Culture

Shopping habits and escalating consumption of many consumers are inflicting a heavy environmental toll, and while the majority of customers seem hesitant to act "green" on their own, companies are increasingly expected to implement effective eco-friendly tactics. But efforts to increase towel reuse at hotels, paperless adoption in the banking industry or "ugly" food consumption at grocery stores have been challenging.

As a result, millions of tons of cosmetically imperfect produce are wasted every year in the United States while about one billion trees worth of paper are thrown away. Electricity consumption is impacted when those plain nonverbal stickers used in hotel bathrooms fail to significantly alter towel usage habits.

So, what's missing in the messaging? Persuasive language that combines peer pressure with what the consumer, or broader world, can gain by lightening carbon footprints. Humanize the earth with a smiling face or give the visually unappealing potato a name, and the persuasive green impact is further amplified, according to a study led by the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management.

Researchers presented hypothetical scenarios to 776 experimental respondents across the hotel, banking and retail industries to identify low-cost and useful means to facilitate pro-environmental appeals. The work is published in Psychology & Marketing.

"Gain language is messaging that says 'you can save this amount of water if you reuse your towel or save this amount of electricity.' Highlight the positive benefit of the proposed action," said study co-author Priyanko Guchait, associate professor at UH's Hilton College. "Combine that strategy with peer pressure, or what's called normative influence, and convey that 75% of customers reuse towels, for example. Then customers will be more likely to do the same because of that established social norm."

Guchait collaborated on the research with visiting scholar The Khoa Do and Chen-Ya Wang from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan.

Gain language does not work in all social situations, just those defined as "low risk," such as green behavior, according to Guchait. "It's low risk because no one is going to die if you don't reuse a towel," he said. Loss language, or highlighting negative possible outcomes, is more effective in "high risk" situations where lives could be at stake, such as calls to practice physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his previous research.

The study also uncovered that by adding anthropomorphism to the messaging, or giving objects human characteristics, green compliance increased. The researchers suggest that hoteliers should add a happy facial expression of the earth to their green signs in bathrooms to encourage the reuse of towels as well as discourage the excessive use of water and toilet paper.

"Retailers such as supermarkets can give a name to their ugly food promotion programs (e.g., Mr. Potato) to better entice customers' engagement in their green campaigns. Similarly, restaurant managers who want to sell foods made of ugly vegetables can create a menu with an anthropomorphized character," the authors wrote. "Banking managers who want to promote paperless behavior may also think of assigning a first-person pronoun to their green paperless initiatives." 

Not only could these efforts positively impact the environment, the researchers suggest that by shifting customers' behaviors to be greener, businesses can save money while increasing their reputation.

"Businesses could reduce their losses and generate more revenue all while showing their customers they care about the environment," said Guchait. "That's a win-win situation."

SILVER SPRING, Md.--A new Australian study reveals that changes in lifestyle patterns were longitudinally associated with concurrent changes in body mass index (BMI) z scores, and maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, maternal dietary patterns and television viewing time are significant determinants, according to a paper published online in Obesity, The Obesity Society's (TOS) flagship journal. This is the first study that used multi-trajectory modeling to examine the longitudinal relationship between concurrent changes in lifestyle patterns and BMI z scores in early childhood.

"The findings will inform early childhood obesity prevention intervention and policy, and will be of great interest to pediatricians, researchers, policymakers and the general public," said Miaobing Zheng of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, in Geelong, Australia. Zheng is the corresponding author of the study.

Experts explain that longitudinal studies investigating the association between lifestyle patterns and obesity in children are scarce. An association between a healthy lifestyle pattern and lower obesity risk has, however, been previously reported in a few cross-sectional studies. In the present study, the co-occurrence of stable healthy lifestyle patterns along with a concurrent normal BMI z score trajectory of one unit from 18 to 60 months in about half of the children provides new longitudinal evidence supporting that children with healthy lifestyles were more likely to concurrently have normal BMI z score development.

Data of 439 children were used from the Melbourne Feeding Activity and Nutrition Trial (InFANT) program. This longitudinal cohort of children commenced in 2008 as a 15-month parent-focused cluster randomized controlled trial aiming to reduce obesity risk behaviors in children until 18 months. Additional follow-ups without interventions occurred for children aged 42 and 60 months. Multi-trajectory modeling identified groups of children following similar lifestyle patterns and BMI z score trajectories and multi-nomial logistic regression assessed the determinants of the trajectory groups.

Three trajectory groups of child lifestyle patterns and BMI z scores were identified and distinguished, showing a mixture of healthy and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and
BMI z scores. Compared to Groups 1 "Unhealthy lifestyle pattern, Low BMI z" and 3 "Unhealthy lifestyle pattern, High BMI z", Group 2 "Healthy lifestyle pattern, Mid BMI z" revealed the most distinctive trajectories across lifestyle patterns and BMI z scores. Group 2 comprised nearly 53 percent of children and followed a stable and low trajectory for an unhealthy lifestyle pattern characterized by energy-dense and nutrient poor discretionary food consumption and television viewing time and a high and rising trajectory for a healthy lifestyle pattern of fruit and vegetable intakes and time outdoors, along with a mean BMI z score of +1 unit over time.

Groups 1 and 3 shared similar high trajectories for an unhealthy lifestyle pattern of discretionary food consumption and television viewing time, and low trajectories for a healthy lifestyle pattern of fruit and vegetable intakes and time outdoors. The two groups however differed in BMI z score trajectories, showing stable patterns but at mean scores of 0 and +2 units, respectively. Child sex, breastfeeding duration and maternal physical activity were not associated with the identified trajectory groups.

The study's authors note that the co-occurrence of stable lifestyle patterns and BMI z score trajectories in early childhood highlight the importance of initiating lifestyle obesity prevention early in life, and such interventions could target both children and the mother. A multi-behavior approach to simultaneously target healthy diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviors could be adapted.

"Young children learn by imitating that which they see daily. There is no doubt that children copy the behaviors observed in the presence of parents: healthy and unhealthy," said Liliana Aguayo, PhD, MPH, a childhood obesity expert, TOS member and research assistant professor from the Hubert Department of Global Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. "Evidence from this study highlights the importance of early childhood as a critical period for development of obesity. More research is needed to identify effective approaches to simultaneously address parent and child health behaviors." Aguayo was not associated with the research.

A study led by researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm shows that the last remaining populations of the Sumatran rhinoceros display surprisingly low levels of inbreeding. The researchers sequenced the genomes from 21 modern and historical rhinoceros' specimens, which enabled them to investigate the genetic health in rhinos living today as well as a population that recently became extinct. These findings are published today in the journal Nature Communications.

With less than 100 individuals remaining, the Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the most endangered mammal species in the world. Recent reports of health issues and low fecundity have raised fears that the remaining populations are suffering from inbreeding problems. However, very little has been known about the genetic status of these enigmatic rhinos.

To investigate whether the Sumatran rhinoceros is threatened by genetic factors, the researchers sequenced the genomes from 16 individuals representing the present-day populations on Borneo and Sumatra and the recently extinct population on the Malaysian Peninsula. This enabled them to estimate inbreeding levels, genetic variation, and the frequency of potentially harmful mutations in the populations. Moreover, by also sequencing the genomes from five historical samples, the researchers could investigate the genetic consequences of the severe population decline of the past 100 years.

"To our surprise, we found relatively low inbreeding levels and high genetic diversity in the present-day populations on Borneo and Sumatra", says Johanna von Seth, PhD student at the Centre for Palaeogenetics and co-lead author on the paper.

The researchers think that the comparatively low inbreeding levels in the present-day rhinos is due to the decline in population size having happened very recently. This means that inbreeding hasn't yet caught up with the current small population size. This is good news for the conservation management of the remaining populations, since it implies that there is still time to preserve the species' genetic diversity. However, the researchers also found that there are many potentially harmful mutations hidden in the genomes of these individuals, which could spell bad news for the future.

"Unless the populations start increasing in size, there is a high risk that inbreeding levels will start rising, and consequently that genetic diseases will become more common", cautions Nicolas Dussex, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Palaeogenetics who also co-led the study.

The research team's findings from the recently extinct population on the Malaysian Peninsula serve as a stark warning of what might soon happen to the remaining populations in Borneo and Sumatra. A comparison of historical and modern genomes showed that the Malaysian Peninsula population experienced a rapid increase in inbreeding levels before it went extinct. Moreover, the researchers observed changes in the frequency of potentially harmful mutations that are consistent with inbreeding depression, a phenomenon where closely related parents produce offspring that suffer from genetic disease. These results imply that the two remaining populations could suffer a similar fate if their inbreeding levels start to increase.

"The Sumatran rhino is by no means out of the woods. But at least our findings provide a path forward, where we might still be able to rescue a large part of the species' genetic diversity", says Love Dalén, professor of evolutionary genetics at the Centre for Palaeogenetics.

In order to minimize the risk of extinction, the researchers say that it is imperative that the population size increases. They also suggest that actions can be taken to enable the exchange of genes between Borneo and Sumatra, for example by translocating individuals or using artificial insemination. A comparison of genomes from these two islands provided no evidence that such genetic exchange could lead to an introduction of genes that are less well adapted to the local environment. The researchers also point out that genome sequencing could be used as a tool to identify particular individuals with low amounts of potentially harmful mutations, and that such individuals would be especially well-suited for this type of genetic exchange.

In a wider perspective, the study highlights the potential of modern-day genome sequencing technology in guiding conservation efforts for endangered species across the globe. The study was supported by the National Genomics Infrastructure at SciLifeLab in Sweden, and was a collaboration between researchers from several different countries that included geneticists as well as experts on conservation management and reproductive biology.

The Centre for Palaeogenetics is a joint research centre funded by Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

A majority of gay and bisexual Generation Z teenage boys report being out to their parents, part of an uptick in coming out among young people that researchers have noted in recent decades, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. However, stigma and religious beliefs still prevent some young people from disclosing their sexual identity.

This study offers a glimpse into the coming out practices of Generation Z, those born between 1998 and 2010, a group that researchers are only beginning to study.

"This study is encouraging in that it shows that many teens, including those under 18 years old, are comfortable with their sexuality," said lead author David A. Moskowitz, PhD, assistant professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University's Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. "At the same time, we must be cautious, as the data also point to some of the same barriers and discrimination that previous generations have faced. Work still needs to be done."

In the study, published in the journal Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, researchers examined survey data from 1,194 13-to-18-year-old boys, all of whom identified as gay, bisexual or as being attracted to people regardless of gender. The data were collected as part of an HIV prevention study between January 2018 and January 2020.

Participants were asked demographic questions, such as their race and age and social questions such as their religious affiliations and the frequency with which they attended religious events. They were also asked to respond on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being strongly agree and 4 being strongly disagree, to a series of statements to gauge their attitudes about their own sexual identities. These statements included, "Sometimes I think that if I were straight, I would be happier" and "If there were a pill to make me straight, I'd take it." They were also asked a series of questions, such as, "How many times has someone chased you because of your sexuality?"

Researchers found that 66% of those surveyed were out to their mothers or other female parental figures and 49% were out to their fathers or other male parental figures. In the 1990s, in contrast, an estimated 40% of adolescent boys were out to their mothers and less than 30% were out to their fathers, according to the researchers.

The study also found that white participants were more likely than Black participants to be out to a parent or parental figure. Those identifying as gay were more likely to be out to a parent than bisexuals or those unsure of their sexuality. Participants who said they were not religious were more likely to say they were out to a parent than teens who identified as religious. Teens who were not fully accepting of their identity were less likely to come out than those who embraced their identity.

"This gives us an understanding of the factors that move teenagers to share this type of information with the people closest to them," said Moskowitz. "We can now compare these practices with how other generations deal with these issues and think about what it all means for future generations."

More study is needed to fully understand how this generation views sexuality, according to the researchers.

"An important next step would be to determine the coming out practices of females in this age group," Moskowitz said. "This study provides a roadmap for such an effort. In the meantime, these findings should be helpful to those who work with teenagers identifying as sexual minorities."

KANSAS CITY, MO--One of the evolutionary disadvantages for mammals, relative to other vertebrates like fish and chickens, is the inability to regenerate sensory hair cells. The inner hair cells in our ears are responsible for transforming sound vibrations and gravitational forces into electrical signals, which we need to detect sound and maintain balance and spatial orientation. Certain insults, such as exposure to noise, antibiotics, or age, cause inner ear hair cells to die off, which leads to hearing loss and vestibular defects, a condition reported by 15% of the US adult population. In addition, the ion composition of the fluid surrounding the hair cells needs to be tightly controlled, otherwise hair cell function is compromised as observed in Ménière's disease.

While prosthetics like cochlear implants can restore some level of hearing, it may be possible to develop medical therapies to restore hearing through the regeneration of hair cells. Investigator Tatjana Piotrowski, PhD, at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research is part of the Hearing Restoration Project of the Hearing Health Foundation, which is a consortium of laboratories that do foundational and translational science using fish, chicken, mouse, and cell culture systems.

"To gain a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms and genes that enable fish to regenerate hair cells, we need to understand which cells give rise to regenerating hair cells and related to that question, how many cell types exist in the sensory organs," says Piotrowski.

The Piotrowski Lab studies regeneration of sensory hair cells in the zebrafish lateral line. Located superficially on the fish's skin, these cells are easy to visualize and to access for experimentation. The sensory organs of the lateral line, known as neuromasts, contain support cells which can readily differentiate into new hair cells. Others had shown, using techniques to label cells of the same embryonic origin in a particular color, that cells within the neuromasts derive from ectodermal thickenings called placodes.

It turns out that while most cells of the zebrafish neuromast do originate from placodes, this isn't true for all of them.

In a paper published online April 19, 2021, in Developmental Cell, researchers from the Piotrowski Lab describe their discovery of the occasional occurrence of a pair of cells within post-embryonic and adult neuromasts that are not labeled by lateral line markers. When using a technique called Zebrabow to track embryonic cells through development, these cells are labeled a different color than the rest of the neuromast.

"I initially thought it was an artifact of the research method," says Julia Peloggia, a predoctoral researcher at The Graduate School of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, co-first author of this work along with another predoctoral researcher, Daniela Münch. "Especially when we are looking just at the nuclei of cells, it's pretty common in transgenic animal lines that the labels don't mark all of the cells," adds Münch.

Peloggia and Münch agreed that it was difficult to discern a pattern at first. "Although these cells have a stereotypical location in the neuromast, they're not always there. Some neuromasts have them, some don't, and that threw us off," says Peloggia.

By applying an experimental method called single-cell RNA sequencing to cells isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting, the researchers identified these cells as ionocytes--a specialized type of cell that can regulate the ionic composition of nearby fluid¬. Using lineage tracing, they determined that the ionocytes derived from skin cells surrounding the neuromast. They named these cells neuromast-associated ionocytes.

Next, they sought to capture the phenomenon using time-lapse and high-resolution live imaging of young larvae.

"In the beginning, we didn't have a way to trigger invasion by these cells. We were imaging whenever the microscope was available, taking as many time-lapses as possible--over days or weekends--and hoping that we would see the cells invading the neuromasts just by chance," says Münch.

Ultimately, the researchers observed that the ionocyte progenitor cells migrated into neuromasts as pairs of cells, rearranging between other support cells and hair cells while remaining associated as a pair. They found that this phenomenon occurred all throughout early larval, later larval, and well into the adult stages in zebrafish. The frequency of neuromast-associated ionocytes correlated with developmental stages, including transfers when larvae were moved from ion-rich embryo medium to ion-poor water.

From each pair, they determined that only one cell was labeled by a Notch pathway reporter tagged with fluorescent red or green protein. To visualize the morphology of both cells, they used serial block face scanning electron microscopy to generate high-resolution three-dimensional images. They found that both cells had extensions reaching the apical or top surface of the neuromast, and both often contained thin projections. The Notch-negative cell displayed unique "toothbrush-like" microvilli projecting into the neuromast lumen or interior, reminiscent of that seen in gill and skin ionocytes.

"Once we were able to see the morphology of these cells--how they were really protrusive and interacting with other cells--we realized they might have a complex function in the neuromast," says Münch.

"Our studies are the first to show that ionocytes invade sensory organs even in adult animals and that they only do so in response to changes in the environment that the animal lives in," says Peloggia. "These cells therefore likely play an important role allowing the animal to adapt to changing environmental conditions."

Ionocytes are known to exist in other organ systems. "The inner ear of mammals also contains cells that regulate the ion composition of the fluid that surrounds the hair cells, and dysregulation of this equilibrium leads to hearing and vestibular defects," says Piotrowski. While ionocyte-like cells exist in other systems, it's not known whether they exhibit such adaptive and invasive behavior.

"We don't know if ear ionocytes share the same transcriptome, or collection of gene messages, but they have similar morphology to an extent and may possibly have a similar function, so we think they might be analogous cells," says Münch. Our discovery of neuromast ionocytes will let us test this hypothesis, as well as test how ionocytes modulate hair cell function at the molecular level," says Peloggia.

Next, the researchers will focus on two related questions--what causes these ionocytes to migrate and invade the neuromast, and what is their specific function?

"Even though we made this astounding observation that ionocytes are highly motile, we still don't know how the invasion is triggered," says Peloggia. "Identifying the signals that attract ionocytes and allow them to squeeze into the sensory organs might also teach us how cancer cells invade organs during disease." While Peloggia plans to investigate what triggers the cells to differentiate, migrate, and invade, Münch will focus on characterizing the function of the neuromast-associated ionocytes. "The adaptive part is really interesting," explains Münch. "That there is a process involving ionocytes extending into adult stages that could modulate and change the function of an organ--that's exciting."

Other coauthors of the study include Paloma Meneses-Giles, Andrés Romero-Carvajal, PhD, Mark E. Lush, PhD, and Melainia McClain from Stowers; Nathan D. Lawson from the University of Massachusetts Medical School; and Y. Albert Pan, PhD, from Virginia Tech Carilion.

The work was funded by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (award 1R01DC015488-01A1). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

Lay Summary of Findings

Humans cannot regenerate inner ear hair cells, which are responsible for detecting sound, but non-mammalian vertebrates can readily regenerate sensory hair cells that are similar in function. During the quest to understand zebrafish hair cell regeneration, researchers from the lab of Investigator Tatjana Piotrowski, PhD, at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research discovered the existence of a cell type not previously described in the process.

The research team found newly differentiated, migratory, and invasive ionocytes located in the sensory organs that house the cells giving rise to new hair cells in larval and adult fish. The researchers published their findings online April 19, 2021, in Developmental Cell. Normal invasive (that is, non-metastatic) behavior of cells after embryonic development is not often observed. Future research by the team will focus on identifying triggers for such behavior and the function of such cells, including how this process may relate to hair cell regeneration.

Protecting long-term care residents from outbreaks requires different infrastructure, proper staffing conditions and a culture of quality assurance, researchers have found.

The experts further determined that designing smaller, more homelike spaces would minimize the spread of viruses while promoting better health and quality of life for residents.

"Community outbreaks and lack of personal protective equipment were the primary drivers of outbreak occurrence in long-term care homes, and the built environment was the major determinant of outbreak severity," said George Heckman, a professor in Waterloo's School of Public Health and Health Systems and Schlegel Research Chair in Geriatric Medicine with the Research Institute for Aging.

"We need to distinguish between small-scale living and small-scale housing, using architectural features to create uncrowded and home-like spaces - but within a sufficiently resilient infrastructure to avoid critical staff shortages such as those experienced by some very small homes in Italy and the United States."

In the U.S., data from geospatial analysis and cellphone tracking showed that outbreaks were more likely when staff commuted from neighbourhoods with high viral circulation, and in large homes with more staff traffic.

The researchers said that in the case of Ontario, simulations found that 31 per cent of infections and 31 per cent of deaths could have been prevented if all Ontario long-term care residents had had single rooms. However, 30,000 new private rooms would have been needed.

"Policymakers need to reimagine long-term care infrastructure in a post-pandemic world, keeping in mind that smaller homes support better resident outcomes and are more resilient against infectious outbreaks," Heckman said. "New large-scale long-term care home developments should be strongly discouraged."

Other factors that would improve resident well-being and curb the spread of viral infections include a dedicated infection control officer in all long-term care homes, proper staffing conditions and high-quality assurance frameworks.

Hong Kong, for example, learned from the 2003 SARS outbreak and implemented several policies that led to success when it came to COVID-19. They developed guidelines for the prevention of communicable diseases in long-term care, including that all homes have an infection control officer, conduct annual outbreak drills and have a permanent stockpile of personal protective equipment and establish visitation rules that address hygiene and PPE use.

In addition to robust infection control and communication technologies used in Hong Kong, Heckman believes full-time positions, paid sick leave and mental health and well-being supports for staff would make a big difference.

The Hong Kong experience underscores the critical importance of learning health systems, of which a culture of quality assurance is an intrinsic component. Ontario, and most Canadian provinces, already have the required information infrastructure to achieve a learning health system. Based on standardized international Resident Assessment Instrument systems, developed by an international consortium of which Waterloo is a principal leader, their use by communities of practice has led to reductions in inappropriate antipsychotic use and better health outcomes for long-term care residents.

The University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen have come together to study the effects of Football Fitness on various health parameters and self-rated health following treatment for breast cancer.

The results of the project, called Football Fitness After Breast Cancer (ABC), have now been published in three scientific articles published in international sports medicine, cardiology and oncology journals.

"The main conclusion is that Football Fitness is an intense and good form of training for women treated for breast cancer, with beneficial effects on balance, muscle strength and bone density," says Professor Peter Krustrup, Head of Research at SDU's Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, who has been studying the health effects of football and other sports for more than 15 years.

Twice weekly training sessions for a year

The researchers from SDU and the University Hospitals Centre for Health Research at Rigshospitalet joined with doctors and nurses from the Department of Oncology at Rigshospitalet and researchers at the University of Copenhagen to investigate whether Football Fitness offered twice weekly for 12 months can boost various health parameters in women treated for breast cancer.

The study involved 68 women aged 23 to 74, with an average age of 48, who were randomised 2:1 to a training group (46 participants) and a control group (22 participants). The trial ran for 12 months, during which the training group was offered Football Fitness training sessions twice a week comprising a warm-up, fitness and football drills, and small-sided games of 5v5 and 7v7 using two goals.

At the start of the study and after 6 and 12 months, respectively, health parameters such as fitness, bone and muscle strength, balance, body fat percentage, blood pressure and cholesterol were measured and the participants completed questionnaires to rate their quality of life and energy in everyday activities.

It was also investigated whether participation in Football Fitness increased the risk of the participants developing chronic swelling (lymphoedema) on the side where they had been treated for breast cancer.

Football Fitness improves balance, strengthens muscle and counteracts bone weakening

In an article just published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, the researchers show that 12 months of football training, performed on average 0.8 x 1 hour per week, gave the women better balance and greater muscle strength in the legs, while at the same time increasing bone density in the lumbar spine.

The participants who took part in at least one weekly session also achieved an improvement in bone strength in the femur.

"It's encouraging that even a modest amount of training can produce these improvements because we know that treatment for breast cancer can accelerate the natural age-related loss of bone mass and thereby increase the risk of osteoporosis," says Jacob Uth, assistant professor and PhD at University College Copenhagen, who has been the project leader in the study.

"The fact that balance and muscle strength are improved at the same time is a big plus, because in the longer term this can reduce the risk of falls and broken bones," he says.

Everyday activities become easier - but improving fitness requires more training

In another recently published article in US journal Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, the researchers show that the intensity is high, corresponding to a heart rate of more than 80% of maximum heart rate for 70% of the time the participants are playing with two goals. But this did not improve the participants' fitness compared with the participants in the control group over the 12 months of the intervention.

On the other hand, the study showed that, after 6 months of Football Fitness training, the participants reported that health-related problems were less of a barrier to participating in and accomplishing everyday activities.

"While just one weekly training session on average was enough to produce positive effects on muscles and bones, and also to give a reduction in self-rated problems with everyday activities, it was not enough to produce a significant improvement in aerobic fitness for the football group. Our previous studies show a good improvement in maximal oxygen uptake of average 11% for 3-6 months' football training comprising 2-3 weekly sessions, but the attendance in this study was obviously lower," says Peter Krustrup.

"However, we were able to establish that the intensity of the football training was just as high as for other target groups with hypertension and type 2 diabetes and also that there was a good improvement in maximal oxygen update in the 50% of participants who had a low aerobic fitness rating at the start of the study".

Risk of lymphoedema does not increase with participation in Football Fitness

Around one in three women treated for breast cancer experiences chronic swelling in the arm on the side where the breast has been removed, which is known as lymphoedema.

Previously, professionals advised their patients to be cautious in exerting themselves physically, because it was suspected that this increased the risk of developing lymphoedema. Many studies have now shown that this fear is unfounded, but there is only limited data insofar as this concerns participation in team sport, where physical contact between players is an expected part of the activity.

The researchers in Football Fitness ABC therefore measured whether the women who took part in the football training developed lymphoedema more often, or were more likely to experience worsening of an existing lymphoedema, compared to the women in the control group.

Results from the study have now shown that there was no difference between the groups, and thus no reason to believe that Football Fitness increases the risk of lymphoedema, and this result was recently published in the Nordic cancer journal Acta Oncologica.

Football Fitness ABC has upscaling potential

Overall, the study shows that Football Fitness is an intense form of training for women treated for breast cancer, and Football Fitness appears to be able to counteract established long-term consequences of breast cancer treatment, such as loss of bone mass and lack of physical energy in everyday activities. These benefits are achieved without an increased risk of developing lymphoedema.

Peter Krustrup and Jacob Uth see potential in extending this form of training as a nationwide offering run by local football clubs under the Danish Football Association (DBU), ideally in partnership with hospitals and local health centres, in the same way as FC Prostate. At the same time, they stress that this is the first study in this area, and there remains a need for larger studies in order to be able to generalise the results to women treated for breast cancer generally, including women older than those participating in this study.

About the study

68 women aged 23-74, with an average age of 48, participated in the study.

2/3 were randomly assigned to Football Fitness training, which was offered twice weekly over 12 months. 1/3 were randomly assigned to a control group, which did not participate in the training. Participants in the control group were given the opportunity to participate in Football Fitness training after the project period.

Compared with the control group, the Football Fitness group improved balance, muscle strength in the legs and bone density in the lumbar spine. At the same time, they experienced a reduction in physical barriers to everyday activities.

Compared with the control group, the Football Fitness group improved balance by 27.5%, leg muscle strength by 8.4% and lumbar spine bone density by 2.5%.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide with 2.3 million women diagnosed in 2019. In the USA alone, 268.600 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019.

NEW YORK, NY (April 26, 2021) -Brain research and advocacy nonprofit Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB) today announced the launch of a National TBI Precision Solutions Research Roadmap, with the advent of the first in a series of publications resulting from its Brain Trauma Blueprint framework program.

The Brain Trauma Blueprint is a framework that enables stakeholder groups across government, academia, foundations, and industry to advance precision diagnostics and treatments for brain trauma through a coordinated effort. The framework comprises a 12-step process to jointly identify unmet patient needs, associated research priorities, landscape state of the science, identify research gaps and barriers, and provide recommendations for progress. The framework also provides a call to action for funders and collaborators across the broader stakeholder community to engage in a transparent & coordinated network.

Advancing TBI Care Through a Research Roadmap

Authored by leading experts in the traumatic brain injury (TBI) field, the six-part series is being published in the Journal of Neurotrauma and will lay the framework for a roadmap to advance the field, based on a State-of-the-Science consensus conference held in 2019 with >125 leaders in the field. The first installment focuses on the complex nature of brain trauma and how variability in clinical presentation (phenotypes) has confounded research. The consensus roadmap recommended that a streamlined method for characterizing data collected in different settings could lead to more targeted care and improved patient outcomes.

As a direct outcome of the collaboration fostered through the Blueprint, CVB and its collaborators have developed the first of a suite of tools to capture the variability of subject-level data across the spectrum of TBI. Using this standardized approach, the new tool, PhenoBench, is made freely available via a public code repository to enable researchers to evaluate phenotyping data collected across different studies.

"TBI presents differently from one patient to the next, and so it is important to have the ability to predict who might recover versus who is susceptible to long-term effects. This set of tools is anticipated to provide researchers with the means to standardize how they analyze and subsequently interpret TBI phenotyping data across different patient populations," said Lee Lancashire, PhD, CVB Chief Information Officer, and collaborating author on the publication. "We expect PhenoBench to have a significant impact on the field by ensuring that new and existing data can be used to discover reproducible and transparent signatures of patient phenotypes. This will enable prediction of TBI outcomes and move us closer to tailored treatments that improve recovery."

Toward a Personalized Approach to TBI Care

TBI is a leading cause of death and disability in the U. S. Yet despite the personal, economic, and societal costs of TBI, as well as the significant research investments to date, there are no FDA-approved treatments that address the long-term consequences many individuals who have sustained a TBI will go on to develop. Although most individuals who experience a TBI recover, a significant subset have persistent symptoms, including mental health conditions, sleep disturbances, and memory impairment, further increasing the personal and economic burden. Many researchers believe that studying the clinical features--or phenotype--of patients who recover from a TBI versus those who develop chronic effects could lead to better, more personalized treatment options for all TBI patients.

To understand the challenges of a phenotype-based strategy for TBI care, the authors of the Journal of Neurotrauma's first Brain Trauma Blueprint publication--Phenotyping the Spectrum of Traumatic Brain Injury: A Review and Pathway to Standardization [10.1089/neu.2021.0059]--describe the current research on approaches to patient phenotyping, and the need to consider new approaches such as unsupervised machine-learning, a type of artificial intelligence that looks for patterns and similarities across vast amounts of data without needing to know the clinical outcomes.

According to Mary Jo Pugh, PhD, RN, professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Epidemiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Investigator at the Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Science Center of Innovation at the VA Salt Lake City and lead author on the manuscript, "Phenotyping is becoming an increasingly popular approach to the evaluation of TBI and trajectories of TBI-related outcomes. It has great potential to identify the right patient for the right treatment at the right time."

SPOKANE, Wash. - Touching patients while providing care is an important and unavoidable aspect of the nursing profession. Nurses can also transform touch into a useful therapeutic tool to improve patients'-- and their own--wellbeing.

That is the topic of a study, "'Permission to Touch': Nurses' Perspectives of Interpersonal Contact during Patient Care," published in the Western Journal of Nursing Research.The authors include two Washington State University College of Nursing faculty, Associate Professor Marian Wilson and Assistant Professor Tullamora Landis, former faculty member Michele Shaw, and lead author Enrico DeLuca, of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, who visited WSU in 2018 to work with Wilson on the study.

Nurses touch patients frequently for tasks and to provide comfort and emotional support. Studies have looked at physical contact occurring during nursing care, offering several definitions. "Expressive" touch, for example, is spontaneous and used to establish contact, reassure or give comfort, such as laying a hand on a patient's shoulder.

Most previous studies have looked at the effect of such touch on patients; this study looks at how interpersonal contact is perceived by nurses. Nurses were also asked about their view of massage as a form of intentional touch in a clinical setting.

Through focus groups and interviews, participants said they found touch and massage helpful when providing patient care and saw them as especially important resources in providing emotional care.

Said one participant, "... there are also times when your patient needs extra emotional support and putting a hand on a shoulder, holding a hand, that can be really, really effective and that's something I use quite often."

Participants, however, also expressed concerns about boundaries and discussed how they assessed whether a patient was open to interpersonal touch.

The study noted that touch and massage techniques are useful tools that are already being employed by many nurses, but that it would be helpful to clarify the types of interpersonal contact used by nurses and possibly include touch as a competency in nursing education.

Creating the best conditions for cells to make energy and survive critical illness is a challenge little understood in modern medicine. Now a new study led by scientists at the University of Plymouth, in collaboration with University College London and the Universities of Cambridge and Southampton, shows early signs that cells in some critically ill patients actually adapt to their conditions by producing energy more efficiently.

The research, published in the journal Redox Biology, took muscle and blood samples over seven days from 21 critically ill patients (ie those with two or more organs failing) in intensive care, and 12 healthy people, comparing cells' behaviour.

The study showed that all of the critically ill patients produced energy more efficiently than healthy people, in a pattern of changes that has previously been identified in cells adapting to low oxygen levels. There were also differences in the ways cells produced energy in the patients who survived, compared to those who died.

So how was this measured? In mitochondria (the powerhouses of our cells), structures known as 'complexes' transport electrons, which, facilitated by oxygen inhalation, effectively becomes the fuel driving our cells. The study showed that the capacity of one of these complexes was 27% lower in survivors than in non-survivors after 48 hours of illness, but tended to increase in seven days, with no such recovery observed in non-survivors. This means that, despite this complex appearing to work at a lower rate, the cells were adapting to the adverse conditions of the critical illness, and coming out the other side.

The work was funded by the Intensive Care Society, and forms part of the University of Plymouth's expertise in intensive care medicine, which explores oxygen deprivation and the body's ability to cope in hostile conditions.

It also builds on principles of Nobel prize-winning research from 2019, by William Kaelin, Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza, which uncovered how cells respond to changes in oxygen levels.

Lead author Dr Helen McKenna, National Institute for Health Research Academic Clinical Fellow at the University of Plymouth, explains why the new work is important.

"When a body is going through trauma, there's the temptation to think we need to give more oxygen or stimulate cells to survive," she said. "However, this research suggests that some cells can actually adapt to the conditions they're in.

"Of course the next question to answer is why some people's cells behave in this way while others' don't. It could be genetics, age or previous exposure to trauma - we don't yet know. But uncovering this cell behaviour in the first place is a really important step. If we can unravel the cellular and molecular foundation of human resilience, we can enable the development of more effective life-support strategies."

Few sites in the world preserve a continuous archaeological record spanning millions of years. Wonderwerk Cave, located in South Africa's Kalahari Desert, is one of those rare sites. Meaning "miracle" in Afrikaans, Wonderwerk Cave has been identified as potentially the earliest cave occupation in the world and the site of some of the earliest indications of fire use and tool making among prehistoric humans.

New research, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, led by a team of geologists and archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) and the University of Toronto, confirms the record-breaking date of this spectacular site. "We can now say with confidence that our human ancestors were making simple Oldowan stone tools inside the Wonderwerk Cave 1.8 million years ago. Wonderwerk is unique among ancient Oldowan sites, a tool-type first found 2.6 million years ago in East Africa, precisely because it is a cave and not an open-air occurrence," explained lead author Professor Ron Shaar at HU's Institute of Earth Sciences.

The team were able to successfully establish the shift from Oldowan tools (mainly sharp flakes and chopping tools) to early handaxes over 1 million years ago, and to date the deliberate use of fire by our prehistoric ancestors to 1 million years ago, in a layer deep inside the cave. The latter is a particularly significant because other examples of early fire use come from open-air sites where the possible role of wildfires cannot be excluded. Moreover, Wonderwerk contained a full array of fire remnants: burnt bone, sediment and tools as well as the presence of ash.

Dating cave deposits is one of the greatest challenges in paleo-anthropology, aka the study of human evolution. To overcome this challenge, the team analyzed a 2.5-meter thick sedimentary layer that contained stone tools, animal remains and fire remnants using two methods: paleomagnetism and burial dating. "We carefully removed hundreds of tiny sediment samples from the cave walls and measured their magnetic signal," described Shaar.

Magnetization occurred when clay particles, that entered the cave from outside, settled on the prehistoric cave floor, thereby preserving the direction of the earth's magnetic field at that time. "Our lab analysis showed that some of the samples were magnetized to the south instead of the north, which is the direction of today's magnetic field. Since the exact timing of these magnetic "reversals" is globally recognized, it gave us clues to the antiquity of the entire sequence of layers in the cave," added Shaar.

Prof. Ari Matmon, Director of HU's the Institute of Earth Sciences, relied on a secondary dating method to further confirm when the earliest "humans" may have occupied the site. "Quartz particles in sand have a built-in geological clock that starts ticking when they enter a cave. In our lab, we are able to measure the concentrations of specific isotopes in those particles and deduce how much time had passed since those grains of sand entered the cave," he explained.

The dating of prehistoric human activity at Wonderwerk Cave has far-reaching implications. The co-directors of the Wonderwerk Cave project, Prof. Michael Chazan at the University of Toronto and Liora Kolska Horwitz at HU's National Natural History Collections, explained that the findings at Wonderwerk "are an important step towards understanding the tempo of human evolution across the African continent. With a timescale firmly established for Wonderwerk Cave, we can continue studying the connection between human evolution and climate change, and the evolution of our early human ancestors' way of life."

On the southern edge of the Kalahari Desert, Wonderwerk Cave is also a place of great spiritual significance to local communities, attesting to the cave's cultural importance for both past and present peoples. The Wonderwerk Cave Research Project is committed to protecting the site and to working with neighboring towns to develop the educational and cultural potential of this unique place.

Photos, Credits and Article available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/103a60qIZCOi9zzRFUUzP376ZG4KHWvP_?usp=sharing

Australian researchers have identified neutralising nanobodies that block the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering cells in preclinical models.

The discovery paves the way for further investigations into nanobody-based treatments for COVID-19.

Published in PNAS, the research is part of a consortium-led effort, bringing together the expertise of Australian academic leaders in infectious diseases and antibody therapeutics at WEHI, the Doherty Institute and the Kirby Institute.

At a glance

Researchers have identified nanobodies that effectively blocked the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering cells in pre-clinical models of COVID-19 infection.

Nanobodies - which are tiny immune proteins - could provide an alternative to conventional antibody treatments for COVID-19.

By mapping nanobodies, the research team was able to identify a nanobody that recognised the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including emerging global variants of concern. The nanobody also recognised the original SARS-CoV virus (which causes SARS), indicating it may provide cross-protection against these two human coronaviruses.

Using alpaca 'nanobodies' to block COVID-19 infection

Antibodies are key infection-fighting proteins in our immune system. An important aspect of antibodies is that they bind tightly and specifically to another protein.

Antibody-based therapies, or 'biologics', harness this property of antibodies, enabling them to bind to a protein involved in disease.

Nanobodies are unique antibodies - tiny immune proteins - produced naturally by alpacas in response to infection.

As part of the research, a group of alpacas in regional Victoria were immunised with a synthetic, non-infectious part of the SARS-CoV-2 'spike' protein to enable them to generate nanobodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

WEHI Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham, who led the research, said the establishment of a nanobody platform at WEHI allowed an agile response for the development of antibody-based therapies against COVID-19.

"The synthetic spike protein is not infectious and does not cause the alpacas to develop disease - but it allows the alpacas to develop nanobodies," she said.

"We can then extract the gene sequences encoding the nanobodies and use this to produce millions of types of nanobodies in the laboratory, and then select the ones that best bind to the spike protein."

Associate Professor Tham said the leading nanobodies that block virus entry were then combined into a 'nanobody cocktail'.

"By combining the two leading nanobodies into this nanobody cocktail, we were able to test its effectiveness at blocking SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells and reducing viral loads in preclinical models," she said.

Mapping nanobody binding

ANSTO's Australian Synchrotron and the Monash Ramaciotti Centre for Cryo-Electron Microscopy were critical resources in the project, allowing the research team to map how the nanobodies bound to the spike protein and how this impacted the virus' ability to bind to its human receptor.

Hariprasad Venugopal, Senior Microscopist from the Monash Ramaciotti Centre for Cryo-Electron Microscopy, said the study highlighted the importance of open-access to high-end Cryo-EM facilities.

"We were able to directly image and map the neutralising interaction of the nanobodies with the spike protein using Cryo-EM at near atomic resolution," Mr Venugopal said.

"Cryo-EM has been an important drug discovery tool in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic."

By mapping the nanobodies, the research team was able to identify a nanobody that recognised the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including emerging global variants of concern. The nanobody was also effective against the original SARS virus (SARS-CoV), indicating it may provide cross-protection against these two globally significant human coronaviruses.

"In the wake of COVID-19, there is a lot of discussion about pandemic preparedness. Nanobodies that are able to bind to other human beta-coronaviruses - including SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS - could prove effective against future coronaviruses as well," Associate Professor Tham said.

MUNICH -- Rewilding--a hands-off approach to restoring and protecting biodiversity--is increasingly employed across the globe to combat the environmental footprint of rapid urbanization and intensive farming. The recent reintroduction of grey wolves in Yellowstone, America's first national park, is regarded as one of the most successful rewilding efforts, having reinvigorated an ecosystem that had been destabilized by the removal of large predators.

However, successful attempts to rewild the landscape hinge on more than just the reintroduction of a plant or animal species, they also require that geography and geology be taken into account, according to new research from the University of Amsterdam and the Dutch State Forestry Service.

It is the landscape that ultimately decides the outcome of rewilding efforts, says Kenneth Rijsdijk, an ecologist at the University of Amsterdam, who is presenting the team's results at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2021.

One of the key challenges of rewilding is deciding where to do it, Rijsdijk says, especially given competing land-uses like infrastructure and agriculture. "Clearly, we cannot, and should not, rewild everywhere. It makes sense to pick out specific areas where rewilding is more likely to succeed, taking into account how landscape features, like ruggedness and soil nutrients, can shape ecosystems."

Ecologists gauge rewilding success using biodiversity metrics, such as an increase in the abundance and diversity of plant or bird species. But these measurements do not factor in the role of landscape: from the topography and river systems to the soil and underlying geology.

These aspects--known collectively as geodiversity--furnish all the physical support required for life on Earth. "Landscape plays a pivotal role in defining the ecosystem: determining where vegetation grows, herbivores graze, animals seek shelter, and predators hunt," Rijsdijk says.

"It's remarkable that, from a conservation standpoint, the landscape itself is significantly undervalued in the success of rewilding projects," says coauthor Harry Seijmonsbergen, an ecologist at the University of Amsterdam.

The team aims to build a more holistic index for measuring and predicting rewilding success.

Early applications of their approach--in northwestern Europe, at sites previously marked by the Dutch State Forestry Service as possible candidates for rewilding--show that more varied landscapes show greater conservation potential.

Their index draws on more than a century of geological and geographical map data, which the team have mapped out across 12 sites in northwestern Europe--combining landscape features such as elevation, forested areas, openness, and quietness in order to compute a metric for landscape quality. They also studied how geodiversity influenced rewilding over time using satellite, aerial, and field data. By tuning their new index against a previously used ecological index, they were able to independently assess the relationship between biodiversity and landscape at each site.

As an independent test of landscape ruggedness, they supplemented their workflow with previously collected data from Yellowstone. The park's mountainous and varied terrain hosts niche environments for animals to hunt and shelter.

The new research could help decision-makers select future rewilding sites with the right recipe for success. "Conservation biologists have been asking how they can pinpoint sites with the right characteristics for rewilding," Rijsdijk says. "Our research is the first to start building the required toolkit to measure landscape quality and inform that choice."

Although most oncological diseases are not infectious, some viruses can cause cancer. According to the World Health Organization, two HPV subtypes account for 70% of cervical cancer cases and pre-existing conditions. Moreover, HPV considerably increases the risks of other types of cancer. Within an infected cell, a viral protein called E6 binds with human proteins from the 14-3-3 family. 14-3-3 proteins are present in cells of all eukaryotic organisms and can interact with hundreds of other important players of intracellular processes to regulate cell division, gene activity, metabolism, cell death, and intracellular signaling. If the activity of 14-3-3 proteins is disturbed, cells can become susceptible to viruses or cancer, which is a double danger in the case of HPV.

"14-3-3 proteins are abundantly present in most tissues of the human body. These proteins come in seven types (isoforms) with very similar structures and properties. For years scientists have been trying to understand why there are several practically identical substances. Understanding the mechanisms of interactions between the E6 oncoprotein and these isoforms could help develop novel antiviral therapies," said Nikolai Sluchanko, a Ph.D. in Biology, the lead researcher of the study, and the head of the group "Protein-Protein Interactions" at the Federal Research Center for Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In their work, the biologists studied a complex of different human 14-3-3 isoforms with the HPV E6 protein using X-ray crystallography. Based on the obtained data, they developed an accurate model of the spatial structure of the complex that consisted of a 14-3-3 protein and the main functional fragment of a E6 protein, which is responsible for promoting oncogenic transformation. Then, the researchers used a natural compound called fusicoccin to experimentally prove that the complex stability could be significantly affected by small therapeutic molecules. In principle, this confirms the possibility to develop a drug against HPV, a virus that is carried or infected by up to 90% of the human population.

The stability of the studied complex varied greatly depending on the 14-3-3 isoform type. Having identified this pattern, the biologists ranged the isoforms by the strength of the interaction in a descending order. Importantly, the pattern in the interaction of 14-3-3 isoforms was observed not only with E6 from different HPV subtypes, but also with many other partners of 14-3-3. The team also found confirmations of their conclusions in the data of other scientific publications and in recent proteomic studies.

"We managed to identify a global pattern of interaction between the seven human 14-3-3 isoforms and their partner proteins or fragments thereof. This fundamental discovery suggests that the repertoire of 14-3-3 isoforms is cell-specific and is tightly associated with cell functions. It is likely to change when a cell adapts to external conditions or progresses through its life cycle," concluded Nikolai Sluchanko.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have created an artificial intelligence platform that can identify the specific proteins that allow bacteria to infect the intestines - a method that paves the way for the creation of smart drugs that will neutralize the proteins and prevent disease, without the use of antibiotics. Participating in the study, which was published in the prestigious journal Science, were Ph.D. student Naama Wagner and Prof. Tal Pupko, head of the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at the Faculty of Life Sciences and the new Center for Artificial Intelligence & Data Science at Tel Aviv University. The international partners in the study included researchers from Imperial College (led by Prof. Gad Frankel) and the Institute for Cancer Research in London, as well as from the Technical University and the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid.

Intestinal diseases are caused by pathogenic bacteria that attach to our intestinal cells. Once attached, the bacteria use a kind of molecular syringe to inject intestinal cells with proteins called "effectors." These effectors work together to take over healthy cells, like hackers that take over computer servers using a combination of lines of code. However, until now scientists have not known what protein combination it is that cracks the cell's defense mechanisms. Now, the Tel Aviv University researchers' artificial intelligence platform has identified novel effectors in the bacteria, which have been experimentally tested and validated. Subsequently, laboratory experiments conducted in London successfully predicted the protein combinations that lead to the pathogenic bacteria taking over the intestines.

"In this study, we focused on a bacterium that causes intestinal disease in mice, a relative of the E. coli bacteria that cause intestinal disease in humans, so as not to work directly with the human pathogen", explains Ph.D. student Naama Wagner. "The artificial intelligence we created knows how to predict effectors in a variety of pathogenic bacteria, including bacteria that attack plants of economic importance. Our calculations were made possible by advanced machine-learning tools that use the genomic information of a large number of bacteria. Our partners in England proved experimentally that the learning was extremely accurate and that the effectors we identified are indeed the weapons used by the bacteria."

"Pathogenic bacteria are treated with antibiotics," says Prof. Tal Pupko. "But antibiotics kill a large number of species of bacteria, in the hope that the pathogenic bacteria will also be destroyed. So antibiotics are not a rifle but a cannon. Moreover, the overuse of antibiotics leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a worldwide problem that is getting worse. Understanding the molecular foundation of the disease is a necessary step in the development of drugs that are smarter than antibiotics, which will not harm the bacterial population in the intestines at all. This time we discovered the effectors of gut bacteria that attack rodents, but this is just the beginning. We are already working on detecting effectors in other bacteria in an attempt to better understand how they carry out their mission in the target cells they are attacking."