open access Journal of Orthoptera Research.

The 14-centimetre carving was first spotted during surveys between 2017 and 2018, but could not be identified due to its unusual shape. The six limbs suggest an insect, while the triangular head with big eyes and the grasping forearms are unmistakably those of a praying mantid, a predatory insect that hunts and captures prey like flies, bees and even small birds. An extension on its head even helps narrow the identification to a particular genus of mantids in this region: Empusa.

Even more mysterious are the middle limbs, which end in loops or circles. The closest parallel to this in archaeology is the 'Squatter Man,' a petroglyph figure found around the world depicting a person flanked by circles. While they could represent a person holding circular objects, an alternative hypothesis is that the circles represent auroras caused by atmospheric plasma discharges.

It is presently impossible to tell exactly how old the petroglyphs are, because sanctions on Iran prohibit the use of radioactive materials needed for radiocarbon dating. However, experts Jan Brouwer and Gus van Veen examined the Teymareh site and estimated the carvings were made 40,000-4,000 years ago.

One can only guess why prehistoric people felt the need to carve a mantis-man into rock, but the petroglyph suggests humans have linked mantids to the supernatural since ancient times. As stated by the authors, the carving bears witness, "that in prehistory, almost as today, praying mantids were animals of mysticism and appreciation."

Why normal cells turn into cancer cells One of the factors is deeply related to the failure of the cell differentiation mechanism called DNA methylation (*1). The joint research groups of The Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo, Yokohama City University, and Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich (CIPSM) have clarified new mechanism for controlling DNA methylation in cells.

Ubiquitination (*2) of a protein called PAF15 (*3) is an important factor for the inheritance of DNA methylation, according to the new research. The group also successfully demonstrated a molecular mechanism by which PAF15 is ubiquitinated. In this way, the group revealed the mechanism underlying how cellular memory is inherited when cells proliferate.

The research was published in Nature Communications (online version, March 6, 2020). The results are expected to greatly contribute to applications in this field, such as the development of new inhibitors of DNA methyltransferase that specifically target cancer cells.

The primary mechanism of this DNA methylation has not been fully elucidated

There are two factors that transform normal cells into cancer cells. One is a genetic mutation that alters the DNA sequence, and the other is an epigenetic mutation (*4) that changes how genes are used. An epigenetic mutation is defined as an aberrant pattern of "DNA methylation" and "histone modification" (*5). When cells proliferate, both genetic and epigenetic mutations are transmitted to new cells.

The research team decided to investigate the mechanism of faithful "DNA methylation inheritance" which is critical for cancer suppression and has not been sufficiently investigated. As one of the lead researchers, associate professor Atsuya Nishiyama of the University of Tokyo, explains as follows:

"Every cell has the same genetic information. Each cell has very different characteristics. It is DNA methylation that determines the characteristics of each cell. Until now, the correlation between the failure of the mechanism of DNA methylation and cancer of cells was known, but how DNA methylation controls disease was not. That's why we conducted research to understand the basic mechanisms of DNA methylation. "

PAF15 is a factor guaranteeing the maintenance of DNA methylation

The research group conducted experiments using a cell-free system derived from Xenopus laevis eggs to analyze the DNMT1 protein complex. Their work resulted in the new discovery of PAF15 as a factor that specifically binds to DNMT1(*6).

Further analysis revealed that PAF15 binds to chromosomes via PCNA (*7) during DNA replication, The research group also showed that two lysine residues of PAF15 undergo monoubiquitination by UHRF1 (*8) to facilitate DNMT1 chromatin localization. These results indicate that PAF15 is an important regulator of DNMT1.

During unperturbed S-phase, most of the DNMT1 on the chromosome was bound to ubiquitinated PAF15. Elevated histone H3 ubiquitination levels and the interaction between DNMT1 and ubiquitinated H3 were observed in conjunction with the inhibition of PAF15 function.

This finding suggests that PAF15 ubiquitination is the primary pathway controlling DNMT1 localization to DNA methylation sites, and that histone H3 ubiquitination may serve as a backup system. The team also introduced mutations to amino acids at the ubiquitination site of PAF15 in mouse ES cells, and found that the level of DNA methylation in the whole genome was greatly reduced, thus making it clear that PAF15 was a factor guaranteeing the maintenance of DNA methylation.

(Please see the research group's paper for details:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15006-4)

Potential to greatly contribute to the development of DNA methylase inhibitors

DNA methylase is also attracting attention as a material for anticancer drugs. The results of this study have shown not only the scientific significance of clarifying the new mechanism of DNA methylation inheritance, but also the potential to greatly contribute to the development of DNA methyltransferase inhibitors.

In addition, it has been reported that PAF15 is over-expressed in various cancer cells. It will be important to clarify the effect of PAF15 on DNA methylation control in the future.

Inflammation in the brain may be more widely implicated in dementias than was previously thought, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge. The researchers say it offers hope for potential new treatments for several types of dementia.

Inflammation is usually the body's response to injury and stress - such as the redness and swelling that accompanies an injury or infection. However, inflammation in the brain - known as neuroinflammation - has been recognised and linked to many disorders including depression, psychosis and multiple sclerosis. It has also recently been linked to the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

In a study published today in the journal Brain, a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge set out to examine whether neuroinflammation also occurs in other forms of dementia, which would imply that it is common to many neurodegenerative diseases.

The team recruited 31 patients with three different types of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). FTD is a family of different conditions resulting from the build-up of several abnormal 'junk' proteins in the brain.

Patients underwent brain scans to detect inflammation and the junk proteins. Two Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans each used an injection with a chemical 'dye', which lights up special molecules that reveal either the brain's inflammatory cells or the junk proteins.

In the first scan, the dye lit up the cells causing neuroinflammation. These indicate ongoing damage to the brain cells and their connections. In the second scan, the dye binds to the different types of 'junk' proteins found in FTD.

The researchers showed that across the brain, and in all three types of FTD, the more inflammation in each part of the brain, the more harmful build-up of the junk proteins there is. To prove the dyes were picking up the inflammation and harmful proteins, they went on to analyse under the microscope 12 brains donated after death to the Cambridge Brain Bank.

"We predicted the link between inflammation in the brain and the build-up of damaging proteins, but even we were surprised by how tightly these two problems mapped on to each other," said Dr Thomas Cope from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Cambridge.

Dr Richard Bevan Jones added, "There may be a vicious circle where cell damage triggers inflammation, which in turn leads to further cell damage."

The team stress that further research is needed to translate this knowledge of inflammation in dementia into testable treatments. But, this new study shows that neuroinflammation is a significant factor in more types of dementia than was previously thought.

"It is an important discovery that all three types of frontotemporal dementia have inflammation, linked to the build-up of harmful abnormal proteins in different parts of the brain. The illnesses are in other ways very different from each other, but we have found a role for inflammation in all of them," says Professor James Rowe from the Cambridge Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia.

"This, together with the fact that it is known to play a role in Alzheimer's, suggests that inflammation is part of many other neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. This offers hope that immune-based treatments might help slow or prevent these conditions."

Drawing on the largest sample of transgender people ever surveyed, a new study is the first to assess the relationship between gender-concordant IDs and mental health among transgender people in the USA.

The study finds that possessing gender-concordant IDs is associated with reduced psychological distress, and a lower prevalence of suicidal thoughts and suicide planning.

The authors suggest policy changes to increase access to gender-concordant IDs. For example, by reducing fees, administrative hurdles and eligibility requirements, and also by either expanding gender options beyond male or female, or by removing gender markers entirely.

Results from a survey of over 20,000 American trans adults suggest that having access to identification documents which reflect their identified gender helps to improve their mental health and may reduce suicidal thoughts, according to a study published in The Lancet Public Health journal.

The authors note that the survey only questioned respondents at one time point, making it difficult to confirm whether lack of gender-affirming IDs caused psychological distress or the other way around. It is possible that trans people suffering from psychological distress might find it harder to obtain IDs. However, a previous Canadian study [1] found that having at least one document showing a trans person's preferred gender marker was associated with fewer suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, and previous research has found that mental health risks in transgender adolescents are reduced when their preferred name is used socially [2].

"Our results suggest that governments and administrative bodies can play an important role in helping to reduce psychological distress for trans people, simply by making it easier to access identity documents that reflect their identity," says Dr Ayden Scheim from Drexel University, USA. [3]

Of the 1.4 million Americans who identify as transgender, over half are estimated to have clinical depression, compared to around 30% over a lifetime in the general US population, while 31% to 41% attempt suicide at some point during their lives, compared to less than 9% generally in the US. These mental health disparities can be attributed in part to a lack of recognition and acceptance of trans people's identified gender. Lack of gender-concordant official documents can prevent access to services such as healthcare, education, and employment, and increase exposure to verbal harassment and violence.

The authors suggest that at the moment, the ID change process in the USA, which varies across states, can be difficult to impossible. For example, in most US states updating a name on government-issued ID first requires a court-ordered name change, which can cost several hundred dollars. Most states require medical letters or affidavits to validate reclassification requests, and some may require gender transition surgery. In most jurisdictions, gender markers reflecting non-binary gender identity (such as an 'X' marker) are not yet available.

To explore the impact of access to IDs on psychological distress, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, researchers analysed data from 22,286 trans people, who were surveyed in 2015. Respondents were asked whether all, some or none of their IDs - including birth certificates, passports and driving licences - listed their preferred name and gender marker. Psychological distress was measured using a validated scale with a score between 0 and 24, with 13 or greater indicating serious psychological distress. To assess respondents' suicide risk, they were asked whether they had seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, whether they had made any plans to kill themselves and whether they had attempted suicide.

To ensure that the analysis was able to pick up any association between mental health and access to updated IDs, the authors of the current study adjusted the results to account for other variables that could contribute to psychological distress and suicidal thoughts - such as age, ethnicity, medical transition status and years living full-time in the identified gender.

The results found that 45.1% of respondents (10,288 out of 22,286) had no IDs with their preferred name and gender marker, 44.2% (9,666/22,286) had some ID that matched their name and/or gender, and only 10.7% (2,332/22,286) had their preferred name and gender on all their documents. The authors weighted the sample to reflect the age and ethnicity of the US population, although they note that trans demographics may not mirror broader US population demographics.

The reasons for not changing gender markers included a lack of suitable gender options (in the group with no concordant ID, people with non-binary identities were over-represented), cost, and perceived ineligibility (for example, believing that additional medical treatment was required). The authors also identified geographic variation in the results, with participants in western states more likely to have gender-concordant ID, while those in the Midwest were less likely.

Those with all gender-concordant IDs had a 32% lower prevalence of serious psychological distress than those with no updated documents. They were also 22% less likely to have had suicidal thoughts in the past year and 25% less likely to have made plans to kill themselves. Those with some updated IDs had smaller reductions in distress and suicidal thoughts (e.g., 12% reduction in distress). The results did not indicate an association between access to IDs and suicide attempts, once the authors had adjusted for other influences on mental health.

"When a trans person changes their gender on their official documents, it can be a critical step towards gaining social acceptance and legal recognition, and our findings suggest that policy changes to support trans people with taking this step should be considered, in order to help improve their wellbeing, reduce their exposure to discrimination and reduce suicidal thoughts," says Professor Greta Bauer from Western University, Canada. [3]

The authors note that other variables not covered in the study may mediate psychological distress, for example access to social support.

Writing in a linked Comment, lead author Dr Monica Malta (who was not involved in the study) from the University of Toronto says: "The cross-sectional study design prohibits causal interpretation of the identified relationships, and reverse causation is plausible--those with better mental health might be better able to navigate the difficult bureaucratic requirements to obtain gender congruent IDs. Even with those limitations, the large dataset and careful inclusion of potential confounders strengthen the study design. Thus, the authors' findings support the need to increase the availability of and streamline the processes to obtain gender congruent IDs. Gaining gender-congruent IDs should be easy, affordable, and quickly completed by adequately trained officials at TGD-friendly environments."

PHILADELPHIA (March 16, 2020) - Having gender-affirming documents, such as a passport, driver's license, or birth certificate, may improve mental health among transgender adults, according to findings published today in The Lancet Public Health from researchers at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health.

"Having IDs that don't reflect how you see yourself, and how you present yourself to the world, can be upsetting," said lead author Ayden Scheim, PhD, an assistant professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health. "It can also potentially expose people to harassment, violence, and denial of service. Despite this, the relationship between gender-concordant ID and mental health had not previously been examined in the US."

The study used data from 22,286 adults in the United States who participated in the 2015 US Transgender Survey -- conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality -- and were living day-to-day in a gender different from the one assigned at birth. Just under half - 45% - did not have their preferred name and gender designation on any identification documents, 44% had limited gender-affirming identification and just 10% had their preferred information on all documentation.

As compared to those with no gender-affirming identification, those with their preferred name and gender on all documents were 32% less likely to be classified as seriously psychological distressed, 22% less likely to have seriously considered suicide in the past year, and 25% less likely to have made a suicide plan in the last year.

The work is first study in the United States to look at the connection between identification documents and improvements in multiple measures of mental health, including suicidal thoughts. A previous study from Canada found that, among trans men and women living full-time in their gender, having updated documentation lowered suicide thoughts and attempts.

"The process, costs, and restrictions associated with updating identification documents vary from state to state," said Scheim. "These roadblocks prevent many people from getting the documents they need."

In addition to benefits in social interactions, such as ordering a drink in a bar, having ID is typically required to receive health care, obtain employment, open a bank account and other aspects of life. The process for changing identification documents can vary greatly.

California Rep. Ro Khana recently introduced a bill championed by transgender rights groups that would allow an unspecified or "X" option on a passport, in addition to the "M" or "F" genders currently listed. If the bill becomes law, this option would be available to any U.S. citizens identifying as nonbinary or intersex, even if their home state does not allow the X option on driver's license or other state issued IDs.

Although previous studies have looked into how medical gender affirmation procedures, such as hormones and surgery, impact mental health, very little is known about how legal identification affects mental health.

"Having accurate identification should be a fundamental human right. While many of us take it for granted, obtaining IDs can be very difficult for trans people," Scheim said. "This is an area where tangible and relatively simple policy changes could aid public health."

The researchers note that psychological distress and suicidal thoughts might have made it more difficult for participants to obtain updated identification, rather than the lack of identification leading to the poor mental health. Despite this limitation, the study's data comes from the largest sample of trans adults ever surveyed and controls for other factors that could contribute to the connection between identification and mental health.

In light of this finding, the authors advocate for reducing or removing the barriers to changing gender and name on forms of identification, or possibly even removing the mention of gender.

"Beyond reducing barriers to changing gender and name on ID, we should be asking why gender needs to be indicated on photo ID at all," Scheim said. "Including this attribute serves no clear purpose for identifying people -- that's what the photo is for."