Culture

Hokkaido University scientists are getting closer to understanding how a rare hereditary disease impairs the skin's barrier function, which determines how well the skin is protected.

The gene mutation that causes ichthyosis prematurity syndrome--characterized by premature birth; difficulty breathing shortly after birth; and very dry, thick and scaly skin--dramatically reduces the synthesis of acylceramide, a key skin lipid in forming the skin barrier. The discovery provides us with a better understanding of the condition, which is currently untreatable.

Ichthyosis prematurity syndrome is caused by a gene mutation in fatty acid transporter member 4 (FATP4), but the details of how the mutation impairs the skin's barrier function, leading to dry, scaly skin, has been unclear.

Molecular biologist Akio Kihara of Hokkaido University led a team of researchers in Japan and Germany to investigate the molecular mechanisms behind the disease. When they disrupted the FATP4 gene in mice, the offspring had rigid skin, low body weight, and died within an hour of birth. Water loss from their skin was more than four times higher than normal mice, and their skin was delicate, susceptible to staining.

Investigations revealed microscopic changes in the skin similar to those that occur in people born with ichthyosis prematurity syndrome. These included abnormalities in the outermost layer of the epidermis.

Upon further analysis, the researchers found a group of skin lipids called acylceramides were significantly reduced in the mice, having only 10% of the normal amount. Acylceramide plays a pivotal role in making the skin barrier largely impermeable to pathogens, allergens and chemicals. It also prevents water loss from the body.

Similarly, when the FATP4 gene expression was decreased in human keratin-producing skin cells, they showed a 40% reduction in acylceramide levels compared to normal human keratinocytes.

The evidence suggests FATP4 plays a critical role in synthesizing acylceramides in both humans and mice, providing the missing link in the synthetic pathway. "Our findings help explain acylceramide synthesis and, with further research, could help in the development of treatments for ichthyosis prematurity syndrome and other skin barrier-related symptoms such as atopic dermatitis," says Akio Kihara.

Why do BMW and Audi owners often seem to drive like idiots? Is it the car that makes them behave aggressively behind the wheel, or are specific types of people drawn to such cars as well being more likely to break traffic regulations? New research at the University of Helsinki provides some answers.

Jan-Erik Lönnqvist (link), professor of social psychology, had made the same observation in traffic as many others: Audi and BMW drivers seemed much more likely to ignore traffic regulations and drive recklessly.

"I had noticed that the ones most likely to run a red light, not give way to pedestrians and generally drive recklessly and too fast were often the ones driving fast German cars," says Lönnqvist of the University of Helsinki's Swedish School of Social Science.

Previous research has also confirmed that the drivers of expensive cars are more likely to break traffic regulations. This phenomenon has been explained with the common assumption that wealth has a corrupting effect on people, resulting, for example, in high-status consumption and unethical behaviour in various situations.

Lönnqvist approached the question from a different angle by asking whether specific types of people are drawn to high-status cars regardless of their financial assets and also have a tendency to break traffic laws.

To gain answers, researchers carried out a study of Finnish consumers. A total of 1,892 car owners answered not only questions about their car, consumption habits and wealth, but also questions exploring personality traits. The answers were analysed using the Five?Factor Model, the most widely used framework for assessing personality traits in five key domains (openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness).

The answers were unambiguous: self-centred men who are argumentative, stubborn, disagreeable and unempathetic are much more likely to own a high-status car such as an Audi, BMW or Mercedes.

"These personality traits explain the desire to own high-status products, and the same traits also explain why such people break traffic regulations more frequently than others," says Lönnqvist.

He points out that money is, of course, necessary to buy high-status products, which is why rich people are more likely to drive high-status cars.

"But we also found that those whose personality was deemed more disagreeable were more drawn to high-status cars. These are people who often see themselves as superior and are keen to display this to others."

Conscientious people also drawn to high-status cars

One of the more unexpected results was that another personality type is also drawn to high-status cars: the conscientious. People with this type of personality are, as a rule, respectable, ambitious, reliable and well-organised. They take care of themselves and their health and often perform well at work.

"The link is presumably explained by the importance they attach to high quality. All makes of car have a specific image, and by driving a reliable car they are sending out the message that they themselves are reliable," Lönnqvist explains.

The link between conscientious personality traits and interest in high-status cars was found among both men and women. In contrast, the connection between self-centred personality traits and high-status cars was only found among men, not women. Lönnqvist has no clear answer as to why this is the case. One possibility is that cars simply do not have the same significance as status symbols for women.

Few researchers have explored the consumption of luxury products using the Five-Factor Model, but Lönnqvist believes that more research could lead to an increased understanding of the reasons behind this kind of consumption.

"It would be great if consumers had other, sustainable ways of showing their status rather than the superficial consumption of luxury goods that often has negative consequences. We are already seeing that driving an electric car is becoming something of a status symbol, whereas SUVs with their high emissions are no longer considered as cool."

The new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variant drastically speeds up the disease progression in a mouse model of GRACILE syndrome. This discovery provides a new tool for studies of mitochondrial diseases.

GRACILE syndrome, a member of the Finnish disease heritage, is a severe neonatal metabolic disease caused by a point mutation in the nuclear BCS1L gene.

About 10 years ago, Professor Vineta Fellman's group at Lund University generated GRACILE patient mutation-carrying mice to investigate disease mechanisms and develop therapies. Later on, the researchers exported the mice to Helsinki and maintained the mutants in a slightly different genetic background.

Astonishingly, the mutant mice lived five times longer in Helsinki than in the original strain in Lund. By whole genome sequencing, a novel point mutation was discovered in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the short-lived Lund strain.

The work, carried out at the Folkhälsan Research Center and the University of Helsinki, revealed that, due to an extremely unlikely coincidence, a random mutation in the mt-Cyb gene had appeared, affecting exactly the same part of mitochondria as the GRACILE mutation and worsening the disease of the mice.

According to computer simulations and spectroscopic measurements performed by collaborators in Finland and Poland, the amino acid change identified in the mice slows down the movement of a part of Rieske protein needed in electron transfer during cellular respiration. The researchers say that this is the first time such an interaction between the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes has been delineated down to almost atomic level.

Docent Jukka Kallijärvi tells that the discovery is an extreme example of an unexpectedly large effect of the genetic background on the course of an inherited disease.

"Modifying the nuclear genome has been commonplace in experimental animal models for a long time, but we are yet to develop a technique with which to transfer mutations in a targeted manner to as many as thousands of copies of the mitochondrial genome in every cell. Our unique mouse model, which carries the spontaneous mtDNA variant, could prove a valuable tool in studies of both mitochondrial diseases and the function of mitochondria in general," Kallijärvi notes.

The otherwise wild-type mice carrying the newly discovered variant appear healthy, but their metabolism is not entirely normal. An equivalent mutation is found naturally in the three-toed sloth species of South America, an animal with an extremely slow metabolism and an energy-poor diet.

"It is interesting to speculate that the mtDNA variant may be beneficial in certain conditions, which is why it occurs in nature. In further studies, we are interested in the effect of this variant, which subtly affects mitochondrial functions, on metabolism and ageing in mice", Kallijärvi says.

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) in Japan and colleagues at Osaka University have found genetic variations in humans related to specific dietary habits. Published in Nature Human Behaviour, the genome-wide association study found 9 gene locations associated with eating and drinking foods like meat, tofu, cheese, tea, and coffee. Among them, three were also related to having particular diseases such as cancer or diabetes.

Genome-wide association studies are usually carried out when scientists want to know if a disease is related to a specific genetic variation. To do this, they group hundreds of thousands of people depending on whether or not they have the disease and compare the genomes across groups. They scan the whole genome looking at variations in DNA called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). If they find an SNP that is consistently associated with the disease group, they can say that people with that genetic variation might be at risk for the disease.

Rather than first looking at diseases, the RIKEN team looked at dietary habits. They wanted to find out if there are any specific genetic variations that make people "at risk" for habitually eating certain foods. "We know that what we eat defines what we are, but we found that what we are also defines what we eat," says Yukinori Okada, Senior Visiting Scientist at RIKEN IMS and professor at Osaka University.

Using genetic data from over 160,000 Japanese people who had filled out a food-frequency questionnaire, they found 9 genetic loci--positions on chromosomes--that were associated with consuming coffee, tea, alcohol, yogurt, cheese, natto (fermented soy beans), tofu, fish, vegetables, or meat. Initial diet-genome associations showed that the ingredients mattered. For example, they found positive genetic correlations between eating cheese and eating yogurt.

Overall, the study found 10 diet-genome associations that have never been reported before; four related to coffee and three related to alcohol. One SNP already known to be associated with coffee and alcohol was found to be related to almost all of the dietary items that were examined. "We found that this particular variation in a single DNA nucleotide at the ALDH2 gene was related to consuming less alcohol, natto, tofu, and fish, and at the same time, related to consuming more coffee, green tea, milk, and yogurt," says Okada.

Just as the genome comprises all the genetic material of an organism, the phenome comprises all the possible observable traits, known as phenotypes. In order to determine whether any of the SNPs associated with diet were also related to diseases, the researchers performed a phenome-wide association study. The results indicated that six of the SNPs were related to at least one disease phenotype, including several types of cancer as well as type-2 diabetes.

As with genome-wide association studies for diseases, the current results can benefit society in the long run. As Okada explains, "by estimating individual differences in dietary habits from genetics, especially the 'risk' of being an alcohol drinker, we can help create a healthier society."

The reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel could become safer and more efficient in future after researchers found a way to modify the structure of molecules to remove radioactive materials.

The research is published in a recent edition of the influential Chemistry - A European Journal (7th January 2020) and is described by the editors of the journal as being of great significance.

The reprocessing operation

Nuclear energy offers a clean, low carbon source of electricity and is becoming a growing part of the energy provision in many countries worldwide. About 10% of the world's electricity is produced by nuclear power. However, nuclear power stations need fuel to produce electricity and this fuel becomes less efficient over time, and needs to be replaced after approximately five years.

Spent fuel is still highly radioactive and generates intense amounts of heat. Before being reprocessed or disposed of, it needs to be submerged in specialist cooling ponds under more than 40 feet of water. The water provides shielding from radioactivity and is continuously cooled to remove the intense heat from the fuel rods.

It takes more than a year for the fuel rods to cool to a point where they can be reprocessed to remove the uranium and plutonium elements, which can then be reused as fuel.

However, the elements americium, curium and neptunium, which are called the minor actinides, are still present and produce most of the heat and radioactivity of the remaining spent fuel. In addition, these elements remain highly radioactive for approximately 9,000 years, which makes the long-term storage and disposal of spent fuel extremely difficult to manage safely.

If these harmful radioactive elements could be removed it would significantly improve the safety and sustainability of nuclear energy because the remaining spent fuel would remain radioactive for approximately 300 years, which is a much more manageable timeframe.

Modifying the molecules

Molecules called triazines are capable of removing (or extracting) these harmful elements from spent nuclear fuel in a highly selective way, and have been known for some time. The researchers aimed to find out how modifying a certain part of these molecules could influence their ability to bind and extract these minor actinides at the molecular level. The knowledge and insights gained could be exploited to design better, more efficient molecules for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing in future.

The researchers changed the size of the aliphatic rings in the established benchmark molecules from 6-membered rings to 5-membered rings. They found that this small but subtle change had unexpected effects on how efficiently these molecules bind and extract the minor actinides compared to the benchmark molecules. The exact reasons for these effects were then determined at the molecular level using a range of experimental techniques.

Dr Frank Lewis, senior lecturer in organic chemistry in Northumbria University's Department of Applied Sciences said: "The findings are significant as they could allow better molecules to be designed in a more rational way, rather than simply by trial and error.

"The knowledge and insights we have gained by tuning the cyclic aliphatic part of these molecules could pave the way for the rational design of improved actinide selective ligands for reprocessing spent nuclear fuels. Modifying these molecules in different ways to improve their extraction properties could make future reprocessing more efficient and could be essential if they are to be used industrially in future.

"We believe that these results are of great importance to the field of nuclear energy, and this has been confirmed by the panel who reviewed the paper before publication."

Significant results

The editorial team at Chemistry A European Journal wrote to Dr Lewis and his colleagues saying: "According to the evaluation of referees, the results reported in this article are of great significance. Less than 20% of manuscripts receive such a positive review." The paper was also selected by the editors as a 'Hot Paper', and was highlighted in a Frontispiece graphic artwork.

Workers in many industries inadvertently bring home toxic contaminants, endangering the health of their families. Those at greatest risk are the least likely to benefit from current regulations.

A new review by researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health calls for recognition of "take-home" exposures--exposures to toxic contaminants inadvertently brought home from a family member's work--as a public health hazard. The review was published in Annals of Work Exposures and Health.

Take-home exposures often fall into a regulatory blind spot, says corresponding author Dr. Diana Ceballos, assistant professor of environmental health at BUSPH.

"Although OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] does regulate some key workplace exposures that can become take-home exposures, such as asbestos, lead, and pesticides, often regulations are not up to date or enforced enough to be protective of health at the family level," she says.

Ceballos says cases tied to take-home exposures are all too common. When she was an industrial hygienist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), she worked on several such cases, including one where two young children had been poisoned by lead from their father's work at an electronics recycling facility. Grinding up the lead glass from cathode ray tubes, the father was not exposed to enough lead to immediately affect the health of a grown man, but the lead dust that came home with him on his body and clothing quickly affected the health of his young daughter and son. "The father had only worked at this facility for about a year when his kids' physician found they were poisoned," Ceballos says. "Within just a few years, the kids exhibited textbook health effects of lead, including behavioral, developmental, and learning difficulties."

In their review of research related to take-home exposure, Ceballos and her colleagues make the case that the issue is not simply a matter of worker carelessness, a view that has been expressed with the simplistic--and dehumanizing--expression "soiling one's own nest." Instead, they argue, take-home exposures are part of much larger and more complex systemic issues, where workers and their families face myriad challenges to their health and safety at work and at home.

The authors write that workers who are most likely to take home exposures are often--and increasingly--not only low-income, but also in precarious employment situations, such as contractors working in construction, and undocumented immigrants. These workers rarely benefit from safety regulations or employment protections, and could easily lose their jobs (and even face deportation) if they raise concerns about their working conditions.

Because of economic inequality, racist housing practices, and other systemic factors, the authors write, the health risks that these vulnerable workers and families face from workplace exposures are also compounded by being more likely to live in unsafe and contaminated housing, and in communities that face broader environmental injustices. A child may not be exposed to dangerous levels of a toxic contaminant from a parent's workplace, from their home, or from their neighborhood, but the low levels of exposure from two or three of these sources together can be enough to harm their development, the authors note.

"To prevent the chronic, low-level, take-home exposures that are particularly harmful for developing children, a multi-tier intervention approach including interventions at the workplace, home, and community levels are needed," Ceballos says.

Such interventions would include not just better workplace regulations, but also efforts to improve the housing conditions of workers' families and take on environmental injustices in their neighborhoods. The authors also propose a role for schools to screen children for the effects of exposures--whether from their parents' workplaces, housing, neighborhood, or all of the above.

Despite the immense progress in the field of AI in recent years, we are still very far from human intelligence. Indeed, if current AI techniques allow to train computer agents to perform certain tasks better than humans when they are trained specifically for them, the performance of these same agents is often very disappointing when they are put in conditions (even slightly) different from those experienced during training.

The human being is capable of adapting to new situations very effectively by using the skills he has acquired throughout his life. For example, a child who has learned to walk in a living room will quickly learn to walk in a garden as well. In such a context, learning to walk is associated with synaptic plasticity, which modifies the connections between neurons, while the rapid adaptation of walking skills learned in the living room to those needed to walk in the garden is associated with neuromodulation. Neuromodulation modifies the input-output properties of the neurons themselves via chemical neuromodulators.

Synaptic plasticity is the basis of all the latest advances in AI. However, no scientific work has so far proposed a way to introduce a neuromodulation mechanism into artificial neural networks. This result, described this week in the journal PLOS ONE, is the result of an extremely fruitful collaboration between neuroscientists and artificial intelligence researchers at the University of Liège developing intelligent algorithms: two PhD researchers, Nicolas Vecoven and Antoine Wehenkel, as well as two professors, Damien Ernst (specialist in artificial intelligence) and Guillaume Drion (neuroscientist).

These ULiège researchers have developed a completely original artificial neural network architecture, introducing an interaction between two sub-networks. The first one takes into account all the contextual information concerning the task to be solved and, on the basis of this information, neuromodule the second subnetwork in the manner of the brain's chemical neuromodulators. Thanks to neuromodulation, this second sub-network, which determines the actions to be performed by the intelligent agent, can therefore be adapted extremely quickly to the current task. This allows the agent to efficiently solve new tasks.

This innovative architecture has been successfully tested on classes of navigation problems for which adaptation is necessary. In particular, agents trained to move towards a target, while avoiding obstacles, were able to adapt to situations in which their movement was disrupted by extremely variable wind directions.

Prof. Damien Ernst: "The novelty of this research is that, for the first time, cognitive mechanisms identified in neuroscience are finding algorithmic applications in a multi-tasking context. This research opens perspectives in the exploitation in AI of neuromodulation, a key mechanism in the functioning of the human brain."

New antiviral materials made from sugar have been developed to destroy viruses on contact and may help in the fight against viral outbreaks.

This new development from a collaborative team of international scientists shows promise for the treatment of herpes simplex (cold sore virus), respiratory syncytial virus, hepatitis C, HIV, and Zika virus to name a few. The team have demonstrated success treating a range of viruses in the lab - including respiratory infections to genital herpes.

The research is a result of a collaboration between scientists from The University of Manchester, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. Although at a very early stage of development, the broad spectrum activity of this new approach could also be effective against newly prevalent viral diseases such as the recent coronavirus outbreak.

So called 'virucidal' substances, such as bleach, are typically capable of destroying viruses on contact but are extremely toxic to humans and so cannot be taken or applied to the human body without causing severe harm. Developing virucides from sugar has allowed for the advent of a new type of antiviral drug, which destroys viruses yet is non-toxic to humans.

Current antiviral drugs work by inhibiting virus growth, but they are not always reliable as viruses can mutate and become resistant to these treatments.

Using modified sugar molecules the team showed that the outer shell of a virus can be disrupted, thereby destroying the infectious particles on contact, as oppose to simply restricting its growth. This new approach has also been shown to defend against drug resistance.

Publishing their work in the journal Science Advances the team showed that they successfully engineered new modified molecules using natural glucose derivatives, known as cyclodextrins. The molecules attract viruses before breaking them down on contact, destroying the virus and fighting the infection.

Dr Samuel Jones, from The University of Manchester and a member of the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, jointly led the pioneering research with Dr Valeria Cagno from the University of Geneva. "We have successfully engineered a new molecule, which is a modified sugar that shows broad-spectrum antiviral properties. The antiviral mechanism is virucidal meaning that viruses struggle to develop resistance. As this is a new type of antiviral and one of the first to ever show broad-spectrum efficacy, it has potential to be a game changer in treating viral infections." said Sam.

Professor Caroline Tapparel from the University of Geneva and Prof Francesco Stellacci from EPFL were both also senior authors of the study. Prof Tapparel declared: "We developed a powerful molecule able to work against very different viruses, therefore, we think this could be game changing also for emerging infections."

The molecule is patented and a spin-out company is being set up to continue pushing this new antiviral towards real-world use. With further testing the treatment could find a use in creams, ointments and nasal sprays or other similar treatments for viral infections. This exciting new material can work to break down multiple viruses making for cost-effective new treatments even for resistant viruses.

The number of plant species that extract organic nutrients from fungi could be much higher than previously assumed. This was discovered by researchers from the University of Bayreuth and the University of Copenhagen through isotope investigations on Paris quadrifolia, otherwise known as Herb Paris or True Lover's Knot. This forest-floor plant, which is widespread in Europe, is regarded in botany as a prototype for plants that have a specific exchange relationship with fungi, which in fact accounts for around 40 percent of all plant species. In "The New Phytologist" journal, the scientists report on their surprising results.

The research results show that the ecological importance of fungi is still considerably underestimated. "If it is confirmed that far more plant species than previously known obtain part of their organic nutrients from fungi, fungi will be shown to have a major impact on the biodiversity and function of ecosystems. Programmes and measures in nature conservation and environmental protection should therefore also increasingly consider fungi", says Philipp Giesemann M.Sc., the lead author of the study, who is currently doing his doctorate in biology at the University of Bayreuth and has been awarded a scholarship from the Elite Network of Bavaria (ENB).

Underground networks

Well over 90 percent of all plant species are linked to fungi via their underground root systems. Such a symbiosis of plants and fungi is called "mycorrhiza". Very often it is advantageous for both partners: While fungi supply the plant with minerals and water, the plant supplies local fungi with carbonaceous nutrients it has previously produced by photosynthesis. However, it also happens that plants "unfairly" exploit the fungi cross-linked with them. They then extract organic nutrients from their fungal partners instead of producing them themselves through photosynthesis. These nutrients have been transferred from trees to fungi, for example, and are now being tapped by a third plant using an underground root network. Such plants are therefore called "mycoheterotrophs". The best known example are the orchids: Because they can be partially or completely fed by fungi via underground root networks, they are not exclusively dependent on photosynthesis. Hence, they can thrive even in the darkest forests.

However, of the 80 per cent of all green plant species that utilize a form of mycorrhiza, researchers have up to now assumed it to always involve "fair" exchange relationships between plants and fungi. In this "arbuscular mycorrhiza" - so it was believed - the green plants are always completely autotrophic partners, producing vital organic nutrients themselves and partially releasing them to their fungal partners. But the studies on Paris quadrifolia now published refute this general assumption. The Bayreuth researchers were able to prove beyond doubt that this plant obtains part of its carbon-rich nutrients from fungal partners.

Herb Paris as prototype

"This finding could have far-reaching consequences for botany", explains the Bayreuth biologist Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gebauer, who coordinated the research work. "This is because experts distinguish between two forms of arbuscular mycorrhiza, each of which is used by about 40 percent of all plant species. In a sense, Herb Paris is considered a model for one of these two forms of plant symbiosis with fungi. In this respect, it is a prototype for far more than a third of all plant species. This raises the question of whether the number of plant species living at the expense of fungi is possibly much higher than previously thought. We have already discovered that another plant utilizing arbuscular mycorrhiza, the wood anemone, also enjoys a mycoheterotrophic way of life," said the biologist from Bayreuth.

In parallel, the researchers have also carried out analogous investigations on Arum maculatum, also known as Cuckoo Pint or Wild Arum. This plant is regarded as a prototype for the second form of arbuscular mycorrhiza, which is preferred by numerous agricultural crops. It behaves in a clearly autotrophic way and supplies itself by photosynthesis with all the carbonaceous nutrients it needs.

Background

The research results on the mycoheterotrophic lifestyle of Herb Paris are based on isotope studies. It has long been known that plants supplied with carbon and nitrogen by fungi have a comparatively high proportion of heavy carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen isotopes. In autotrophic plants the proportion of these isotopes is lower. The Laboratory for Isotope Biogeochemistry at the Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER) is specialized in determining nutrient fluxes within ecosystems using isotopes.

These days, many people are concerned about plastic waste; however, the convenience, mechanical properties and cost of plastic food packaging are hard to beat. But now, a growing number of innovators and entrepreneurs are trying to make edible packaging and tableware from foods like seaweed, milk proteins and potato starch, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, produced in collaboration with ACS Central Science. 

Edible films, wrappers and straws have already found a specialty market and are starting to attract attention from larger food and beverage companies, according to freelance contributor Prachi Patel. At the 2019 London Marathon, the start-up company Notpla handed out sports drink pods, packaged in seaweed-based capsules, to thirsty runners. Although the packaging is safe to swallow, runners can choose to spit out the film. In that case, it biodegrades in only 4-6 weeks. The New York-based company Loliware is making seaweed- and algae-based straws that feel like plastic for 24 hours after getting wet. Once used, they can be eaten, or they will degrade in the environment within 2 months. Marriott Hotels and alcoholic-beverage firm Pernod Ricard have already started using the straws.

Although edible packaging is gaining ground, challenges remain. Some worry about the hygiene of eating packaging that has been touched or exposed to germs during transport or while sitting on the shelf. Experts agree that edible packaging will require an outer layer, but these materials could also be made from compostable or sustainable materials, such as paper. Another obstacle is public acceptance: will people eat something that is usually thrown away? Consumers could perhaps be convinced if the packaging includes nutrients, such as vitamins or proteins, or just tastes good. And finally, improvements in heat and moisture stability need to be made before edible packaging can enjoy widespread use.

Tougher early lives could help captive-bred game birds develop survival skills for adulthood in the wild, new research suggests.

Captive-bred pheasants and partridges start life in unnatural conditions, in sheds and pens with no adult birds, more densely packed and eating different food than they would in the wild.

They may grow well and avoid disease and predators for the first six to eight weeks, but then they are released into the wild - and they may be unprepared for this dramatic change in their living conditions.

University of Exeter scientists, working with Dr Francesco Santilli from the Italian Hunting Federation, say the current approach may be cruel while trying to be kind.

They say a "careful balance" is needed between conditions essential to maintain bird welfare in captivity and the welfare of birds once they are released.

More than 110 million game birds - mostly pheasants and partridges - are reared and released each year worldwide for recreational hunting.

"We know a vast amount of about the welfare of other captive-bred animals, such as chickens," said Dr Mark Whiteside, of the University of Exeter.

"However, our review of the existing research reveals that we know almost nothing about how captive rearing affects the welfare of game birds after they're released into the wild.

"We do know that captive-reared pheasants are much more likely to be killed by predators or suffer starvation after release than wild birds.

"We can't be sure why this is the case. It might be because their early life conditions don't allow them to develop the right behaviours to survive.

"We've been studying what changes would help reduce this problem and it appears that 'mimicking' natural conditions in captivity could promote more natural behaviour and make birds better able to cope with natural hazards."

Dr Whiteside added: "Some of these changes may be good for birds both before and after release. Adding perches allows chicks to escape harassment by other chicks and also teaches them to roost off the ground at night - a good way to avoid predators in the wild.

"However, other changes - such as exposing chicks to imitation predators or making the food supply 'unpredictable' by changing the timing and location of feeding within the chicks' enclosure - might be more realistic of conditions in the wild, but might also increase stress and reduce the short-term welfare of young birds in captivity.

"For the best possible welfare, we need to find the right balance."

The researchers say the impact of any changes on later-life welfare would have to be tested, and the possible financial costs have not yet been assessed.

Unlike the case in many developed countries, the Russian government is ready to provide financial support to all people who are registered unemployed. That said, the amount of benefits paid is so small that most unemployed simply disregard it. This approach by the state serves as motivation for them to hurry in finding a new job rather than hang around doing nothing. Researchers from the HSE Centre for Labour Market Studies undertook a study of how the unemployed are treated in other countries and proposed measures for improving the situation on Russia's labour market.

Unemployment benefits are a social policy tool used by the state. They are designed to support purchasing power among unemployed citizens and help them find jobs at their professional level. The amount and duration of benefits should be set at such a level that people are motivated to actively look for a job, on the one hand, but not forced to simply accept any available offer.

Nominal Payment

In Russia, it is virtually impossible to live off unemployment benefits. The amount did not change from 2009 to 2018, when it ranged from 850 to 4,900 a month, and most of those registered as unemployed received the minimal amount. According to the new version of the employment law that took effect in 2019, the maximum amount of benefits increased to 8,000 roubles a month, which is 70% of the subsistence rate (about 11,000 roubles in 2019) at best. The minimum amount of benefits is 1,500 roubles. Benefits are usually paid over a period of six months. An exception has been made for unemployed people of pre-retirement age (who have less than five years to retirement): they are entitled to 11,280 roubles a month for a period of 12 months.

According to data provided by Rostrud (Federal Labour and Employment Service), only 690,000 out of 3.6 million registered as unemployed in 2018. This means that the majority do not rely on payments, despite the fact that in Russia, unlike many other countries, benefits are paid to nearly all people who register as unemployed, independently of their age, duration of employment, and reason for unemployment.

On the other hand, lower benefits promote greater mobility in the labour force. Russians avoid the status of unemployment and try to find new jobs before leaving their previous one or being so-called 'economically inactive', which means they are not officially employed, but not officially unemployed either. People are forced to pursue this option due to financial necessity, including the lack of sufficient support from the state. Such a situation leads to an income gap and further expansion of informal employment in Russia.

It's Not Easy in Other Countries Either

Regarding global experience, the example of 22 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) - most of the world's developed countries - demonstrates that the share of people receiving unemployment benefits has been decreasing over the last two decades. The average share is 30%, with considerable differences between countries. As of 2016, over 80% of all unemployed people were receiving unemployment benefits in Finland, France and Belgium, while in Spain, Hungary and Ireland the share was less than 20%.

Unlike Russia, most OECD countries have different categories of unemployment, and not all of them are eligible for benefits. First, duration of employment matters. If it does not reach the relevant minimum, one isn't eligible to apply for benefits. Taking widespread project (temporary) jobs into account, this category of unemployment is growing. In addition, the reason for unemployment is considered. People who resign voluntarily are not eligible for benefits.

The researchers say that the governments in OECD countries want the benefits to motivate people to search for new jobs more actively. That is why the benefits are mostly paid to those who are ready to start new jobs without delay.

Additionally, there are other, less numerous, categories of benefit recipients, such as those who are employed part-time. In some OECD countries, the law allows them to receive unemployment benefits during a certain period of time. For example, in Switzerland and Belgium, about 25% of benefit recipients are actually working.

Other categories of unemployed people are also entitled to financial support from the state, including new mothers, people who are of pre-retirement age, and the unemployed who participate in employment service programmes (for example, retraining) and have temporarily stopped looking for jobs.

In OECD countries, the average amount of unemployment benefits reaches 56% of previous wages. In some of the countries, it is higher (over 80% in Luxembourg and Switzerland), while it is lower in others (about 30% in Great Britain and the Czech Republic).

The duration of benefits payment also varies depending on the country and a person's category. The shortest period (three months) has been registered in Hungary, with the longest (up to three years) in Iceland and Denmark. In Belgium, there is no time limit if a family has underage children.

What Research Has to Say

Unemployment benefits, their size and duration have a considerable impact on the labour market. For example, a study in the Austrian job market demonstrated that a 4.2% increase in benefits leads to prolongation of the unemployment by 2 - 3 days. Receiving benefits lowers the chances of finding a job by 5 - 9%.

On the other hand, limits to the amount of benefits and payment period force applicants to accept jobs with lower wages than they had had before, which promotes income inequality.

With respect to Russia's system for supporting the unemployed, the HSE University researchers believe that it needs to be reformed. In particular, the amount of the benefits must be increased, and criteria for recipients should be introduced, which would depend on occupational experience, successful retraining, and how active applicants are in their job search.

With the help of new genomic sequencing and assembly tools, plant scientists can learn more about the function and evolution of highly destructive plant pathogens that refuse to be tamed by fungicides, antibacterial, and antivirals.

But using these genomic technologies is not an easy task. The process not only requires time, but also money. In a recent paper published in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, David Haak and John McDowell, from the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, proved that these costly processes can be improved by combining two generations of technology.

What used to take a year-and-a-half and $2 million to complete can now be done within nine days for $1,000 - and the technology performs with greater accuracy and field applicability than ever before.

"Think of it as analogous to a library full of books that are two-thirds or three-quarters completely written. What David has developed is a technology through which he could go to the library and finish those books really quickly and really accurately for a really low price point," said McDowell, the J. B. Stroobants Professor of Biotechnology.

Before this project began, Haak, an assistant professor, and his team had been trying to prove that it was possible to generate a completed assembly in a relatively short period of time - but they needed a relatively complex genome to test their theory. A few hallway conversations later, Haak and his students joined forces with McDowell and his team to unravel the complex genome of Phytophthora capsici.

"P. capsici is a representative of a really destructive group of pathogens. Its evolutionary cousin is the pathogen that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 19th century, which killed at least a million people and caused at least a million more to relocate. These pathogens are still causing difficulty today," said McDowell. "One of the reasons for that is because their genomes are exquisitely configured to enable them to evolve ways around interventions that farmers put in place in the field."

A microscopic image of a large root, which divides the photo into two diagonal sections. On each side of the root, there are many P. capsici spores, which resemble lollipops.

An image of P. capsici spores that are attached to an Arabidopsis root and initiating the process of penetration. John Herlihy for Virginia Tech.

In this species of pathogen, virulence genes are often located in gene-poor regions interspersed with repetitive regions within the genome. These repetitive regions are prone to rapid evolution and are the key to understanding its pathogenicity, or its ability to cause disease.

To better understand the inner workings of P. capsici, scientists must extract a DNA sample from the pathogen and perform genetic sequencing. Genetic sequencing is a process that determines the order of the nitrogenous bases - or the As, Cs, Gs, and Ts - that make up an organism's DNA.

However, genomic sequencing can read only a certain amount of DNA segments at one time. Scientists must then take these small sequences and re-assemble them so that the DNA is presented in the right order.

"Generating the sequence data, isn't really the problem. It's assembling that data. It's putting together the sequence information in the right order. The repeat-rich regions make us sometimes put two genes together that don't belong together or separate a full gene into two halves because we think a repeat goes right in the middle," said Haak.

All in all, resolving the genome of an organism requires powerful technology - and patience. And although bioinformatic technology has made great leaps and bounds over the years, each generation isn't necessarily better than the last. Each generation of technology has its own forte.

Using first-generation technology, it would take one-and-a-half years and around $2 million to sequence the P. capsici genome. But with Haak's technology, it will take just nine days from DNA extraction to a polished assembly - and only cost $1,000. To make things even better, this technology will be able to sequence 100,000 times more information in roughly 1.5 percent of the time. And the technology is the size of a thumb drive.

Second-generation technology performs short read assemblies, which are extremely accurate; however, they do not span across repetitive regions well. And when scientists must go back and reassemble the genome, there is a reasonable chance of error.

"What happens with the short reads is that we don't know where those repeats begin and end, so we don't know where to put them to arrange them appropriately," said Haak.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) MinION, or long-read sequencing, is the third generation of sequencing technology, but it has the opposite problem: it is far less accurate but it can give them a better overall picture by spanning across these critical repetitive regions.

Haak and his team combined these second- and third-generation technologies to exploit the accuracy of the former with the ability to span the repeated regions of the latter. It's the best of both worlds.

Upon using this new technology on P. capsici, Haak and McDowell got quite a shock. Haak and his group revealed that the genome is 1.5 times bigger than previously thought.

"That's 30 percent of the genome that we didn't even know existed, and that particular fraction of the genome is, undoubtedly, enriched with the sorts of genes that really make a difference in helping us understand what interacts with the plant or responds to fungicides or farmers' spray," said McDowell.

For Haak, the most exciting thing about the results of this paper is its proof-of-concept.

"We have something called the sequence archive database, which is full of all sorts of short-read sequences. We can actually leverage all of that existing data with this newer technology to be able to produce more genomes of this quality," said Haak.

Haak's new generation of technology is expected to revolutionize the way in which scientists collect genomic data. With their newly acquired, affordable, real-time data, scientists will be able to improve previous assemblies and quickly generate new ones that they can share to the sequence archives database. On a grander scale, this technology will advance the field of plant genomics and the worldwide effort to save the crop industry from destructive pathogens.

Now that Haak and McDowell have an estimated 97 percent of the genome for P. capsici in their grasps, they plan to use this information as supporting data for two new grant proposals. One proposal will focus on tomato and soybean diseases caused by pathogens of the Phytophthora group and the other proposal will focus on lavender, yet another victim of Phytophthora.

For Haak, this project was special because it was supported by a grant from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech with funds allocated to support the Global Systems Science Destination Area.

McDowell added, "I think it speaks to the environment here at Virginia Tech, promoted by Fralin, that enables these sorts of collaborations to come together and get some critical support in the early phase."

Suicide in children under age 20 has been increasing in the U.S., with rates almost doubling over the last decade. Between 2007 to 2016, nearly 21,000 children ages 5-19 years old died by suicide. While the reasons for the increase are not well understood, new research from Boston Children's Hospital shows a link between poverty and suicide in children and teens nationwide.

The researchers grouped the number of suicides into five levels of poverty at the county level ranging from a low of 0-4.9 percent to greater than 20 percent. They learned that the rate of suicides in children and adolescents is 37 percent higher in counties with the highest levels of poverty - where more than 20 percent of the population in the county lives below the federal poverty level - compared with suicide rates in the lowest levels of poverty. The research was published in a paper in JAMA Pediatrics.

"The results were consistent in a step-wise fashion," says Lois Lee, MD, MPH, of the department of emergency medicine at Boston Children's Hospital. "As poverty increased, so did the rate of suicide."

In this study, researchers collected information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Compressed Mortality File, which includes data on all U.S deaths., including cause of death. After searching for deaths by suicide, method of suicide, and county where the suicide occurred from 2007-2016, they paired that data with county-level poverty rates from US Census data and poverty estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) Program.

The findings from this study are similar to research from the CDC that found increases in suicide in youth and young adults ages 10-24 between 2000-2017.

Suicide by firearms linked with poverty

The study also revealed an increased suicide rate from firearms in the more impoverished counties compared to the least. However, suicide risk did not appear to increase for the methods of suffocation or poisoning - the two other leading causes of suicide in this study - based on county-level poverty. "This is important information since we know that firearm suicide attempts are far more lethal than other methods," says Lee.

Lee and colleagues have been studying how poverty affects children's health for several years. In an earlier paper, they discovered an increased risk of death for children associated with counties with higher poverty levels. And in their own professional experience, they have seen a rise in the number of children and teens with mental health issues, including suicide attempts or thoughts of suicide, seeking care in the emergency department (ED). In a 2019 paper, they published research noting the rates of mental health visits in children ages 5-18 to the emergency room increased 5.5 percent annually from 2010-2016. Not only did the rates of mental health visits increase, but also the number of hours the patients were cared for in the ED. Mental health ED visits lasting more then 24 hours increased from 4.3 percent of mental health visits in 2010 to 18.8 percent of visits in 2016.

"From our knowledge about rising suicide rates in children and adolescents and how poverty influences childhood health, it was important to see if there was an association between the two," Lee explains.

A window into suicide prevention

Knowing more about the associated risk factors for pediatric suicide may help guide interventions to prevent them.

"This study is more evidence that to provide the best healthcare for all children and youth, we need to try to improve some of the socio-economic areas or conditions where these children live," says Lee. "At a minimum, that means actions like improving parental employment, increasing the minimum wage, and ensuring that everyone has health insurance."

In recent years, research has been building that toxic stress during childhood has long-term health implications. "We know that adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress can affect behavioral and mental health," says Lee. "It may also result in changes at the cellular level in the human body."

The study authors report that children living in poverty are likely to be exposed to more family turmoil, violence, social isolation, and lack of positive peer-to-peer relationships and may be more likely to have emotional difficulties like depression and anxiety. Further, areas of concentrated poverty may lack infrastructure such as quality schools, sustainable jobs, health care facilities, and mental health resources supporting good health for adults and children.

Says Lee, "As pediatric suicide rates in the U.S. continue to rise, we must work to understand the contributors to pediatric suicide, including poverty-related factors, so that suicide prevention efforts can focus on the children at highest risk."

WASHINGTON - Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory discovered a new platform for quantum technologies by suspending two-dimensional (2-D) crystals over pores in a slab of gold. This new approach may help develop new materials for secure communication and sensing technologies based on the unique laws of physics at the atomic levels.

"We never expected these atomically thin materials could influence the ordering of all of the atoms in such a relatively large slab of gold," said Jeremy Robinson, a materials research scientist at NRL. "When heated, the metal reflows to form a porous structure and the gold atoms lock into registry with the atoms in the 2-D layer on top."

The research team expected to observe dewetting, a process resulting from interaction between surfaces of two solids. Instead of droplets forming on the glass base underneath the gold, heating caused a reorientation of the underlying metal slab. The gold became porous throughout and this physical change led researchers to test for other side effects of the merger.

"We also discovered this combination can create a large number of quantum light sources in a, sort of, ready-made network," said Andrew Yeats, research physicist at NRL. "The alignment between atomic layers may facilitate energy transfer between the emitters through the gold framework that connects them."

Researchers verified light emanating from the 2-D semiconductors comes out as single light particles, or photons. These emitters can transfer energy to each other through the gold layer.

"We shine light on one part of the sample and we look at the light coming off at another part," Robinson said. "This teaches us how energy can be coupled into the gold layer at one point, propagated to a different quantum emitter site far away and re-emitted as light that we could see."

The ability to remotely control the piping of energy to a single-photon emitter makes this an attractive system for quantum technology.

"As we get better at controlling how the 2-D semiconductor interacts with pores in the metal film, it's easy to imagine different technologies that could use these properties." Robinson said. "Sensors are a good first target, which can take advantage of the atomically thin membranes stretched across the porous metal framework."

While researchers conducted this work using a gold slab underneath the thin semiconductor layer, other metals can respond the same way as the gold. The NRL team continues to investigate how various material combinations and structures can create single photon sources with unique properties, a key component of secure communications.