Culture

The so-called 'bullshit jobs theory' - which argues that a large and rapidly increasing number of workers are undertaking jobs that they themselves recognise as being useless and of no social value - contains several major flaws, argue researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham.

Even so, writing in Work, Employment and Society, the academics applaud its proponent, American anthropologist David Graeber, who died in September 2020, for highlighting the link between a sense of purpose in one's job and psychological wellbeing.

Graeber initially put forward the concept of 'bullshit jobs' - jobs that even those who do them view as worthless - in his 2013 essay The Democracy Project. He further expanded this theory in his 2018 book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, looking at possible reasons for the existence of such jobs.

Jobs that Graeber described as bullshit (BS) jobs range from doormen and receptionists to lobbyists and public relations specialists through to those in the legal profession, particularly corporate lawyers and legal consultants.

Dr Magdalena Soffia from the University of Cambridge and the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, one of the authors of the article, said: "There's something appealing about the bullshit jobs theory. The fact that many people have worked in such jobs at some point may explain why Graeber's work resonates with so many people who can relate to the accounts he gives. But his theory is not based on any reliable empirical data, even though he puts forward several propositions, all of which are testable."

To test Graeber's propositions, the researchers turned to the 2005-2015 European Working Conditions Surveys (EWCS), examining reasons that led to respondents answering 'rarely' or 'never' to the statement: 'I have the feeling of doing useful work'. The surveys - taken in 2005, 2010 and 2015 - gather measures on the usefulness of the job, workers' wellbeing and objective data on the quality of work. The number of respondents grew from over 21,000 in 2005 to almost 30,000 in 2015.

According to Graeber, somewhere between 20% and 50% of the workforce - possibly as many as 60% - are employed in BS jobs. Yet the EWCS found that just 4.8% of EU workers said they did not feel they were doing useful work. The figure was slightly higher in the UK and Ireland, but still only 5.6% of workers.

Graeber also claimed that the number of BS jobs has been 'increasing rapidly in recent years', despite presenting no empirical evidence. Again the researchers found no evidence to support this conjecture - in fact, the percentage of people in BS jobs fell from 7.8% in 2005 to just 4.8% in 2015 - exactly the opposite of Graeber's prediction.

His next hypothesis was that BS jobs are concentrated in particular professions, such as finance, law, administration and marketing, and largely absent in others, such as those linked to public services and manual labour. "Many service workers hate their jobs; but even those who do are aware that what they do does make some sort of meaningful difference in the world . . . [Whereas] we can only assume that any office worker who one might suspect secretly believes themselves to have a bullshit job does, indeed, believe this," he wrote.

When the researchers ranked the occupations by the proportion of people who rated their job as rarely or never useful, they found no evidence for the existence of occupations in which the majority of workers feel their work is not useful.

The authors found that workers in some occupations, such as teachers and nurses, generally see themselves as doing useful jobs, while sales workers are above average in the proportion rating their job as not useful (7.7%). Even so, most of the results contradict Graeber's assertion. For example, legal professionals and administration professionals are all low on this ranking, and jobs that Graeber rates as being examples of essential non-BS jobs, such as refuse collectors (9.7%) and cleaners and helpers (8.1%), are high on this scale.

Not everything that Graeber suggested was wrong, however. He argued, for example, that BS jobs are a form of 'spiritual violence' that lead to anxiety, depression and misery among workers. The team found strong evidence between the perception of one's job as useless and an individual's psychological wellbeing, albeit a correlation rather than necessarily a causal link. In the UK in 2015, workers who felt their job was not useful scored significantly lower on the World Health Organisation Well-Being Index than those who felt they were doing useful work (a mean average of 49.3 compared with 64.5). There was a similar gap across other EU nations.

Dr Alex Wood from the University of Birmingham said: "When we looked at readily-available data from a large cohort of people across Europe, it quickly became apparent to us that very few of the key propositions in Graeber's theory can be sustained - and this is the case in every country we looked at, to varying degrees. But one of his most important propositions - that BS jobs are a form of 'spiritual violence' - does seem to be supported by the data."

Given that, in absolute terms, a substantial number of people do not view their jobs as useful, what then leads to this feeling? The team found that those individuals who felt respected and encouraged by management were less likely to report their work as useless. Conversely, when employees experience management that is disrespectful, inefficient or poor at giving feedback, they were less likely to perceive their work as useful.

Similarly, individuals who saw their job as useful tended to be able to use their own ideas at work - an important element for feeling that your job provides you with the ability to make the most of your skills - was correlated with a perception of usefulness. There was a clear relationship between the extent to which people felt that they had enough time to do their job well and their rating of the usefulness of their job, suggesting that one source of feeling a job to be useless is the pace at which one is working, affecting the ability to realise one's potential and capabilities. Other factors correlated with feeling that a job was worthwhile included support by managers and colleagues and the ability to influence important decisions and the direction of an organization.

Professor Brendan Burchell from the University of Cambridge said: "Although the data doesn't always support David Graeber's claims, his insightful and imaginative work played an important role in raising awareness of the harms of useless jobs. He may have been way off the mark with regards how common BS jobs are, but he was right to link people's attitudes towards their jobs to their psychological wellbeing, and this is something that employers - and society as a whole - should take seriously.

"Most importantly, employees need to be respected and valued if they in turn are to value - and benefit psychologically as well as financially from - their jobs."

RUDN University mathematician and his colleagues from France and Hungary developed an algorithm for parallel computing, which allows solving applied problems, such as electrodynamics or hydrodynamics. The gain in time is up to 50%. The results are published in the Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics.

Parallel computing methods are often used to process practical problems in physics, engineering, biology, and other fields. It involves several processors joined in a net to simultaneously solve a single problem -- each has its own small part. The way to distribute the work between the processors and make them "communicate" with each other is a choice based on the specifics of a particular problem. One possible method is domain decomposition. The study domain is divided into separate parts -- subdomains -- according to the number of processors. When that number is very high, especially in heterogeneous high-performance computing (HPC) environments, asynchronous processes constitute a valuable ingredient. Usually, Schwarz methods are used, in which the subdomains overlap each other. This provides accurate results but does not suit when overlap is not straightforward. RUDN University Mathematician and his colleagues from France and Hungary proposed a new algorithm that makes the asynchronous decomposition easier in many structural cases -- the subdomains do not overlap; the result remains accurate with less time needed for computation.

"Until now, almost all investigations of asynchronous iterations within domain decomposition frameworks targeted methods of the parallel Schwarz type. A first, and sole, attempt to deal with primal nonoverlapping decomposition resulted in simultaneously iterating on the subdomains and on the interface between them. That means that computation scheme is defined on the whole global domain", Guillaume Gbikpi-Benissan, Engineering Academy of RUDN University.

Mathematicians proposed an algorithm based on the Gauss-Seidel method. The essence of the innovation is that the calculation algorithm is not run simultaneously on the entire domain, but alternately on the subdomains and the boundaries between them. As a result, the values obtained during each iteration within the subdomain can be immediately used for calculations on the boundary at no additional cost.

Mathematicians tested the new algorithm on the Poisson equation and the linear elasticity problem. The first one is used, for example, to describe the electrostatic field, the second one is used in hydrodynamics, to describe the motion of liquids. The new method was faster than the original one for both equations. A gain of up to 50% was indeed achieved -- with 720 subdomains, the computation of the Poisson equation took 84 seconds while the original algorithm spent 170 seconds. Moreover, the number of synchronous alternating iterations decreases with an increase in the number of subdomains.

"It is a quite interesting behavior which can be explained by the fact that the ratio of alternation increases as the subdomains sizes are reduced and more of interface appears. This work therefore encourages for further possibilities and new promising investigations of the asynchronous computing paradigm", Guillaume Gbikpi-Benissan, Engineering Academy of RUDN University.

"Ornaments composed of elk teeth suspended from or sown on to clothing emit a loud rattling noise when moving," says auditory archaeologist and Academy of Finland Research Fellow Riitta Rainio from the University of Helsinki. "Wearing such rattlers while dancing makes it easier to immerse yourself in the soundscape, eventually letting the sound and rhythm take control of your movements. It is as if the dancer is led in the dance by someone."

Rainio is well versed in the topic, as she danced, for research purposes, for six consecutive hours, wearing elk tooth ornaments produced according to the Stone Age model. Rainio and artist Juha Valkeapää held a performance to find out what kind of wear marks are formed in the teeth when they bang against each other and move in all directions. The sound of a tooth rattler can be clear and bright or loud and pounding, depending on the number and quality of the teeth, as well as the intensity of movement.

Microanalysis demonstrates that tooth wear marks are the result of dancing

The teeth worn out by dancing were analysed for any microscopic marks before and after the dancing. These marks were then compared to the findings made in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov graves by Evgeny Girya, an archaeologist specialised in micro-marks at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Girya documented and analysed the wear marks in the elk teeth found in four graves chosen for the experiment. Comparing the chips, hollows, cuts and smoothened surfaces of the teeth, he observed a clear resemblance between teeth worn out by dancing and the Stone Age teeth. However, the marks in the Stone Age teeth were deeper and more extensive. According to Girya, the results show that the marks are the result of similar activity.

"As the Stone Age teeth were worn for years or even decades, it's no surprise that their marks are so distinctive," Girya says.

Associate Professor of Archaeology Kristiina Mannermaa from the University of Helsinki is excited by the research findings.

"Elk tooth rattlers are fascinating, since they transport modern people to a soundscape that is thousands of years old and to its emotional rhythms that guide the body. You can close your eyes, listen to the sound of the rattlers and drift on the soundwaves to a lakeside campfire in the world of Stone Age hunter-gatherers."

A total of 177 graves of women, men and children have been found in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov burial site, of which more than half contain several elk tooth ornaments, some of them composed of as many as over 300 individual teeth.

Physiologically, milk contains biocomponents that are highly protective against infections. In light of this, the AGR-149-Infectious Diseases group at the University of Cordoba's Department of Animal Health is doing research that focuses on cow's milk as a possible source of Covid-19 control. The results have been published, partially, in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

This is possible due to "crossed immunity", and there is already evidence of the protection it provides, explained one of the principal investigators, Mari Carmen Borge. "It has been shown that the immune cells that the vaccinated animal generates against bovine coronavirus are capable of controlling other coronaviruses as well, such as SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19".

Antonio Arenas, principal investigator on the project, spoke of the similarity that exists between Bovine Coronavirus (BCoV) and SARS-CoV-2 to explain the effectiveness of this technique. "There are a number of highly conserved structures of the virus that are similar in both viruses. In fact, both belong to the genus Betacoronavirus. Thus, cow's milk could have a total or partial blocking action against SARS-CoV-2".

In this way, these bovine antibodies could neutralize the virus in people who are already infected, or help prevent the disease in those who have not been vaccinated, or who have been, but have not developed immunity.

Thus, the aim is to come up with a supplement that would boost the immune system through a dairy preparation with a high level of antibodies, helping the system control infection through different immune pathways.

The animals from which the milk is extracted have been previously vaccinated with commercial BCoV vaccines, thus generating high levels of antibodies. However, the time when milk is most effective is just after a birth: "then the level of immunoglobulin in the milk increases - what is called colostrum - but it has a certain duration," Arenas added.

Now the scientific challenge is to be able to extend the colostrum period, and also to study how to always ensure the same level of antibodies in the final product. Plans call for it to be marketed in single-dose format as of September. "For this, we have to readjust the reproduction cycles of bovine farms in order to always maintain a set of animals with high antibodies", the researcher explained.

This dairy preparation, which anyone can consume, has already been tested on more than 300 people. Amongst them, no serious Covid-19 process has been detected. As soon as it goes on the market an observational test will be carried out. In any case, it will not be harmful to health, and it could become a natural resource providing people with a certain level of immunity.

There are other technological challenges: herd management, hygiene processes, conservation, packaging, marketing, medical, etc., that make this a holistic and complex project.

Researchers have re-animated specimens of a fungus that causes coffee wilt to discover how the disease evolved and how its spread can be prevented.

Coffee Wilt Disease is caused by a fungus that has led to devastating outbreaks since the 1920s in sub-Saharan Africa, and currently affects two of Africa's most popular coffee varieties: Arabica and Robusta.

The new research shows that the fungus likely boosted its ability to infect coffee plants by acquiring genes from a closely related fungus, which causes wilt disease on a wide range of crops, including Panama disease in bananas.

The researchers say this knowledge could help farmers reduce the risk of new disease strains emerging, for example by not planting coffee together with other crops or by preventing the build-up of plant debris that could harbour the related fungus.

The research team, from Imperial College London, the University of Oxford, and the agricultural not-for-profit CABI, also say that studying historical samples in CABI's culture collection could provide a wealth of insights into how crop diseases evolve and find new, sustainable ways to fight them. The study is published today in BMC Genomics.

First author of the study Lily Peck is studying on the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership at the Grantham Institute and the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial. She said: "Using ever-higher volumes of chemicals and fungicides to fight emerging crop diseases is neither sustainable nor affordable for many growers.

"If we can instead understand how new types of diseases evolve, we can give growers the knowledge they need to reduce the risk of new diseases emerging in the first place."

The team re-animated cryogenically frozen samples of the fungus that causes Coffee Wilt Disease. There have been two serious outbreaks of the disease, in the 1920s-1950s and between the 1990s-2000s, and it still causes damage. For example, in 2011, 55,000 Robusta coffee trees were killed by wilt in Tanzania, destroying 160T of coffee in the process - equivalent to over 22 million cups of coffee.

In the outbreak beginning in the 1920s, Coffee Wilt Disease infected a wide range of coffee varieties, and was eventually brought under control in the 1950s by management practices such as burning infected trees, seeking natural resistance in coffee, and breeding programs that selected for more resistant plant varieties.

However, the disease re-emerged in the 1970s and spread extensively through the 1990s-2000s. Two separate disease populations have been identified with each only infecting specific types of coffee: one infecting Arabica coffee in Ethiopia, and the other infecting Robusta coffee in east and central Africa. The team wanted to investigate how the two strains had emerged.

In a secure lab at CABI, they re-awakened two strains from the original outbreak, collected in the 1950s and deposited into CABI's collection, and two strains each from the two coffee-specific fungal strains, with the most recent from 2003. They then sequenced the genomes of the fungi and examined their DNA for evidence of changes that could have helped them infect these specific coffee varieties.

They discovered the newer, variety-specific fungi have larger genomes than the earlier strains, and they identified genes that could have helped the fungi overcome plants' defences and survive within the plants to trigger disease.

These genes were also found to be highly similar to those found in a different, closely related fungus that affects over 120 different crops, including bananas in sub-Saharan Africa, causing Panama disease, which is currently devastating today's most popular variety, the Cavendish banana.

While strains of this banana-infecting fungus are known to be able to swap genes, conferring the ability to infect new varieties, the potential transfer of their genes to a different species of fungi has not been seen before. However, the team note that the two species sometimes live in close proximity on the roots of coffee and banana plants, and so it is possible that the coffee fungus gained these advantageous genes from its normally banana-based neighbour.

Coffee and bananas are often grown together, as coffee plants like the shade provided by the taller banana plants. The researchers say their study could suggest not growing crops with closely related diseases together, like banana and coffee, could reduce the possibility of new strains of coffee-killing fungi evolving.

The researchers are now using the re-animated strains to infect coffee plants in the lab, in order to study exactly how the fungus infects the plant, potentially providing other ways to prevent the disease taking hold.

The insights could also be applied to different crop plants, where other closely related plant pathogens could make similar leaps, causing new diseases to emerge. Having shown the value of examining historical specimens of plant disease, the team plan to replicate the study with other diseases stored in CABI's collection, which hosts 30,000 specimens collected from around the world over the past 100 years.

Lead researcher Professor Timothy Barraclough, from the Department of Zoology at Oxford and the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: "The historical approach shows us what happens to a plant pathogen before and after a new outbreak of disease occurs. We can then study the mechanisms of evolution and improve predictions of how similar outbreaks could occur in the future.

"Our aim is to replicate this study for many plant pathogens, eventually drawing up a 'rule book' of how pathogenicity evolves, helping us to prevent future outbreaks where possible."

Concerns about side effects and whether vaccines have been through enough testing are holding people back from getting vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a new report.

Data from an international survey of 15 countries* which ran between March and May this year showed that these were the most commonly cited reasons for not having had a coronavirus vaccine yet, in addition to not being eligible for one. Respondents' other commonly reported reasons included concerns about not getting the vaccine they would prefer, and worries over whether the vaccines are effective enough.

Led by Imperial College London's Institute of Global Health Innovation in collaboration with YouGov, the survey also looked at trust in COVID-19 vaccines. Findings from over 68,000 people showed that there is variation across the world but overall, confidence is high with greater than 50% of respondents saying they trust coronavirus vaccines, except in South Korea and Japan (47%). People in the UK are most trusting with almost 9 in 10 saying they trust the vaccines (87%), followed by Israel (83%).

People's trust in different vaccine brands was also found to vary. Among respondents who hadn't yet been vaccinated, Pfizer was the most trusted across all age groups in 9 of the 15 countries, and also in the under 65s in three additional countries (Canada, Singapore and Sweden).

The most notable exceptions to this trend were found in countries with high rates of vaccination, namely the UK, US and Israel. People in Israel showed little preference with most under 65s saying they would trust any of the brands listed (AstraZeneca/Oxford, Pfizer, Moderna, Sputnik V and Sinopharm), while the biggest share of over 65s said they wouldn't trust any of them. Respondents in the US showed the least trust in the different brands, with the largest share of people across all ages saying they don't trust any of them.

In the UK, Oxford/AstraZeneca was the most trusted vaccine in the under 65s back in March but confidence has declined over time across all age groups. In most other countries, trust in Oxford/AstraZeneca is low, as with Sputnik V and Sinopharm.

Professor Ara Darzi, co-director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation, said: "Effective COVID-19 vaccination programmes are about demand as much as supply, and this global survey reveals important insight into why people might not put themselves forward to take one if offered. It's vital that leaders listen to these concerns and address them with urgency so that more people will be willing to accept these life-saving vaccines."

The report is part of a major ongoing effort to monitor changing patterns of health-related behaviours and attitudes during the pandemic. Since April 2020 the researchers have surveyed more than half a million global citizens so that leaders can plan public health responses based on their country's needs.

The most recent survey, carried out with contribution from the WHO working group on measuring behavioural and social drivers of COVID-19 vaccination, shows that confidence in health authorities varies. People in the UK had the most confidence, with 70% believing their government would provide an effective coronavirus vaccine, while South Korea had the least confidence (42%). In five countries, under half said they believe their governments will do so.

Sarah Jones, co-project lead from the Institute of Global Health Innovation, said: "Our programme has been tracking people's attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines since November and it's encouraging to see that trust has steadily been climbing. However our findings show that there is still much work to be done to reassure the public of the safety and effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines. We hope that sharing the concerns people have raised will spur timely and targeted responses from governments that will inform and educate the public about the importance of vaccination."

Melanie Leis, co-project lead from the Institute of Global Health Innovation, said: "From our data we can see that people trust different COVID-19 vaccines to different extents. This is an opportunity for leaders to respond and help boost confidence in all approved vaccine brands, enabling vaccination programmes to reach more people and more effectively curb the pandemic."

A University of Birmingham-led study funded by the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium has found that many patients with COVID-19 produce immune responses against their body's own tissues or organs.

COVID-19 has been associated with a variety of unexpected symptoms, both at the time of infection and for many months afterwards. It is not fully understand what causes these symptoms, but one of the possibilities is that COVID-19 is triggering an autoimmune process where the immune system is misdirected to attack itself.

The study, published today (June 4) in the journal Clinical & Experimental Immunology, investigated the frequency and types of common autoantibodies produced in 84 individuals who either had severe COVID-19 at the time of testing or in the recovery period following both severe COVID-19 and those with milder disease that did not need to attend hospital. These results were compared to a control group of 32 patients who were in intensive care for another reason other than COVID-19.

An autoantibody is an antibody (a type of protein) produced by the immune system that is directed against one or more of the individual's own proteins and can cause autoimmune diseases. Infection can, in some circumstances, lead to autoimmune disease. Early data suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger long-term autoimmune complications and there are reports of SARS-CoV-2 infection being associated with a number of autoimmune disorders including Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

Supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the study found higher numbers of autoantibodies in the COVID-19 patients than the control group and that these antibodies lasted up to six months.

Non-COVID patients displayed a diverse pattern of autoantibodies; in contrast, the COVID-19 groups had a more restricted panel of autoantibodies including skin, skeletal muscle and cardiac antibodies.

The authors also find that those with more severe COVID-19 were more likely to have an autoantibody in their blood.

First author Professor Alex Richter, of the University of Birmingham, explained: "The antibodies we identified are similar to those that cause a number of skin, muscle and heart autoimmune diseases.

"We don't yet know whether these autoantibodies are definitely causing symptoms in patients and whether this is a common phenomenon after lots of infections or just following COVID-19. These questions will be addressed in the next part of our study."

Senior Author Professor David Wraith, of the University of Birmingham, adds: "In this detailed study of a range of different tissues, we showed for the first time that COVID-19 infection is linked to production of selective autoantibodies. More work is needed to define whether these antibodies contribute to the long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection and hence could be targeted for treatment."

Professor Paul Moss, Principal Investigator of the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium and Professor of Haematology at the University of Birmingham added: "This is an interesting study that reveals new insights into a potential autoimmune component to the effects of COVID-19. Research like this has been made possible by the huge collaborative efforts made by those that are a part of the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium. This study is another important step towards delivering real improvements in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19 to patients."

The study participants were separated into four cohorts:

Group one: 32 individuals sampled during their stay in intensive care for reasons other than COVID-19. 41% of individuals had autoantibodies. In this group, there were many different causes of their illness (over half was pneumonia) and autoantibodies were found against nearly all of the different autoantigens examined, indicating a more random distribution.

Group two: 25 individuals who were sampled during their stay in intensive care following a diagnosis of severe COVID-19. 60% had autoantibodies. Of those who tested positive for autoantibodies, 41% had epidermal (skin) antibodies, while 17% had skeletal antibodies.

Group three: 35 individuals who had been admitted to intensive care with COVID-19, survived and were sampled three to six months later during routine outpatient follow up. 77% of individuals had autoantibodies. Of those who tested positive for autoantibodies, 19% had epidermal (skin) antibodies, 19% had skeletal antibodies, 28% had cardiac muscle antibodies; and 31% had smooth muscle antibodies.

Group four: 24 healthcare workers sampled one to three months after mild to moderate COVID-19 that did not require hospitalisation. 54% of individuals had autoantibodies. In those who tested positive for autoantibodies, it was against only four autoantigens: 25% had epidermal (skin) antibodies; 17% had smooth muscle antibodies; 8% had anti-neutrophil cytoplasm (ANCA) antibodies that target a type of human white blood cells; and 4% had gastric parietal antibodies which are associated with autoimmune gastritis and anaemia.

There has been concern at how the pandemic has not only hit physical health and the economy but has also impacted our mental health with the possibility of increased rates of suicide.

Now a new study - a collaboration between Swansea University, Cardiff University, and the NHS in Wales - has investigated exactly which Covid-related stressors are most likely to trigger suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

The researchers also discovered the important role that hope for the future can play - along with individuals' levels resilience - when it comes to coping with these stressors.

More than 12,000 people responded to the Wales Wellbeing survey which asked volunteers to share their experiences during the first UK lockdown.

The results, which have just been published by journal the Archives of Suicide Research, show that several stressors such as social isolation, domestic abuse, relationship problems, redundancy, and financial problems were strongly linked to suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

However, not everyone enduring these issues reported having suicidal thoughts. Those individuals with high levels of resilience and hope for the future were less affected by these pressures.

Professor Nicola Gray, from Swansea University, said: "We can use these findings to target which stressors are the most toxic in terms of driving people towards thoughts of suicide. While some of these may ease as we come out of lockdown, others may persist well into the future."

Professor Robert Snowden, from Cardiff University, added: "Many of these stressors are difficult to avoid, so we also need to instil hope for the future in our communities to help people get through these difficult times."

The survey was conducted at the time of the first UK lockdown (June-July 2020) and the paper's lead author, James Knowles, from Swansea University, is continuing to monitor the situation.

He said: "People's responses to a traumatic crisis do not follow a simple path of depression then recovery. It is currently unclear as to whether people simply have got worse as the crisis has continued or whether they are becoming more immune to the situation and are developing increased resilience. Only by understanding this can we be in a position to make an effective response and help people who might be suffering."

A nasal therapy, built upon on the application of a new engineered IgM antibody therapy for COVID-19, was more effective than commonly used IgG antibodies at neutralizing the COVID-19 virus in animal models, according to research recently published by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB Health), the University of Houston, and IGM Biosciences, Inc.

The study was published today in Nature.

Researchers engineered IgM antibodies and found that in all cases, these antibodies were significantly more potent than standard IgG antibodies in neutralizing the COVID-19 virus. One of the engineered IgM antibodies, IGM-6268, demonstrated a significantly increased potency against the original SARS-CoV-2 and emerging variants such as the current U.K., South African, and Brazilian variants of concern (VOC) and variants of interest (VOI), as well as the antibody escape mutants for the current Emergency Use Authorization antibodies. Additionally, IGM-6268 was shown to be highly effective for prophylaxis and treatment in mouse models when administered intranasally.

"High viral load in the respiratory tract correlates with severe illness and mortality in patients with COVID-19," said Zhiqiang An, PhD, director of UTHealth Texas Therapeutics Institute, professor and Robert A. Welch Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, and faculty member at MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and one of the corresponding authors on the study. "Respiratory mucosal antibodies are key to clearing SARS-CoV-2 infection and reducing viral transmission and IgM antibodies are nature's first line of defense against pathogens such as viruses."

The current government-approved antibodies, which are all IgG antibodies, are administered intravenously at high doses and don't directly target the main sites of viral infection.

"SARS-CoV-2 has evolved mutations that severely compromise the neutralizing activities of multiple IgG monoclonal antibodies, including those under clinical trials and authorized for emergency use. Therefore, developing new antibody therapies that can overcome these challenges is an urgent unmet need, and we are pleased with the data published today," An said.

"Synergizing the strengths of multiple institutions from academia and industry is the key to the rapid translation from ideas to therapeutic candidates. This is another example of such success. The cross-institutional and academic-industry collaborations should be expanded to other disease indications," said Pei-Yong Shi, PhD, professor and co-senior author of the study from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UTMB Health.

This antibody has been licensed to biotech partner IGM Biosciences for drug development.

"The ability to use potently neutralizing IgM antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 with broad coverage of VOCs, VOIs, and viral escape mutants, is a very exciting application of the IGM platform," said Fred Schwarzer, CEO of IGM Biosciences. "We are grateful to our collaborators at UTHealth, UTMB Health, and our scientists at IGM for the exceptional work described in Nature today."

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Airway mucus consists of various proteins such as long mucins MUC5AC and MUC5B, both of which contribute greatly to the proper gel-like consistency of this most essential bodily fluid. UNC School of Medicine researchers led by mucin expert Mehmet Kesimer, PhD, had previously discovered that the total mucin concentrations in the lungs are associated with COPD disease progression and could be used as diagnostic markers of chronic bronchitis, a hallmark condition for patients with COPD. Kesimer and colleagues now report that one of these mucins, MUC5AC, is more closely and reliably associated with the development of COPD than is its brother, MUC5B.

The research, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, shows that MUC5AC is found at elevated levels in smokers who had not yet developed COPD but whose lung function wound up decreasing over the course of the three-year study. Former smokers at-risk for COPD, on the other hand, had normal levels of MUC5AC at the start of the study and maintained proper lung function over three years. MUC5AC hyperconcentration in the lungs may be a key factor in predicting the risks and rates of progression to more severe disease, according to the study.

Recent nationwide efforts have focused on early- or pre-COPD to predict the risks of progression to COPD amongst smokers.

"Currently, we cannot forecast which individuals in the at-risk smokers group will progress to COPD because we don't have an objective biological marker to underpin the disease-causing pathways. Our research shows that MUC5AC could be a predictor of who will develop COPD from the large group of aging "at-risk" smokers," said Kesimer, senior author of the study, professor in the UNC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and member of the UNC Marsico Lung Institute. "We think MUC5AC could be a new biomarker for COPD prognosis and it could be a biomarker for testing the effectiveness of therapeutic strategies."

MUC5AC could also become a target for pharmaceutical developers whose goal it is to halt COPD disease progression and help patients live more normal, active lives.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory lung disease that causes obstructed airflow from the lungs and affects about 16 million people in the United States. Symptoms include breathing difficulty, coughing, mucus production, and wheezing. It's typically caused by long-term exposure to irritants, such as particulate matter like cigarette smoke. The two main conditions that contribute to COPD are chronic bronchitis, an inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes due to chronic mucin/mucus accumulation; and emphysema, when the tiny air sacs at the end of the smallest air passages of the lungs are destroyed.

There are some treatment options for COPD to attempt to slow disease progression and reduce symptoms, but treatments often don't work well, especially during late stages of the condition, and there is no cure.

The Kesimer Lab in the UNC Marsico Lung Institute uses various techniques, including mass spectrometry, to identify and measure the different biological mechanisms involved in lung conditions. For this study, the UNC team of scientists were able to measure the concentrations of MUC5AC and MUC5B in different groups of people, including people who had never smoked cigarettes, who had quit smoking, and who continue to smoke with or without COPD.

Smoking cigarettes has long been known to be a major risk factor for COPD, but Kesimer's work suggests that quiting smoking decreases the odds of developing COPD as we age.

"Our data indicate that increased MUC5AC concentrations in the airways may contribute to the initiation of COPD, as well as disease progression, symptom exacerbation, and how the disease progesses over time, in general,"Kesimer said. "We did not observe the same association with MUC5B."

The best thing an aging person can do to avoid the inevitable decline associated COPD is quit smoking immediately before airway obstruction sets in due to mucin/mucus accumulation. Through Kesimer's work, though, it might be possible to pinpoint which individuals are at the highest immediate risk for developing COPD soon.

Alexandria, Va., USA -- Dental care professionals are thought to be at enhanced risk of occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2, but robust data to support this is lacking. The study "COVID-19: Seroprevalence and Vaccine Responses in UK Dental Care Professionals," published in the Journal of Dental Research (JDR), provides a longitudinal analysis of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein, including early analysis of the impact of vaccination on the immune response.

In June 2020, I,507 West Midlands dental care professionals were recruited to test for baseline seroprevalence, or the proportion of the population that have circulating antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, indicating prior COVID-19 infection. The cohort was followed longitudinally for six months until January/February 2021 through the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom and vaccination commencement.

Before enhanced personal protective equipment, natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 was significantly higher in dental care professionals. The baseline seroprevalence for dental care professionals was 16.3%, compared to estimates in the regional population of 6-7%. Following the introduction of increased infection control procedures, the rate of new infections in dental care practitioners was similar to the background population.

Seropositivity was retained in over 70% of participants at 3- and 6-month follow-up and conferred a 75% reduced risk of infection. Critically, only 5.3% of individuals infected in the first wave of COVID-19 produced a strong antibody response that provided robust protection from reinfection over 6 months. Even if antibodies waned, previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 led to a faster and stronger immune response following a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech 162b vaccine, indicating immunological memory.

"The data show that enhanced personal protective equipment used by dental care professionals is making a significant difference. The data also suggest that natural infection alone is unlikely to generate meaningful, durable herd immunity. This emphasizes the importance of vaccinations for controlling COVID-19" said JDR Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Jakubovics, Newcastle University, England. "This is an important and timely study with broad relevance that extends beyond the dental community."

Japanese researchers have developed and tested a prototype device -- wearable on the fingertips -- that incorporates the concept of 'light touch' to enhance the sense of balance. If widely implemented, the device should significantly reduce incidence of falls amongst seniors.

The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports on April 1.

As we age, our sense of balance can become impaired. The resulting increase in postural sway in turn increases the risk of falls and consequent injuries. Meanwhile, older people make up a large and increasing proportion of the population in highly developed countries. This makes efforts to reduce the effects of postural sway ever more imperative.

Aids such as canes and walking frames help a great deal, but research suggests their use or misuse in certain circumstances such as on stairs or stepping into or out of vehicles can actually exacerbate the problem with sense of balance and increase the risk of injury.

In order to address the challenge of human balance in the elderly, in recent years a great deal of research has focussed on the phenomenon known as 'light touch.' Even with eyes closed, a subject that lightly touches a curtain or piece of paper draped in front of them with just their fingertips is given enough of a stimulus cue to reduce their swaying. This happens even though a curtain or piece of paper cannot deliver any postural support in the way that a cane or walking frame can.

Researchers with Yokohama National University (YNU) and the Prefectural University of Hiroshima wanted to test a way to create a 'virtual light touch' (VLT) system to achieve the same result--in effect creating a virtual curtain.

The first step was a basic VLT system that incorporated a small device that fits over a fingertip of a subject--much like wearing a thimble--and delivers a vibrotactile 'nudge' when they begin to sway. Assessment of swaying in this first attempt at a VLT was performed by a 3D motion capture system akin to what is used by special effects professionals in the movie industry.

Initial tests on subjects with this proof-of-concept system showed results equivalent to the use of a physical curtain.

"The use of such a large and complex motion capture system is no more practical in daily life than a curtain," said Keisuke Shima, Associate Professor at faculty of engineering of YNU and lead author of the study.

"But the tests on live subjects showed that the concept worked," added YNU researcher Mami Sakata, a co-author of the paper. "The next step was to transform the VLT into a system that could be used in everyday life."

The researchers swapped out the motion capture system for an accelerometer--an electromechanical device that measures acceleration forces--similar to what is found in most smartphones. The vibrotactile nudges were still delivered by the vibrotactile thimble device.

The accelerometer-and-vibrotactile-thimble VLT system was then tested on 150 volunteers ranging in age from their sixties to their nineties and again found that postural sway was reduced as significantly as a physical curtain.

The acceleration-based VLT set-up is immediately practical as a balance aid in everyday life as it involves a simple, lightweight and compact sensor and motor. It should enjoy widespread adoption amongst elderly people.

However, the researchers want to improve their system further by making the device even more lightweight and compact, and to enhance its reduction of postural sway. For this latter enhancement, they will need to explore precisely how the still poorly understood light-touch effect works to support human balance.

A new study looking at the benefits of good farmer seed production suggests women need more support to participate in contract farming - to the same extent as their male counterparts - and have more equality along the whole food value chain.

The CABI-led research - which sought to assess the benefits of good farmer seed production through a case study of the Good Seed Initiative in Tanzania - reveals that while around 70% of the labour to grow African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) is provided by women only 10 to 30% are contract farmers who own the fields, make decisions on sales and control revenues.

The paper, led by Dr Monica Kansiime and published in the journal Agriculture and Food Security, argues that the adoption of gender-inclusive approaches in contract farming arrangements is 'paramount' and can have multiple benefits including shared decision-making amongst men and women.

Quality seed is key to increasing crop production, nutrition and wellbeing but smallholder farmers in Tanzania have limited access to affordable quality seeds - over 90% of seed sown is saved by farmers from previous harvests, though its quality is often poor.

The Good Seed Initiative, which ran between 2013 and 2016, sought to enhance access to quality AIV seed through the promotion of farmer seed production using two models - contract farming and Quality Declared Seed (QDS).

The programme reached over a million consumers and growers through radio programmes, seed rallies, nutritional outreaches, cook shows, and agricultural shows and events. A policy brief was also developed and circulated to stakeholders in Tanzania on the production and sales of quality assured AIV seed.

Dr Kansiime's latest study - conducted in Arusha and Dodoma - assessed post-GSI project sustainability factors and explored the prospects of replicating the approach elsewhere and also discovered significant differences in the roles men and women play in the production of the AIVs.

Dr Kansiime said, "While farmer seed production under both models continued to thrive - creating avenues for income diversification and contributing over 50% to household incomes - we found a disparity between the roles men and women play in the production of AIVs.

"QDS seed production is challenged by a lack of access to foundation seed, inspections, and seed testing services - which are key to quality seed production - but another challenge is the apparent 'crowding out' of women in seed production. And it's not just in Tanzania, in Kenya, for example, less than 10% of women participate in contract farming arrangements for fruits and vegetables."

"QDS seed production is challenged by a lack of access to foundation seed, inspections, and seed testing services - which are key to quality seed production - but another challenge is the apparent 'crowding out' of women along the AIV value chain. And it's not just in Tanzania, in Kenya, for example, less than 10% of women participate in contract farming arrangements for fruits and vegetables."

The study revealed that the new farmers entering into seed production were mainly men especially in the north, with the fear that women would be excluded along the AIV value chain as the AIV enterprises become profitable.

Dr Dannie Romney, co-author of the paper, said, "The adoption of gender-inclusive approaches in contract farming arrangements is paramount and can have multiple benefits, including decision-making and benefit of both men and women from such arrangements."

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center researchers are finding solutions to the aging-related changes that reduce anti-cancer immunity. Besim Ogretmen, Ph.D., and colleagues found a novel link between aging, metabolism and anti-cancer T-cell function. Their work, published in Cell Reports, sheds light on an important pathway that cannot be ignored during cancer treatment.

Two broad questions in cancer research are: How can cancer treatments be improved, and what is the link between cancer and aging?

"We know that the protective T-cell response deteriorates with age. Mitochondrial function is now thought to be one of the central regulators of the aging process. Our experiments connected the dots with what was previously shown and highlighted some surprising and important pathways," said Ogretmen, who is the SmartState Endowed Chair in Lipidomics and Drug Discovery.

All cells in the human body, except red blood cells, contain structures called mitochondria. Mitochondria are a cell's central powerhouse -- they produce the chemical energy necessary for survival. Ogretmen's prior studies showed that a particular type of fatty molecule, called ceramide, causes mitochondrial dysfunction in cancer cells. In terms of cancer, mitochondrial dysfunction is thought to be a good thing since it weakens the cancer cells.

However, mitochondrial dysfunction might not be completely beneficial for cancer treatment. "We know that increased ceramide signaling is linked with aging, but it is important that we understand if this is also occurring in immune cells. Immunotherapy is becoming an increasingly important part of cancer treatment, so we must better understand the immune system in older people," he said.

Aging stress produces the bioactive sphingolipid called ceramide. This lipid promotes mitochondrial dysfunction by a biological mechanism called mitophagy, where the broken mitochondria are selectively destroyed to kill cancer cells. However, scientists do not know if T-cells use this same pathway or if their immune functions are changed by ceramide signaling.

The results, which were surprising, showed ceramide signaling weakens anti-tumor T-cells. The data showed that:

Aging decreases T-cell survival and function.

Aging stress induces mitophagy in T-cells.

Blocking certain ceramide molecules improves the anti-tumor function of aging T-cells.

"What this tells us is that ceramides need to be carefully controlled in a cancer setting," said Ogretmen. This is particularly important because there are several FDA-approved drugs, such as FTY720 for multiple sclerosis, that increase ceramide signaling. Systemic increase of ceramide signaling in cancer patients may be harmful because it weakens the anti-cancer function of the patient's immune system, he said.

Using multiple molecular methods, the team observed that T-cells from old mice, which were equivalent to approximately 50- to 60-year-old humans, had more ceramide accumulation in their mitochondria, which led to dysfunction. These cells had lower anti-tumor functions in cell culture and in cancer animal models. This biological pathway was confirmed by blocking ceramide signaling. Inhibiting ceramide metabolism by genetic or pharmacological means prevented mitophagy and restored the anti-cancer function of the aging T-cells, making them perform like younger counterparts.

"Our work was aided by a really strong team of collaborators and funding support from Hollings Cancer Center. The Team Science Award allowed us to generate this data, which has developed into something larger. We just resubmitted an NIH program project grant that focuses on the role of sphingolipids in T-cells and cancer," he said.

The team will continue to piece together the biological pathways and processes to ensure that these findings are applicable to humans. The next step is to understand how aging induces ceramide stress. In general, stress can invoke dormant cancers, and this may be related to ceramide signaling.

"Understanding the mechanism of ceramides and lipid metabolism in T-cells has broad implications in aging and immune cells in general. Our work is important because it allows us to understand autoimmune diseases and infections more fully, not just cancer." There is also a potential link to lifestyle choices and stress, which may accelerate the aging process of T-cells, he said.

DURHAM, N.H.-- Bears are known for being devoted and protective of their baby cubs, but research from the University of New Hampshire shows that they may also play a significant role in shielding gray fox from predators like coyotes, who compete with the fox for food and space. The research is one of the first studies to show how black bears provide a buffer to allow other, smaller carnivores to safely co-exist.

"Even though black bears and coyotes are the two most common carnivores in North America, we're still learning how they affect the ecosystems around them," said Rem Moll, assistant professor of wildlife ecology and lead author of the study. "What's unique about bears is that they hibernate, so they literally disappear for half a year, which we now know can shift animal habits in the ecosystem."

In the study, published in the journal Oecologia, researchers took a closer look at the hierarchy of carnivores to see if a major life trait, like hibernation, had a significant effect. In the western part of Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, the researchers tracked and monitored the top species of carnivores which included black bears, which are the largest and most dominant species, followed by coyotes, bobcats, and finally gray fox, which are the smallest (a bit larger than a cat) and most subordinate species. They found that in summer the gray fox stayed close to areas populated by black bears which appeared to provide a top-down buffering effect helping to protect the gray fox from the coyotes. But in the winter, when bears were hibernating, this pattern reversed and coyotes were three times more likely to move into the now vacant bear territories and the gray fox, no longer secure by the presence of the black bear, moved out. This pattern suggests that the top carnivore - black bears - provided a shield for the gray fox from competition with coyotes. But this "bear shield" was only seasonal, disappearing when the bears hibernated.

"In our field of research, there is something called the "landscape of fear" - the idea that there is a pecking order and that both predators and prey will change their behavior to avoid getting killed," said Moll. "For decades this was overlooked, so there aren't a lot of studies showing the connection between black bears and coyotes - two of the most common carnivores in the U.S. - but this work suggests that fear is important in defining the species roles in the ecosystem."

The researchers say even though this study was done near Lake Tahoe, where black bears were nearly extinct a few decades ago, they believe these instinctual actions could be a very common dynamic in any area where black bears, gray fox and coyotes co-exist.