Culture

Large carnivores (e.g. bears, big cats, wolves and elephant seals) and zoos should be utilised as powerful catalysts for public engagement with nature and pro-environmental behaviour, suggests a paper published in the scholarly open-access journal Nature Conservation by an international multidisciplinary team, led by Dr Adriana Consorte-McCrea, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.

The paper, which offers a synthesis of contributions, presented at the symposium "Large carnivores and zoos as catalysts for biodiversity conservation: how do we engage the public in the protection of biodiversity?" at the 5th European Congress for Conservation Biology (ECCB), Finland 2018, highlights the wide-reaching influence of the institutions visited by over 700 million people a year worldwide and combining knowledge with emotions and social values. Bringing together natural and social sciences, as well as psychology and education, it provides a rich multifaceted approach to the conservation of biodiversity by exploring the connections between people, large carnivores and zoos.

"[Zoos] may provide a space where field conservation and human dimensions can combine
to foster a commitment between people, from all backgrounds, and the rest of the living world, and break down key barriers to biodiversity conservation, catalysed by
the charismatic keystone species housed within their facilities," concludes the team.

According to the scientists, large carnivores are essential to engage the public in the urgent need to arrest biodiversity loss due to the many links between wild predators and enhanced biodiversity. They acknowledge that the interactions between people and carnivores are complex and can give rise to conflicts such as concerns related to fears for own safety, fear of loss of other favoured species, material interests, or socio-economic tensions formed by an urban-rural divide.

Due to continuous changes in land use, areas of healthy habitat and protected areas are usually small and fragmented and cannot sustain wild carnivores, the paper explains, so it is necessary to coexist with large carnivores. Large carnivores show capabilities to adapt to different human-dominated ecosystems across the world which supports the idea that separation is not a necessary condition for large carnivore conservation. The bigger challenge remains whether human societies can accept and adapt to non-predator-free landscapes.

"Considering that the occurrence of predator attacks on humans is rare, tolerance of risks is affected by norms, culture, spiritual beliefs, cognitive and emotional factors, including risk perception," elaborated the specialists and added that, "[p]eople's progressive amnesia of what the landscapes were like before large carnivores disappeared may result in acceptance of natural spaces devoid of carnivore species."

Research also points to the lack of interest in nature and reduced commitment to biodiversity conservation as being linked cognitive elements such as misconceptions and negative messages about wildlife in formative years and declining opportunities to engage with nature from childhood. This phenomenon has been described as the extinction of experience.

"Support for the conservation of large carnivores and for biodiversity is more likely when people have an emotional appreciation for diverse species, not just understanding. Both aspects are likely to be enhanced by direct experiences, such as visits to zoos and aquariums that provide an increasingly important opportunity for contact with other species," add the scientists.

Recognising the role of zoos as a catalyst for conservation for their contributions in skills and expertise that span animal care and husbandry, public engagement, education and research, is vital for biodiversity conservation. Though education programmes based on knowledge gain are not enough to change people's perceptions, opportunities for emotional engagement and reduction of fear, combined with social context provided by the zoo are great assets in promoting tolerance of large carnivores and biodiversity among visitors who are typically estranged from the wildlife.

Archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes are what biologists call the three domains of life. Of these three, archaea form an important link within the evolutionary theory. They are the direct ancestors of eukaryotes, but resemble bacteria in structure and organization. Archaea can colonize hot sulphur springs or extremely saline lakes, but can also be found in the ocean or in the human intestine and on the skin. Unlike bacteria, archaea have been relatively little researched - because no pathogenic forms have been identified so far. A research team led by Professor Sonja-Verena Albers from the Professorship of Microbiology at the University of Freiburg and Professor John Tainer from the University of Texas in Austin, USA, has now succeeded in identifying proteins that are essential for the assembly of the motility structure, i.e. for the ability of archaea to move actively - and hence also for the locomotion of cells. The team has presented its findings in the latest Nature Microbiology.

It is important for microorganisms to be able to move actively - so that if their environment deteriorates they can seek better living conditions. Bacteria use what is known as the flagellum, a complex structure requiring up to 50 proteins that assemble according to a strict timetable. Scientists assumed that archaea used the same structure as bacteria to "swim" from one place to another. But after sequencing the first archaeal genomes, the researchers discovered that archaea did not possess flagella operons. Instead, archaea swim using a structure called an archaellum. It consists of only seven subunits in the model organism Sulfolobus acidocaldarius used by Albers, which lives in highly acidic hydrothermal springs. "Nevertheless, this relatively simple structure can perform the same functions as the bacterial flagellum," she explains.

She and her team have already discovered the structure of the protein FlaI required for this and have shown that it forms the motor complex of the archaellum in combination with the proteins FlaX and FlaH. The Freiburg scientists also described the protein FlaF, which bonds with the model organism's only cell wall protein and anchors it there. "This enables archaea to interact with the environment - and thus with human cells," explains Albers. In the current study, the researchers show that the protein FlaG is able to form a filament which is like a fiber. Together with FlaF, FlaG then forms a protein complex that is essential for the assembly of the archaellum. This complex is probably located at the tip of the FlaG filament, which enables FlaG and FlaF to interact with the cell wall.

In addition, the scientists proved that cells without a cell wall can form an archaellum but cannot swim. Albers says that this suggests that the interaction between FlaG and FlaF and the cell wall contributes to the function of the archaellum. "We showed that FlaG and FlaF are essential for the rotation of the archaellum and hence for the locomotion of the cell," she says.

An international research team comprising neuroscientists at Virginia Tech, University College London and the University of London revealed brain mechanisms and functional regions that underlie confirmation bias -- a phenomenon where people strongly favor information that reinforces their existing opinions over contradictory ones.

The study, published this week in Nature Neuroscience, provides insight into a fundamental property of belief formation that has been documented by psychologists and economists, as well as in popular literature, including George Orwell's "1984." People tend to disregard information that conflicts with their past choices, no matter how authoritative or factual the new information may be.

"We are watching this all over the news," said P. Read Montague, a professor and director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and an honorary professor at the Wellcome Center for Human Neuroimaging at University College London. "It is the mystery of decision-making. People routinely make decisions that cut across their own best interests. We clearly know this in areas like drug abuse, overeating, or any repetitive activity during which people disregard obviously beneficial advice."

In the study, participants from Roanoke and Blacksburg, Virginia, arrived at the laboratory in pairs and were introduced to each other before retiring to individual cubicles. They played a real estate game, made wagers for cash, and then re-evaluated their decisions in light of the wagers made by their partners.

Researchers combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the behavioral task. Participants' blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) variables were examined through moderated mediation analysis, capturing a relationship between brain activity and multiple levels of performance, and testing whether the mediation is different for conditions of agreement and disagreement.

When participants learned their partners agreed with their opinions, they significantly increased their bets, thus confirming they were confident with their decision. Participants only slightly decreased their wagers when their partners disagreed.

The impact of the partner's opinion was far greater when it confirmed the player's judgment, and the partner's opinion was more likely to be disregarded when it was contradictory -- consistent with confirmation bias.

The functional brain imaging data revealed a region whose activity modulation was associated with decision-making and memory. The posterior medial prefrontal cortex mediated the strength of confirming opinions over disconfirming opinions, and tracked agreements more closely than disagreements.

"We are using functional neuroimaging and computational neuroscience to take apart the mechanisms that look at why we are biased to make one kind of decision versus another, what neural structures are involved, and how do these change across development and across states of health, disease and brain injury," Montague said. "In that sense, the study contributes directly to understanding why people make decisions. It has implications for institutions all across our culture where people make judgments that are either against or congruent with their own interests."

Although less often the focus of cancer research, recent studies have hinted at the possible importance of a type of protein known as nuclear transport receptors. Now researchers at Kanazawa University and collaborating institutions in Japan and the US have identified a nuclear transport receptor protein that plays a key role in processes that sustain aggressive head and neck cancers, as well as some of the mechanisms behind these processes.

"Current gene expression network approaches commonly focus on TFs [transcription factors], biasing network-based discovery efforts away from potentially important non-TF proteins," point out Masaharu Hazawa and Richard Wong and their colleagues in the report of their latest results. Taking a different tack, they noted that although abnormalities in nuclear transport receptors and their significance in the progression of cancer were not yet understood, recent studies had identified the importance of a type of nuclear transport receptor named karyopherin-α (KPNA)/importin-α in cell differentiation, whereby immature cells acquire the characteristics and functions of specific mature cell types. Tumors of non-differentiated cells are widely understood to be more aggressive.

Noting the role of KPNA in cell fate determination, Hazawa, Wong and colleagues re-analysed the Cancer Genome Atlas, which identified KPNA4 as most higly expressed subtype of KPNAs in head and neck squamous cancer cells (HNSCCs). Using a green fluorescent protein that had a nuclear localization signal, the researchers then investigated the role of KPNA4. They showed that while this green fluorescent protein would normally then localize in the nucleus, in HNSCCs where they had "knocked down" the gene expressing KPNA4 (so that the protein KPNA4 was not expressed) high levels of the green fluorescent protein remained in the cytoplasm instead. As well as the impact on nuclear transport of molecules with the nuclear localization signal, the researchers were also able to observe how silencing the KPNA4 expressing gene reduced the "cell proliferation, migration ability and resistance to radiation" in HNSCCs.

Further studies revealed not only the role of KPNA4 in repressing differentiation of epithelial cells, but also important transcription factors and signaling pathways controlled by KPNA4-dependent nuclear import systems. In their report the researchers conclude, "Taken together, these results indicate that targeting disease-specifically altered transport systems may serve as promising therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment."

Researchers have discovered gigantic clouds of gaseous carbon spanning more than a radius of 30,000 light-years around young galaxies using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. This is the first confirmation that carbon atoms produced inside of stars in the early Universe have spread beyond galaxies. No theoretical studies have predicted such huge carbon cocoons around growing galaxies, which raises questions about our current understanding of cosmic evolution. The result was obtained by Seiji Fujimoto and his colleagues, rather unconventionally, by examining data from former observations. He is currently employed at The Cosmic Dawn Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. The study is now published in Astrophysical Journal.

Combinations of archival data achieved unprecedented sensitivity

"We examined the ALMA Science Archive thoroughly and collected all the data that contain radio signals from carbon ions in galaxies in the early Universe, only one billion years after the Big Bang," says Seiji Fujimoto, the lead author of the research paper, and a former Ph.D. student at the University of Tokyo. "By combining all the data, we achieved unprecedented sensitivity. To obtain a dataset of the same quality with one observation would take 20 times longer than typical ALMA observations, which is almost impossible to achieve."

The discovery suggests rewriting parts of the evolution of the universe

Heavy elements such as carbon and oxygen did not exist in the Universe at the time of the Big Bang. They were formed later by nuclear fusion in stars. However, it is not yet understood how these elements spread throughout the Universe. Astronomers have found heavy elements inside baby galaxies, but not beyond those galaxies, due to the limited sensitivity of their telescopes. This research team summed the faint signals stored in the data archive and pushed the limits.

"The gaseous carbon clouds are almost five times larger than the distribution of stars in the galaxies, as observed with the Hubble Space Telescope," explains Masami Ouchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. "We spotted diffuse but huge clouds floating in the coal-black Universe."

Then, how were the carbon cocoons formed?

"Supernova explosions at the final stage of stellar life expel heavy elements formed in the stars," says Professor Rob Ivison, the Director for Science at the European Southern Observatory. "Energetic jets and radiation from supermassive black holes in the centers of the galaxies could also help transport carbon outside of the galaxies and finally to throughout the Universe. We are witnessing this ongoing diffusion process, the earliest environmental pollution in the Universe."

New physical processes must be incorporated into existing models

The research team notes that at present theoretical models are unable to explain such large carbon clouds around young galaxies, probably indicating that some new physical process must be incorporated into cosmological simulations. "Young galaxies seem to eject an amount of carbon-rich gas far exceeding our expectation," says Andrea Ferrara, a professor at Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Seiji Fujimoto adds that carbon is not the only element dispersed in the cocoon. Other elements such as Oxygen and Nitrogen could be detected as well, but the signals were fainter. This, however, indicates that other elements could be undergoing the same process as carbon. This is one of many points for further research, suggested by the study.

The team is now using ALMA and other telescopes around the world to further explore the implications of the discovery for galactic outflows and carbon-rich halos around galaxies.

Macrophages have two faces: In healthy tissue, they perform important tasks and support their environment. However during an infection, they stop this work and hunt down the pathogens instead. Upon coming into contact with bacteria they change their metabolism drastically within minutes. This is shown by a new study under the leadership of the University of Bonn, which has now been published in the journal "Immunity". In the medium term, the results may lead to new vaccination strategies, but also to new approaches for combating autoimmune diseases.

Macrophages can practically "sniff out" intruders: Their cell surface contains numerous sensors, the Toll-like receptors. These work in a similar way to the olfactory receptors in the nose: They are activated when they encounter a specific chemical signal. The alarm they trigger then leads to a series of reactions inside the cell. "During this phase, macrophages initiate their inflammatory response," explains Mario Lauterbach, who is completing his doctorate at the Institute of Innate Immunity at the University of Bonn. "How they change their metabolism in the first few minutes and what the consequences are has been unclear so far."

There are different groups of Toll-like receptors, each of which responds to different "smells". These are molecules that have emerged as important danger signals in the course of evolution. Among these are the so-called lipopolysaccharides (LPS), important components of the bacterial cell wall. "We have now confronted macrophages with LPS and investigated what happens in the following minutes and hours," explains Lauterbach.

The scientists were able to show that the cell metabolism changes dramatically shortly after LPS contact: Macrophages immediately absorb more glucose from their environment - but not primarily in order to obtain energy. Instead, they convert the sugar into so-called acetyl groups, which are small molecules related to acetic acid. These then serve as a kind of label in the cell nucleus: They are used to label genome sequences that are supposed to be read more intensively.

Acetyl groups loosen DNA

The DNA is actually a meter-long wafer-thin thread. It would, however, be difficult to store in this form. This is why it is rolled up on many small spools, the histones. Enzymes now attach the acetyl groups to certain parts of the histones. This process is stimulated by the increased acetyl group synthesis after the alarm is triggered, which ultimately loosens the coil of DNA and makes the corresponding genes more readable. "These include genes that are responsible for the release of inflammatory messengers or that improve the mobility of macrophages," explains Lauterbach.

It has long been known that the activation of Toll-like receptors alters the reading of genes. However, the mechanisms responsible for this differ from the one that has now been discovered. It is likely that this newly discovered mechanism allows the fine regulation of the genetic response. The results may therefore also provide new starting points, such as for improving the effectiveness of vaccinations. Toll-like receptors also play an important role in mediating the "learned" or aquired immune response. This arm of immunity increases the effectiveness of the defense mechanisms against infections that the body has already been through. Vaccinations strategies are also based on this principle.

Possible starting point for new therapies

In many diseases, such as rheumatism, diabetes or multiple sclerosis, the immune response is misdirected or too strong. "The mechanism we discovered might enable us to inhibit harmful inflammatory processes without suppressing the immune system too much," hopes Prof. Dr. Eicke Latz, head of the Institute of Innate Immunity. Instead of permanently hunting down (non-existent) invaders, the macrophages could concentrate again on their important tasks.

One reason why it was possible to shed light on the immune mechanism is the excellent cooperation between the University of Bonn, the TU Braunschweig and the LMU Munich. This success is also a result of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation, of which Latz is a member.

Look at this new radio image covered with dots, each of which is a distant galaxy! The brightest spots are galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes and shine bright in radio light. But what makes this image special are the numerous faint dots filling the sky. These are distant galaxies like our own that have never been observed in radio light before.

To learn about the star-formation history of the universe, we need to look back in time. Galaxies throughout the universe have been forming stars for the past 13 billion years. But most stars were born between 8 and 11 billion years ago, during an era called "cosmic noon".

It has been a challenge for astronomers to study the faint light coming from this era. Optical telescopes can see very distant galaxies, but new stars are largely hidden inside dusty clouds of gas. Radio telescopes can see through the dust and observe the rare, bright starburst galaxies, but until now have not been sensitive enough to detect the signals from distant Milky Way-like galaxies that are responsible for most of the star formation in the universe.

An international team of astronomers using the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) MeerKAT telescope recently made the first radio observation sensitive enough to reveal these galaxies. "To make this image, we selected an area in the Southern Sky that contains no strong radio sources whose glare could blind a sensitive observation," said Tom Mauch of SARAO in Cape Town, South Africa, who led the team whose results have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

The team used the 64 MeerKAT dishes to observe this area for a total of 130 hours. The resulting image shows a region of the sky that is comparable in area to five full Moons, containing tens of thousands of galaxies.

"Because radio waves travel at the speed of light, this image is a time machine that samples star formation in these distant galaxies over billions of years," explained co-author James Condon of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia. "Because only short-lived stars that are less than 30 million years old send out radio waves, we know that the image is not contaminated by old stars. The radio light we see from each galaxy is therefore proportional to its star-forming rate at that moment in time."

The astronomers want to use this image to learn more about star formation in the entire universe. "These first results indicate that the star-formation rate around cosmic noon is even higher than was originally expected," said Allison Matthews, a graduate student at the University of Virginia and Grote Reber doctoral fellow at the NRAO. "Previous images could only detect the tip of the iceberg, the rare and luminous galaxies that produced only a small fraction of the stars in the universe. What we see now is the complete picture: these faint dots are the galaxies that formed most of the stars in the universe."

"Only in the last few years technology has developed to the point that we can build magnificent telescopes like South Africa's MeerKAT and have the computing power to create images like this one and get a real understanding of how the universe came to be the way it is," added NRAO astronomer William Cotton. "The next generations of instruments, the Square Kilometer Array and the next generation Very Large Array should be even more spectacular."

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Major oil corporations tend to spend the most money on advertising and promotional campaigns at moments when they face negative media coverage and/or the threat of increased federal regulation, a new study finds.

Robert Brulle, a Brown University visiting professor based at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, led an analysis concluding that investments in advertising and promotion by major oil companies directly correspond to Congressional action and media coverage on climate change.

The findings, published on Saturday, Dec. 14 in Climatic Change, suggest that oil company executives target their promotional efforts in ways designed to influence policymakers and to shape the public climate-change debate.

"All corporations rely on advertising to burnish their brands and minimize damage to their reputation," Brulle said. "But this analysis, combined with previous research, demonstrates that ad campaigns in the oil and gas sector are specifically intended to influence how the public and lawmakers think about the climate crisis and whether they act to address it. It shows that the rise and fall of spending levels is directly related to whether or not climate legislation is being considered."

Working with Melissa Aronczyk of Rutgers University and Jason Carmichael of McGill University, Brulle analyzed the annual corporate promotion advertising space purchases of ExxonMobil, BP-Amoco, Chevron-Texaco, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips between 1986 and 2015. The researchers focused on four major factors that prior scholarship suggests might influence these companies' promotional expenditures: Congressional attention to climate change, corporate reputation, media attention on climate change, and public concern about climate change.

To gauge the extent to which each factor affects advertising spending, the researchers collected data on hearings, bills, treaties and other climate change-related legislation; consulted Fortune's annual Corporate Reputation Index; measured levels of climate change-related media coverage; and tracked the timing of major oil spills and the release of major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Brulle said the team found that two of the four factors motivated the majority of oil companies' advertising spending: climate change-related media coverage and Congressional action.

"It seems their objective in advertising is to deflect criticism and avoid legislative action that attempts to address climate change," Brulle said. "That suggests that their primary motivation is to avoid the potential of additional regulatory scrutiny."

The findings also suggest, Brulle said, that oil executives are less concerned with public mood on climate change and with the release of major climate change reports, which invariably portray their companies in a negative light. Brulle said the latter finding was consistent with his own previous research, which indicates that climate change reports do little to sway public opinion, and are thus unlikely to spur media coverage and Congressional action.

The analysis comes as promotional spending by major oil companies reaches an all-time high. Between 2008 and 2016, the five largest oil companies spent an average of $217 million annually on advertising. By contrast, average annual ad expenditures were $102 million between 1997 and 2004 and $35 million between 1986 and 1996.

Have you ever wandered through your garden or a meadow on a summer day and wondered why and how butterflies exhibit such beautiful and diverse colors? Scientists have, especially when thinking about butterflies in the genus Colias. In most Colias butterflies, all males and most females are an orange or yellow color, but some females are white. Rare white forms are common in many animals, however, in some Colias butterflies, these white forms, called Alba, are commonly found in every generation, making up 5 % to sometimes 30% of females. This is unexpected because orange/yellow wing color is an important signal for mate recognition, thus Alba females should be at a disadvantage. For nearly a century, scientists have been working to understand why and how Alba females arise and are maintained within butterfly populations.

Studies over the past century have revealed that Alba is not just a change in wing color, but also a visual manifestation of an alternative life history strategy. A life history strategy is a pattern of co-evolved life history traits (for example number of offspring, size of offspring, and lifespan) and these strategies are shaped by the way individuals allocate limited resources to the different traits that affect their Darwinian fitness. Previous work in Colias found that orange females invest their resources in synthesizing colored pigments, while Alba females reallocate these resources away from the production of colored pigments and into other developmental processes. Presumably as a result of this reallocation, Alba females benefit from a higher fat content and fecundity compared to orange females. However, males prefer to mate with orange females, which should be a cost to Alba. Although studies throughout the 80's and 90's worked to understand more about the biotic and abiotic factors that maintained the color polymorphism in the wild, the genetic basis of Alba has remained unknown. Seeking to understand the mechanisms that give rise to Alba, a team of evolutionary biologists has focused their attention upon the mechanism of Alba using a diverse set of research approaches.

"Life history tradeoffs are found across the tree of life, yet we know very little about their genetic basis and how they evolve. This is especially true for female-limited tradeoffs; essentially nothing is known", said senior author Christopher Wheat, Associate Professor of Population Genetics at Stockholm University.

In order to identify the genomic region causing Alba, the researchers first had to make a genome for the clouded yellow butterfly (Colias crocea), which is common throughout Europe and neighboring regions. They then sequenced many individual genomes of wild caught orange and Alba females, as well as offspring from crosses between family lines carrying the two different color morphs. Analyzing this data, they were able to identify the single genomic region associated with the color difference. In that region, they found a transposable element insertion that was unique to Alba females. This insertion was located near a gene called BarH-1, which encodes a homeobox transcription factor. Homeobox transcription factors play important roles during embryonic development.

"BarH-1 was a really exciting candidate gene for Alba because in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster BarH-1 plays a role in pigment granule development in their eyes. I had previously found that Alba butterflies have significantly less pigment granules in their wing scales compared to orange females. In Pierid butterflies these granules contain the pigments and when granules are removed, Colias wings turn white", said lead author Dr. Alyssa Woronik, whose PhD at Stockholm University was focused upon studying and finding the basis of Alba.

However, the researchers wanted to do more than just show a significant association between Alba and insertion region of the genome near BarH-1. Therefore, they used antibody staining to detect whether BarH-1 was present in developing wings, as it has never been reported there before. This approach revealed that early during pupal development, the BarH-1 protein is present in the cells that build wing scales in Alba females, but not in orange. These results suggested that BarH-1 might play a role in the orange to white wing color change by suppressing the formation of pigment granule. To test this functional prediction, they used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to generate mosaic BarH-1 knockouts. A mosaic knockout means that some cells within an individual had a functional copy of the BarH-1 gene, while others did not. In Drosophila, normal BarH-1 function results in red eye pigments, while BarH-1 knockouts have white eyes where there is no pigment. Unlike flies, normal Colias eyes are emerald green. Interestingly, mosaic BarH-1 knockout individuals of Colias have a mosaic of green and black in their eyes, with green being cells with functional BarH-1, while black color arises due to BarH-1 knockout. Green and black eye color mosaics told the researchers their BarH-1 knockouts were working. Furthermore, Alba females with mosaic eyes also had white and orange mosaic wings. The orange regions, atypical of normal Alba females, were presumed to arise from cells lacking a functional copy of BarH-1. Further examination of these mosaic individuals revealed that the orange scales had significantly more pigment granules than white scales, similar to the wing scales of normal orange animals. However, neither males nor orange females with mosaic eyes had any mosaic color effects on their wings. These findings supported the prediction that BarH-1 expression in wing scale building cells gives rise to the white color by suppressing the formation of pigment granules, a function that does not happen in males or orange females.

There are about 90 species of Colias butterflies worldwide and they can be found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. About 30% of the species exhibit polymorphic females and previous research suggested that the same mechanism gives rise to Alba across all species. To test this prediction, the researchers checked whether Alba females in the North American species Colias eurytheme also had less pigment granules than orange females. They did, suggesting that suppression of pigment granule formation is not limited to C. crocea. Additional work showed that Alba females had more abdominal fat stores than orange, consistent with previous studies in C. eurytheme. These results suggest the intriguing possibility that the cause of Alba across all Colias species might be the same, but this requires further study in more species.

Based on these findings, the working hypothesis of the research team is that the Alba tradeoff arises via a simple Y-model of reallocation where reduced pigment granule formation results in reduced pigment synthesis. This in turn leaves more resources free to be used for other developmental processes within the energetically closed system of the developing pupa. However, it is possible that the Alba-associated physiological components are also affected by expression of BarH-1, or other genes surrounding the insertion, in other tissues or at other times in development. Alternatively, other mutations, located near the insertion, may cause these traits. Testing these alternative hypotheses, as well as determining whether Alba has a single genetic basis among species in the Colias genus, is the focus of ongoing work.

URBANA, Ill. - Pet owners are increasingly treating their "fur-babies" like members of the family. In response, some pet food companies are developing diets that more closely resemble human food, incorporating human-grade meat and vegetable ingredients that pass USDA quality inspections. Until now, little research had been done on these foods. A new study from the University of Illinois shows these diets are not only highly palatable, they are more digestible than originally estimated.

Kelly Swanson, the Kraft Heinz Company Endowed Professor in Human Nutrition in the Department of Animal Sciences and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Illinois, is a co-author on the Translational Animal Science study. "Of course, you assume that since human-grade ingredients are high quality, the foods should be highly digestible," he says. "But until unbiased researchers actually conduct the testing, these companies are getting questioned by consumers and veterinarians. Are the foods safe? Are they complete and balanced? Basically, are they good?"

The researchers tested six commercial dog foods from JustFoodForDogs, a company that claims to exclusively use USDA-certified ingredients in its diets. Their products, similar to a handful of other niche companies and subsidiaries, are formulated using minimally processed human-edible ingredients, such as rice, carrots, broccoli, chicken, lamb, and others, in a kind of casserole. Each diet is also supplemented with human-quality vitamins and minerals to ensure they qualify as complete and balanced for pets.

The researchers determined the chemical composition of the six diets, as well as their nutrient and amino acid digestibility and energy content. In order to avoid the confounding effects of gut microbial activity, they fed each diet to surgically altered roosters lacking ceca, or microbial pouches. Ultimately, all the diets were highly digestible.

One of the goals was to help determine feeding guidelines for specialized diets like these. Since the diets are more similar to human foods than traditional kibble, Swanson says there are risks in using formulas derived from traditional pet foods.

"Typical pet foods are generally less digestible than human foods - that's why feeding guidelines are different from the USDA nutrition guidelines for humans. But if you apply the traditional dog food guidelines for metabolizable energy to human-grade dog foods, you risk overfeeding because these foods are so nutrient-dense," Swanson says.

Amino acid digestibility was also very high - over 85% for most of the indispensable amino acids - indicating high protein quality. This can translate to low stool volume, welcome news for most dog owners.

Although the study included a single product line, Swanson believes the outcomes are likely to translate to similar pet diets using human-grade ingredients. "Individual foods have to be tested, but our results should apply to other products if they're truly using human-grade ingredients. There might be some small differences, but ultimately, they should still be highly digestible," he says.

Swanson notes that any dog food labeled "complete and balanced" should meet the dietary requirements for the animal. Of course, care must still go into researching each pet food company and ensuring they meet your veterinarian's approval. Foods that use premium ingredients may improve coat quality or stool volume above and beyond the basic requirements. And, Swanson says, they satisfy the growing demographic of pet owners who are looking to achieve long-term wellness for their animals.

Swanson is currently testing the diets, along with similar diets from other companies, in dogs.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- From presidential physicals to sudden health scares, the health of the commander in chief garners a lot of media attention in the United States. A recent study by a Penn State researcher examined how President Donald Trump's reported fondness for fast food may affect the public's perception of fast food and the likelihood, based on their media habits, one might purchase some.

The study, recently published in the journal Appetite, found that people who pay more attention to media coverage about Trump's diet are more likely to view fast food as a socially acceptable meal option. They also are more likely to eat fast food in the near future, according to the study's author Jessica Myrick, associate professor of media studies at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

While Trump's 2018 physical examination reported the president to be in "excellent health," Myrick was curious what effect his widely reported diet of fast food -- which previous research has tied to poor health -- could have on the general public.

"When you aggregate those effects across the entire U.S. population, these data suggest there could be harm caused to public health by encouraging many Americans to eat fast food," Myrick said.

According to the researchers, Trump is not the first president whose eating habits have made headlines. Former President Bill Clinton also had a penchant for fast food before undergoing quadruple bypass surgery in 2004 and later becoming vegan. Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama promoted healthy eating and started a vegetable garden on the White House grounds.

But Myrick said the media landscape has since changed dramatically, and Trump's reliance on Twitter to communicate -- among other major advances in digital communication -- makes his case particularly unique.

Myrick surveyed more than 1,000 Americans in a nationally representative survey. It compared the respondents' attention to media -- including news stories about Trump's eating habits -- with respondents' "parasocial relationship" with the president. Parasocial relationships are between two people who don't know each other -- like a fan's relationship with a celebrity or politician.

The study also compared those findings with respondent attitudes toward fast food -- its acceptability and the likelihood respondents would order fast food in the near future.

After analyzing the data, Myrick found that attention to media about Trump's reported diet was a stronger predictor of intentions to eat fast food than any demographic factor, including education level, race, age, gender or income.

"The results also show that for both Republicans and Democrats, greater attention to media coverage of Trump's diet was related to more positive attitudes toward fast food," Myrick said. "However, for Republicans, this relationship was nearly twice as strong, meaning that as attention to media coverage of Trump's diet increases, Republicans are quicker to report positive attitudes toward fast food than are Democrats."

For individuals who did not identify as either party affiliation, there was no relationship between attention to coverage of the president's diet and attitudes toward fast food.

Myrick said the study provides guidance for communicators, especially those working in the public health sector. Societal factors and individual preferences affect dietary choice. When major political figures or other newsmakers are reported to choose an unhealthy diet, it can affect news consumers' dietary choices as well, which can influence the health of the public at large, she added.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has observed a magnetic explosion the likes of which have never been seen before. In the scorching upper reaches of the Sun's atmosphere, a prominence -- a large loop of material launched by an eruption on the solar surface -- started falling back to the surface of the Sun. But before it could make it, the prominence ran into a snarl of magnetic field lines, sparking a magnetic explosion.

Scientists have previously seen the explosive snap and realignment of tangled magnetic field lines on the Sun -- a process known as magnetic reconnection -- but never one that had been triggered by a nearby eruption. The observation, which confirms a decade-old theory, may help scientists understand a key mystery about the Sun's atmosphere, better predict space weather, and may also lead to breakthroughs in the controlled fusion and lab plasma experiments.

"This was the first observation of an external driver of magnetic reconnection," said Abhishek Srivastava, solar scientist at Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), in Varanasi, India. "This could be very useful for understanding other systems. For example, Earth's and planetary magnetospheres, other magnetized plasma sources, including experiments at laboratory scales where plasma is highly diffusive and very hard to control."

Previously a type of magnetic reconnection known as spontaneous reconnection has been seen, both on the Sun and around Earth. But this new explosion-driven type -- called forced reconnection -- had never been seen directly, thought it was first theorized 15 years ago. The new observations have just been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The previously-observed spontaneous reconnection requires a region with just the right conditions -- such as having a thin sheet of ionized gas, or plasma, that only weakly conducts electric current -- in order to occur. The new type, forced reconnection, can happen in a wider range of places, such as in plasma that has even lower resistance to conducting an electric current. However, it can only occur if there is some type of eruption to trigger it. The eruption squeezes the plasma and magnetic fields, causing them to reconnect.

While the Sun's jumble of magnetic field lines are invisible, they nonetheless affect the material around them -- a soup of ultra-hot charged particles known as plasma. The scientists were able to study this plasma using observations from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, looking specifically at a wavelength of light showing particles heated 1-2 million kelvins (1.8-3.6 million F).

The observations allowed them to directly see the forced reconnection event for the first time in the solar corona -- the Sun's uppermost atmospheric layer. In a series of images taken over an hour, a prominence in the corona could be seen falling back into the photosphere. En route, the prominence ran into a snarl of magnetic field lines, causing them to reconnect in a distinct X shape.

Spontaneous reconnection offers one explanation for how hot the solar atmosphere is -- mysteriously, the corona is millions of degrees hotter than lower atmospheric layers, a conundrum that has led solar scientists for decades to search for what mechanism is driving that heat. The scientists looked at multiple ultraviolet wavelengths to calculate the temperature of the plasma during and following the reconnection event. The data showed that the prominence, which was fairly cool relative to the blistering corona, gained heat after the event. This suggests forced reconnection might be one way the corona is heated locally. Spontaneous reconnection also can heat plasma, but forced reconnection seems to be a much more effective heater -- raising the temperature of the plasma quicker, higher, and in a more controlled manner.

While a prominence was the driver behind this reconnection event, other solar eruptions like flares and coronal mass ejections, could also cause forced reconnection. Since these eruptions drive space weather -- the bursts of solar radiation that can damage satellites around Earth -- understanding forced reconnection can help modelers better predict when disruptive high-energy charged particles might come speeding at Earth.

Understanding how magnetic reconnection can be forced in a controlled way may also help plasma physicists reproduce reconnection in the lab. This is ultimately useful in the field of laboratory plasma to control and stabilize them.

The scientists are continuing to look for more forced reconnection events. With more observations they can begin to understand the mechanics behind the reconnection and often it might happen.

"Our thought is that forced reconnection is everywhere," Srivastava said. "But we have to continue to observe it, to quantify it, if we want prove that."

A new fluorescent tool for detecting reactive oxygen species based on a chemical found in mushrooms has been developed by scientists at the University of Bath.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as free radicals and peroxides, are produced in cells under oxidative stress. Whilst present in healthy cells in small amounts, excessive ROS in cells are damaging and can lead to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease.

The scientists at Bath, collaborating with researchers in South Korea, have developed a new probe that biologists studying these diseases can use to see changes in cells under the microscope, helping them to understand the fundamental biological processes involving ROS.

They've created a family of new molecules - dubbed AzuFluor™ - based on azulene, a bright blue chemical found in the mushroom Lactarius indigo. It fluoresces when it comes into contact with a ROS in a one-way reaction, detecting tiny amounts of these reactive oxygen species.

Whilst most fluorescent probes absorb a single photon, AzuFluor™ absorbs two photons, meaning that two lower energy photons can be used to produce the same level of fluorescence. Using shorter wavelengths of light in infrared range means that the light can penetrate tissues more deeply without harming the cells. This technology has been shown to work in rat tissue; the researchers hope that in the future it could be used as a probe in the human body.

Dr Simon Lewis, Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Sustainable & Circular Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath, said: "AzuFluor™ is a much smaller molecule and simpler to make than other two-photon fluorophores. Its small size makes it easy to diffuse and transport into cells.

"We aim to make a family of these fluorophores that can be used in a range of cell imaging applications."

Professor Tony James, also from the CSCT at Bath, said: "This research has wide-ranging potential applications in cell biology and the pharmaceutical industry and is a great example of a fantastic international collaboration between chemists at Bath and Professor Hwan Myung Kim and his group at Ajou University in South Korea."

People with vision impairment are more cautious when stepping over obstacles when walking - but increase their risk of falls, according to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) asked participants with simulated blurred vision to negotiate a 10cm-high obstacle on the floor under increasing time pressure. The way they negotiated the obstacle was recorded, as was their gaze.

The results showed people with impaired vision lifted their lead foot 43% higher and 10% slower over the obstacle than the control group, even when walking 20% faster. However, this pronounced gait was observed to affect their stability.

The group with vision impairment showed 32% more anxiety than the control group irrespective of time pressure. They also looked down more frequently and for longer when approaching the obstacle.

Professor Shahina Pardhan, Director of the Vision and Eye Research Institute at ARU, said: "Walking with vision loss requires significantly more mental effort, and this research shows that even when performing a simple task like stepping over an obstacle, people with sight problems have considerable anxiety about falling, particularly when they might be in a hurry.

"While the lifting of the lead foot higher over the obstacle gives more clearance, it also means they are less stable when negotiating it, which could cause them to lose their balance.

"Around half of all vision impairment is preventable, It is vital that people do all they can to identify and correct their vision impairment when they can, as it would certainly lead to fewer falls and therefore less pressure on emergency services."

ARU is working with several partner organisations to deliver the UK National Eye Health and Hearing Study - the first ever comprehensive study into the nation's vision and hearing health.

It is hoped that comprehensive data about the UK's sensory health will help guide policy and lead to better and more efficient vision and hearing care.

(Boston)--Dense Breast Notifications (DBNs) are having little impact.

DBNs are a written notification to a woman after a mammogram that her breasts are dense. The goal is to motivate her speak with her doctor about her personal risk and possibly obtain supplemental screening for breast cancer. DBNs are mandated legislatively in more than 35 states and the Food Drug Administration (FDA) is developing standardized language for a federal/nationwide notification.

Prior findings from researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) showed many states' DBNs are written at a higher literacy level than women residing in that state, which suggests that women may not be able to understand the notifications. Now those same researchers have conducted one of the first national surveys to ask women about their reactions to these notifications and to understand their knowledge, awareness and plans about breast density while examining whether these findings vary among women of varying race/ethnicity groups.

Overall, they found few differences in responses between women residing in states that require DBNs versus those who do not. There were no differences in awareness that women with dense breasts have a slightly increased risk of breast cancer, and no differences in the proportion of women who had discussed breast density with their doctor. "This suggests that DBNs are not achieving their desired effects, which is contrary to their goal," explained corresponding author Nancy Kressin, PhD, professor of medicine at BUSM. They also found white women with higher incomes had more knowledge when it came to breast density while black women experienced greater anxiety and confusion. "This is particularly concerning given black women's greater mortality from breast cancer."

The researchers hope that the FDA will consider these findings as they develop language for federal notifications regarding breast density, in order to ensure that the wording of the federal notification is clear and understandable to all women and that it leads to the desired outcomes and that unintended harms do not occur.