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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have traced the locations of five brief, powerful radio blasts to the spiral arms of five distant galaxies.

Called fast radio bursts (FRBs), these extraordinary events generate as much energy in a thousandth of a second as the Sun does in a year. Because these transient radio pulses disappear in much less than the blink of an eye, researchers have had a hard time tracking down where they come from, much less determining what kind of object or objects is causing them. Therefore, most of the time, astronomers don't know exactly where to look.

Locating where these blasts are coming from, and in particular, what galaxies they originate from, is important in determining what kinds of astronomical events trigger such intense flashes of energy. The new Hubble survey of eight FRBs helps researchers narrow the list of possible FRB sources.

Flash in the Night

The first FRB was discovered in archived data recorded by the Parkes radio observatory on July 24, 2001. Since then astronomers have uncovered up to 1,000 FRBs, but they have only been able to associate roughly 15 of them to particular galaxies.

"Our results are new and exciting. This is the first high-resolution view of a population of FRBs, and Hubble reveals that five of them are localized near or on a galaxy's spiral arms," said Alexandra Mannings of the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study's lead author. "Most of the galaxies are massive, relatively young, and still forming stars. The imaging allows us to get a better idea of the overall host-galaxy properties, such as its mass and star-formation rate, as well as probe what's happening right at the FRB position because Hubble has such great resolution."

In the Hubble study, astronomers not only pinned all of them to host galaxies, but they also identified the kinds of locations they originated from. Hubble observed one of the FRB locations in 2017 and the other seven in 2019 and 2020.

"We don't know what causes FRBs, so it's really important to use context when we have it," said team member Wen-fai Fong of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. "This technique has worked very well for identifying the progenitors of other types of transients, such as supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. Hubble played a big role in those studies, too."

The galaxies in the Hubble study existed billions of years ago. Astronomers, therefore, are seeing the galaxies as they appeared when the universe was about half its current age.

Many of them are as massive as our Milky Way. The observations were made in ultraviolet and near-infrared light with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.

Ultraviolet light traces the glow of young stars strung along a spiral galaxy's winding arms. The researchers used the near-infrared images to calculate the galaxies' mass and find where older populations of stars reside.

Location, Location, Location

The images display a diversity of spiral-arm structure, from tightly wound to more diffuse, revealing how the stars are distributed along these prominent features. A galaxy's spiral arms trace the distribution of young, massive stars. However, the Hubble images reveal that the FRBs found near the spiral arms do not come from the very brightest regions, which blaze with the light from hefty stars. The images help support a picture that the FRBs likely do not originate from the youngest, most massive stars.

These clues helped the researchers rule out some of the possible triggers of types of these brilliant flares, including the explosive deaths of the youngest, most massive stars, which generate gamma-ray bursts and some types of supernovae. Another unlikely source is the merger of neutron stars, the crushed cores of stars that end their lives in supernova explosions. These mergers take billions of years to occur and are usually found far from the spiral arms of older galaxies that are no longer forming stars.

Magnetic Monsters

The team's Hubble results, however, are consistent with the leading model that FRBs originate from young magnetar outbursts. Magnetars are a type of neutron star with powerful magnetic fields. They're called the strongest magnets in the universe, possessing a magnetic field that is 10 trillion times more powerful than a refrigerator door magnet. Astronomers last year linked observations of an FRB spotted in our Milky Way galaxy with a region where a known magnetar resides.

"Owing to their strong magnetic fields, magnetars are quite unpredictable," Fong explained. "In this case, the FRBs are thought to come from flares from a young magnetar. Massive stars go through stellar evolution and becomes neutron stars, some of which can be strongly magnetized, leading to flares and magnetic processes on their surfaces, which can emit radio light. Our study fits in with that picture and rules out either very young or very old progenitors for FRBs."

The observations also helped the researchers strengthen the association of FRBs with massive, star-forming galaxies. Previous ground-based observations of some possible FRB host galaxies did not as clearly detect underlying structure, such as spiral arms, in many of them. Astronomers, therefore, could not rule out the possibility that FRBs originate from a dwarf galaxy hiding underneath a massive one. In the new Hubble study, careful image processing and analysis of the images allowed researchers to rule out underlying dwarf galaxies, according to co-author Sunil Simha of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Although the Hubble results are exciting, the researchers say they need more observations to develop a more definitive picture of these enigmatic flashes and better pinpoint their source. "This is such a new and exciting field," Fong said. "Finding these localized events is a major piece to the puzzle, and a very unique puzzle piece compared to what's been done before. This is a unique contribution of Hubble."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 22 percent of older adults in the United States suffer from a functional impairment, defined as difficulties performing daily activities, such as bathing or getting dressed, or problems with concentration or decision-making affected by physical, mental or emotional conditions.

In a new study published in the May 20, 2021 online edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that functional impairments among adults aged 50 and older are associated with a higher risk of medical cannabis use; and prescription opioid and tranquilizer/sedative use and misuse.

"Our study implies that there may be a link between functional impairments and use and misuse of these prescribed drugs. It is important to recognize that any psychoactive substance may be risky for this vulnerable population," said Benjamin Han, MD, first author of the study and a clinician-researcher in the Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Care in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego.

"Many older adults use these substances due to chronic pain, insomnia or anxiety -- conditions that can affect daily functioning. These symptoms can be challenging to manage, especially in the setting of multiple chronic conditions and other prescribed medications."

Joseph Palamar, PhD, senior author of the study and a drug epidemiologist and associate professor at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said: "It is important to recognize that prescription opioids and benzodiazepines can be risky among this demographic as effects can increase chances for falls, and overuse can lead to overdose or even addiction."

The study analyzed data from participants age 50 and older from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Through a computer-assisted interview process, participants were asked about use of cannabis and prescription opioids and tranquilizers/sedatives in the past year, as well as the presence of any functional impairments.

Those reporting cannabis use were asked if it had been recommended by a doctor, and those reporting opioid or tranquilizer/sedative use, were asked about misuse, defined as using prescription drugs in any way not directed by a doctor, including use without a prescription or use in greater amounts or longer than prescribed.

The study found that adults age 50 and older reporting medical cannabis use, prescription opioid use and misuse, or prescription tranquilizer/sedative use and misuse were more likely to report having an impairment.

"Our findings suggest the symptoms of this patient population are not always being fully addressed or that something else is going on, such as a substance use disorder or a mental health issue like depression and anxiety," said Han. "As health care providers, we need to take a closer look at chronic symptoms among older patients with functional impairments. Managing these conditions often requires a multidisciplinary approach."

Palamar said further research is needed to identify and minimize the risks of psychoactive substance use in this population -- and more fully elucidate the role of cannabis.

"Cannabis may have benefits for this population, but we need to ensure that risks don't outweigh the benefits. It's great if cannabis can lessen your grandmother's anxiety, but not if she's already at an increased risk for falling down," said Palamar.

Han said patients should work closely with their health care providers to develop appropriate treatment plans with realistic expectations.

"It is also vital to communicate the risks of medications with older adults with functional impairments and the importance of balancing these risks with the potential benefits," Han said.

Leave voters in Cornwall wanted to exit the EU to "take back control" and express concern about immigration - even though most said the movement of people across the continent had not caused issues for them, a new survey suggests.

A total of 56.5 per cent of people in Cornwall voted to Leave the EU in 2016, yet the area has received some of the highest levels of EU structural funding in England.

There have long been campaigns for Cornwall to have more political autonomy, but hardly anyone who took part in the research said they voted to Leave said they do so to get more power for politicians in the county.

The most frequent reason given, found in 79 responses to the survey, was the UK had lost control to the EU, and there was need to regain it.

Immigration was mentioned 77 times, very often paired with concerns about pressure on public services and loss of control over law-making. Comments included "uncontrolled immigration, loss of sovereignty" or 'being told by the EU how to run our country", "the costs of being part of the EU - could be better used in this country, immigration". People mentioned wanting a "strong" Britain, 16 of the 21 people that raised the issue of public services, also mentioned immigration, or a need to control borders.

However only six people said immigration was a problem in Cornwall, and only five said the issue was important to themselves and their families. These numbers doubled when people were asked about the impact on the UK, and 41 people gave it as a reason why they voted to Leave the EU.

The research was carried out as part of an Economic and Social Research Council Impact Accelerator project to understand why regions with high levels of European Union Structural Funding support voted disproportionately to Leave.

Dr Joanie Willett, from the University of Exeter carried out carried out three focus groups with 15 participants, as well as nine one-to-one interviews, and a questionnaire seven to ten months after the referendum, to understand the key factors behind the result. All participants had voted Leave.

The qualitative survey, which had largely open questions, was shared on social media, and email lists of business, local government, and cultural organisations. It was open for a 4-week period, and received 186 responses from Leave voters.

Dr Willett said: "Our research indicates people voted to Leave the EU because they felt like they were supporting their nation, and that would protect them, rather than a desire for stronger say in what happens in their communities. People didn't ask for political decision making to be more decentralised, but this could be a useful response to the concerns people had about having more control."

Only three survey responses mentioned voting Leave because it would allow more local control over decision-making.

Democracy was mentioned in 44 responses, membership of the EU being a waste of money in 43, wanting to create a strong Britain in 35, sovereignty in 18, the economy in 13, fishing and farming in 10, and freedom/independence/autonomy in 8. The European Court of Justice received six mentions, two people made reference to Germany and World War Two.

A total of 47 people used highly emotive language, for example: "sovereignty - not to be elected by an unelected foreign elite", but most people described their decision to vote Leave in more restrained terms. This included comments such as "Europe had too much hold on legislation"

Dr Willett said: "Many people who took part in the study wanted a strong affective economy, good public services and accessible jobs. They seem to have linked a Leave vote with expressing concerns about the association between immigration and the economy. These issues don't appear to be grounded in people's daily experiences."

INFORMS Journal Information Systems Research Study Key Takeaways:

In real-time feedback the relationship source (peer, subordinate or supervisor) plays a role: the feedback tends to be more critical when it is from supervisors.

Favoritism and retribution are impacted in real-time feedback: Supervisors adopt tit-for-tat strategies, but peers do not.

Men rate women higher than men, and women rate men and women similar to how men rate men.

Positive real-time feedback has a stronger effect on future ratings than negative feedback.

CATONSVILLE, MD, May 20, 2021 - To deliver real-time feedback to support employee development and rapid innovation, many companies are replacing formal, review-based performance management with systems that enable frequent and continuous employee evaluation. New research in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research examines the role of these applications to understand the effects on employee performance appraisals.

The study, "Are Traditional Performance Reviews Outdated? An Empirical Analysis on Continuous, Real-time Feedback in the Workplace," was conducted by Michael Rivera and Subodha Kumar from Temple University and Liangfei Qiu from the University of Florida. The authors found that the relationship source (peer, subordinate or supervisor) impacts real-time feedback, which tends to be more critical when it comes from supervisors.

"What is more interesting is the effect of favoritism and retribution in real-time feedback: Supervisors adopt tit-for-tat strategies, but peers do not," said Kumar, a professor in the Fox School of Business at Temple. "We also uncover that men rate women higher than men, and that women rate men and women similar to how men rate men."

In addition, positive real-time feedback has a stronger effect on future ratings than negative feedback.

Real-time feedback applications enable supervisors and employees to give, seek and receive competency-based feedback using their computers, smartphones or other devices.

The authors used data from five different organizations using the platform DevelapMe. The organizations spanned several industries including pharmaceutical, healthcare, interior design and payment processing. The data consisted of around 5,000 instances of feedback.

"Our findings have direct implications for the design and implementation of performance management systems," said Kumar. "We highlight how companies can use information systems to create an innovative human resource operation that delivers flexibility and agility."

Oysters live and grow in saltwater. However, the saltiness of their habitat can change dramatically, especially where the mighty Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana oysters from the northern Gulf of Mexico may experience some of the lowest salinity in the world due to the influx of fresh water from the Mississippi River. In addition, increased rainfall and large-scale river diversions for coastal protection will bring more fresh water that does not bode well for the eastern oyster. New research led by Louisiana State University (LSU) alumna Joanna Griffiths from Portland, Oregon, and her faculty advisor LSU Department of Biological Sciences Associate Professor Morgan Kelly reveals new information on why some oysters may be more resilient to freshwater than others. Their findings published this week have a significant impact on this commercially important marine species.

"Oysters are known to be tolerant to a wide breadth of salinity. That's generally true of a lot of oysters because they can close up their shell. But as larvae, they don't have that shell structure to protect them," said Griffiths, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at U.C. Davis.

She conducted an extensive study as part of her doctoral dissertation on oyster larvae survival and growth. She investigated whether having parents who have lived in environments with low salinity will produce offspring that are more resistant to low salinity based on a concept called transgenerational plasticity that would suggest one generation's flexibility is passed on to the next generation.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers spawned and raised oysters at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Michael C. Voisin Oyster Hatchery in Grand Isle in 2016. They transplanted 240 of these oysters into coastal waters at two different locations -- a low salinity site by the Louisiana University Marine Consortium, or LUMCON, in Chauvin, and a medium salinity site by the Louisiana Sea Grant Oyster Research and Demonstration Farm in Grand Isle. After two years, the researchers collected the oysters and found the oysters at the saltier site in Grand Isle were 40 percent larger than the ones from LUMCON thus showing that environment can affect development. Then, the researchers spawned the next generation to see what flexibility characteristics could be passed down from parent to offspring.

Griffiths meticulously cross-bred oysters from both sites and produced 240 oyster families. She and four colleagues tended to the oyster larvae around-the-clock.

"This type of experiment that Joanna did is a lot of work," Kelly said. "It is a lot of record-keeping. You have to be ready at every developmental stage of the baby oysters. A little bit like having a human baby, you have to be up in the middle of the night sometimes getting ready for the next stage of the oyster larvae life cycle. There are a lot of sleepless nights breeding oysters."

Catastrophically, the breeding experiment failed and no oyster larvae survived. Griffiths repeated the experiment and again it failed.

"It was hard to put in a lot of work and get absolutely nothing from it," she said.

But on the third try, she succeeded.

Of the 240 oyster families, about 60 families of larvae survived after five days.

Griffiths measured the larvae and found that the offspring of the parents who had lived at the low salinity site by LUMCON were not more resilient to low salinity. She used size as a measure of success because the larger an oyster larva is, the less time they need to spend in the water column where they are vulnerable to predators before metamorphosizing and settling onto a reef.

She found that some families of oysters do well under low salinity and some families do poorly. The oysters that do well have some variation of a gene that helps them grow well no matter what environment.

"We were surprised how much genetic variation they have and how heritable the resilient trait is," Griffiths said.

These results suggest that selective breeding in hatchery management practices may be an effective way of increasing resiliency for low salinity tolerance in eastern oysters.

"I've experienced a lot of failures during my Ph.D., but I think they have made me a better scientist. I might be studying the resilience of oysters to stress, but it's this project that has made me more resilient as a scientist. I know I can deal with difficult and tough circumstances and I'm now grateful for those failures!"

During the pandemic, the old waiting room phrase "the doctor will see you now" has taken on a new meaning. So has the waiting room. Our kitchen table or living room couch is where many people do work lately, and that includes visits to the doctor. New research from Syracuse University's Falk College indicates this method of health care will continue even after COVID numbers are (hopefully) reduced.

"I was surprised by the results," said the study's lead author Bhavneet Walia, assistant professor of public health at Syracuse University. "I initially thought that, because of the challenges of telehealth, physicians would not be in favor of continuing post-pandemic. It turns out they do. But make no mistake, there are challenges." Among them is the technology itself. Internet connectivity along with software and hardware require money and training. And this is just on the side of the physician (a future study will probe patient relationships with telehealth). "We saw training went up for physicians during our survey period," which Walia said was from July to September of 2020. Findings of the study can be found in JMIR Human Factors.

In order to develop the survey, Walia collaborated with two physicians from the Syracuse Veterans Administration hospital. Between them they created a series of questions that could provide in depth answers, all while being mindful of a physician's limited time. 148 physicians responded from around the United States and according to Walia many were in favor of continuing with telehealth. "In the U.S. we talk about this iron triangle of healthcare which is quality, access and cost. The results of this survey show that physicians who practice internal medicine are in favor, more than 40%, say they would continue with telehealth. This is great in terms of achieving the iron triangle."

But there are concerns, mostly centered around the technology itself. Not only among physicians who must purchase and use the software. Public health officials are worried about the possibility of market concentration involving the companies that produce the technology.

Market concentration is an outcome in which a market is dominated by a small number of companies.

"As consumers we want competition which reduces the price and increases the quality," said Walia. "On one hand, from this survey I believe telehealth can increase access. On the other hand as a health economist I worry that market concentration will reduce access. As a researcher my goal is to understand the problem and anticipate future problems. This could be one. The goal of advancing telehealth is to increase access, and market concentration can make things work backwards. We cannot ignore this, if this is going to be the next big thing. Let's make sure, as policy makers, that we don't allow market concentration to happen."

So it appears the 21st century version of the house call, talking to your family doctor from the comforts of home, will continue. Professor Walia wants to be certain it continues with the healthcare consumer in mind.

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, a University of Illinois Chicago researcher conducted a survey asking respondents if they experienced health care delays because of the pandemic. In addition to learning about the types of delays, the study also presented a unique opportunity to capture a historic moment at the pandemic's beginning. 

Elizabeth Papautsky, UIC assistant professor of biomedical and health information sciences, is first author on "Characterizing Healthcare Delays and Interruptions in the U.S. During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Data from an Internet-Based Cross-Sectional Survey," published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.  

The study was conducted through an internet survey from April 5-May 5, 2020, and over 2,500 people responded. The results showed 48% of respondents experienced delayed health care, with the three most common delays being dental (38%), preventative (29%) and diagnostic (16%). 

Fear of COVID-19 infection, health care provider discouragement, and the feeling that their health care concerns weren't as important as others were the top reasons people listed for delaying care, according to the study. 

The study's results are not surprising, but worrisome as implications may include long-term health care decline, Papautsky said. For example, due to COVID-19's impact on preventive and diagnostic care, an uptick in cancer diagnoses and at higher stages is expected, she added. 

Despite a convenience sample, which is often frowned upon in research, Papautsky said, important lessons can be learned. 

"We captured a fleeting moment in time," she said. "This is an opportunity to learn how to do research in very dynamic situations. What lessons can we learn for when there are other situations where you need to get a survey out quickly and how can we do that better." 

One surprising thing about the study was the number of respondents: 2,570 people, invited via social media, completed the 40-minute survey. 

"People really cared about it. That shows the power of social media and the power of asking questions that people are concerned about," Papautsky said. 

While the conditions for this study cannot be replicated, the methodological lessons learned can serve as a sort of "pilot study" for future crises, creating more diverse and inclusive research that drives health equity forward, the study reports. 

"There is an urgent need for sharing lessons learned, disseminating effective strategies for reaching more diverse populations, and encouraging the research community to employ and improve upon these strategies in future research," Papautsky said. 

Environmental quality is associated with advanced-stage prostate cancer at diagnosis, according to a new study by University of Illinois Chicago researchers. 

Prostate cancer is up to 57% heritable, with the remainder attributed to environmental exposures. However, studies on those environmental factors and prostate cancer aggressiveness have previously been limited. For their study, "Association between environmental quality and prostate cancer at diagnosis," published in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Disease, researchers paired data from the environmental quality index, or EQI, and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program, or SEER. 

Study co-author Dr. Michael Abern, associate professor and director of urologic oncology at University of Illinois College of Medicine, said by combining the data from SEER and EQI, researchers found that lower environmental quality was associated with advanced-stage prostate cancer diagnosis.  

The EQI combines data from multiple sources and reports an overall quality index, as well as five subdomains: air, water, land, built and sociodemographic. The data is collected from sources such as Environmental Protection Agency air quality monitoring. 

"When we drilled down further into the subdomains of the EQI, we found that some of the associations were stronger than others. Specifically, the land, water and sociodemographic domains seem to be driving the association more than air or built domains," Abern said. 

Additionally, areas with low-quality land, water and sociodemographic variables showed the strongest association with prostate cancer being diagnosed at a later stage, which can mean poorer treatment outcomes. 

The study also found that race was an independent predictor of metastatic prostate cancer -- cancer that has spread -- at diagnosis, with Black men at higher risk. That risk is elevated more when coupled with living in an area with low environmental quality.  

According to the study, there were more than 174,000 newly diagnosed prostate cancer cases and more than 31,000 prostate cancer deaths in the United States in 2019, making it the most common non-cutaneous (skin) malignancy in men. When diagnosed early, prostate cancer has a nearly 100% five-year survival rate.  

Though there have been other studies that explore environmental exposures, they often compare a single agent and individual exposure. Using the EQI and SEER offers a more comprehensive ecologic analysis to better represent environmental exposures and the relationship to advanced prostate cancer, the study states. Because the EQI also looks at sociodemographic variables, it takes health equity into account.

"They are actually measuring infrastructure and barriers to getting healthcare," Abern said. 

Abern said the study provides the ability to make hypotheses as to why late-state prostate cancer diagnoses are higher in certain areas, and then drill down into the components of the environmental variables to try to find solutions such as environmental policy changes. 

It is well established that age and Black race are risk factors to develop prostate cancer in addition to genetic risk factors including family history. An important distinction can be drawn between incidence and aggressiveness, Abern said, and this study focuses on the aggressiveness of prostate cancer. 

"When I see a patient with prostate cancer, they assume maybe they got it because of something they did. It is probably not. Not a lot is known about personal lifestyle choices that lead to prostate cancer. Diet, exercise and smoking have never had a very strong association with prostate cancer," Abern said. "Seeing a doctor and getting screened is still the most important thing about getting diagnosed." 

Flies predict changes in their visual environment in order to execute evasive maneuvers, according to new research from the University of Chicago. This reliance on predictive information to guide behavior suggests that prediction may be a general feature of animal nervous systems in supporting quick behavioral changes. The study was published on May 20 in PLOS Computational Biology.

Animals use their sensory nervous systems to take in information about their environments and then carry out certain behaviors in response to what they detect. However, the nervous system takes time to process this sensory information, meaning that the environment can change by the time the previous information has been fully processed.

"This is really important in predator/prey interactions," said senior author Stephanie Palmer, PhD, Associate Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at UChicago. "For a fly, everything is trying to eat you, and you want to avoid being eaten. However, the fly's environment is rapidly changing, and the neurons they have are laggy. We wanted to study how flies were able to execute quick evasive behaviors to avoid being eaten by predators when ongoing feedback from their sensory systems hasn't been processed."

To answer this question, the investigators took a highly interdisciplinary approach. "This is a project born out of this new era of open science sharing," Palmer said. "We were able to take the precise behavioral recordings made by another group and use them for a theoretical, computational neuroscience question: Does the fly's visual system make predictions using the initial detection of a threat that can span the lag time in processing of additional feedback as the fly starts its evasive behavior?"

Previous work from first author Siwei Wang, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in Palmer's group, looked at a theoretical model of how encoding motion in the fly visual system might work. "I had an idea of how to extend these ideas to prediction, and this study allowed me to compare my model to real life behavioral data to test my theory," Wang said.

Using detailed diagrams of the connectivity between neurons in the fly visual system, the researchers made a simulation of the visual response as they fed in the previously recorded behavioral data set. "We compared what an optimal prediction would look like and what the fly's prediction looks like, and then we broke open the simulation to try to identify which parts were the most important for making these predictions," Palmer said.

The authors first identified that sensory data about the fly's visual world passes though an information bottleneck, where some of the sensory data is thrown out by the fly's brain because it simply does not have enough computing power to handle the amount of information it is taking in. However, the fly cannot indiscriminately discard visual information, because some of it might be useful for making predictions.

The authors identified structures called axonal gap junctions, which are physical channels connecting the neurons, that mediate an optimal form of this information bottleneck and are critical for both filtering out the unnecessary information and preserving the necessary information to make predictions.

The investigators further found that a subpopulation of these vertical motion sensory neurons that are involved in making predictions is unique in that it is also directly connected to the fly's flight steering neurons. This suggests that there is direct input from the neurons responsible for making predictions about the fly's environment to neurons that control the fly's behavior. This direct connection might explain how predictions that the fly is making are able to quickly influence its behavior.

Identification of these structures and the ability of the fly visual system to make predictions is likely to drive insight into how other animals' nervous systems make similar predictions.

"Cracking open the black box of how the fly does this has revealed what we think are universal design principles that the nervous systems of other animals probably also use," Palmer said. "We're interested in searching for another example of prediction-guiding behavior in another animal and asking if what we found in the fly really does apply broadly across species."

Ultimately, this kind of theoretical neuroscience may shed light on how our human brains function. "One of our greatest challenges as humans is understanding how everything inside our head works. Insights from work on flies can be generalizable and actually give us clues to how our brains operate," Palmer said.

Wang said the results could even have implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease, where the brain loses the ability to make predictions. If the insights gained from these fly studies hold true in humans, it could help uncover new specific targets for therapeutic intervention. "We're still a long way from that, but this research in flies is setting the ground work to allow others to do that down the line," Wang said.

The immune system is a complex balancing act; if it overreacts or underreacts to foreign molecules, there can be serious health consequences.

For cancer patients, tumor progression is often accompanied by immunosuppression, meaning their bodies can't fight off pathogens the way they should. By contrast, for people with autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis, their immune systems overreact and attack the body itself.

Both of these reactions are influenced by a series of molecular checkpoints found in both immune cells and cancer cells. In immune cells, these checkpoints are supposed to prevent the immune system from mounting a response that is too strong and attacks healthy cells. For people with autoimmune diseases, these checkpoint molecules do not function properly. In cancer cells, they bind to immune cell receptors and inhibit their function to a degree that makes patients vulnerable to severe illness and infection.

Dr. Laijun Lai, a research professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, has used bioinformatics and gene engineering techniques to develop a series of recombinant proteins and antibodies for a novel set of checkpoint molecules to address both of these concerns. Lai recently published a paper on the effectiveness of this invention in EMBO Molecular Medicine and has a patent pending for this invention.

Scientists made a major breakthrough when they identified several checkpoints, specifically PD-L1, PD-1 and CTLA-4, within the last decade. There are several FDA-approved medications that produce recombinant proteins to treat autoimmune disease, and antibodies to block the inhibitor activity of these checkpoints for cancer patients. However, not all patients respond to these treatments since there are many other checkpoints at work.

Using a bioinformatics approach, Lai identified three additional checkpoints: CD300c, ERMAP, and TAPBPL found in both immune cells and cancer cells. The bioinformatics approach identified the checkpoints that were most likely to be relevant based on their genetic and structural similarities to previously identified molecules.

Each molecule binds to a specific immune cell receptor to send an inhibitory signal and uses different mechanisms to check immune cell responses.

"The expression pattern of our molecules are different from existing checkpoint molecules and, probably, a different subset of patients will respond to them," Lai says.

Lai's group used genetic engineering to develop recombinant proteins from the genetic blueprint of these proteins. Lai has demonstrated that these recombinant proteins can successfully suppress T-Cell function in animal models of autoimmune diseases.

On the other side, Lai's group developed antibodies that can block the inhibitory activity of these checkpoint molecules. He found the antibodies enhance antitumor immunity and inhibit tumor growth in animal models.

These therapies can be combined with exiting antibodies for PD-L1, PD-1 and CTLA-4, or on their own for patients who do not respond to those treatments.

"Our antibodies against these checkpoint molecules have the potential to be used in the treatment of cancer patients who are resistant to the anti-PD-1, PDL1, and CTLA-4 antibodies and can also be used in combination with existing antibodies to enhance the antitumor effects," Lai says.

A University of Otago study has revealed how earthquake upheaval has affected New Zealand's coastal species.

Lead author Dr Felix Vaux, of the Department of Zoology, says earthquakes are typically considered devastating events for people and the environment, but the positive opportunities that they can create for wildlife are often overlooked.

For the Marsden-funded study, published in Journal of Phycology, the researchers sequenced DNA from 288 rimurapa/bull-kelp plants from 28 places across central New Zealand.

"All specimens from the North Island were expected to be the species Durvillaea antarctica, but unexpectedly 10 samples from four sites were Durvillaea poha - about 150 km from the nearest population on the Kaik?ura Peninsula," Dr Vaux says.

The range expansion of the seaweed seems to be associated with the, often forgotten, 1855 Wairarapa earthquake - New Zealand's strongest recorded earthquake since European colonisation, at magnitude 8.2.

"Uplift and landslides around Wellington cleared swathes of coastline of Durvillaea antarctica, and this seems to have allowed a previously South Island restricted species - Durvillaea poha - to colonise and establish itself in the North Island.

"This exciting discovery highlights that frequent tectonic activity may be reshaping New Zealand's biodiversity, including its marine environments, and it reminds us that recent events - such as the 2016 Kaik?ura earthquake, may have long-lasting effects on the environment."

Dr Vaux believes an increase in the species diversity of bull-kelp in the North Island is likely to be positive for the intertidal community as Durvillaea provides a sheltered habitat for numerous animals - including crustaceans, molluscs such as pāua, spiders and fish.

"Our discovery is exciting because it indicates that tectonic disturbance can not only change population structure within a species, but it can also create ecological opportunity and shift the distribution of organisms.

"While many range shifts have been linked to climate change, tectonic disturbance should not be overlooked as a potential facilitator of range expansion. In our fast-changing world, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the forces that shape the distribution of species," he says.

Palo Alto, CA--In a new study, researchers found that recreational boats and high-speed ferries contribute significant underwater noise in San Francisco Bay, a highly urbanized coastline that is increasingly becoming a stop along the migratory routes of gray and humpback whales and home to bottlenose dolphins and harbor porpoises.

The study is the first of its kind to use radar to track boats not broadcasting information through the Automatic Identification System (AIS), a navigation safety system required onboard large commercial ships. The findings add to the growing evidence that smaller vessels, which are not required to broadcast data through the AIS, contribute significant underwater noise along urban coastlines.

Using the ProtectedSeas Marine Monitor (M2), an autonomous vessel-tracking system and high-definition camera, the research team, led by Samantha Cope, a researcher at the California-based Anthropocene Institute, tracked all types of vessel for 11 days in a region of San Francisco Bay where high-speed ferry, recreational, and commercial shipping traffic are common. The findings were recently published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

At the time of the study Cope was a master's student in the Hines Lab at the San Francisco State University Estuary & Ocean Science (EOS) Center. In collaboration with SF State Professor Emeritus Roger Bland, the team combined hydrophone measurements of underwater sound from the EOS Center research pier with data from the M2 to trace the noise produced by individual vessels.

"With the recent influx of gray and humpback whales coming into the bay to feed within the last five years and more frequent carcasses that have washed ashore, it's important that we quantify the threats to these marine mammals," said Cope. "This is one of only a few studies to quantify vessel noise within the bay."

Boat noise pollution can impact these animals' abilities to find food, mates and navigate their underwater environment, putting them at an increased risk for collisions with vessels.

While larger vessels tended to produce the loudest noise, the researchers found that the biggest noise polluters by area were high-speed ferries, which made up 80 percent of the vessels observed in the study and covered 17 times more area than large commercial ships. Ferries, which make frequent trips across the Bay every day, are tracked by AIS but are also unique to San Francisco Bay and are an important part of the suite of threats to the marine mammals that come into the Bay.

"This is really cutting-edge research, and we're very proud to have done it first here in the Bay," said SF State Professor of Geography & Environment Ellen Hines, a study co-author, adding that the tracking technology has garnered interest from international researchers. "This has so many applications and is something that can be done remotely, easily and sustainably."

According to Cope, the level of noise exposure due to recreational boats, which were primarily tracked by radar and not AIS, covered roughly twice as much area as exposure levels from large commercial ships.

"The M2 was a valuable tool for this type of analysis along an urban coastline where there are large amounts of recreational, non-AIS traffic," said Cope.

The researchers plan to continue their work in the region, including a collaboration with the Marine Mammal Center tracking vessel traffic near the Golden Gate Bridge, which will allow them to capture information about all of the boats entering and leaving the Bay.

FINDINGS

A new multi-institution study led by a team of researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine demonstrated that blocking a protein called ABCB10 in liver cells protects against high blood sugar and fatty liver disease in obese mice. Furthermore, ABCB10 activity prompted insulin resistance in human liver cells.

The findings are the first to show that ABCB10 transports biliverdin out of the mitochondria - the cell's "energy generating powerhouses." Biliverdin is the precursor of bilirubin, a substance with antioxidant properties. Consequently, ABCB10 transport activity causes an increase in bilirubin synthesis inside liver cells undergoing fatty liver disease.

BACKGROUND

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is closely linked to obesity and other disorders related to insulin resistance and is becoming increasingly common throughout the world, affecting an estimated 100 million people in the United States.

The liver filters everything that people consume and sorts it for the nutrients that will stay in the body or for the toxins that it will expel. The liver is also one of the organs richest in mitochondria - the small organelles in cells that convert food into usable energy through a process called metabolism. Consequently, the mitochondria produce high levels of free radicals, as well as antioxidants to keep these free radicals at healthy levels. Both free radicals and antioxidants play a key role in regulating metabolism and are elevated in insulin resistance and fatty liver disease.

One of these antioxidants is bilirubin, a yellow-bile substance that is released from the breakdown of biliverdin - its green-bile precursor. Bilirubin is produced at high levels in livers from people with fatty liver disease. Both biliverdin and bilirubin are found naturally in the body and released during the breakdown of heme - the deep red iron-containing molecule in red blood cells, which can be seen in the changing color of bruises - from green (biliverdin) to yellow (bilirubin).

Previous research established that mild increases in blood bilirubin content could be associated with protection from metabolic diseases. However, the effects of bilirubin content inside mitochondria and their relationship to fatty liver disease and insulin resistance, remained unknown. This current study shows that increased bilirubin content inside the mitochondria driven by ABCB10 activity is contributing to fatty liver disease.

METHODS

In the study, the researchers removed the ABCB10 protein selectively from the livers of mice to test whether ABCB10 removal impacted the ability of obese mice to tolerate glucose, if they developed fat in the liver and how well the mitochondria in their livers were working to convert nutrients into usable energy.

In lean mice, the researchers found no difference in metabolism and health when ABCB10 was removed from their livers, while in obese mice they found that removing ABCB10 protected against insulin resistance and fatty liver disease.

Secondly, the researchers measured bilirubin in the mitochondria of liver cells using fluorescent sensors, as well as testing purified ABCB10 to determine what ABCB10 transports. They found that ABCB10 transports biliverdin out of the mitochondria and increases bilirubin production in liver cells, with ABCB10 removal decreasing mitochondrial bilirubin content to levels observed in lean mice.

Thirdly, the researchers found that when they restored bilirubin content in the mitochondria, the benefits on the function of mitochondria resulting from the removal of ABCB10 were reversed.

IMPACT

These findings shed light on the relevance of the association of some genetic ABCB10 variants with insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes. While still very early to draw any conclusions, these findings could inspire the development of therapies that target ABCB10 or mitochondrial bilirubin in the liver to reverse fatty liver disease in obese individuals.

Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), a research team led by Prof. HAN Jinlin from National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has discovered 201 pulsars, including many very faint pulsars, 40 millisecond pulsars (MSPs), and 16 pulsars in binaries.

These discoveries were published in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Pulsars are compact remnants of the death of bright, massive stars. They have the strongest magnetic field, highest density and fastest rotation of any celestial body in the Universe, and show significant relativistic effects in systems of binary compact stars.

Since the first pulsars were discovered in 1968, about 3,000 pulsars have been found in total. Among them, about 400 have a period less than 30 milliseconds and are very stable in rotation.

Prof. HAN and his team designed a snapshot survey strategy so that a small patch of sky can be stared for five minutes by FAST and can be fully covered in 21 minutes. This survey is known as the Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot (GPPS). The entire visible sky near the Milky Way will be completely hunted for pulsars in the next five years.

This is the first sensitive search for weak pulsars down to the microJy level and has been selected as one of FAST's five key science projects. Such a survey can detect pulsars with a flux density down to 5 microJy, about a magnitude weaker than previous surveys by other radio telescopes over the world.

Up to now, GPPS has searched about 5% of the planed sky and has discovered 201 pulsars. "At this early stage of the project, this is an impressive total," said Prof. R.N. Manchester of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australia.

Among the newly discovered pulsars, some have strange pulse dispersion properties. Dispersion is the measure of total electron density along the path from a pulsar to Earth and is a good indicator of pulsar distance. The higher the dispersion measure, the greater the distance. GPPS has uncovered pulsars with very high dispersion measures that challenge the best current models of electron density distribution in the Milky Way.

According to the best information on electron distribution in the Milky Way, these pulsars ought to be located outside the Milky Way. However, it is more likely that these pulsars are located inside the Milky Way. The electron density in the Milky Way, especially in the direction of its spiral arms, is probably underestimated. In other words, the newly discovered pulsars reveal more electrons in the Milky Way's spiral arms than had ever been known. The new measurements effectively improve the knowledge of the Milky Way electron distribution.

About 40 pulsars found in the survey have a period less than 30 milliseconds, making them newly discovered MSPs. "The GPPS survey has already increased the number of known MSPs by nearly 10 percent, a remarkable achievement," said Prof. Manchester. Among them, 14 have a companion around, so do the two long-period pulsars. "No doubt some of these will turn out to be excellent probes of gravitational theories," he added.

In addition, GPPS has discovered many pulsars with special features. For example, some produce emissions that switch on and off or emit just a few pulses over many minutes. In addition, for many previously known pulsars, the FAST survey has obtained data with extremely high signal-to-noise ratio, which has improved the parameters for 64 pulsars.

"FAST has the promise for the study of compact objects in the universe, and helps us learn more about the fundamental physics and astrophysics," said Prof. Jim Cordes from Cornell University, a reviewer of the study.

Turns out the old adage, "monkey see, monkey do," does ring true -- even when it comes to cannabis use. However, when cannabis use involves youth it's see, think, then do, says a team of UBC Okanagan researchers.

The team found that kids who grow up in homes where parents consume cannabis will more than likely use it themselves. Parental influence on the use of cannabis is important to study as it can help with the development of effective prevention programs, explains Maya Pilin, a doctoral psychology student in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

"Adolescence is a critical period in which drug and alcohol experimentation takes place and when cannabis use is often initiated," says Pilin. "Parents are perhaps the most influential socializing agent for children and early adolescents."

Pilin says it has long been assumed that parental use of cannabis contributes to higher levels of adolescent use. However, while there has been research about parental use of alcohol and whether their children drink, there is less known about pathways to cannabis use.

"What we found mirrors closely what has been found in past research with alcohol use -- that parental use influences adolescents' use as well," she says.

For their research, the team used data from a survey of almost 700 students in Grades 7 to 9, which is when previous studies demonstrate that cannabis use increases dramatically. Each year over a three-year period, the students were asked if one or both of their parents used cannabis, if so, how frequently and whether they also use it. As the students aged, their cannabis use began and increased.

This data was collected before cannabis was decriminalized in Canada in 2017.

"We wanted to try and explain, how parental use, while their kids were in Grade 7, would be associated with their kids' use by ninth grade," says Dr. Sarah Dow-Fleisner, a researcher with the School of Social Work. "We hypothesized that early parental use would impact how teens think about cannabis use, in particular whether parental use early in adolescence would be associated with more positive expectations and perceptions of cannabis use by Grade 8, and whether that would lead to an increased chance of using cannabis by Grade 9. What we thought is exactly what we found."

UBCO Psychology Professor Dr. Marvin Krank funded the research and collected the data for the study in collaboration with Okanagan valley school districts.

"This work is an important extension of previous studies about how parents influence their children's cannabis use in subtle ways," he says. "Children of parents who use cannabis have more associations and positive thoughts that quickly come to mind in response to cues associated with cannabis use. Such quick and automatic thinking influences their choices often without their awareness."

Analyzing parental and then subsequent teen use of cannabis can provide important information in terms of intervention. Effective interventions need to consider the way youth think about cannabis use and how that has been shaped by parents, says Pilin.

Understanding the reasons for early cannabis use is essential to developing effective prevention programs in these formative years, explains Dr. Dow-Fleisner, as early use of cannabis is associated with harmful effects on mental and social developmental outcomes. It also increases the chance of experimentation with other drugs and greatly increases the risk of being diagnosed with a substance-use disorder in adulthood.

"What is important is that we do see across the literature that parent use and experiences with cannabis in early adolescence are linked with cannabis use later in adolescence, and part of this relationship has to do with the way teens think about cannabis," she adds. "It helps us think about ways to intervene and prevent cannabis use -- our interventions must address how youth think about substance use based on their familial and personal experiences."