Culture

WASHINGTON, January 5, 2020 -- Due to long-term and systemic issues leading to the consistent exclusion of African Americans in physics and astronomy, a task force is recommending sweeping changes and calling for awareness into the number and experiences of African American students studying the fields.

The National Task Force to Elevate African American representation in Undergraduate Physics & Astronomy, known as TEAM-UP, was chartered and funded by the American Institute of Physics to examine the persistent underrepresentation of African Americans in physics and astronomy in the U.S.

In its report, "The Time Is Now: Systemic Changes to Increase African Americans with Bachelor's Degrees in Physics and Astronomy," the task force discusses the five factors it discovered as responsible for the success or failure of African American students in physics and astronomy: belonging, physics identity, academic support, personal support, and leadership and structures. The report was released Jan. 5 at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"It was important for AIP to bring together experts from physics, astronomy and the social sciences to investigate and recommend solutions toward increasing the number of African American students in our field," said Michael Moloney, chief executive officer of AIP. "AIP and its member societies are committed to promoting increased diversity, equity and inclusion in the physical sciences. I hope the recommendations in this task force report are taken seriously and enthusiastically implemented to achieve our goals."

TEAM-UP's two-year investigation included student and faculty surveys, in-person interviews with African American students, and site visits to high-performing physics departments in colleges and universities. The report is calling for a new way of thinking to solve this persistent problem, and it outlines research findings into each of the five factors with recommended changes to address issues within the factors.

Recognizing that the underlying norms, values and culture of the profession need to be addressed before lasting changes can occur, the report provides a detailed guide for faculty, departments and professional societies to understand and manage the necessary change processes. Some of the report's highest priority recommendations concern change management.

According to the TEAM-UP report, "The persistent underrepresentation of African Americans in physics and astronomy is due to (1) the lack of a supportive environment for these students in many departments, and (2) the enormous financial challenges facing them and the programs that have consistently demonstrated the best practices in supporting their success. Solving these problems requires addressing systemic and cultural issues and creating a large-scale change management framework."

While African American physics and astronomy students have the same drive, motivation, intellect and capability as students of other races and ethnicities, the task force found many students are choosing other degree fields that are more supportive and financially rewarding. The TEAM-UP task force wants to at least double the number of bachelor's degrees in physics and astronomy awarded to African Americans by 2030 and calls on departments and professional societies, working with funding agencies, foundations and donors, to commit to achieving this goal.

"A systemic problem needs a systemic solution," said task force co-chair Ed Bertschinger, physics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The presence or absence of caring faculty members can make the difference between a student persisting or leaving. Department leaders choose the faculty and signal to them what's important, as does the profession at large. The culture of physics and astronomy today affects discoveries that will or won't be made by these scholars in the future."

The report calls on the scientific community to foster a sense of belonging for African American students within physics and astronomy programs by creating environments that are welcoming and promote the feeling that students are valued through departmental practices, and faculty, student and peer interactions.

Other recommendations call on academic programs to improve services for students with a focus on African American students. By emphasizing effective teaching and strength-based approaches for support, the task force believes departments can greatly improve African American student retention and success.

In addressing the financial burden for African American physics and astronomy students, the TEAM-UP report encourages connecting students with funding programs and help them find jobs that advance them academically during their undergraduate time. In addition, they want a consortium of physical science societies to raise a $50 million fund to support minority students in physics and astronomy who have unmet financial needs. Half of the endowment income would go to direct support of African American physics and astronomy students and half would go to support departments' implementation of the TEAM-UP report's recommendations, particularly those at historically black colleges and universities.

"HBCUs have long been known to be top producers of African American physics and astronomy majors while also being largely underfunded and underappreciated," said TEAM-UP member Jedidah Isler, assistant professor at Dartmouth College. "Our goal in recommending the $50 million endowment is to create structural and systemic interventions that will support students and reward the institutions that have consistently produced some of our brightest minds. The problem is not with our students. It is with the systems they must endure to succeed."

To sustain and improve recruitment and retention of African American physics and astronomy students, the report calls for academic and disciplinary leaders to prioritize creating environments, policies and structures that maximize African American student success. Department chairs should establish departmental norms and values of inclusion and belonging and actively partner with campus programs that support student belonging.

While the report focuses on the efforts of the scientific academic community, TEAM-UP also identifies areas where professional societies can raise the profile of the underrepresentation issue and assist in its correction. In addition to holding forums and initiating activities for societies, universities, departments and individual physicists and astronomers to understand and address these issues, professional groups should establish recognition, rewards and other incentives for efforts to improve the success of African American students in physics and astronomy.

The TEAM-UP task force is calling for action now and recommending that progress toward the recommendations in the report is monitored and publicly communicated every two to four years.

"The report [should] not sit on a shelf but be used to inform, inspire, and serve as a guide toward real and lasting change," said TEAM-UP's Executive Summary.

Astronomers seeking to learn about the mechanisms that formed massive black holes in the early history of the Universe have gained important new clues with the discovery of 13 such black holes in dwarf galaxies less than a billion light-years from Earth.

These dwarf galaxies, more than 100 times less massive than our own Milky Way, are among the smallest galaxies known to host massive black holes. The scientists expect that the black holes in these smaller galaxies average about 400,000 times the mass of our Sun.

"We hope that studying them and their galaxies will give us insights into how similar black holes in the early Universe formed and then grew, through galactic mergers over billions of years, producing the supermassive black holes we see in larger galaxies today, with masses of many millions or billions of times that of the Sun," said Amy Reines of Montana State University.

Reines and her colleagues used the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to make the discovery, which they are reporting at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Reines and her collaborators used the VLA to discover the first massive black hole in a dwarf starburst galaxy in 2011. That discovery was a surprise to astronomers and spurred a radio search for more.

The scientists started by selecting a sample of galaxies from the NASA-Sloan Atlas, a catalog of galaxies made with visible-light telescopes. They chose galaxies with stars totalling less than 3 billion times the mass of the Sun, about equal to the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small companion of the Milky Way. From this sample, they picked candidates that also appeared in the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters (FIRST) survey, made between 1993 and 2011.

They then used the VLA to make new and more sensitive, high-resolution images of 111 of the selected galaxies.

"The new VLA observations revealed that 13 of these galaxies have strong evidence for a massive black hole that is actively consuming surrounding material. We were very surprised to find that, in roughly half of those 13 galaxies, the black hole is not at the center of the galaxy, unlike the case in larger galaxies," Reines said

The scientists said this indicates that the galaxies likely have merged with others earlier in their history. This is consistent with computer simulations predicting that roughly half of the massive black holes in dwarf galaxies will be found wandering in the outskirts of their galaxies.

"This work has taught us that we must broaden our searches for massive black holes in dwarf galaxies beyond their centers to get a more complete understanding of the population and learn what mechanisms helped form the first massive black holes in the early Universe," Reines said.

Reines worked with James Condon, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory; Jeremy Darling, of the University of Colorado, Boulder; and Jenny Greene, of Princeton University. The astronomers are publishing their results in the Astrophysical Journal.

Holidaying in a disaster zone might seem crazy, but "volunteer tourism" can actually help communities recover from natural disasters, a new study finds. And it can offer a unique and rewarding experience for volunteers, if done carefully.

"When disaster hits a tourist destination - whether fire, flood, cyclone or earthquake - tourists naturally stay away, leaving communities to deal with loss of income on top of costs of repair and recovery," says study co-author Dr David Beirman, from the University of Technology Sydney.

"On the other hand, people who feel a natural curiosity, as well as a natural desire to help, are keen for experiences where they can interact with locals and make a difference," he says.

He notes that volunteer tourism should not be confused with "disaster tourism" in which tourists immediately travel to a scene not to help but to look.

The researchers examined the impact of volunteer tourism programs in Nepal in the wake of the April 2015 earthquake. They found that when it was done in an ethical manner that considered local conditions and the community, it could aid recovery and resilience.

The study 'Engaging volunteer tourism in post-disaster recovery in Nepal' with UTS Business School co-authors Associate Professor Stephen Wearing and Dr Simone Faulkner, was recently published in the Annals of Tourism Research.

The Nepal earthquake, which measured 8.1 on the Richter scale, killed nearly 9,000 people and injured 22,000, and caused severe damage to buildings and infrastructure.

In the four months that followed the Nepal earthquake, international tourism more than halved.

Initially most relief organisations asked international volunteers not to come unless they had specific expertise, such as medical skills, building skills, or emergency response experience.

Then the Pacific Asia Travel Association and Nepalese tourism industry leaders worked together to produce the report of the Nepal Rapid Recovery Task Force, running workshops with more than 200 tourism industry leaders and professionals.

The strategy they came up with prioritised potential tourism regrowth markets, including volunteer tourism.

Nepal relaxed conditions to allow international tourists to volunteer on a wide range of projects including rebuilding homes and schools, interning in hospitals, supporting non-government organisations and re-establishing sustainable agriculture.

"Nepal's tourism recovery since the April 2015 earthquake has been remarkable and as our research shows, volunteer tourism has been a significant driving force for that recovery," says Dr Beirman who was involved in the Nepal Rapid Recovery Taskforce.

In 2015, the year of the earthquake, just under 600,000 international tourists visited. By 2018 the number had reached an all-time record of almost 1.2 million. In 2019 it grew further.

The Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents says almost one third of the tours booked to Nepal in the two years after the earthquake comprised groups who combined tourism experiences with volunteering or philanthropy.

"Nepal already had an extensive infrastructure of volunteer tourism organisations and programs, and this was a significant advantage in establishing post-disaster recovery programs," says Dr Beirman.

Dr Faulkner notes that while volunteer tourism is an important way to help destinations recover, care needs to be taken to ensure programs benefit both the community and volunteers, using an ethical approach that allows local communities to drive individual projects.

"The success of volunteer tourism also depends on the willingness of volunteer tourists to engage in a travel experience that involves engaging in work that more mainstream tourists may view as a hardship," says Dr Faulkner.

"In times of national crisis, the priority of a government has to be restoring the welfare of its people. However, the process by which that happens is multifaceted. In destinations that rely on tourism as a primary source of investment, it can make sense to build volunteer tourism into the recovery process," she says.

Allergic reactions in the skin can be caused by many different chemical compounds found in creams, cosmetics, and other topical consumer products, but how they trigger the reaction has remained somewhat mysterious.

A new study suggests the way some chemicals displace natural fat-like molecules (called lipids) in skin cells may explain how many common ingredients trigger allergic contact dermatitis, and encouragingly, suggests a new way to treat the condition.

The study was led by researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Monash University and published online today in Science Immunology.

Why some chemicals trigger dermatitis is a mystery

Poison ivy is a commonly known trigger for allergic contact dermatitis, an itchy skin rash. But many ingredients found in nonprescription topical products can trigger a similar type of rash.

An allergic reaction begins when the immune system’s T cells recognize a chemical as foreign. T cells do not directly recognize small chemicals, and research suggests that these compounds need to undergo a chemical reaction with larger proteins in order to make themselves visible to T cells.

“However, many small compounds in skincare products that trigger allergic contact dermatitis lack the chemical groups needed for this reaction to occur,” says study co-leader Annemieke de Jong, PhD, assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

"These small chemicals should be invisible to T cells, but they're not."

Skin cells unmask allergy-inducing chemicals

De Jong and her colleagues suspected that CD1a, a molecule that’s abundant on Langerhans cells (immune cells in the skin’s outer layer), might be responsible for making these chemicals visible to T cells.

In the current study, conducted with human cells in tissue culture, the researchers found that several common chemicals known to trigger allergic contact dermatitis were able to bind to CD1a molecules on the surface of Langerhans cells and activate T cells.

These chemicals included Balsam of Peru and farnesol, which are found in many personal care products, such as skin creams, toothpaste, and fragrances. Within Balsam of Peru, the researchers identified benzyl benzoate and benzyl cinnamate as the chemicals responsible for the reaction, and overall they identified more than a dozen small chemicals that activated T cells through CD1a.

“Our work shows how these chemicals can activate T cells in tissue culture, but we have to be cautious about claiming that this is definitively how it works in allergic patients,” de Jong says. “The study does pave the way for follow up studies to confirm the mechanism in allergic patients and design inhibitors of the response.”

New Ideas for Treatment

CD1a molecules normally bind the skin’s own naturally occurring lipids in its tunnel-like interior. These lipids protrude from the tunnel, creating a physical barrier that prevents CD1a from interacting with T cells.

Structural work done at Monash University showed that farnesol, one of the allergens identified in this study, can hide inside the tunnel of CD1a, displacing the natural lipids that normally protrude from the CD1a molecule. “This displacement makes the CD1a surface visible to the T cells, causing an immune reaction,” de Jong says.

This discovery raises the possibility that allergic contact dermatitis could be stopped by applying competing lipids to the skin to displace those triggering the immune reaction. “From previous studies, we know the identity of several lipids that can bind to CD1a but won’t activate T cells,” she says.

Currently, the only way to stop allergic contact dermatitis is to identify and avoid contact with the offending chemical. Topical ointments can help sooth the rashes, which usually clear up in less than a month. In severe cases, physicians may prescribe oral corticosteroids, anti-inflammatory agents that suppress the immune system, increasing the risk of infections and other side effects.

EUGENE, Ore. - Researchers are moving closer to a new approach for improving spinal fusion procedures and repairing broken or defective bones that avoids an over-production of bone that commonly occurs in current treatments.

In a preclinical study, researchers significantly reduced undesired bone growth outside of targeted repair areas in rat femurs by delivering a potent bone-forming protein called bone morphogenetic protein, or BMP, using a new biomaterial made from heparin.

A six-member research team - led by Marian H. Hettiaratchi, a bioengineer in the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon - described the approach in a paper published Jan. 3 issue of the online journal Science Advances.

Hettiaratchi began exploring the use of heparin microparticles to deliver BMP as a possible way to stop abnormal bone growth more than five years ago while a doctoral student at the Georgia Institute of Technology under the mentorship of co-authors Robert Guldberg and Todd McDevitt.

The traditional approach of using high doses of BMP alone has led to numerous complications in humans, including soft tissue inflammation and abnormal ossification.

For the new study, Hettiaratchi and colleagues fed their earlier results from experiments done in both rats and test tubes into computer simulations to explore ways to adjust their heparin-based approach in animal testing with levels of BMP comparable to dosages required in human bone-repair procedures.

"We focused on using doses that were more clinically relevant. In humans, the typical treatment uses 0.1 to 0.2 milligrams of BMP per kilogram of body weight, so we used the same amount in the rats," Hettiaratchi said. "Most research done in rats uses 10 times less BMP to repair bone, which isn't comparable to what's done in humans and doesn't exhibit the side effects of a clinical BMP dose."

Two different strengths of the combination were used, resulting in 40 to 50 percent reductions in abnormal ossification. The heparin microparticles contain heparin's long-chained linear polysaccharides, with sulfated groups which drive stronger binding affinity to BMP.

The heparin and BMP, mixed in an alginate hydrogel, were injected into a nanofiber mesh tube - created in Guldberg's lab to isolate a repair area and unveiled in Biosciences in 2011 - already inserted into femoral defects in the rats. Human medical practices have relied on high doses of BMP injected into a collagen sponge, which leads to abnormal ossification in surrounding soft tissue as BMP rapidly escapes the sponge.

The findings represent a proof-of-concept for fine-tuning the approach rather than a route into clinical testing in humans, Hettiaratchi said. The eventual goal, she said, is to create synthetic heparin-like microparticles that achieve the same results while avoiding potential side effects of heparin.

"The problem with healing large bone defects clinically is that the BMP delivered using collagen sponges results in abnormal bone formation because the drug doesn't stay on the material," Hettiaratchi said. "Our new material retains much more of the BMP, keeping it localized. You don't get bone formation outside the targeted area."

Hettiaratchi joined the UO after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto. Guldberg joined the UO's Knight Campus as executive director in August 2018. McDevitt is now in San Francisco, affiliated with the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and the University of California.

At Toronto, Hettiaratchi began pursuing the development of a synthetic material to localize protein delivery that would avoid potential side effects from heparin, a widely used anticoagulant that prevents blood clots. None of heparin's long list of known side effects has been seen in the rats, she noted. Another potential problem is that heparin's numerous sulfate groups might bind to other proteins not related to bone repair.

Ideally, she said, a synthetic heparin-like drug could be engineered to only bind to BMP. Such work will be the initial focus in her UO lab, which will open in early 2020.

Monash University researchers have developed the world's most efficient lithium-sulphur battery, capable of powering a smartphone for five continuous days.

Prototype cells have been developed in Germany. Further testing in cars and solar grids to take place in Australia in 2020.

Researchers have a filed patent on the manufacturing process, and will capture a large share of Australia's lithium chain.

Imagine having access to a battery, which has the potential to power your phone for five continuous days, or enable an electric vehicle to drive more than 1000km without needing to "refuel".

Monash University researchers are on the brink of commercialising the world's most efficient lithium-sulphur (Li-S) battery, which could outperform current market leaders by more than four times, and power Australia and other global markets well into the future.

Dr Mahdokht Shaibani from Monash University's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering led an international research team that developed an ultra-high capacity Li-S battery that has better performance and less environmental impact than current lithium-ion products.

The researchers have an approved filed patent (PCT/AU 2019/051239) for their manufacturing process, and prototype cells have been successfully fabricated by German R&D partners Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology.

Some of the world's largest manufacturers of lithium batteries in China and Europe have expressed interest in upscaling production, with further testing to take place in Australia in early 2020.

The study was published in Science Advances on Saturday, 4 January 2020 - the first research on Li-S batteries to feature in this prestigious international publication.

Professor Mainak Majumder said this development was a breakthrough for Australian industry and could transform the way phones, cars, computers and solar grids are manufactured in the future.

"Successful fabrication and implementation of Li-S batteries in cars and grids will capture a more significant part of the estimated $213 billion value chain of Australian lithium, and will revolutionise the Australian vehicle market and provide all Australians with a cleaner and more reliable energy market," Professor Majumder said.

"Our research team has received more than $2.5 million in funding from government and international industry partners to trial this battery technology in cars and grids from this year, which we're most excited about."

Using the same materials in standard lithium-ion batteries, researchers reconfigured the design of sulphur cathodes so they could accommodate higher stress loads without a drop in overall capacity or performance.

Inspired by unique bridging architecture first recorded in processing detergent powders in the 1970s, the team engineered a method that created bonds between particles to accommodate stress and deliver a level of stability not seen in any battery to date.

Attractive performance, along with lower manufacturing costs, abundant supply of material, ease of processing and reduced environmental footprint make this new battery design attractive for future real-world applications, according to Associate Professor Matthew Hill.

"This approach not only favours high performance metrics and long cycle life, but is also simple and extremely low-cost to manufacture, using water-based processes, and can lead to significant reductions in environmentally hazardous waste," Associate Professor Hill said.

A new study by San Francisco State University Assistant Professor of Management Nara Jeong suggests that CEOs look to the White House for leadership on social responsibility -- but not the way you might expect. It turns out that corporate leaders are less likely to act on their values when they're in agreement with the president. And their social responsibility efforts increase when they don't agree with the leadership of the commander in chief.

Jeong studies CEO behavior and corporate social responsibility, which is defined in her latest research -- examining a decade of behavior starting in the mid 1990s -- as actions that "further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law." She and the study's co-author found that liberal CEOs invest more in socially conscious activities, such as diversity initiatives and environmental conservation, when they feel those values are threatened.

"Republican presidents aren't as interested in those values, so business leaders think, 'We need to do more to promote and protect these values,'"Jeong said.

Conversely, when business leaders shared the same political beliefs as the president, support for socially conscious initiatives dropped. For left-leaning CEOs, who are more likely to engage in socially responsible activities, those efforts fell by an average of 18 percent, Jeong says.

Business leaders with the same political orientation as the president may have an expectation that the government "will deliver on the social values they hold dear," the study reported. As a result, these executives may feel empowered to focus more on their companies' financial performance, Jeong adds.

Jeong and her collaborator went a step further and tested whether politics encouraged companies to act irresponsibly. Examples could include increasing pollution, lowering emission standards or doing away with policies that protect minority employees. Yet Jeong found no evidence that firms engaged in such activities based on whether their politics were aligned or misaligned with the president.

To conduct their study, Jeong looked to Kinder, Lydenberg and Domini (KLD) -- an index that rates the social investments companies make. Categories KLD measures include environment, community involvement, product safety, excessive compensation of executives and diversity. They examined the activities of 752 CEOs between 1994 and 2005.

Next, they turned to the Federal Elections Commission to track the CEOs' political donations over 10 years, a period that covers two presidential elections and several congressional election cycles. This helped them determine the political tendencies of the CEO. They also tracked whether the president was a Democrat or a Republican.

Jeong was surprised by her findings. "You think that the people who are committed to social responsibility will stay committed regardless of the context," she said. "[CEOs] may change their stance if the context changes."

Jeong wrote "The effects of political orientation on corporate social (ir)responsibility" with Lehman College Assistant Professor of Business and Economics Nari Kim. The study appeared in the journal Management Decision in November.

New Haven, Conn. -- A new study led by Yale University researchers finds that scaling up use of methadone and buprenorphine -- medications for treating opioid use disorder known as opioid agonist therapies (OATs) -- could greatly reduce HIV transmission rates and prevent deaths in Ukraine, where the disease is epidemic among people who inject drugs.

The study was published in The Lancet.

Annual new HIV infections in Ukraine -- home to Eastern Europe and Central Asia's second largest HIV epidemic -- rose from 9,500 in 2010 to 12,000 in 2018, according to the study. New infections are likely to increase by approximately 60,000 over 10 years without additional interventions.

The researchers found that treating at least 20% of people with opioid use disorder who inject drugs -- the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization -- could, over 10 years, prevent more than 10,000 new HIV infections and nearly 18,000 new deaths.

Currently, only 2.7% of people who inject drugs in Ukraine receive OATs, despite their proven effectiveness.

"Opioid agonist treatments are one of the most effective treatments for opioid use disorder and preventing HIV infections," said co-author Lynn Madden, a Yale postdoctoral associate in internal medicine and head of a foundation focused on substance use disorders and mental illness. "In addition to treating opioid dependence, it substantially reduces drug use and injection frequency, lowers HIV transmission rates, and prevents death, including death due to overdose," she said.

Senior author Alexei Zelenev, Yale associate research scientist in medicine, said the healthcare system in Ukraine needs modernization, and HIV testing needs to be expanded, as only 56% of the population with HIV are aware of their infected status.

"High prevalence in people who inject drugs, criminalization of drug users, large injection networks, and suboptimal access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder contribute to ongoing HIV transmission," he said.

Researchers obtained HIV epidemic profiles and regional data -- including OAT treatment -- for 23 regions in the Ukraine. Their mathematical model evaluated the efficiency of current OAT treatment programs and assessed the effect of expanding those programs to treat 20% of the drug-injecting population.

Taking into account regional differences, the study showed that scaling up OAT in regions with large populations of people who inject drugs -- like Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, and Kyiv -- would lead to the greatest reductions in infections and death, but that smaller regions not covered by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) remain highly vulnerable to HIV outbreaks and need to be considered when allocating resources.

PEPFAR is the U.S. government's response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Scaling up OAT programs requires initiative on several fronts, said Zelenev.

In addition to expanding capacity at existing treatment sites, he said that expansion of addiction treatment into primary care clinics, as well as through take-home pharmacy prescriptions, can offer pathways for increased access to effective treatment.

"The expansion of OAT has not been adequate," he said.

Amid the ongoing military conflict with Russia, Ukraine faces a difficult financial situation that exacerbates the public health crisis.

Frederick Altice, professor of medicine, epidemiology and public health at Yale, and a co-author, said the study reveals the importance of scaling up evidence-based treatments to prevent new HIV infections and death.

"Ukraine is a major country in the Eastern European and Central Asian region, the only region globally where new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths remain increasing," he said. "Findings from this study have important implications for other countries throughout the region where the HIV epidemic is similar. In nearby Russia, new HIV infections and deaths are increasing faster than in any other country in the region due to their complete bans on OATs -- one of the greatest HIV prevention tools we have available to us."

Crop rotation is vital to any crop production system. Rotating crops maintains crop productivity and soil health by replenishing organic matter, nutrients, soil structure, and other properties while also improving water management and reducing erosion. Rotating crops also reduces the buildup of soilborne pathogens and diseases.

When implementing a crop rotation system, growers should consider crop type, rotation length, and crop sequence. In the webcast "Crop Rotation and Soil Health in Potato Production Systems," Robert Larkin summarizes the results of years-long crop management strategy studies conducted on potato fields in Maine to determine the most effective management practices.

Crop rotation moderates soilborne diseases in multiple ways. It breaks the host-pathogen cycle by replacing the host plant with another nonhost plant, and it stimulates microbial activity, diversity, and beneficial soil organisms. Crop rotation also directly inhibits pathogens by stimulating microorganisms that are antagonistic to pathogens or introduce inhibitory compounds produced by the plant itself.

For potato, specifically, Larkin recommends a 3-year rotation (or longer) with conservation tillage. Growers should grow a disease-suppressive crop, such as a Brassica crop or Sundangrass, prior to potato and a cover crop, such as winter rye or ryegrass, following the rotation crop. He also recommends using a compost amendment to improve organic matter, soil properties, water availability, and yield.

The global low-carbon revolution could be at risk unless new international agreements and governance mechanisms are put in place to ensure a sustainable supply of rare minerals and metals, a new academic study has warned.

The amount of cobalt, copper, lithium, cadmium, and rare earth elements needed for solar photovoltaics, batteries, electric vehicle (EV) motors, wind turbines, fuel cells, and nuclear reactors will likely grow at a rapid pace in the upcoming years. Even if alternatives are found for one metal, there will be reliance on another as the scope of possibilities is inherently limited by physical and chemical properties of elements.

However, with global supplies often heavily monopolized by a single country, confronted by social and environmental conflict, or concentrated in poorly functioning markets, there is a real possibility that a shortage of minerals could hold back the urgent need for a rapid upscaling of low-carbon technologies. In some cases, markets are providing misleading signals to investors that can lead to poor decisions. In other cases, the countries or regions supplying minerals are politically unstable.

An international team of researchers have made a number of recommendations to help manage the demand for such low-carbon technology minerals as well as limiting the environmental and public health damage of their extraction and processing, supporting social benefits, and also ensuring the benefits are shared more universally and equitably, in a new paper published in Science today [January 3].

Benjamin K. Sovacool, Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Sussex, said: "Mining, metals, and materials extraction is the hidden foundation of the low-carbon transition. But it is far too dirty, dangerous, and damaging to continue on its current trajectory.

"The impacts to mining rightfully alarm many environmental campaigners as a large price to pay to safeguard a low-carbon future. But as the extraction through terrestrial mining becomes more challenging, the on-land reserves of some terrestrial minerals dwindle or the social resistance in some countries escalates, even oceanic or even space based mineral reserves will become a plausible source."

Although the new study calls for renewed attention to tackle existing conditions of terrestrial extraction and processing of metals, it also states that there are important prospects of cobalt and nickel on the continental shelf within states' Exclusive Economic Zones as well as on the outer continental shelf regions.

Within international waters, metallic nodules found in the vast Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific as well as in cobalt and tellurium crusts, found in seamounts worldwide, provide some of the richest deposits of metals for green technologies.

But minerals in more pristine and distinctive ecosystems near hydrothermal vents should remain off-limits for mineral extraction for the foreseeable future, the researchers add.

Morgan Bazilian, Professor and Director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines, said: "As the global energy landscape changes, it is becoming more mineral and metal intensive. Thus, the sustainability and security of material supply chains is essential to supporting the energy transition. How we shape that pathway will have important consequences for everything from the environment, to development, and geopolitics."

The study's authors also recommend:

Enhance and coordinate international agreements on responsible mining and traceability in order to establish mineral supply justice.

Greatly expand the recycling and reuse of rare minerals to extend the lifetimes of products and stretch out reserves.

Diversify mineral supply scale to incorporate both small and large-scale operations while allowing miners to have control over mineral revenue through stronger benefit sharing mechanisms and access to markets.

Focus development donor policies to recognize the livelihood potential of mining in areas of extreme poverty rather than just regulating the sector for tax revenues.

Stipulate stronger Extended Producer Responsibility for products that use valuable rare minerals. This can ensure that responsibility for the entire lifespan of a product including at the end of its usefulness shifts from users or waste managers to major producers such as Apple, Samsung, and Toshiba.

Materials security of essential minerals and metals to be actively incorporated into formal climate planning including establishing a list of "critical minerals" for energy security (which is already done to some degree by the European Union and United States).

Saleem Ali, Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware, said: "Our analysis is aimed at galvanizing international policy-makers to include mineral supply concerns for green technologies in climate change negotiations. We need to build on the resolution on mineral governance passed at the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2019 and operationalize a clear action plan on supply chain security for a low carbon transition."

Benoit Nemery, Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Environment and Health at KU Leuven, said: "Let's not achieve a low-carbon future at the expense of mineworkers and public health."

Factfile - The expected rising demands for a decarbonized future

Between 2015 and 2050, the global EV stock needs to jump from 1.2 million light-duty passenger cars to 965 million passenger cars

For the same period, battery storage capacity needs to climb from 0.5 gigawatt-hour (GWh) to 12,380 GWh while the amount of installed solar photovoltaic capacity must rise from 223 GW to more than 7100 GW.

Another research study has predicted increases in demand for materials for EV batteries of 87,000%, 1000% for wind power, and 3000% for solar cells and photovoltaics between 2015 and 2060.

Communication and marketing experts place great weight on an organization's relationship with its public stakeholders, and a new tool allows organizations to better measure and describe the nature of these relationships.

"Traditionally, these relationships are measured using questionnaires, which provide only a static snapshot of how one party viewed an organization," says Yang Cheng, co-author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of communication at North Carolina State University. "But questionnaires don't account for the organization's role in shaping the relationship, nor do questionnaires account for the dynamic nature of relationships.

"Our tool, called Contingent Organization-Public Relationships (COPR), accounts for both of those factors, and can help our field better understand both how and why relationships change over time. The COPR, as a toolkit, can be applied to evaluate relationships in not only positive and cooperative environments but also during conflicts or crises."

The COPR framework assesses relationships based on the stance of the organization on a given subject and the stance of the relevant publics on the same subject, with the understanding that each side will adopt a stance that best serves its interest. The stances are measured on a continuum that runs from "aggressive" to "accommodating."

The COPR can use these stances to describe a relationship as belonging in one of six well-defined categories. For example, if both parties have taken an aggressive stance, they have a "competing" relationship. But if a one party is aggressive and the other party is accommodating, they have a "capitulating" relationship.

"We can determine each party's stance by mining datasets such as public discourse on social media, organizational actions, such as news releases or blog posts, and so on," Cheng says. "And COPR allows us to see how these relationships evolve in response to changing circumstances, such as during a concerted marketing push or after a crisis."

To demonstrate COPR's utility, the researchers conducted an analysis of the Red Cross in China from 2011 to 2014, as the organization grappled with a crisis concerning its credibility with Chinese audiences.

The paper, "Examining six modes of relationships in a social-mediated crisis in China: an exploratory study of contingent organization-public relationships (COPR)," is published in the Journal of Applied Communication Research. The paper was co-authored by Glen Cameron of the University of Missouri. The work was done with support from the Center for the Digital Globe and the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri.

Both species, humans and chimpanzees, can be extremely territorial, and territorial disputes between groups can turn violent, with individuals killing each other. In humans, such between-group competition can escalate to war and devastating loss of human life. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology studied wild Western chimpanzees to find out whether territorial behavior may have shaped counter-strategies. One important strategy that is evident in both humans and chimpanzees, but rare in the rest of the animal kingdom, is the capacity to work together in order to achieve a goal, for example to defend a territory - even if it is together with individuals who are not one's kin.

The researchers tested whether the effects of territoriality - the pressure that neighboring groups exert on each other on one side, and the competitive capacity of a group on the other side - impact female reproductive success. Reproductive success is a measure of how many of one's genes pass into the next generation and therefore how much of an influence one's traits have on subsequent generations. Using long-term data on four neighboring chimpanzee communities that span several decades of these animals' lives, the researchers show that between-group competition has negative effects on wild female chimpanzees' reproductive success. Competition between groups seems to have a selective impact and could have helped shape associated traits in this species.

"We developed a new index of neighbor pressure that reflects the danger of intrusion by neighboring groups into one's territory", explains Sylvain Lemoine, first author of this study. "We show that high neighbor pressure during the time when females are supposed to resume reproduction is associated with a delay in reproduction, leading to longer intervals between births. We also show that having many males in a group is advantageous and speeds up reproduction".

The researchers also provide an extensive survival analysis and demonstrate that high neighbor pressure during pregnancy, but not during lactation, is associated with a reduced likelihood of offspring survival, suggesting that between-group competition has negative effects on gestating females and thus on unborn offspring. Groups of chimpanzees compete for space that encompasses important food resources, so a likely explanation of these findings is that females experience more stress when between-group competition is high, for example due to a loss of territory leading to nutritional deficiency, or due to direct exposure to neighbor group encounters, which is known to trigger stress responses in this species.

"These physiological mechanisms remain to be examined, as well as the potential efficiency of in-group cooperation to reduce the received pressure from neighbors, such as cooperative border patrols regularly observed in wild chimpanzees", adds Catherine Crockford, one of the senior authors of the study. "For highly territorial species, including humans, these findings shed light on how between-group competition could have acted as a selective pressure favoring the evolution of particular traits, such as group-level cooperation with non-kin, and how this could have shaped our ancestors", concludes senior author Roman Wittig. This study provides evidence for the underlying forces that could have shaped group cooperation in our ancestors by providing fitness advantages for those who are able to cooperate.

PHILADELPHIA -- The human brain is organized into circuits that develop from childhood through adulthood to support executive function--critical behaviors like self-control, decision making, and complex thought. These circuits are anchored by white matter pathways which coordinate the brain activity necessary for cognition. However, little research exists to explain how white matter matures to support activity that allows for improved executive function during adolescence--a period of rapid brain development.

Researchers from the Lifespan Brain Institute of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia applied tools from network science to identify how anatomical connections in the brain develop to support neural activity underlying these key areas. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"By charting brain development across childhood and adolescence, we can better understand how the brain supports executive function and self-control in both healthy kids and those with different mental health experiences," said the study's senior author Theodore Satterthwaite, MD, an assistant professor of Psychiatry at Penn. "Since abnormalities in developing brain connectivity and deficits in executive function are often linked to the emergence of mental illness during youth, our findings may help identify biomarkers of brain development that predict cognitive and clinical outcomes later in life."

In this study, the researchers mapped structure-function coupling--the degree to which a brain region's pattern of anatomical connections supports synchronized neural activity. This could be thought of like a highway, where the anatomical connections are the road and the functional connections are the traffic flowing along those roads. Researchers mapped and analyzed multi-modal neuroimaging data from 727 participants ages 8 to 23 years, and three major findings emerged.

First, the team found that regional variability in structure-function coupling was inversely related to the complexity of the function a given brain area is responsible for. Higher structure-function coupling was found in parts of the brain that are specialized for processing simple sensory information, like the visual system. In contrast, there was lower structure-function coupling in complex parts of the brain that are responsible for executive function and self-control, which require more abstract and flexible processing.

Results showed that structure-function coupling also aligned with known patterns of brain expansion over the course of primate evolution. Previous work comparing human, ape, and monkey brains has showed that sensory areas like the visual system are highly conserved across primate species and have not expanded much during recent evolution. In contrast, association areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, have expanded dramatically over the course of primate evolution. This expansion may have allowed for the emergence of uniquely complex human cognitive abilities. The team found that the brain areas which expanded rapidly during evolution had lower structure-function coupling, while simple sensory areas that have been conserved in recent evolution had higher structure-function coupling.

Researchers also found that structure-function coupling increased throughout childhood and adolescence in complex frontal brain regions. These are the same regions that tend to have lower baseline structure-function coupling, are expanded compared to monkeys, and are responsible for self-control. The prolonged development of structure-function coupling in these regions may allow for improved executive function and self-control that develops into adulthood. Indeed, the team found that higher structure-function coupling in the lateral prefrontal cortex--a complex brain area which plays important roles in self-control--was associated with better executive function.

"These results suggest that executive functions like impulse control--which can be particularly challenging for children and adolescents--rely in part on the prolonged development of structure-function coupling in complex brain areas like the prefrontal cortex," explained lead author Graham Baum, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, who was a Penn neuroscience PhD student during the time of the research. "This has important implications for understanding how brain circuits become specialized during development to support flexible and appropriate goal-oriented behavior."

New Rochelle, NY, January 3, 2020--A new study shows the feasibility of using gene therapy to treat the progressive neurodegenerative disorder chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The study, which demonstrated the effectiveness of direct delivery of gene therapy into the brain of a mouse model of CTE, is published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the Human Gene Therapy website through February 3, 2020.

Ronald Crystal and colleagues from Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, coauthored the article entitled "Anti-Phospho-Tau Gene Therapy for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy."

There is currently no treatment for CTE, which is caused by repeated trauma to the central nervous system (CNS), such as that suffered by soldiers, athletes in contact sports, and in accident-related trauma. Inflammation results in the accumulation of hyperphosphorylated forms of Tau protein (pTau). Crystal et al. developed an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector to deliver an anti-pTau antibody to the (CNS). They showed that direct delivery of the AAVrh.10anti-pTau directly into the hippocampus of brain-injured mice was associated with a significant reduction in pTau levels across the CNS. They propose that doses could be scaled up and this strategy could be effective in humans as well.

"CTE is much more prevalent than was initially realized, and there is currently no therapy available," says Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA. "This new work from the Crystal laboratory is potentially ground-breaking as a means to remove the offending Tau phoshoprotein."

Philadelphia, January 8, 2020 - Television programs featuring healthy foods can be a key ingredient in leading children to make healthier food choices now and into adulthood.

A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, found kids who watched a child-oriented cooking show featuring healthy food were 2.7 times more likely to make a healthy food choice than those who watched a different episode of the same show featuring unhealthy food.

Researchers asked 125 10- to 12-year-olds, with parental consent, at five schools in the Netherlands to watch 10 minutes of a Dutch public television cooking program designed for children, and then offered them a snack as a reward for participating. Children who watched the healthy program were far more likely to choose one of the healthy snack options - an apple or a few pieces of cucumber - than one of the unhealthy options - a handful of chips or a handful of salted mini-pretzels.

"The findings from this study indicate cooking programs can be a promising tool for promoting positive changes in children's food-related preferences, attitudes, and behaviors," said lead author Frans Folkvord, PhD, of Tilburg University,Tilburg, Netherlands.

This study was conducted at the children's schools, which could represent a promising alternative for children learning healthy eating behaviors. Prior research has found youth are more likely to eat nutrient-rich foods including fruits and vegetables if they were involved in preparing the dish, but modern reliance on ready-prepared foods and a lack of modeling by parents in preparing fresh foods have led to a drop in cooking skills among kids.

"Providing nutritional education in school environments instead may have an important positive influence on the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors of children," Dr. Folkvord said.

This study indicates the visual prominence of healthier options in both food choice and portion size on TV cooking programs leads young viewers to crave those healthier choices then act on those cravings.

The effect that exposure to healthier options has on children is strongly influenced by personality traits. For example, children who don't like new foods are less likely to show a stronger desire for healthier choices after watching a TV program featuring healthier foods than a child who does enjoy trying new foods. As they grow older, though, they start to feel more responsible for their eating habits and can fall back on information they learned as children. Researchers believe this may indicate watching programs with healthier options can still have a positive impact on children's behavior, even if it is delayed by age.

"Schools represent the most effective and efficient way to reach a large section of an important target population, which includes children as well as school staff and the wider community," Dr. Folkvord commented. "Positive peer and teacher modeling can encourage students to try new foods for which they exhibited distaste previously."

Poor dietary habits during childhood and adolescence have multiple negative effects on several health and wellness indicators, including achievement and maintenance of healthy weights, growth and development patterns, and dental health.

"The likelihood of consuming fruits and vegetables among youth and adults is strongly related to knowing how to prepare most fruits and vegetables. Increased cooking skills among children can positively influence their consumption of fruit and vegetables in a manner that will persist into adulthood," Dr. Folkvord added.