Culture

People--who get lost easily in the extraordinary darkness of a tropical forest--have much to learn from a bee that can find its way home in conditions 10 times dimmer than starlight. Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's (STRI) research station on Barro Colorado Island in Panama and the University of Lund in Sweden reveal that sweat bees (Megalopta genalis), find their way home based on patterns in the canopy overhead using dorsal vision. This first report of dorsal navigation in a flying insect, published in Current Biology, may be of special interest to makers of drones and other night-flying vehicles.

"One of the pioneers of studies on homing behaviors in bees was Charles H. Turner, an African-American scientist from the University of Chicago," said William Wcislo, staff scientist at STRI, "He wrote in the Biological Bulletin in 1908: 'burrowing-bees use memory in finding the way home, and that they examine carefully the neighborhood of the nest, for the purpose of forming memory pictures of the topographical environment of the burrow.' But what we didn't understand until now, was that the cues that the bees are memorizing are overhead, as well as in front of their faces."

No one knows why the sweat bees on Barro Colorado Island prowl from flower to flower like crepuscular cats, gathering pollen only for about 70 minutes before sunrise and after sunset. Especially because it is 100 times darker on the tropical forest floor where the bees live inside dead twigs and vines, than above the forest canopy.

Since the late 1990's Eric Warrant and his team from the Vision Group at the University of Lund in Sweden has collaborated with Wcislo to learn more about Megalopta's optical superpowers. Their work showed that Megalopta's special compound eyes are 30 times more sensitive to light and concentrate photons of light in a way day-flying honeybee eyes cannot. By identifying pollen from the bees' bodies and their nests, they discovered that the bees gather pollen from more than 60 plant species: tall canopy trees like Hura crepitans, and Pseudobombax septenatum, to understory shrubs in the coffee family like Faramea occidentalis.

"For a human observer, the most obvious visual cues in the forest at night are gaps in the canopy when we look straight up because the sky is much brighter than the forest below," Warrant said, "We see a quite complex pattern of criss-crossing branches, but the bees'-eye-view is much less complex. They see broad blobs of light that vary in shape and position. We knew that ants could use canopy patterns to navigate as they walk through the forest, and we wondered if maybe bees were doing the same thing."

Honeybees can't do this, but to find out if Megalopta bees had yet another superpower, Sandra Chaib, a student at the University of Lund, moved to Barro Colorado Island to do the experiments.

To test this idea, Sandra first set up a special bee motel. Imagine the entrances to five rooms: each entrance is an identical, circular grey disc. The door is a tiny round opening at the center of the disc--the end of a stick nest.

In the first experiment, she asked if the bees could find their way home using a single landmark. She placed a black bar above the entrance to one of the nests. After the bees left to look for pollen, she changed the order of the nests, but the real nest was still marked by the black bar above the entrance. When the bees returned, they chose the right nest.

Next, she made it a bit more complicated by building a sort of awning--like the roof of a carport--above each nest entrance. Over the four empty nests she placed an awning with a pattern of black and white bars, and over the occupied nest, a different pattern. Again, when the bees went out, she changed the position of the nest, and again, they found the right nest when they came back. But she still had not ruled out the possibility that the bees were using another clue, like smell, to find their own nest. So she left the nest in the same place, but put the bee's learned pattern over an empty nest...and the bees chose the empty nest, showing that they were using the pattern as a guide, not smell or some other signal from the nest.

Her final experiment was the most elegant: this time two nests shared a common awning, a design of dark circles on a light background made to represent the patterns of light and dark in real forest canopies. The entrance to an empty nest was located under one end of the awning, and the entrance to the occupied nest under the opposite end. This time, when the bees left, Sandra flipped the awning around so that the pattern was reversed. The bees chose the wrong nest more than 80 percent of the time, showing once and for all that they were navigating based on the pattern above.

Understanding how Megalopta navigates may be of interest for military applications. Now, most drones use GPS to navigate, but GPS and satellites can be jammed or destroyed.

"Animals use a variety of different cues to navigate. Vision is obviously a very important one, but many animals have a magnetic sense and can measure properties of the Earth's magnetic field to work out where they are on the surface of the Earth and the direction they want to travel. We have already learned about insects and other animals that are able to use the stars for navigation; pigeons are able to use odors for navigation...there are lots of different cues. The canopy is one cue that a drone can use to navigate, but a really robust navigational system will be one that will use a number of different cues, like animals have, to use all of these systems at once to navigate,” Eric Warrant said.

STRI Facilities are still closed due to COVID-19 restrictions but researchers are itching to get back out "So far we only know how the bees identify which room in the bee motel is theirs when they come home," Wcislo said. "We still have no idea how they navigate through the forest after they leave their nests."

Bacteria do not sexually reproduce, but that does not stop them from exchanging genetic information as it evolves and adapts. During conjugal transfer, a bacterium can connect to another bacterium to pass along DNA and proteins. Escherichia coli bacteria, commonly called E. coli, can transfer at least one of these gene-containing plasmids to organisms across taxonomic kingdoms, including to fungi and protists. Now, researchers from Hiroshima University have a better understanding of this genetic hat trick, which has potential applications as a tool to promote desired characteristics or suppress harmful ones across genetic hosts.

They published their results on May 20 in Frontiers in Microbiology.

Plasmids transfer from one bacterium -- the donor -- to another -- the recipient. A particular kind of plasmid, called IncP1, can be hosted by a variety of bacteria and, seemingly as a result of its broad hosts, can transfer DNA to recipients beyond bacteria. The hypothesis is that the plasmid contains genes cultivated from different hosts and donors, resulting in this unique ability.

"Although conjugation factors encoded on plasmids have been extensively analyzed, those on the donor chromosome have not," said paper author Kazuki Moriguchi, associate professor, Program of Basic Biology, Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University.

There have been some studies on the various genes, according to Moriguchi, but the function of the genes was not examined, so it is not clear how they were related to the conjugation mechanism.

In this study, the researchers conducted a genome-wide survey on an extensive collection of bacteria mutants as donors to yeast. The mutants were engineered to have specific genes "knocked out" in order to study how the overall system performs without the presence of that specific gene, allowing researchers to infer information about the gene's function.

"We focused on 'up' mutants that have the ability to accelerate conjugative transfer to both prokaryotes and eukaryotes as they could be potent donor strains applicable to gene introduction tools," Moriguchi said, noting how IncP1's ability to transmit genetic material across kingdoms could be used to develop precise tools to introduce genes capable of changing how the bacteria perform certain functions or react to changes in their environments.

Out of 3,884 mutants surveyed, three were identified that could conjugate across E. coli or from E. coli to yeast without accumulating genetic material, indicating that the genes worked together. The researchers analyzed the genes but were unable to elucidate the exact target or targets of conjugation mechanism that allows for cross-kingdom transfer. However, their analysis did reveal how the genes appear to work.

Two of the genes work to repress the unknown target in the E. coli donor. Simultaneously, the third gene is inactivated, allowing another unknown target to resume activity.

"The results suggest that the unknown target factors of these three genes form a complex in order to activate or repress the conjugation, either directly or indirectly at an identical step or steps of the IncP1 conjugation machinery, although the exact mechanism beyond this phenomenon remains unknown," Moriguchi said.

According to Moriguchi, the data collected in this study can help facilitate the breeding of donor strains from various bacteria, each of which carries a high affinity with target organisms in addition to having a high conjugation ability.

Osaka, Japan - A team of scientists headed by SANKEN (The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research) at Osaka University demonstrated that single virus particles passing through a nanopore could be accurately identified using machine learning. The test platform they created was so sensitive that the coronaviruses responsible for the common cold, SARS, MERS, and COVID could be distinguished from each other. This work may lead to rapid, portable, and accurate screening tests for COVID and other viral diseases.

The global coronavirus pandemic has revealed the crucial need for rapid pathogen screening. However, the current gold-standard for detecting RNA viruses—including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID—is reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing. While accurate, this method is relatively slow, which hinders the timely interventions required to control an outbreak.

Now, scientists led by Osaka University have developed an intelligent nanopore system that can be used for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles. Using machine-learning methods, the platform can accurately discriminate between similarly sized coronaviruses responsible for different respiratory diseases. "Our innovative technology has high sensitivity and can even electrically identify single virus particles," first author Professor Masateru Taniguchi says. Using this platform, the researchers were able to achieve a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 96% for SARS-CoV-2 detection in just five minutes using clinical saliva samples.

To fabricate the device, nanopores just 300 nanometers in diameter were bored into a silicon nitride membrane. When a virus was pulled through a nanopore by the electrophoretic force, the opening became partially blocked. This temporarily decreased the ionic flow inside the nanopore, which was detected as a change in the electrical current. The current as a function of time provided information on the volume, structure, and surface charge of the target being analyzed. However, to interpret the subtle signals, which could be as small as a few nanoamps, machine learning was needed. The team used 40 PCR-positive and 40 PCR-negative saliva samples to train the algorithm.

"We expect that this research will enable rapid point-of-care and screening tests for SARS-CoV-2 without the need for RNA extraction," Professor Masateru Taniguchi explains. "A user-friendly and non-invasive method such as this is more amenable to immediate diagnosis in hospitals and screening in places where large crowds are gathered." The complete test platform consists of machine learning software on a server, a portable high-precision current measuring instrument, and cost-effective semiconducting nanopore modules. By using a machine-learning method, the researchers expect that this system can be adapted for use in the detection of emerging infectious diseases in the future. The team hopes that this approach will revolutionize public health and disease control.

SINGAPORE, 17 June 2021 - New details on the structure and function of a transport protein could help researchers develop drugs for neurological diseases that are better able to cross the blood-brain barrier. The findings were published in the journal Nature by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Duke-NUS Medical School, Weill Cornell Medicine and colleagues.

Omega-3 fatty acids, like docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are important for brain and eye development. They are derived mainly from dietary sources and converted by the liver into a lysolipid called lyso-phosphatidyl-choline (LPC) in order to cross from the blood into the brain and retina via the blood-brain and blood-retina barriers, respectively. These barriers are formed by cells lining blood vessels, or endothelial cells, that tightly regulate what enters these two vital organs.

A protein called 'Major Facilitator Superfamily Domain containing 2A' (MFSD2A) is located on the membrane of these endothelial cells, and acts as a molecular gateway that allows DHA to cross these barriers. How MFSD2A mediates uptake of lysolipids carrying omega-3 fatty acids, however, remained a mystery.

"We set out to determine the structure of MFSD2A in order to understand how it transports essential omega-3 fatty acids in the form of LPC to the brain," said Dr Chua Geok Lin, a senior research fellow with the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases (CVMD) Programme, Duke-NUS, who is a co-author of the study. "This is important because MFSD2A is essential for getting omega-3 fatty acids like DHA across the blood-brain barrier."

Dr Rosemary Cater, a Simons Foundation Fellow at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and first author of the paper, explained, "If we knew what MFSD2A looked like, we could solve this mystery and use the information to design neurotherapeutics that could hijack this molecular gateway, disguised as omega-3 fatty acid lysolipids--sort of like seeing what a lock looks like in order to design a key that fits."

The collaborative study, led by Dr Filippo Mancia at Columbia University, Dr David Silver at Duke-NUS, and Dr George Khelashvili at Weill Cornell Medicine, leveraged leading experts in the field from across a number of US research institutions--namely Columbia University, Weill Cornell Medicine, the New York Structural Biology Center, University of Chicago and University of Arizona--and Duke-NUS in Singapore.

To study the structure of MFSD2A, the research team used a special type of electron microscopy, which involves cooling samples to cryogenic temperatures and viewing molecules on a sub-nanomolar scale, in combination with novel biochemical assays. This allowed them to uncover atomic-level details of the protein's structure, which were then used to inform computer simulations exploring the mechanism of how it works.

According to Dr Mancia, Associate Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, "It's extremely exciting to be able to view a protein's shape at such a resolution. We are talking about measurements of less than a billionth of a metre in size--and this information is critical to understand how it works at a molecular level."

"Using large-scale atomistic ensemble molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, followed by detailed analysis of the MD data with advanced methods of computational biophysics, such as Markov State Modelling, we were able to 'un-freeze' the cryo-EM structure of MFSD2A and study mechanistic details of how this transporter interacts with substrates," explained Dr Khelashvili, Assistant Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine. "Combined with the functional data, the computational findings shed light on the molecular mechanisms by which this atypical MFS transporter mediates uptake of single-chain phospholipids into the brain."

"Some years ago, we discovered that human mutations in the gene that codes for MFSD2A lead to microcephaly, a birth defect in which the baby's head is very small," said Dr Silver, Professor and Deputy Director of Duke-NUS' CVMD Programme. "This underscores the importance of lysolipid transport by MFSD2A."

The study is the latest to add to the growing body of knowledge first initiated by Prof Silver in 2014, when he published on the discovery of MFSD2A and its role in transporting DHA to the brain. In 2017, he co-founded Singapore-based Travecta Therapeutics with the aim of harnessing this knowledge to develop new therapeutic agents that can be selectively delivered across the blood-brain barrier by MFSD2A for treatment of diseases of the central nervous system and eyes. Travecta is currently conducting preclinical studies for several therapeutic targets with the company's lead asset for pain, TVT-004, scheduled to begin clinical trials in the next several months.

A license agreement between Duke-NUS and Travecta was facilitated by Duke-NUS' Centre for Technology and Development, under the School's Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, granting the company rights to commercialise the research.

"The blood-brain barrier excludes the uptake of approximately 98 per cent of drugs, limiting the treatment of neurological diseases," Prof Silver explained. "The structural information we revealed in our study can be exploited to better design neurotherapeutics that can be transported by MFSD2A."

The authors said further research is needed to uncover more details on how MFSD2A mediates transport of lysolipids across the blood-brain barrier.

Ikoma, Japan - The katana, a Japanese sword, may be thought of solely as a weapon used by the samurai. But researchers from Japan have discovered that not only do plants wield their own katanas within their cells, they recruit them to specific locations within those cells to do their work.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology have revealed that the enzyme katanin, which is named after the katana, is used by an anchoring complex to cut microtubules at specific locations of the framework within individual plant cells.

Katanin severs microtubules in cells, which is an important step in cell division and central to the development of many organisms, including plants and animals. Microtubules form part of the cytoskeleton, a complex network of protein filaments found in all cells. The severing performed by katanin enables mobility, which is important during development, and treadmilling - a phenomenon where one end of a filament lengthens as the other shrinks, which results in a section of filament that seems to 'move' like a treadmill.

"Katanin severs microtubules at specific locations in plant and animal cells, and this leads to active reorganization of the microtubule cytoskeleton," says senior author of the study Takashi Hashimoto. "But the mechanisms for targeting this extraordinary enzyme at specific sites within the cell are not well understood - these are what we wanted to investigate."

The team's genetic and cell biology research results showed that the microtubule anchoring complex Msd1-Wdr8 is used to stabilize microtubule nucleation sites (where microtubules are formed) in plant cells to prevent early release of the new microtubules (called 'daughter microtubules'). But in a seemingly counterintuitive twist, Msd1-Wdr8 then turns around and recruits katanin to the same location to enable the efficient release of daughter microtubules.

"These 'glue-and-cut' functions performed by Msd1-Wdr8 and their effects on microtubule stability may seem confusing at first, but they probably enable strict control of microtubule release by the katanin activity," explains Hashimoto.

This study will inform future research on whether the Msd1-Wdr8 complex in animal cells also recruits katanin, and whether other sites use similar mechanisms for the stabilization and release of daughter microtubules. The results of this study will be of interest to cell biologists, especially those working on cytoskeletons, in plants and other organisms.

Bottom Line: Genetic mutations indicative of DNA damage were associated with high red meat consumption and increased cancer-related mortality in patients with colorectal cancer.

Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research

Author: Marios Giannakis, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Background: "We have known for some time that consumption of processed meat and red meat is a risk factor for colorectal cancer," said Giannakis. The International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that processed meat was carcinogenic and that red meat was probably carcinogenic to humans in 2015.

Experiments in preclinical models have suggested that red meat consumption may promote the formation of carcinogenic compounds in the colon, but a direct molecular link to colorectal cancer development in patients has not been shown, Giannakis explained. "What is missing is a demonstration that colorectal cancers from patients have a specific pattern of mutations that can be attributed to red meat," he said. "Identifying these molecular changes in colon cells that can cause cancer would not only support the role of red meat in colorectal cancer development but would also provide novel avenues for cancer prevention and treatment."

How the Study was Conducted: To identify genetic changes associated with red meat intake, Giannakis and colleagues sequenced DNA from matched normal and colorectal tumor tissues from 900 patients with colorectal cancer who had participated in one of three nationwide prospective cohort studies, namely the Nurses' Health Studies and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. All patients had previously provided information on their diets, lifestyles, and other factors over the course of several years prior to their colorectal cancer diagnoses.

Results: Analysis of DNA sequencing data revealed the presence of several mutational signatures in normal and cancerous colon tissue, including a signature indicative of alkylation, a form of DNA damage. The alkylating signature was significantly associated with pre-diagnosis intake of processed or unprocessed red meat, but not with pre-diagnosis intake of poultry or fish or with other lifestyle factors. Red meat consumption was not associated with any of the other mutational signatures identified in this study. In line with prior studies linking red meat consumption with cancer incidence in the distal colon, Giannakis and colleagues found that normal and cancerous tissue from the distal colon had significantly higher alkylating damage than tissue from the proximal colon.

Using a predictive model, the researchers identified the KRAS and PIK3CA genes as potential targets of alkylation-induced mutation. Consistent with this prediction, they found that colorectal tumors harboring KRAS G12D, KRAS G13D, or PIK3CA E545K driver mutations, which are commonly observed in colorectal cancer, had greater enrichment of the alkylating signature compared to tumors without these mutations. The alkylating signature was also associated with patient survival: Patients whose tumors had the highest levels of alkylating damage had a 47 percent greater risk of colorectal cancer-specific death compared to patients with lower levels of damage.

Author's Comments: "Our study identified for the first time an alkylating mutational signature in colon cells and linked it to red meat consumption and cancer driver mutations," said Giannakis. "These findings suggest that red meat consumption may cause alkylating damage that leads to cancer-causing mutations in KRAS and PIK3CA, thereby promoting colorectal cancer development. Our data further support red meat intake as a risk factor for colorectal cancer and also provide opportunities to prevent, detect, and treat this disease."

Giannakis explained that if physicians could identify individuals who are genetically predisposed to accumulating alkylating damage, these individuals could be counseled to limit red meat intake as a form of precision prevention. In addition, the alkylating mutational signature could be used as a biomarker to identify patients at greater risk of developing colorectal cancer or to detect cancer at an early stage. Because of its association with patient survival, the alkylating signature may also have potential as a prognostic biomarker. However, future studies are needed to explore these possibilities, Giannakis noted.

Study Limitations: A limitation of the study is the potential selection bias of study participants, as tissue specimens could not be retrieved from all incident colorectal cancer cases in the cohort studies. Current studies from Giannakis and his colleagues are exploring the potential role of red meat intake and alkylating damage in diverse groups of patients.

Funding & Disclosures: The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Stand Up To Cancer Colorectal Cancer Dream Team Translational Research Grant (co-administered by the AACR), the Project P Fund, the Cancer Research UK Grand Challenge Award, the Nodal Award from the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center, the Friends of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Bennett Family Fund, and the Entertainment Industry Foundation through the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance and Stand Up To Cancer.

Giannakis has received research funding from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Servier, and Janssen unrelated to this study.

NEW YORK (June 17, 2021)--New York City neighborhoods that had higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage experienced more COVID-19 infections and deaths, according to Mount Sinai scientists who created a neighborhood-level COVID-19 inequity index.

The index measured factors that fueled inequities in the residents' lives, such as employment and commuting patterns, population density of their neighborhood, food access, socioeconomic status, and access to health care. This allowed the scientists to compare between neighborhoods the contributions of these social factors in facilitating disease transmission during the first wave of the pandemic in a study published in Nature Communications in June.

"Much of the early rhetoric around COVID-19 disparities centered on comorbidities which, due to health disparities, may have explained why communities of color were suffering higher mortality. But we were seeing more people of color getting infected in the first place," said Daniel Carrión, PhD, MPH, first author and postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Our research team wanted to add to the literature outlining how structural racism is related to neighborhood disadvantage, and how that disadvantage is related to increased COVID-19 infections and mortality."

The COVID-19 inequity index showed that the disparities were considerably worse based on neighborhood racial and ethnic composition; Black neighborhoods had the highest average inequity index, followed by Latinx communities, while white neighborhoods had the lowest. The authors believe one of the reasons for these disparities is the diminished capacity to socially isolate based on where someone lives.

This study showed that areas with higher COVID-19 inequity indices had higher subway ridership after New York State introduced stay-at-home orders. This implies that the residents had less capacity to socially distance, the researchers said, possibly due to their jobs as essential workers or because they lived in denser housing.

The researchers believe their approach to identifying social factors that are associated with viral spread may be useful throughout the United States to pinpoint potential areas for targeted public health intervention.

"The social factors in the COVID-19 inequity index are upstream neighborhood characteristics--they were already in place before the pandemic," said Allan Just, PhD, senior author on the study and Assistant Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Icahn Mount Sinai. "In the near term, this speaks to the importance of place-based interventions in Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities to reduce disease incidence and mortality, such as improved and targeted vaccine availability for these communities. This also supports the need to look at social factors in pandemic preparedness."

The team analyzed many forms of publicly available data, including census, New York City subway ridership, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene infections and mortality data, and other datasets available through New York City's and New York State's open data portals.

Many neighborhood-level social variables are closely related; for example, median income can be strongly associated with education or even food access. This can be a challenge for traditional statistical approaches, so the team employed a new statistical framework designed to deal with these challenges, developed by co-author Elena Colicino, PhD, Assistant Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Icahn Mount Sinai.

The COVID-19 inequity index included neighborhood-level characteristics, but specifically excluded race and ethnicity as input variables. "Past literature shows that structural racism operates by historically sorting BIPOC people into neighborhoods that do not have the same resources and may facilitate infectious disease transmission," said Dr. Carrión. "We wanted to see if our index reconstructed those racial disparities."

The unique mechanical and optical properties found in the exoskeleton of a humble Asian beetle has the potential to offer a fascinating new insight into how to develop new, effective bio-inspired technologies.

Pioneering new research by a team of international scientists, including Professor Pete Vukusic from the University of Exeter, has revealed a distinctive, and previously unknown property within the carapace of the flower beetle - a member of the scarab beetle family.

The study showed that the beetle has small micropillars within the carapace - or the upper section of the exoskeleton - that give the insect both strength and flexibility to withstand damage very effectively.

Crucially, these micropillars are incorporated into highly regular layering in the exoskeleton that concurrently give the beetle an intensely bright metallic colour appearance.

For this new study, the scientists used sophisticated modelling techniques to determine which of the two functions - very high mechanical strength or conspicuously bright colour - were more important to the survival of the beetle.

They found that although these micropillars do create a highly enhanced toughness of the beetle shell, they were most beneficial for optimising the scattering of coloured light that generates its conspicuous appearance.

The research is published this week in the leading journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

Professor Vukusic, one of three leads of the research along with Professor Li at Virginia Tech and Professor Kolle at MIT, said: "The astonishing insights generated by this research have only been possible through close collaborative work between Virginia Tech, MIT, Harvard and Exeter, in labs that trailblaze the fields of materials, mechanics and optics. Our follow-up venture to make use of these bio-inspired principles will be an even more exciting journey.".

The seeds of the pioneering research were sown more than 16 years ago as part of a short project created by Professor Vukusic in the Exeter undergraduate Physics labs. Those early tests and measurements, made by enthusiastic undergraduate students, revealed the possibility of intriguing multifunctionality.

The original students examined the form and structure of beetles' carapce to try to understand the simple origin of their colour. They noticed for the first time, however, the presence of strength-inducing micropillars.

Professor Vukusic ultimately carried these initial findings to collaborators Professor Ling Li at Virginia Tech and Professor Mathias Kolle at Harvard and then MIT who specialise in the materials sciences and applied optics. Using much more sophisticated measurement and modelling techniques, the combined research team were also to confirm the unique role played by the micropillars in enhancing the beetles' strength and toughness without compromising its intense metallic colour.

The results from the study could also help inspire a new generation of bio-inspired materials, as well as the more traditional evolutionary research.

By understanding which of the functions provides the greater benefit to these beetles, scientists can develop new techniques to replicate and reproduce the exoskeleton structure, while ensuring that it has brilliant colour appearance with highly effective strength and toughness.

Professor Vukusic added: "Such natural systems as these never fail to impress with the way in which they perform, be it optical, mechanical or in another area of function. The way in which their optical or mechanical properties appear highly tolerant of all manner of imperfections too, continues to offer lessons to us about scientific and technological avenues we absolutely should explore. There is exciting science ahead of us on this journey."

The fast-food industry spent $5 billion on advertising in 2019, and the advertisements disproportionately targeted Black and Hispanic youth, according to new research published today by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut. The new report, Fast Food FACTS 2021, finds that the industry's annual ad spending in 2019 increased by over $400 million since 2012, and that children and teens were viewing on average more than two fast food TV ads per day.

Frequent and widespread exposure to fast-food marketing increases young people's preferences for, and consumption of fast-food, which is largely high in calories, sugar,
fat and sodium. Fast-food represents 40% of all food and beverage marketing expenditures targeted at children and teens (aged 2-17). Using 2019 Nielsen data, the study found that children aged 2-5 viewed an average of 830 TV ads for fast food over the course of the year, while children aged 6-11 viewed 787 ads, and teens and tweens aged 12-17 viewed 775 ads.

Nearly all of these ads promoted full-calorie regular menu items or the restaurants in general, while just 1% of ads viewed promoted restaurants' healthier menu items. Moreover, only 10% of ads viewed by children appeared during children's TV programming and fewer than 10% of ads promoted kids' meals. Further, many of the restaurants promoted their mobile apps or websites for digital orders in TV ads.

The study also shows that disparities in racial and ethnic targeted advertising are widening. Fast-food ad spending on Spanish-language television spiked, with a 33% increase from 2012 levels. Black youth viewed 75% more fast food ads than their White peers, up from a 60% difference found in 2012, even as TV viewership among all youth is down. On both Spanish-language and Black-targeted TV programming, restaurants advertised their low-cost large-portion value menu items and meal deals disproportionately more than on other types of programming, and no healthy menu items were advertised on Spanish-language TV.

"Fast-food consumption by children and teens has increased over the past decade, and fast-food advertising definitely plays a role in that rise," said Dr. Jennifer Harris, Senior Research Advisor for Marketing Initiatives at the Rudd Center and a co-author of the study. "Our findings show that these advertisements disproportionately target Black and Hispanic youth, groups who already face greater risk for obesity and other diet-related diseases. Moreover, many fast-food companies tout recent introductions of healthier menu items as evidence of their commitment to improving nutrition, but they rarely promote these items in their advertising."

More than 1 in 3 children eat fast-food on a given day in the United States. Fast-food restaurants have pledged to introduce healthier items on their regular menus and healthier drinks and sides to their kids' meals, but another recent study from the Rudd Center found that these voluntary policies have had little effect on purchases of kids' meals over regular menu items and selection of healthier kids' beverages. This new study shows that these purchasing patterns mirror the ads children see, with the vast majority of ads viewed by children promoting less healthy and higher portion items on their regular menus.

"Less time in front of TV screens is not protecting kids from fast-food TV ads," said Dr. Frances Fleming-Milici, Director of Marketing Initiatives at the Rudd Center and a co-author of the study. "Now more than ever parents need support in raising healthy children, and consistent exposure to ads featuring burgers, fries and pizza sabotages their best efforts. Media companies, policymakers and advocates can play a vital role in demanding an end to irresponsible advertising."

The study analyzed 2019 Nielsen data covering advertising spending and TV advertising exposure for 274 fast-food restaurants, including detailed analyses of the 27 top fast-food advertisers with the highest annual advertising spending and/or that targeted TV advertising to children, Hispanic, and/or Black consumers. The Rudd Center produces annual FACTS reports on the state of food and beverage advertising aimed at children, teens and Black and Hispanic youth. This study is a follow up to the Rudd Center's 2013 Fast-Food FACTS report.

The authors of the study make recommendations on concrete steps fast-food restaurants can take to limit such marketing, such as expanding voluntary industry self-regulation to restrict unhealthy food advertising to children up to age 14 at a minimum, discontinuing ads for regular menu items on children's TV channels and ending disproportionately high marketing to Hispanic and Black youth. They also offer suggestions for actions that federal, state and local governments can take such as creating nutrition standards for kids' meals and eliminating unhealthy food and beverage marketing to children as a tax-deductible expense. Lastly, their recommendations include how public health advocates and practitioners can push for changes to these marketing practices.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The price tag for giving birth in America may bring some families sticker shock - even for those with private insurance.

And when delivering moms require caesarians or their newborns need neonatal care, some families may spend as much as $10,000 out-of-pocket, according to a new Michigan Medicine-led study.

"Childbirth is the most common reason for hospitalization in the U.S.," said lead author Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D.,a pediatrician and researcher at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center.

"Our findings show that some privately insured families are shouldering an astoundingly high financial burden for childbirth-related hospitalizations."

During 2016-2019, privately insured families paid an average of $3,000 out-of-pocket for maternal and newborn hospitalizations, according to the research in Pediatrics. But for one in 6 families, out-of-pocket spending exceeded $5,000. And when neonatal intensive care was required, the price climbed to over $10,000 for about 1 in 11 families.

"Many privately insured families believe that if they have health insurance, they're protected from the costs of childbirth hospitalizations. Unfortunately, this is simply not true for many families, particularly if their baby needs NICU care," Chua said.

"Having a healthy baby is expensive enough given the costs of diapers, childcare, and baby equipment. Adding a $10,000 hospital bill on top of this can devastate some families."

Researchers analyzed national data of 12 million privately insured enrollees across all states in the country. They identified 398,410 maternal deliveries that were linked to at least one newborn hospitalization covered by the same family plan. Overall, average out-of-pocket spending for the delivery and newborn hospitalizations was $3,068.

When cesarean birth occurred, the average bill was $3,389. When NICU care was needed, the average bill was $4,969. This bill exceeded $10,000 for 9% of instances when NICU care was needed.

About 30% of the time, deliveries and newborn hospitalizations were covered by high-deductible health plans, such as a health reimbursement arrangement or health savings account. Out-of-pocket costs were primarily driven by deductibles and co-insurance.

Chua said he was inspired to pursue the study because of his own personal experience that involved a $5,000 out-of-pocket bill after the birth of his second daughter.

"This is an issue that impacts millions of Americans at some stage in their lives," he said.

"Before delivery, clinicians can help privately insured families understand their childbirth benefits. If large bills are expected, clinicians should advise families to save money, assuming they have the means to do so. After delivery, clinicians should screen families for financial hardship, particularly those experiencing resource-intensive hospitalizations, such as NICU care, and connect them with local resources to address food, housing, and financial insecurity."

While substantial cost-sharing may be justified for low-value care, childbirth is a necessary, high value service, says senior author Michelle Moniz, M.D., M.Sc.,an obstetrician gynecologist at University of Michigan Health Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital. Moniz says policies should aim to alleviate the financial burden of childbirth on families.

Ideally, insurers would waive most or all cost-sharing for these hospitalizations, consistent with the approach taken by Medicaid programs and many peer, high-resource countries, she says.

The new study adds to Moniz' previous study examining the out-of-pocket costs of pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care for mothers. .

"Maternal and childbirth hospitalizations are essential to families' health and wellbeing, with some babies needing longer stays because of complex or unexpected medical conditions," Moniz said.

"These services are vital to ensuring the best possible outcomes for moms and newborns. We should be looking at ways to improve childbirth coverage to avoid sending families home from the hospital with thousands of dollars in debt."

SPOKANE, Wash. - Many people likely lost sleep over COVID-19. A study of twins led by Washington State University researchers found that stress, anxiety and depression during the first few weeks of the pandemic were associated with less and lower quality sleep.

In a survey of more than 900 twins taken shortly after COVID-19 lockdown measures began, about half of the respondents reported no change in their sleep patterns, but around a third, 32.9%, reported decreased sleep. Another 29.8% reported sleeping more. In the analysis, the researchers found that any change in sleep was connected to self-reported mental health issues, though it was more strongly associated with decreased sleep.

"The results show that deviations from your typical sleep behavior may be associated with depression, anxiety and stress," said Siny Tsang, lead author on the study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

Tsang, a staff scientist with the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, emphasized that this showed a connection, not a cause, but the study supports previous research that has found a two-way relationship between disrupted sleep patterns and poor mental health. In other words, when people don't sleep well, they are more likely to feel stress, anxiety and depression, and when they are dealing with those same problems, they are more likely to sleep less--and sometimes more--than the typical six to nine hours a night.

This study analyzes survey responses collected between March 26 and April 5, 2020 from participants in the Washington State Twin Registry. Since then, the same group has answered three more waves of survey questions. Researchers are particularly interested in studying twins, so they can investigate whether associations are mediated by genetic factors, shared environment, or both. The pandemic also offered an opportunity for a natural experiment to see how a stressful situation affects sleep amount and quality among individuals in the community, Tsang said.

The research relies on the self-reported perception of sleep length and quality, but the researcher said that when it comes to mental health, perception can matter more than the real amount of sleep.

"Even if your cell phone says you consistently sleep eight hours every day, you may feel that you slept less or slept poorly, and that may be linked to stressful or anxious feelings," Tsang said. "It may not matter whether or not the actual number has changed. It's how you are feeling that is associated with your mental health."

WSU researchers have also conducted twin-studies on COVID-19 lockdown effects on alcohol use and pandemic stress and exercise. These have all been initial studies taken at the early stages of the pandemic and associated social distancing measures. The scientists are still analyzing results of later surveys, but they are starting to see a common theme.

"A pattern that is consistent across these three studies is that people who reported change in physical exercise, alcohol use or sleep are more stressed, anxious and depressed than those who had said that they have had no change," Tsang said.

Ireland, June 17 2021: Popular video games have the potential to provide low-cost, easy access, effective and stigma-free support for some mental health issues, researchers at Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, have found.

The team at Lero, a world leader in connected-health research, said video games could be used where conventional therapies are not available because of cost or location, or as an addition to traditional therapeutic treatments for depression or anxiety.

Lero researcher Dr Mark Campbell said there is mounting scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of commercial video games to improve mental health outcomes after the team reviewed existing academic research on the impact of video games on mental health issues, particularly depression and anxiety.

"It is worth considering commercial video games as a potential alternative option for the improvement of various aspects of mental health globally," he added.

Dr Campbell led a team attached to University of Limerick's Health Research Institute and Physical Education & Sport Sciences department to publish their latest research paper Gaming your mental health: A narrative review on mitigating depression and anxiety symptoms via commercial video games in academic journal JMIR Serious Games.

Dr Campbell said commercial video games are freely available or available for a one-time relative low cost and there are an estimated 2.7 billion video gamers worldwide.

"The overall accessibility and pervasiveness of commercial video games within modern society positions them as an invaluable means of reaching individuals with mental health disorders, irrespective of age and sex, and with limited access to mental health care, particularly relevant during the current COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Lead author on the paper Magdalena Kowal of Lero and UL said their research was in the context of the financial and healthcare service burden of mental illness, affecting more than 14% of the world's population, with a significant proportion of people with mental health problems not receiving treatment.

"There is a heightened demand for accessible and cost-effective methods that prevent and facilitate coping with mental health illness. This demand has become exacerbated following the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent increase in mental health disorders, depression and anxiety in particular," she said.

Magdalena Kowal said commercially available Virtual Reality (VR) video games have great potential in treating mental health issues also.

"These are well-suited for the implementation of cognitive behavioural techniques for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders in the future. Given the immersive nature of VR technology and the controllability of the virtual environment, it could be particularly well-suited for use in exposure therapy," she added.

Singapore, 18 Jun 2021 - Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School and National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), in collaboration with colleagues in Singapore and the UK, have shown that the human form of the signalling protein interleukin 11 (IL-11) has a damaging effect on human liver cells--overturning a prior hypothesis that it could help livers damaged by paracetamol poisoning. The finding, published last week in Science Translational Medicine, suggests that blocking IL-11 signalling could have a restorative effect.

Paracetamol, also called acetaminophen, is a widely available over-the-counter painkiller, and an overdose can lead to serious liver damage and even death. It is the most common pharmaceutical agent involved in toxic exposure in Singapore, while in the UK, 50,000 people a year show up at emergency departments with paracetamol poisoning. They can be treated with a drug called N-acetylcysteine if administered within eight hours of overdose. Any longer, however, and the only recourse may be a liver transplant.

To find treatments for the condition, scientists have been studying it in mice. Their investigations have shown that excessive doses of paracetamol deplete liver antioxidants. This leads to damage of mitochondrial proteins, triggering a cascade of events that lead to liver damage and liver cell death. Further studies showed that administration of anti-IL11 therapy in the form of an antibody drug not only reversed liver damage, but also supported liver regeneration and promoted survival in mice with liver injury. This led to the idea that anti-IL11 therapy could help treat humans with paracetamol poisoning.

"We recently found that IL-11 was actually detrimental for liver cell function in a fatty liver disease called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)," said Assistant Professor Anissa Widjaja, from Duke-NUS' Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases (CVMD) Programme, the lead author of the study. "This made us want to look in more detail at what was happening in mouse models of paracetamol toxicity."

Employing an animal model conducted according to the National Advisory Committee for Laboratory Animal Research (NACLAR) guidelines, they found high serum levels of IL-11 in mice with paracetamol toxicity. Further investigations revealed that IL-11 was involved in activating pathways that led to liver cell death. Surprisingly, they found that mouse livers responded differently according to whether they were given human or mouse IL-11. The human form had a protective effect against liver damage while the mouse form caused liver cell death. When human IL-11 was administered in mice with paracetamol toxicity, it competed with the endogenous mouse IL-11, blocking its receptor. It was this blocking effect that protected against liver damage. Administering same-species IL-11 was damaging because it did not result in this competition and the resulting blocking effect.

"This means that IL-11 is actually a liver toxin," said Professor Stuart Cook, the senior author of the study, who is the Tanoto Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre and Duke-NUS' CVMD Programme, and Senior Consultant at the Department of Cardiology at NHCS. "We found that blocking its cell receptors with an antibody can help the liver regenerate after it has been injured. This discovery could have implications for treating drug-induced liver failure, which can cause death if a liver transplant is not possible."

The study adds to the growing body of research on IL-11, led by Prof Cook, a leading expert who has dedicated years of study to this important signalling protein. In 2017, he co-founded Singapore-based Enleofen Bio as a spin-out from NHCS, SingHealth and Duke-NUS with the aim of developing first-in-class antibody therapeutics for the treatment of fibro-inflammatory human diseases. In 2019, Boehringer Ingelheim, a leading global pharmaceutical company in the treatment of fibrotic diseases and in therapeutic antibodies took an exclusive license to Enleofen's anti-IL11 platform.

Professor Patrick Casey, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS, commented, "New insights from fundamental research enable scientists to not only test hypotheses, but also course-correct when the evidence overturns prior assumptions. Professor Cook and his team are among the leading experts on IL-11, and their latest findings yet again advance our understanding in this field of research."

The research team is now investigating whether IL-11 can stand in the way of the regeneration of other organs, like the kidneys, and whether it is involved in the loss of tissue function with advancing age.

Conservationists have long warned of the dangers associated with bears becoming habituated to life in urban areas. Yet, it appears the message hasn't gotten through to everyone.

News reports continue to cover seemingly similar situations -- a foraging bear enters a neighbourhood, easily finds high-value food and refuses to leave. The story often ends with conservation officers being forced to euthanize the animal for public safety purposes.

Now, a new study by sustainability researchers in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science uses computer modelling to look at the best strategies to reduce human-bear conflict.

"It happens all the time, and unfortunately, humans are almost always at fault," says study co-author Dr. Lael Parrott.

Looking to reduce the number of conflicts, Dr. Parrott and a team of researchers, including master's student Luke Crevier, built a computer model to simulate bears' journeys within a specific urban area.

Their goal was to find the best way to keep bears out.

Using the resort municipality of Whistler as their area of inquiry, the team partnered with Margo Supplies, a wildlife management technology solutions company based in High River, Alberta. Using agent-based computer modelling, researchers were able to simulate the movement of black bears in and around Whistler, identifying the potential attractants luring them in.

"Our model allows us to drop in large amounts of data, including the landscape's spatial characteristics, movement patterns collected from GPS tracking of real bears, and other important information to essentially create a virtual landscape," says Crevier.

The problem, he adds, is that bears are attracted to what researchers call anthropogenic food -- easily attainable food sources such as human garbage, berries or fruit.

"We were able to track the model bears as they moved through the landscape and interacted with different cells in the software that represented anthropogenic food, vegetation and human deterrents. The ability to input all of these proxies allowed us to better understand where they're roaming, why, and test different strategies within the simulation to find the most effective way to keep them out."

The study's findings reinforced the team's expectations that using attractant reduction and human deterrent strategies together was the most effective way to keep bears away. In cases where only one strategy could be applied, reducing attractants was the most effective.

"These results confirm that the most commonly used management strategies are indeed the most effective," explains Crevier. "What was really interesting was how the model allowed us to identify attractants that maybe otherwise wouldn't be considered -- like human garbage or large amounts of berries on private land within city limits."

A bear's intelligence and memory are largely the reasons why reducing the availability of anthropogenic food is considered more effective than reactive management strategies that aim to deter bears, when used alone.

"Using deterrents like bear bangers may be effective temporarily in that the bear will get frightened and run away, but they won't be gone for long," explains Dr. Parrott. "They'll remember being scared off, but their memories of the good meal will supersede their fear."

Though Whistler was selected as the study location because of the large number of black bears venturing into town, Crevier says this same type of modelling can be used for communities across Canada experiencing similar issues.

"What's cool about this model is it allows us to look at how different management strategies interact with each other, and this type of model can also be applied to better understand the movements of other large predators like cougars or wolves," he adds.

Dr. Parrott stresses it is important to learn how to co-exist with wildlife in a way that's safe for all -- including the animals. While some people may not think twice about a neighbourhood bear being destroyed, the practice has far-reaching implications.

"We know that bears who tend to come into communities are often juvenile or female bears with cubs, because the large males already have all the 'good spots' and have established their territories," she explains. "That's cause for concern because it means the females are teaching their cubs techniques to access anthropogenic food. It also means these are the bears who are most often put down, so we're selectively eliminating a particular part of their population.

The results of this study and similar agent-based models give conservationists another tool in the toolbox to help communities reduce the number of bears entering urban areas, ultimately reducing the number of bears destroyed, and putting the brakes on these problematic trends."

Osaka, Japan - Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide and can progress to liver cirrhosis, liver failure or cancer. Currently, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) diagnosis requires an invasive liver biopsy which can lead to procedural complications. Now, researchers at Osaka University working with international collaborators have identified a noninvasive biomarker that can identify patients at risk of NAFLD complications using a simple blood test.

Owing to the increasing prevalence of obesity worldwide, as many as one in four humans has NAFLD. Unrelated to alcohol intake by definition, the early stage - NAFL (nonalcoholic fatty liver) - is asymptomatic. Unfortunately, progression to NASH incurs inflammatory damage and eventually liver fibrosis occurs; this may further lead to adverse outcomes. Liver deterioration can be deferred by lifestyle modifications comprising diet and exercise; therefore, early diagnosis is key.

Diagnostic confirmation requires a needle biopsy; however, the disadvantages include expense and variability in sampling and interpretation. The research team investigated whether they could devise a diagnostic screen using transcriptomics, the emerging science of analyzing the 'transcriptome,' the entire array of an organism's messenger RNA molecules derived from expression of the genome.

"We obtained liver tissue from over 300 Japanese and European patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD and performed global RNA sequencing," co-first author Kazuhiro Kozumi explains. "Remarkably, from the protein patterns we could not only distinguish NASH from NAFL, but also determine the molecular hallmarks of NASH pathology. Specifically, we pinpointed that levels of thrombospondin-2 (TSP-2), a glycoprotein encoded by the THBS2 gene, were increased in both NASH and advanced fibrosis."

The researchers established that THBS2 expression in liver cells paralleled the clinical indicators conventionally used to categorize the pathological changes including serum enzyme levels, NAFLD Activity Score and NAFLD Fibrosis Score. "Serum levels of TSP-2 in NAFLD patients were significantly higher in NASH than in NAFL," co-first author Takahiro Kodama claims, "and, interestingly, the increase tallied with the degree of fibrosis."

Corresponding author Tetsuo Takehara explains the clinical relevance of their research findings. "Both hepatic THBS2 gene expression in the liver and serum protein levels of TSP-2 can diagnose cases of NASH and/or advanced fibrosis. A simple and convenient blood test can provide a clinically useful early warning system for complications of NAFLD and inform lifestyle modifications or other interventions that may alter the course of the disease and improve the prognosis."