Culture

How can new life forms that we cannot see be discovered? Using a novel method based on looking for DNA in soil samples, researchers at Uppsala University have revealed the existence of two hitherto unknown, but very common fungus species. They are thought to perform a key function in the ecosystem, but their exact role remains to be clarified. The study is published in the journal IMA Fungus.

To most people, the word "fungus" conjures up something like a chanterelle or fly agaric, rising vertically from the ground. Since a huge number of fungi do not form distinct fruit bodies, however, they do not catch the eye. This applies, for example, to the newly discovered fungi. Invisible to the naked eye, they are nonetheless common in forest soils in Northern and Central Europe, as DNA analyses of soil samples show.

The researchers found the fungi in soil samples from the Ivantjärnheden field station near Jädraås, in the province of Gästrikland, in east central Sweden. The method developed by the scientists is based on extracting both long DNA sequences, to investigate species interrelationships, and short DNA sequences to get an idea of how common species are.

"Our data show that these two are closely related but distinct species that compete for resources in the soil profile. One wins out, and is dominant, in organic soil; we've named it Archaeorhizomyces victor. In second place we have Archaeorhizomyces secundus, which makes do with resources in mineral soil to a greater extent," says Anna Rosling of the Department of Ecology and Genetics at Uppsala University, who headed the work.

Where the two species coexist - in soil and roots in mixed and coniferous forest - Archaeorhizomyces victor thus predominates in the humus-rich soil. Just a little further down in the ground, where the soil contains less nutrients, victor does poorly and secundus can become widespread.

These species belong to the class Archaeorhizomycetes and, as such, to a group of ancient fungal root endophytes: fungi that colonise plants' root tissue internally and live in symbiosis with the host, enhancing plant performance and causing no obvious harm. From soil samples around the world, the researchers know that this class comprises at least 1,000 species. These fungi are common; in soil samples from Ivantjärnheden, for example, they make up roughly 30 per cent of all sequenced genetic material. This large fungus group was first described scientifically in 2011 and then, too, it was Anna Rosling and her research group who made the discovery, and also succeeded in cultivating two species in their laboratory. The fungi then grew enough to permit more detailed study. Rosling describes them as slow-growing and somewhat beige in colour, and says they form differently shaped spores.

With these two newly discovered fungi, the known species of Archaeorhizomycetes have doubled in number. Even more important, the researchers think, is the fact that they have established a method of identifying new species that does not depend on cultivation, or on finding a fruiting body. And much remains to be discovered in the fungus kingdom. The presence of certain marker genes in soil samples indicates that nearly 90 per cent of all fungi have yet to be scientifically described.

"With our study, we want to give an idea of the tremendous diversity of fungi in the soil and the importance of naming them, even if we haven't seen them with the naked eye yet," Rosling says.

The oil from wild olive trees has excellent sensorial, physicochemical and stability characteristics from a nutritional point of view, according to an article published in the journal Antioxidants. The study, based on the analysis of fruits from wild olive trees of the natural reserve of the Medes islands (Catalonia), reveals that the parameters of the quality of oil are within the values the International Olive Council allowed.

The study represents a first approach to the characterization of wild ivory-white olive trees in Catalonia, and it is led by Rosa M. Lamuela, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barceloa and the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERobn). The study is also signed by experts from the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the UB (IN2UB), the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), and the Institute for Research and Training in Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Eccological Production (IFAPA). The study also counted on the participation of the Scientific and Technological Centres of the UB (CCiTUB), among other supporting infrastructures.

Wild olive: the wild variety of the cultivated olive

The wild olive (Olea europaea L. var Sylvestris) ?a tree from the oleaceae family?, is the ancestor of the olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea), cultivated from ancient times in order to get oil. Now, the commercial use of the fruit of the wild olives is minoritarian in the food industry, although some peninsular regions use it to make great ecological quality oil.

So far, there was not much information about the phenolic profile of wild ivory-white olives. "The fruit from the olive is featured for its low oil content. However, they have unique features as white fruits with a high content in phenolic elements that could have an effect within the required parameters by the European Union, to have a claim on health (protection of low-density lipoprotein from oxidative damage)", notes Professor Lamuela, director of the Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety (INSA) --located in the Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus-- and head of the Research Group on Natural Antioxidants of the UB.

In the Medes islands, the wild olive has grown under conditions that were marked by the Mediterranean climate and its geological environment (hydric stress, salinity, etc.). "In particular, the phenolic profile of the oil is higher than the one described up to date in a genotype of wild olives in Algeria. This is why we might be in front of genotypes that could be used for food purposes and in programs for the improvement of the traditional olive tree", adds the UB professor.

The organoleptic properties of olive oil from olive trees are similar to those of commercial olive varieties. "This is due to the fact that both oils have similar concentrations of oleocanthal and oleacein, two phenolic compounds that cause perceptions such as itching and bitterness" say researchers Anallely López-Yerena (INSA-UB) and Antonia Ninot (IRTA), first signatories of the article.

Wild olives: protecting the natural heritage and promoting local cultivation

The sector of olive oil has made a significant effort to optimize the process of extracting olive oil in order to maintain a balance between economic performance and oil quality. For twenty years, the renewal of olive groves has favoured the use of some varieties ?Picual and Arbequina? that dominate olive tree groves throughout the country. This practice excludes the agronomic use of many local varieties, which involves a high risk of losing plant diversity.

In this scenario, the olive trees represent a potential example of resilience and adaptation to adverse agronomic conditions. Today, we can still find forests of wild olive trees in southern Spain (Andalusia), as well as genuine wild forms scattered ?especially in disturbed areas or abandoned fields? in areas of the Valencian Community and Catalonia.

The new study is part of a program on cultivated biodiversity aimed at preventing the alarming loss of genetic diversity and promoting the use of local crops. In this framework, the ongoing activities are aimed at the prospection and harvesting of olive populations in Spain, in order to assess their genetic variability and study the potential application in future programs on olive improvement.

"Protected areas such as the Medes Islands can help maintain the biodiversity of species and food such as virgin olive oil. In the future, new studies should be promoted to improve the conservation of wild olive trees, the selection of genotypes with other sensory characteristics better adapted to certain environmental conditions, and the use of genetic material for reproductive purposes. In addition, this knowledge will help us have a better understanding of the history of the plant domestication of the olive tree for the crops", conclude the researchers Anna Vallverdú-Queralt and Julián Lozano-Castellón (UB-INSA-CIBERobn).

By using two different transparent soil substitutes, scientists have shown that soil bacteria rely on fungi to help them survive dry periods, says a study published today ineLife.

The findings indicate that these soil-like substrates may enable researchers to observe the complex interactions of the myriad microscopic creatures that live in soil. This ability is crucial to help us better understand the role that soil and soil microbes play in healthy ecosystems.

Millions of microscopic organisms such as fungi and bacteria live in the soil. They are essential for healthy ecosystems because they support the growth of plants and capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. But studying these processes in real soil can be challenging.

"To advance the study of soil processes, we used transparent soil substitutes that allowed us to use microscopes and other experimental techniques to see and measure the activity of soil bacteria and determine how this activity depends on the fungi," says lead author Kriti Sharma, who completed the study as a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US, and is now a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech, Pasadena, US.

In the experiments, Sharma and collaborators from Vienna, Austria, successfully grew soil bacteria and fungi in two transparent soil substitutes. One was a synthetic substance called Nafion and the other was a naturally occurring crystal called cryolite. They also demonstrated that it was possible to observe living microbes in these substitutes using a microscope and to measure the organisms' overall metabolic activity and uptake of carbon using a technique called Raman microspectroscopy.

Next, they used the soil substitutes to study what happens to bacteria when soil goes from being dried out to wet again. The experiments showed that while many soil bacteria die or become inactive when soil dries out, bacteria living near dead fungi remain active and use the fungi as a source for carbon. "In this way, fungi promote the activity of soil bacteria in changing environmental conditions," Sharma says.

The transparent soil systems reported in the study will likely be used by many other researchers who study soil ecology, adds senior author Elizabeth Shank, Associate Professor in the Program in Systems Biology and Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, US.

"For example, they could be used to explore how interactions between bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic creatures living in soil help support the growth of crops," she says. "Or to better understand how carbon is stored and released from soil, which may be critical to combating climate change. Overall, these transparent soil substitutes are powerful tools that will help us answer many outstanding questions in soil microbial ecology."

Gene therapies are being approved for use in Canada, but could strain healthcare budgets and exacerbate existing treatment inequities across the country. However, there are opportunities to control spending, streamline approvals and support fair access through innovation, coordination and collaboration, according to a new expert panel report from the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA).

"Rapid scientific advances mean potentially life-changing treatments are approaching the clinic at an accelerated pace," said Janet Rossant, PhD, C.C., FRSC, and Chair of the Expert Panel. "These new therapies, however, pose a number of challenges in terms of their introduction into the Canadian healthcare system and ensuring access to those who would most benefit."

The National Research Council of Canada asked the CCA to examine the key legal, regulatory, ethical, social and policy challenges specific to the approval and use of somatic gene and engineered cell therapies in Canada.

Somatic gene and engineered cell therapies treat disease by removing or modifying existing genetic material in a patient, or introducing new genetic material, without passing these changes to future generations. Most treat rare genetic disorders and cancers, however they can cost more than $1 million and have limited evidence of long-term safety and durability.

From Research to Reality describes the stages involved in the approval and use of gene therapies in Canada, and examines the challenges associated with regulatory oversight, manufacturing, access, and affordability. It also identifies emerging solutions that can capitalize on Canadian strengths in research, manufacturing and health-care accessibility.

"The approval and use of gene therapies challenges payers, regulators, industry, patients and families," said Eric M. Meslin, PhD, FCAHS, President and CEO of the CCA. "This report covers many of these challenges as well as possible paths forward, and will help to support evidence-informed decision making in Canada."

THE University of Huddersfield's Archaeogenetics Research Group has mapped out the dispersal of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, responsible for the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, putting Europe centre-stage as the main source of the spread.

The group's findings, recently published in a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Microorganisms, confirm that the virus originated in China and most likely jumped into humans from horseshoe bats. But that it is Europe, not China, which has been the main source for spreading the disease around the world.

The research also suggests that travel restrictions across Britain and Europe seem to have been too little and too late and that the actual spread of the virus to America and other parts of the world was largely via Europe, and not directly from China.

The study focused on 27,000 virus genomes, sampled from all around the world. The researchers usually work on tracking ancient human migrations using mitochondrial DNA, and they capitalised on the fact that the virus genome is similar in crucial respects.

Still, the mammoth size of the database, even back in May when the study began, makes this one of the biggest analyses of its kind ever undertaken.

The intensive data analyses were carried out by clinical geneticist Dr Teresa Rito and evolutionary geneticist Dr Pedro Soares. Both are based at the University of Minho, in Portugal and have worked closely with the University of Huddersfield's Professor Martin Richards and Dr Maria Pala, as part of the Archaeogenetics Research Group, on many occasions. The pair called upon the knowledge and expertise of their colleagues in the UK to help make sense of the data and publish their conclusions in double-quick time.

Professor Richards explained how there is a huge ongoing worldwide effort to understand the spread of the coronavirus and that researchers are trying to make their work available to the public as fast as possible.

As the world continues to face a rapidly spreading pathogen, Dr Pala believes a greater understanding of the virus will better inform and improve upon policies designed to control the spread.

"With thousands of lives still at risk," added Dr Pala, "the need for scientific research is now more crucial than ever."

Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends vaccinating key populations, such as people at risk of severe illness or death, those at risk of transmitting the virus and essential workers, during the initial rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine in Canada. The preliminary guidance, developed for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

NACI is an independent external group of 15 experts that advises PHAC on the use of vaccines currently or newly approved for use in humans in Canada, including the identification of groups at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases for whom vaccination should be targeted. PHAC asked NACI to advise on which populations should be prioritized for early doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

While the federal government is doing everything it can to give Canadians access to the safe and effective vaccines, vaccine supply will likely be limited at first, requiring careful decisions about how to protect those at highest risk from COVID-19 and make the greatest impact with an initially limited resource.

"Given anticipated challenges with sufficient supply to vaccinate the entire at-risk population initially, NACI recommends that key populations should be prioritized for COVID-19 immunization, based on evidence of safety and efficacy at the time of vaccine availability, to minimize serious illness and deaths as a result of the pandemic," says NACI chair Dr. Caroline Quach, an infectious diseases specialist and microbiologist at CHU Sainte-Justine, Professor at the Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, and Canada Research Chair in Infection Prevention.

NACI recommends the following populations be prioritized for early immunization:

Those at high risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 (including advanced age and other high-risk conditions);

Those most likely to transmit COVID-19 to people at high risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, and workers essential to maintaining the COVID-19 response;

Those contributing to the maintenance of other essential services for the functioning of society; and

Those whose living or working conditions put them at elevated risk of infection and where infection could have disproportionate consequences, including Indigenous communities.

These key populations are not mutually exclusive, may overlap, and are not listed in priority order.

"A safe, effective vaccine could help control the COVID-19 pandemic and minimize the illness, death and societal disruption," says Dr. Quach.

As new information and vaccines become available, NACI will provide updated evidence-based guidelines.

"We hope to have a safe, effective vaccine available as early as possible in 2021, but we expect to have a limited supply initially," says Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada. "Once a vaccine is ready, we will need to make important decisions on how to use what vaccine supply we do have -- to make the most impact where we can. The Government of Canada is committed to working with provinces and territories on plans to allocate and administer vaccines to key populations."

Rollout of the vaccine should be guided by principles of equity, feasibility and acceptability to key populations.

"Existing inequities magnified by this pandemic may be exacerbated with the inequitable allocation of vaccines. Efforts should be made to increase access to immunization services and engage racialized and systemically marginalized populations in immunization program planning," says Dr. Quach.

Bankers and environmentalists alike are increasingly calling for capital markets to play a bigger role in the war on carbon. In the absence of a meaningful global price on carbon, however, capital continues to flow freely toward fossil fuels and other carbon-intensive industries. The movement for fossil fuel divestment has been trying since 2012 to reverse this trend. A strong media presence and divestment pledges from high-profile investors notwithstanding, the movement has had little, if any, impact on the market valuation or bottom line of fossil fuel companies to date. A recent Nature Climate Change comment by Felix Mormann, a professor at Texas A&M University School of Law, reveals a number of critical shortcomings that prevent the movement from achieving its stated goals of delegitimizing the fossil fuel industry and reducing its access to capital.

The most fundamental shortcoming lies in the divestment movement's failure to properly differentiate among companies based on their relative contributions to global warming and climate change. "Drawing a binary divestment line between fossil and non-fossil stocks misses the reality that, when it comes to climate action, there are good actors and bad actors on both sides of the divide," notes Mormann. "The current focus on extractive and energy companies has undoubtedly proven media-effective. But it misrepresents the complex push-and-pull dynamics across the value chain of energy and other climate-relevant products and services."

If the divestment movement can be faulted for being under-inclusive as regards non-fossil companies with excessive carbon footprints, then a similar critique can be extended to the movement's investor reach. The latest divestment tally lists more than 1,200 commitments from pension funds, philanthropic foundations, faith-based organizations, and other institutional investors, managing over $14 trillion in assets. Individual investors who hold stocks and other securities for their personal account, however, account for fewer than 60,000 commitments worldwide, representing just over $5 billion in assets. Compared to the nearly $25 trillion in equities owned by individual investors in the United States alone, the latter numbers reveal the divestment movement's egregious failure to mobilize a key contingent of the global financial market--not to mention potential jurors in the court of public opinion.

"The divestment movement deserves huge credit for shining a spotlight on the crucial role that capital markets have to play in the war on carbon," emphasizes Mormann, who also holds an appointment in Texas A&M University's College of Engineering. "But the more I studied it, the clearer it became that major reforms are needed if the movement is to achieve its stated goals and move the needle on corporate climate action."

One such reform that Mormann suggests in his comment is to rebrand beyond fossil fuel divestment toward a more nuanced campaign for low-carbon (re-)investment. To do so, the overly crude fossil vs. non-fossil distinction should be abandoned in favor of a more sophisticated assessment of companies' climate impact and governance, modeled after the ratings of creditworthiness that have long been a staple of capital markets. "Think of a rating agency à la Moody's or Standard & Poor's, only for climate change," explains Mormann. The international non-profit CDP, formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project, has begun to rate thousands of companies annually on their climate impact and action. Substituting such ratings for the binary fossil vs. non-fossil divestment criterion could go a long way toward mobilizing capital markets, companies, and investors in the quest to combat global climate change.

Palm oil contains abundant quantities of vitamin E compounds, which include tocopherols and tocotrienols. These compounds have anti-oxidant effects, which protect cells from damage from toxic chemical produced by metabolic processes. While tocopherol is a widely known and researched compound, there remains much to learn about tocotrienols.

A team of researchers from Malaysia and Libya recently investigated the effect of tocotrienols extracted from palm oil on mice liver cells. The team investigated the expression levels of genes influenced by a transcription factor Nrf2, and the translocation of the same factor into the cellular nucleus. Nrf2 is known to upregulate phase II drug metabolism in reaction to metabolic processes. The genes activate cellular defense mechanisms. "Our study is the first in vivo study on the effect of tocotrienols on Nrf2on genetic material in the nucleus.," says Azman Abdullah (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), corresponding author of the study.

The team observed that the translocation of Nrf2 in mice liver cells is both dose dependent, and functionally relevant. "We observed that the maximum effect of Nrf2 translocation into the liver cell nucleus after administration of the palm oil extract occurred in 60 minutes of administration.", Notes Abdullah, adding that, "The increased concentration of liver nuclear Nrf2 corresponded with increased transcript levels of several Nrf2 regulated genes."

Palm oil is an economical source of vitamin E, and several studies have shown the beneficial effects on the immune system, which include anti-oxidant and anti-cancer activity as well has cytoprotective actions. Researchers hope that these findings pave the way for easily available remedies for a variety of diseases. The current study is published in Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.

A new study published by the British Journal of General Practice has found that patients' abilities to see their preferred GP has fallen greater in English practices that have expanded, compared with those that stayed about the same size.

At the same time, English practices that have expanded have not achieved better access to care or provided better overall experience. Being able to see the same GP is highly valued by many patients and previous studies have suggested that it may lead to fewer hospital admissions and fewer deaths.

Over the last few years, the UK Government has encouraged expansion, mergers and greater collaboration between practices. This was intended to enable them to deliver services in new ways, work more efficiently and lengthen their opening hours. Most recently, in 2019, Primary Care Networks - collaborative groups of practices serving larger populations - have been set up across England.

The study led by the University of Kent analysed changes in reported ability for patients to see a preferred GP, their access to care and overall patient experience over the last few years based on responses to the UK GP Patient Survey. This survey asks questions of several hundred thousand people each year.

In the 644 practices that had expanded by more than 20% between 2013 to 2018, the proportion of patients saying they were able to see their preferred GP fell by 10% from 59% to 49%, while in the 5,602 practices that had stayed about the same size (i.e. less than 20% change in number of patients), the same proportion fell by 7% from 63% to 56%. The fall remained greater in practices that had expanded even after allowing for other characteristics of the practices, such as age distribution of the registered patients, rurality and level of poverty.

The research was led by Professor Lindsay Forbes at the University of Kent's Centre for Health Services Studies alongside Professor Stephen Peckham (Kent and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)), Professor Matt Sutton (University of Manchester), Professor Katherine Checkland (Manchester) and Hannah Forbes (Manchester).

These scientists are all part of the Policy Research Unit in Commissioning and the Healthcare System (PRUComm), a collaboration between LSHTM and the Universities of Manchester and Kent, funded by the National Institute for Health Research. PRUComm undertakes research into how the health and social care system and commissioning of its services could be improved, providing evidence to the Department of Health and Social Care to inform the development of policy.

Professor Forbes said: 'Larger general practice size in England may well be associated with slightly poorer continuity of care and may not improve patient access. This goes to show that bigger may not be better with English primary care. Better health outcomes for individuals and patient experience for those with long-term conditions must be prioritised. Continuity of care is an important feature of good quality primary care and it is vital that we preserve this for the benefit of patients. It is also important that we collect good data about collaborative working and practice growth and monitor the effects on patient experience.'

Oncotarget recently published "Heterogeneity of CEACAM5 in breast cancer" which reported that Here, we examined a repository of 110 cryopreserved primary breast carcinomas by immunohistochemistry to assess the distribution of CEACAM5 in tumor subtypes.

Assessing sample sets of paired primary breast cancers and corresponding lymph node lesions from a total of 59 patients revealed a high correlation between primary tumor and lymph node with regard to CEACAM5-status.

When examining the consequence of expression of CEACAM5 in breast cancer cell lines in culture assays we found that CEACAM5-expressing cells were less invasive.

In survival analysis, using cohort studies of breast cancer, the expression of CEACAM5 predicted different clinical outcomes depending on molecular subtypes.

Altogether, our analysis suggests that CEACAM5 plays a context-dependent role in breast cancer that warrants further investigation.

Dr. René Villadsen from The University of Copenhagen said, "The carcinoembryonic antigen family (CEA) consists of a subgroup of 12 members of carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecules (CEACAMs), and several of these are reportedly overexpressed in various cancers."

Early work suggested that CEACAM5 was also often overexpressed in breast cancer.

Since then several immunobased assays have been implemented to examine the role of CEACAM5 as a clinically relevant marker in breast cancer.

While some studies have demonstrated that increased serum levels in preoperative breast cancer patients do correlate to a worse outcome others have Immunophenotypic.

A summary of the observed results are available in Table 1. Overall, the available data do not provide a consensus on the role of CEACAM5 in breast cancer.

Here, we assess CEACAM5 expression in breast cancer subtypes by immunohistochemistry, and compare the expression pattern in primary tumors to corresponding lymph node metastases.

The Villadsen Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Paper, "the findings in this study may help improve the understanding of the biological effect of CEACAM5-expression in breast cancer."

Despite extensive support for relationships between the gut microbiome and the brain (the "microbiota-gut-brain axis") in humans and rodents, little is known about these relationships in other animals, leaving questions about this system's generality.

To address these knowledge gaps, researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, in collaboration with Cornell University, studied the relationship between cognition and the gut microbiome of captive zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Songbirds provide an opportunity to test for a microbiota-gut-brain axis because of recent advances in understanding avian cognition.

In a population of 38 zebra finches, researchers quantified performance on cognitive tasks measuring learning and memory. For the study, they sampled the gut microbiome using a cloacal swab and quantified bacterial alpha and beta diversity. The zebra finch cloacal microbiome is representative of that of its large intestine.

Results of the study, published in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, showed that captive zebra finches' gut microbiome characteristics were related to performance on a cognitive assay where they learned a novel foraging technique. Researchers also identified potentially critical bacteria that were relatively more abundant in birds that performed better on this assay. This correlation provides some of the first evidence of a relationship between a bird's gut microbiome and its brain.

"An animal's gut microbiome can have wide-ranging effects on health, cognitive performance and behavior, coining the conceptual framework 'microbiota-gut-brain axis,'" said Morgan C. Slevin, lead and corresponding author and an FAU Ph.D. student in integrative biology and neuroscience. "The gut microbiome can affect the brain directly by releasing neurotransmitters and precursors that stimulate the vagus nerve and indirectly by influencing the immune system. Gut microbiome characteristics have been linked in rodents and humans to learning and memory and mental health."

To assess cognitive performance, the researchers tested the zebra finches using three tasks measuring learning and memory: novel foraging, color association, and color reversal. Each bird was tested individually (visually but not acoustically isolated from other subjects) and researchers viewed and scored trials remotely via video.

Findings showed Helicobacter, responsible for many intestinal diseases including ulcers, and Gallibacterium, with many hemolytic species found in birds including poultry, were generally more abundant in birds that performed poorly.

"While we did not identify beneficial taxa responsible for differences among performance categories, we suggest Helicobacter and Gallibacterium may signal microbiome imbalance or maladaptation in poor-performance birds," said Rindy C. Anderson, Ph.D., senior author, an assistant professor of biological sciences in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, and a member of FAU's Brain Institute. "This finding raises the question: 'Do specific taxa influence cognitive performance? Or, is a songbird's gut microbiome simply indicative of host quality and thus correlated with cognitive ability?' Research could address these questions by describing the functionality of the core microbiome members for more bird species and testing how specific pre- and probiotic treatments affect cognitive ability."

The researchers note that another intriguing possibility is that microbiome characteristics impact some cognitive processes more than others depending on sex, such as motor learning and short-term memory (novel foraging) compared to longer-term associative memory (color association) and flexibility (color reversal).

These studies will be crucial to understanding how the microbiome affects the brain and overall health of wild and captive animals.

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 2, 2020) -- New infection prevention practices implemented during the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in significantly shorter hospital stays for mothers and their babies, according to investigators at Cedars-Sinai, with no changes in the rates of cesarean deliveries, complications or poor outcomes.

The retrospective study, recently published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM, examined the impact of several modifications in the Labor and Delivery Unit at the medical center. The changes included temperature screening of all patients and visitors, limiting the number of visitors, providing staff with personal protective equipment (PPE), and new approaches to delivery management and newborn care.

"Patients can be reassured that appropriate measures have been taken to protect them and their babies and that those changes are not going to impact their ability to have a good and safe delivery with us," said Naomi Greene, PhD, principal investigator of the study and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Cedars-Sinai.

The study reviewed data from 1,936 deliveries, comparing two separate groups. The first cohort were patients who gave birth in January and February of 2020, before new COVID-19 guidelines were in place. The second group had their babies in March and April, after infection control protocols were implemented at the medical center.

"When the Labor and Delivery Unit made safety modifications in response to the pandemic, approximately half of the women who had vaginal deliveries - and their babies - stayed just one night in the hospital. But before the pandemic, only a quarter of the women giving birth went home after one night; most spent two nights, on average," said Greene.

Similar patterns were seen among women who had a cesarean delivery. More than 40% of them spent two days or less in the hospital once pandemic protocols were in place. But before the safety changes, a much smaller number were discharged within two days - just 12%, said Greene.

Maternal-fetal medicine specialist Mariam Naqvi, MD, senior author on the study, said it was encouraging to find the shorter stay did not appear to impact the care or welfare of the mother and her child.

"It's always our goal to discharge a patient after she has met all of her postpartum milestones and is medically stable to go home. But with COVID-19, we are mindful of the potential risk of unnecessary or prolonged stays in the hospital. It is encouraging to see that in the short term, spending less time was not associated with more complications," said Naqvi, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Cedars-Sinai.

Here are additional findings researchers noted when comparing the groups delivering before and after the implementation of pandemic safety modifications:

There was no difference in the rate of cesarean delivery for first-time mothers carrying to full term.

No differences in the rate of induced labor.

No differences in adverse maternal or neonatal outcomes.

"Our study suggests there may be value in exploring whether there are benefits, post-pandemic, of a shorter hospital stay for childbirth. Also, perhaps limiting visitors may give women and their partners time to focus more on the new baby and the helpful in-patient education we provide," said Sarah Kilpatrick, MD, PhD, a co-author of the study and the Helping Hand of Los Angeles Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai.

"Our goal during these unprecedented and stressful times is to provide the safest care possible and to get families home, as soon as is safely possible," said Kilpatrick.

Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary below is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus.

Emergency Approvals for COVID-19: Evolving Impact on Obligations to Patients in Clinical Care and Research

There currently is debate regarding whether U.S. institutions and clinicians may or should restrict patient access to COVID-19 drugs and vaccines that have been granted emergency use authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Authors from the University of Pennsylvania and NYU Grossman School of Medicine discuss their views on the legal, ethical, and clinical ramifications of such restriction. They suggest that, although EUAs expand treatment options, they do not necessarily support a shift in the standard of care - only evidence can do that, and the evidence supporting EUAs varies considerably. Institutions and clinicians are not obligated to offer unproven interventions, but rather they must assess available evidence and treat patients accordingly. As a result, they may permissibly decide not to offer EUA products in clinical care and instead to limit access to EUA products exclusively to participants in clinical trials. Read the full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6703.

Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. The lead author, Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBE, can be reached at lynchhf@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.

In the United States, more than half of people living with a mental health disorder do not receive treatment, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, which is why primary-care clinics can play a leading role in depression care.

Research shows that collaborative care programs in which primary-care providers work with a depression care manager and a designated psychiatric consultant can more than double the likelihood of improving depression outcomes. But a new study published in Health Affairs shows that not all care is equal.

Looking at data from 11,003 patients in 135 primary care clinics in nine states, researchers found tremendous variation in how well clinics implemented collaborative care programs.

In some clinics, fewer than 25% of patients served had substantial improvements in depression after six months and in other clinics, more than 75% of patients had significant improvement.

"This is the largest study to date of collaborative care programs for depression in primary care," said lead author Jürgen Unützer, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Washington School of Medicine, where the model was pioneered. "The differences are huge and it makes a big difference where you get your depression care."

Researchers said the reason for the large variation in success across clinics could be summed up in three major findings:

The most important finding, they said, is that it made a big difference how much help the clinics had with implementing collaborative care.

Clinics that received more intensive implementation support were almost twice as likely to achieve good depression outcomes as those with a basic level of implementation support, such as program literature and a one-time training. More intensive support included ongoing outcomes tracking and feedback from the UW Medicine AIMS Center (Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions) over a one-year period.

In other findings:

Patients who are more severely depressed or sicker in other ways are less likely to have good depression outcomes.

Patients who are poor and have fewer resources may also have worse depression outcomes. Clinics that treat low-income patients, such as Federally Qualified Health Centers, may have a harder time achieving good depression outcomes and may need extra help and resources to be successful.

Clinics that had several years of practice with collaborative care achieved somewhat better outcomes than clinics that are still learning how to do collaborative care.

The collaborative care model was pioneered by the late Dr. Wayne Katon, who spent three decades testing and developing approaches to improve depression treatment in primary care. More than 80 randomized controlled trials have validated the success of the collaborative care model.

One of the most powerful aspects of collaborative care is regular monitoring of patients' depression and systematic adjustment of treatments if patients are not improving as expected. Similarly, clinics that regularly monitor their patients' depression and make systematic adjustments in their programs if patients are not improving as expected may achieve substantially better outcomes for their patients.

New research from the University of Sydney has found poisoning exposures in children and adolescents while at school are relatively common and appear to be increasing, highlighting the need for more robust prevention measures.

The authors state that by focusing on improved safety strategies, the incidence of poisonings in schools could decrease.

Published today in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, it is the most up-to date study to investigate poisonings in schools in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania, with data revealing the types of exposures and substances involved.

The researchers studied cases reported to the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre (NSWPIC) over a 4 and-a-half-year period (January 2014 to June 2018). NSWPIC is Australia's largest Poisons Information Centre, taking 50 percent of the nation's poisoning calls.

Injury and poisoning are major causes of hospitalisation and death in children globally. Poisoning is the third leading source of hospitalised childhood injury in Australia and is largely preventable.

"The study found 1751 calls relating to exposures at school made to the Poisons Information Centre, with 61 percent concerning accidental exposures, 12 percent concerning deliberate self-poisonings and 12 percent from medication dosing errors," said senior author Dr Rose Cairns from Sydney School of Pharmacy, in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, and senior poisons specialist at the NSW Poisons Information Centre.

"Most self-poisoning exposures were from over-the-counter products such as paracetamol, and most accidental exposures occurred from stings and bites, exposures to plants and in science class.

"Poisoning exposures at school appear to be increasing, with 81 calls per quarter in 2014-2016, and 129 calls per quarter in 2017-2018.

"Children are at risk of different types of poisoning depending on their age and developmental stage. Younger children are at risk of accidental exposures, while adolescents are at risk of self-harm poisonings. Deliberate self-poisoning (self-harm exposures/overdose) is increasing in children and adolescents in Australia, and elsewhere," Dr Cairns said.

Study findings

The median age was 12 years old and exposure peaked in children 14 years

55 percent of cases were male

Deliberate self-poisoning was predominantly reported in girls (79 percent)

More than 25 percent of poisoning cases were hospitalised, with deliberate self-poisoning exposures being the most common reason (92 percent), recreational exposures (57 percent) and other intentional exposures (33 percent)

Accidental exposures (15 percent) and medication errors (11 percent) had low hospital referral rates

Over-the-counter medicines such as paracetamol and ibuprofen were most commonly taken in self-poisoning incidents

Medication errors occurring at school accounted for nearly 12 percent of cases with the most common medications involved being methylphenidate and clonidine (ADHD medications), and paracetamol. Where recorded, 150 cases involved a dosing error with a medication prescribed for the child involved, while 40 cases were prescription medication administered to the wrong child

Science class poisoning exposures accounted for 19 percent of accidental exposures, and a range of substances were involved. Copper sulfate was responsible for approximately one-quarter of all science class exposures, of which 45 percent resulted in hospitalisation. Most science class exposures were accidental.

Accidental exposures, dares, pranks and recreational exposures occurred more frequently in boys

Poisons calls were not just about medicines, but included everything from insect bites, mushrooms and hand sanitiser, to glow sticks, soap and disinfectant.

Strategies needed to stop preventable poison exposures

"Many of these poison exposures were likely preventable, so we need to focus on strategies for prevention and school-based initiatives and programmes to make the school environment safer for students," said Dr Cairns.

"A better understanding of reasons for poisonings, and circumstances surrounding exposures, is key to guiding public health strategies for poisoning prevention.

"For accidental poisoning exposures schools could undertake a risk assessment of common chemistry experiments and reinforce the use of personal protective equipment in class. This includes the provision of well-fitting goggles to prevent eye exposures.

"In the case of deliberate self-poisonings, schools could look to increase teacher training for identifying and responding to mental health problems, anti-bullying strategies, more school counsellors, regulation of social media use, and mental health first aid training for teachers. The increased funding for school counsellors and psychologists announced in September is a step in the right direction.

"Despite there being policies and procedures regarding medication handling in Australian schools, medication administration errors were common over the study period. While low risk, our study highlights the importance of medication skills training by school staff to ensure correct administration of medications to students. Some medicines are self-administered by students during school time, so increased counselling by prescribers may also help, or consideration of dosing regimens that avoid medication during school hours.

"This is particularly important as Australian studies have found that the prescribing of medicines in children and adolescents, particularly of psychotropics, has increased substantially and it was these medicines where the dosing errors occurred most frequently.

"Poisonings can occur in any setting, including at home and at school. While we often focus on poisoning prevention initiatives to improve safety in the home, we need to recognise that children spend a large portion of their waking hours at school, so it's important to consider simple ways we can decrease poisoning exposures in this setting."