Culture

Although pollen has covered cars for weeks and allergy sufferers have been sneezing, we think of sex as being the realm of animals. But plant sex can be quite interesting, especially in species that can have male or female flowers.

More than 90 percent of flowering plant species combine both sexes in one plant. In the less than 10 percent of species where female and male flowers exist on separate plants, they typically remain female or male throughout their lifetime. But it isn't always this simple.

In a study in the journal Annals of Botany, Rutgers University-New Brunswick researchers found that striped maple trees can change sex from year to year. A tree may be male one year and female the next, and while male trees grow more, female trees are more likely to die.

The study found that 54 percent of striped maple trees changed sexes over a four-year period, with some switching at least twice. Male trees usually outnumber female trees by more than three to one. Since the study started in 2014, 75 percent of trees that died were female. Since only female trees can make seeds, changes in the relative numbers of males and females might lead to reduced populations.

"We found that, contrary to previous scientific knowledge, unhealthy trees have a higher likelihood of being female, and the size of the tree doesn't seem to influence what sex a tree is," said lead author Jennifer Blake-Mahmud, a botanist who earned her doctorate at Rutgers and is now at Princeton University.

The striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum), a slow-growing species that reaches heights of about 30 to 50 feet, thrives at medium to high elevations along the Appalachian Mountains from Georgia to Nova Scotia, and is native to New Jersey. Although the ability for a plant to switch sex is incredibly rare, some other species are known to do so, such as the Jack-in-the-pulpit, an understory woodland plant that also flowers in the spring in New Jersey. In these cases, usually females appear to be healthier or larger since it takes more energy to be female and to produce fruits and seeds.

Understory trees like the striped maple, which grow beneath the forest canopy, can become less healthy for many reasons: insects chew on them, deer use them for antler rubs, large trees fall on them during storms or they can suffer through droughts.

Over longer periods, these stressful conditions may result in increasing numbers of females compared with males in striped maple tree populations. More females likely mean more seeds and more seedlings of striped maples. At first this might seem like a good thing, but that might not necessarily be the case. Since the female death rate is much higher than the male death rate, the number of trees in these populations may decline over the long-run.

Upcoming research will look at how important certain environmental factors may be in determining a striped maple tree's sex. The scientists are looking at the concentration of sugar stored in sap to see if trees with more sugar reserves are more likely to be female. They are also looking at whether they can trigger a sex change by causing an injury, such as cutting off a branch.

Compostable food containers seem like a great idea: They degrade into nutrient-rich organic matter, reducing waste and the need for chemical fertilizers. But much of this packaging relies on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to repel water and oil. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology Letters have shown that PFAS can leach from the containers into compost. However, the potential health effects of applying this material to crops are unknown.

PFAS are widely used in manufacturing because of their flame-retardant and water- and oil-repellent properties. Two long-chain PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), have been linked to negative health effects, so companies in the U.S. have voluntarily phased out their production. As a result, many manufacturers have switched to shorter-chain PFAS, whose health effects are less well known. Previous research has shown that PFAS in biosolids applied as fertilizer can migrate from soil to plants and then accumulate in humans through the food chain. Because compostable food packaging is becoming increasingly popular, Linda Lee and colleagues wanted to find out how much PFAS end up in the composted material.

The researchers obtained 10 samples from five states: nine from commercial facilities and one from a backyard compost bin. The researchers extracted perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), which are compounds produced by microbial degradation of PFAS during composting, and analyzed them using mass spectrometry. The samples from seven facilities that accepted compostable food packaging had higher total levels of PFAAs than the two that didn't or the one from the backyard bin, which did not contain food packaging. The researchers found PFAAs corresponding to PFOA and PFOS, which are still produced in some countries, in all of the samples, but most of the detected compounds were short-chain PFAAs. The results from this study contributed to the passage in 2018 of the State of Washington's Healthy Food Packaging Act, which will ban the use of PFAS in paper food packaging after January 1, 2022, the researchers say.

The calcareous soils that pervade the southern region of the country pose a challenge for plants: though iron is abundant in the soil, plants are unable to acquire it due to the high pH levels in said soil, making iron only slightly soluble and, therefore, hard to absorb. To tackle this iron deficiency, plants activate a series of responses, such as developing new roots to span more soil or freeing protons to acidify or solubilize iron.

Depending on their needs, plants activate and deactivate these responses by means of a strictly regulated process in which hormones such as ethylene participate actively. Ethylene is also involved in other stress processes like phosphorus deficiency and pathogen attack.

With a lengthy track record of studying responses to iron deficiency that plants carry out, a research team, including Agronomy Professor Francisco Javier Romera at the University of Cordoba, has found a relationship between iron deficiency responses and the response caused by certain beneficial microorganisms, so that the latter can foster iron uptake.

Certain rhizosphere microorganisms (found in contact with the surface of the roots) cause a kind of Induced Systemic Resistance (or ISR) in plants. In other words, the plant detects a certain amount of these kinds of organisms and, perceiving them as enemies, initiates a defense strategy throughout the whole plant (systemic). However, upon perceiving that these organisms are friendly, the defense strategy is blocked but it remains ready to act systemically and rapidly once a real pathogen comes along.

The relationship that exists between this induced systemic resistance (ISR) and the responses to iron deficiency lies in the presence of the ethylene hormone in both processes. As a consequence of the common action of this hormone, proof has been found that applying these rhizosphere microorganisms so benefical to plants can induce responses to iron deficiency and hence, improve the plant's uptake of iron on land that, like calcareous land, poses quite a challenge in this context.

The challenge for the research team now lies in identifying which species of rhizosphere microorganisms are more effective for each kind of crop and under what kinds of conditions. The biggest issues with iron deficiency facing peach trees and olive trees in the area have become the main research focus for this research group. What is more, the negative effects of calcareous soils are greater in dicots (plants that have two main leaves upon germination) such as tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers and the abovementioned woody crops, meaning they will also benefit from these kinds of studies.

Researchers have combined two separate computer models to identify areas at highest risk for outbreaks of lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) in cattle. The models could help officials determine where to send resources ahead of outbreaks and serve as a potential early warning system for cattle farmers in affected areas.

LSDV is a disease that affects cattle. Current research points to transmission via biting insects such as flies, fleas, ticks or mosquitoes. Infected calves may die, and older cattle develop bleeding circular lesions on the skin, decreased milk production, and overall poor health.

Although LSDV is endemic to Africa, since 2015 the disease has spread into the Northern Hemisphere including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and the Balkans. The rapid expansion of LSDV in those regions shows the virus can thrive in more temperate regions than those in which LSDV traditionally occurred.

"LSDV represents an emerging threat to international trade of livestock products and live animals, due to the economic impact of milk and beef production losses," says Gustavo Machado, assistant professor of population health and pathobiology at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the work. "The good news is that the disease can be controlled by vaccination. However, we need a way to efficiently target our prevention efforts."

Machado and an international team of colleagues combined two different computer models - a risk model that examined the spatiotemporal dynamics within affected areas and a suitability model that looked at ecological conditions in affected areas - to determine where the virus would be most likely to thrive. Focusing on data from 2014 to 2016, before vaccination protocols began, the team divided study areas into 20 by 20 kilometer portions and fed information on cattle numbers and ecological conditions into the integrated model.

The model identified elevated risk areas in Russia, Turkey, Serbia and Bulgaria. Risk was positively associated with precipitation and temperature, and negatively affected by wind. Results suggest that if current ecological and epidemiological conditions persist, further spread of LSDV in Eurasia may be expected.

"Although there is little risk of airborne transmission of LSDV, if ecological conditions are favorable for the insects that can transmit it, the disease can spread - even in areas where there isn't a particularly large cattle population," Machado says.

Although LSDV hasn't yet been reported in the U.S., Machado says his model could easily be used to predict high-risk areas if an outbreak occurs. "We don't want LSDV to have the devastating impact on the cattle industry that African swine fever is having on the pork industry," he says. "Models like this one are necessary to help farmers and agricultural agencies stay ahead of the disease curve."

Based on a study by McLean Hospital researchers, individuals with anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions may soon be able to use a smartphone app to deliver on-demand cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I), a way to change mental habits without visiting a therapist.

The study, “Translating CBM-I Into Real-World Settings: Augmenting a CBT-Based Psychiatric Hospital Program,” was published in the journal Behavior Therapy. It shows the potential effectiveness of CBM-I when combined with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) in an acute psychiatric setting. It also points the way for adapting this therapeutic approach for use outside the hospital.

The lead researcher of the study is Courtney Beard, PhD, director of McLean’s Cognition and Affect Research and Education (CARE) Laboratory.

Beard described CBM-I as a “class of interventions designed to shift people’s interpretations of ambiguous situations in either a more positive or more negative way.” She explained that “CBM-I tries to address interpretation bias, a mental habit that is implicated in many mental disorders.”

To do this, individuals undergoing CBM-I treatment can be presented with a series of word association questions that address everyday situations.

For example, the CBM-I task may show a patient a situation about a person yawning during their conversation. Then the patient is asked whether that person is “tired” or “bored.” The individual who answers “tired” is told the response is “correct,” and “bored” is incorrect. Through repetition, this type of CBM-I therapy helps the person reframe or reassess these daily ambiguous situations.

“People face countless interactions like this every day in their lives,” Beard said. “If you have a tendency to jump to a threatening or negative conclusion, it can have a huge impact on how you’re feeling and on what you do and how you react. You can get stuck in a cycle that can maintain anxiety or depression.”

For their study, Beard and her colleagues developed and implemented CBM-I to augment CBT-based treatment in a partial hospital setting. They presented patients with word-sentence associations that encouraged patients to endorse positive interpretations and reject negative interpretations.

Study results showed that CBM-I was practical and acceptable to acute psychiatric patients. Many stated that CBM-I bolstered their primary CBT-based care. The study also found that that the word association exercises were successful in helping reframe potentially negative situations.

Based on these results, Beard and her team are moving forward with a National Institute of Mental Health-backed study to develop a smartphone version of CBM-I.

“With the smartphone app, we can offer CBM-I to many more people at one time,” Beard said. “With the app, they can practice new skills, create healthy mental habits, and stop automatically jumping to negative conclusions. And they can do it on demand.”

Beard stated that the app could be particularly helpful for individuals who have just been discharged from a treatment program. “They can use it during the month transition period after they leave the hospital, which is a risky and challenging time for them,” she said.

Beard sees great promise for app-based CBM-I therapy. “It quickly shows people what their brain is doing,” she explained. “The patient sees hundreds of situations in a short amount of time. So, they see how often they jumped to a negative conclusion, and that can be very powerful. It’s kind of like cognitive therapy in your pocket—but a little different and a lot faster.”

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England are ignoring clinical guidelines by rationing access to cataract surgery,The BMJ has found.

It is the latest investigation by The BMJ to lift the lid on NHS rationing driven by financial pressures, and follows recent research which found over half of CCGs in England included cataracts in lists of treatments they deem to be of "limited clinical value."

Cataract surgery is the most common operation in the NHS, with over 400,000 procedures performed every year in the UK. Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says it is cost effective and should not be restricted to more severe cases.

Yet The BMJ has gathered new evidence that patients are being screened and those not meeting visual acuity thresholds are being denied surgery.

The BMJ asked each of England's 195 CCGs how many requests for prior approval or exceptional funding they received over the past three years for cataract surgery, and how many of these requests were approved.

The analysis showed that rationing has actually increased in parts of the country since NICE's guidelines were published, with patients increasingly having to meet strict criteria before they can be referred for surgery.

Among the 185 CCGs that provided data, the investigation found that almost 2,900 prior approval or individual funding requests for cataract surgery were rejected last year, more than double the number two years ago.

And figures from the 132 CCGs that provided comparable data reveal that more than a fifth (22%) of the total number of cataract operations carried out in England in 2018-19 were screened beforehand, three times the number in 2016-17 (7%).

Mike Burdon, president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists who also chaired NICE's guideline committee, said the criteria being applied for cataract surgery by some CCGs to control costs was a false economy. "There's a cost to the patient and the cost to society from even minor visual loss, and that's what NICE identified."

But Graham Jackson, co-chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners, points out that performing surgery is not without risk, and says a clinical threshold "is a good way of defining which patients would best be served by (in this case) cataract removal."

However, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said that commissioners "should take the latest NICE guidelines into account, to ensure fair and consistent access to the best possible treatment for all cataract patients."

The BMJ's investigation also found widespread local variation in how referrals for cataract surgery are processed. For example, some CCGs require no prior approval or individual funding request to refer patients, but others process and reject hundreds of referrals in this way.

Nicholas Wilson-Holt, consultant ophthalmologist at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and a former member of the NICE guideline committee, said the prior approval process is "acting as a barrier and it's not in the spirit of the recommendations."

He added: "It makes people question the value of having NICE guidance, if we take a 'pick and mix' approach to which areas we adopt."

Children who spend half an hour a day outside in the sun reduce their risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU).

More than 800,000 people live with the two life-long disorders which make up IBD - Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis.

The paediatric study was based in Melbourne and led by Professor Robyn Lucas, from the ANU College of Health and Medicine.

"Taking children to play outside in the sun could be life-changing," Professor Lucas said.

"It doesn't have to be all at the same time. But, we found children who were outside and exposed to the sun for an extra half hour a day in total, had a lower risk of developing IBD by almost 20 per cent."

The researchers found even short periods of sun exposure were associated with lower risk of children developing IBD.

"We found every 10 minutes of sun exposure was associated with a lower risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease by six per cent," Professor Lucas said.

"At this stage what we have shown is there is a link between lack of sun exposure and increased risk of IBD.

"We already know that sunshine affects the immune system in ways that could decrease IBD - but we don't know the exact pathways.

"But our research suggests that getting outside and into the sunshine is a good thing when it comes to preventing this terrible disease."

Research shows Australia has one of the highest rates of inflammatory bowel disease.

"IBD is becoming more common and children are getting it at younger ages," said Professor Lucas.

"The symptoms can be awful. If you have IBD you get intermittent diarrhoea, abdominal pain, inflammation and you can feel very unwell.

"Crohn's and ulcerative colitis are horrible diseases where the autoimmune system has gone haywire and attacks the gut."

Dr Lucas says it is still important Australians remained 'sun smart' and protect themselves and their children from any potential harmful effects from the sun.

"Everyone needs a bit of sun exposure every day or at least most days of the week. But we are not talking about sunbaking or getting sunburnt," she said.

"If we can reduce the risk of developing IBD it is worth the trouble to get outdoors and get some sun - but do it safely, following Cancer Council guidelines."

An international study involving researchers from UBC Okanagan has shown that MDMA, also known as ecstasy, may be a valuable tool for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Published recently in Psychopharmacology, the study demonstrated substantial improvements in individuals who had not responded to prior treatments, explains UBCO Associate Professor of psychology Zach Walsh. This is also, he adds, the most comprehensive evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD.

"PTSD symptoms decreased after one session of MDMA together with psychotherapy," says Walsh, study co-author. He adds that 54 per cent of participants no longer met PTSD criteria after two sessions and that there was also improvement in their symptoms of depression.

The response of participants to MDMA-assisted psychotherapy was compared to those who received small doses or non-drug psychotherapy.

"These findings are promising and indicate the needed for larger studies," says Walsh. "Too many people with PTSD struggle to find effective treatment, and use of MDMA in a supportive environment with trained mental health professionals could be an important addition to our treatment options."

Ecstasy, also known as Molly, is the nickname for MDMA--a synthetic drug made from a combination of methylenedioxy-methamphetamine. It is a controlled, illegal drug in Canada classified as a stimulant with hallucinogenic properties.

Walsh, as well as researchers from the United States, Switzerland and Israel, examined the results from six clinical trials, involving 103 people. Trial participants included men and women with chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD from a wide variety of causes.

Based on these results, the US Food and Drug Administration granted breakthrough therapy designation to MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD, acknowledging that it "may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies" and agreeing to expedite its development and review.

The first of two more in-depth clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD began enrolling participants in November 2018, and aims to have 100-150 volunteers across 15 sites in the US, Canada and Israel. The second trial will take place after an interim analysis of the data from the first trial, and will enrol an additional 100-150 participants. European trials are planned to start in the near future.

Nearly four per cent of all people worldwide will suffer from PTSD during their lifetime. PTSD can be a debilitating disorder, with symptoms including intrusive thoughts and memories, negative effects on thinking and mood, depression, hyperarousal and reactivity, and avoidance. People with PTSD can experience much lower quality of life and relationships, related mental health conditions and suicidal tendencies.

MIYAZAKI, JAPAN-- A Japanese study group clarified that cognitive therapy* maintained its effects more than a year after the end of therapy for patients with a social anxiety disorder (SAD) even for those who did not respond to antidepressant drugs. The study was published online in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics* on May 23, 2019.

The experiment was led by two experts on cognitive therapy in Japan, Dr. Naoki Yoshinaga, lecturer at University of Miyazaki, and Dr. Eiji Shimizu, professor at Chiba University. Since 2011, they have applied cognitive therapy, which is a Western origin psychological therapy, for patients with SAD in Japan. SAD, also known as social phobia, is a mental disorder characterized by a significant amount of anxiety or fear in social situations, such as talking in front of many people or speaking with strangers, causing considerable distress and functional disability in daily life. SAD is one of the most prevalent mental disorders, typically has early onset, and follows a chronic course because of the low natural recovery rate. SAD has caused a large social economic burden in many countries; according to the prevalence-based study in Japan, the estimate of annual economic loss exceeded 1 trillion yen (about 10 billion USD).

Although antidepressants are an effective treatment commonly used for SAD, some patients fail to remit following these drugs. However, no standard approach has been established for treating such patients. In 2016, Yoshinaga and Shimizu's study group conducted a clinical trial and reported short-term effectiveness of cognitive therapy for patients with SAD who were refractory to antidepressants (Yoshinaga et al., 2016). However, it was still unknown whether the patients could maintain cognitive therapy's effect in the long run.

In this time, they demonstrated that, in refractory patients who received 16-weeks of cognitive therapy, a substantial improvement in social anxiety symptoms occurred during the intervention period, and these improvements were well-maintained until the end of the one-year follow-up. At the one-year follow-up assessment, 85.7% (18/21) of patients were judged to be responsive to the treatment, and 57.1% (12/21) met the remission criteria.

Yoshinaga says, "People suffering from SAD could benefit not only from drug treatment but also from psychological treatment. In particular, cognitive therapy can be of help for them to overcome their problems. Even if drug treatment doesn't work, don't give up hope. Try to receive another psychological treatment, such as cognitive therapy, and continue your treatment with patience." As SAD is a hidden disorder, Shimizu added, "Unfortunately, many patients are not in treatment. SAD is more than just shyness. If you have been having severe distress, avoiding certain social situations, and thus having difficulty in your daily life due to social anxiety, it's time to seek treatment."

Yoshinaga and his Japanese group are currently working with David Clark and Graham Thew from the University of Oxford to develop a Japanese version of an internet-based cognitive therapy program for social anxiety disorder that has shown high efficacy in both the UK and Hong Kong. They are aiming to make progress towards the effective global dissemination of this treatment.

Living in a warzone is linked with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke among civilians, even years after the conflict ends, a study has found.

The findings come from the first systematic review of the effects of armed conflict on heart disease risk, carried out by researchers at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

In the review, published in the journal Heart, the team re-analysed data from a number of studies on associations between armed conflict and the health of civilian adults of armed conflicts on civilian adults in low- and middle-income countries - including Syria, Lebanon, Bosnia, Croatia, Palestine, Colombia and Sudan.

They found that conflicts were associated with a litany of negative health outcomes for civilians, including increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, increased blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as increased alcohol and tobacco use.

Beyond the immediate impacts of conflict, such as blast injuries, infectious diseases or malnutrition, the researchers cite longer-lasting health risks for civilians which may be due to multiple factors, including disruptions to healthcare services, putting them at greater risk of heart disease in the medium to long term.

The team say the findings could help inform international health policy in the prevention of heart disease in politically unstable countries where conflict is taking place, or likely to occur. They also offer recommendations, including prioritising primary healthcare during and after conflicts and training healthcare professionals to focus on both the cheapest and effective ways to prevent heart disease, such as prescribing generic medicines instead of branded ones and helping people to quit smoking.

"This is the first review of its kind to examine the links between armed conflict and the risk of heart disease among civilians" said first author of the study, Dr Mohammed Jawad, from Imperial's School of Public Health. "Because of the nature of war, data is often scarce and patchy, but our study shows evidence of a link between armed conflicts and increased deaths from heart disease and stroke."

In the latest review, the team carried out a literature search, trawling science publication libraries to look at a total of 65 studies incorporating 23 armed conflicts. The studies included in the review focused on cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Along with figures for prevalence and death rates, they also reviewed study data on cholesterol levels and blood pressure - as well as behavioural data on alcohol and tobacco consumption.

In one example, researchers included studies looking at the causes of death before and after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Data collected from household surveys showed the rate of deaths from heart attack or stroke increased significantly, from 147.9 per 100,000 people before the invasion to 228.8 per 100,000 post-invasion. In a similar study, heart disease was the principal cause of about half of non-violent deaths during the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The review was unable to identify clear mechanisms underlying the findings, but these are likely to be complex and numerous.

According to the researchers armed conflict could potentially impact chronic health conditions through two main mechanisms: Firstly, the direct effects of living in a conflict zone itself can increase stress and anxiety, leading to higher blood pressure, as well as worsening risk behaviours such as drinking more alcohol and smoking more.

Second, the destruction of healthcare systems can eliminate screening programmes, reduce patient access to working hospitals and healthcare staff, reduce the availability of medicines and make taking regular medications - such as statins or insulin - a lower priority for people facing conflict.

Professor Christopher Millett, a Professor of Public Health at Imperial and senior author of the paper, said: "The experience of armed conflict, be it specific traumatic events or displacement from your home, appears to place civilian populations at greater risk of increased blood pressure, alcohol use and smoking, which are established risk factors for heart disease. Even if civilians are willing and able to seek healthcare services during armed conflict, access is often limited due to hospital closures, road blockades, lack of available medications, and more."

Overall, they found evidence that conflict is associated with increased coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (stroke) and endocrine disease (such as diabetes). There was also evidence of increased alcohol and tobacco consumption, during and after conflict.

The researchers suggest that community-based healthcare models (where people access services through GP clinics) may be best positioned to deliver interventions, such as screening for underlying health conditions, prescribing preventative medicines (such as statins) or offering smoking cessation and alcohol reduction programmes, in conflict and post-conflict situations. They add that training healthcare professionals in affected regions should be a priority, enabling them to deliver cardiovascular disease prevention and control measures once a conflict has ended.

Dr Jawad highlights that the findings are limited, with two-thirds of the 65 included studies being of 'low quality', and that this may be in part due to the nature of data collection during times of conflict - with civilians and health services failing to register deaths, or their causes. However, study findings were largely consistent when the researchers restricted their analysis to higher quality studies. They add that evidence for links between armed conflict and other health outcomes is lacking, but more, better-designed studies could help.

The review also found a number of gaps in the literature, including a lack of studies from the Middle East, or about refugees. Refugees in particular are exposed to a "double burden" - the impact of the armed conflict itself, and the impact of forced migration following armed conflict, so a better understanding of how wars affect their risk of different diseases is important.

Dr Jawad added: "As conflicts are becoming increasingly protracted, this brings new challenges for measuring the impact on public health. There is an urgent need for more research in this area to confirm the associations we found, and to help governments and health agencies reduce the burden of heart disease among civilians during and in the months and years following wars."

The "loser effect" - which causes animals to shy away from violence after losing a fight - evolves independently of any change in fighting ability, new research suggests.

Scientists studied male broad-horned flour beetles, which regularly fight over females, to see how long they avoided fights after a defeat.

Most would not start a fight for about four days after a loss, but researchers from the University of Exeter, Okayama University and Tokyo Metropolitan University selectively bred the beetles for a shorter duration of this loser effect and found that it evolved to be shorter - despite no improvement in fighting prowess.

"Theory predicts that the loser effect should evolve independently of actual fighting ability, but previous tests of this have been limited," said Professor David Hosken, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"By selecting males who experienced the loser effect for the shortest time, we were able to breed beetles willing to fight again sooner.

"It is fascinating that these males were no better at fighting. In other words, there is a complete disconnect between actual fighting ability and the duration of the loser effect."

The study, of captive-bred beetles in Japan, paired males of similar sizes and let them interact for an hour, after which a male that had pushed and chased his opponent was recorded as the "winner".

After ten generations, beetles selectively bred for a reduced loser effect returned to pre-defeat levels of aggression and fighting success after three days instead of four.

"It make sense for animals to use past experience to decide whether to engage in a behaviour," said Associate Professor Kensuke Okada, of Okayama University.

"Losing a fight is a useful clue of the likely benefits of further fighting for a particular individual.

"Some species also show a 'winner effect' - being more willing to fight after a victory - but that is not the case among broad-horned flour beetles."

Financial education often stresses the importance of earning and saving, but new research suggests that one of the most valuable lessons parents can teach their children about money might be how to appropriately give it away.

The study, led by University of Arizona researcher Ashley LeBaron and published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, explores how financial-giving habits are passed down through generations, and how early life lessons in giving may contribute to personal and financial well-being later on.

Existing research has established that children learn more about finances from their parents than any other source. In previous work, LeBaron highlighted how important it is for parents to give their children hands-on experience with money, in addition to having discussions with them about money and presenting a good financial example.

LeBaron's new study suggests that hands-on experience with giving may be particularly important.

LeBaron and her collaborators interviewed 115 participants, including college students, parents and grandparents, about what they learned about money from their parents. The parent and grandparent participants also were asked what they taught their children about the topic, ultimately providing researchers a picture of how financial lessons are shared across four generations.

Participants were not asked to talk about financial giving directly, yet nearly 83 percent of them brought it up as an important part of the financial education they gave or received.

"When you think about money and what kids learn about money from their parents, most of us wouldn't think about giving as one of the basic principles of finance," said LeBaron, a doctoral student in the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "We tend to think more in terms of budgeting and saving and things like that, so it was surprising, but really cool, to see that giving was so prevalent."

Participants described different motivations for teaching their children about giving, including a sense a religious duty, a desire to help others and a desire to give back. They generally talked about three different types of giving:

Charitable donations. This encompasses monetary gifts to religious or charitable organizations.
Acts of kindness. This includes donations, gifts or acts of service provided more directly to people in need. Examples might include providing meals for homeless individuals or purchasing Christmas gifts for neighboring families in need.
Investments in family. This category encompasses financial decisions made by parents to benefit their children or family. For example, some parents might make financial sacrifices in order to enroll a child in sports or music lessons, or to plan a family vacation.

Teaching kids to give is important for a couple of reasons, LeBaron said.

From a practical standpoint, it can be a good way for kids to learn financial basics, like budgeting and saving. For example, some study participants talked about having money jars from a young age, with one jar dedicated to money they would save, another for money they would spend and one for money they would give.

"If a certain percentage of your money goes toward giving, that's the start of a budget right there," LeBaron said.

Lessons in giving may also help set the stage for a happier, healthier future.

"People who are generous tend to be happier and have healthier relationships, so this is shaping not only kids' finances but aspects of their health and well-being," LeBaron said.

Parents who already make it a habit to give financially should make it a point to let their children witness that behavior, LeBaron said. Or even better, they should consider involving their children directly in giving activities.

LeBaron and her colleagues also found that just as parents can influence their kids' financial behaviors, so, too, can kids influence their parents.

"Parents and grandparents report that they have this awareness that their kids are learning financial attitudes and values from them, so sometimes they were more giving because they knew that their children were watching them, and they wanted to set that good example," she said.

LeBaron said she was inspired by how many people in the study stressed the importance of giving and caring for others. She said it could have implications for not only how parents talk to their kids about money, but also how educators discuss the topic.

"In finance classes, we never talk about giving," LeBaron said. "But we learned that giving is maybe one of the more important facets of financial socialization, so we need to be paying more attention to how it is taught."

ITHACA, N.Y. - By adding utility-scale solar farms throughout New York state, summer electricity demand from conventional sources could be reduced by up to 9.6 percent in some places.

But Cornell University engineers caution that upstate winters tell a different tale. With low energy demand around midday in the winter, combined with solar-electricity production, New York's power system could face volatile swings of "ramping" - which is how power system operators describe quick increases or decreases in demand.

"It's a very surprising finding," said senior author Max Zhang, associate professor at Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. "When are you going to have maximum ramping take place in New York? It's not going to be in the summer when the solar power is the highest and the needs are more balanced. It turns out to be in the winter. When you have several days of sunshine in a row during winter, that causes the largest ramping on the power system in New York state."

The paper, "Strategic Planning for Utility-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Development - Historical Peak Events Revisited," was published in Applied Energy. In addition to Zhang, co-authors are Cornell doctoral candidates Jeff Sward and Jiajun Gu, and Jackson Siff.

Ramping makes the grid less efficient, because system operators then must employ natural gas or other carbon methods to keep up with demand, Sward said. "This paper can inform regional development trends and could lead to the improvement of electricity transmission from upstate to downstate."

"The increasing ramping requirement will be a challenge in pursuing our renewable energy target," said Zhang, "but it can be met with flexible resources, both in the supply and demand sides, as well as energy storage."

Service providers for youth experiencing homelessness typically focus on the big three: food, shelter and health care. But a new study from Portland State University Community Psychology graduate student Katricia Stewart shows overall well-being is just as important.

She published her study, "Intrapersonal and Social-contextual Factors Related to Psychological Well-being Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness," with her advisor Greg Townley in the Journal of Community Psychology earlier this year. This work was funded by a student research grant awarded to Stewart by APA Division 27, the Society for Community Research and Action.

"In the end, they're still just kids and young adults who need to enjoy themselves and have creative outlets and make friends," Stewart said. "There needs to be a balance between serving those basic needs and having opportunities to just be a young adult."

Stewart argues that focusing only on food, shelter and health care above all else isn't the best way to serve youth experiencing homelessness.

"While those fundamentals are important, so are opportunities for youth to cultivate community, develop supportive relationships, and engage in meaningful hobbies," she said.

Stewart studied components of well-being -- including self-esteem, mental health, sense of community and empowerment -- and which factors made a difference in the day-to-day lives of homeless youth.

While all the factors are important, Stewart said self-esteem and mental health stood out as the primary predictors of psychological well-being.

"Greater self-esteem predicted greater psychological well-being, which makes sense when you consider the age group -- 18 to 24 years old -- who are in a time in life when identity and self-esteem are important parts of development," she said.

Many of the 100 Portland youth surveyed for Stewart's study stated they were homeless because they were either kicked out of their home or chose to leave; were managing personal issues like drug use or pregnancy; or struggled financially.

Further, many were living in unhealthy or abusive environments and battling with a difference in family beliefs or values.

These circumstances might contribute to youth feeling dis-empowered, Stewart said.

"However, if supported in the right way, they can develop a stronger sense of empowerment and self-worth," she said. "This, in turn, might be one of the many important factors in changing the trajectory of their lives."

Building their self-esteem and helping them recognize they can take action to improve their situations is one factor at play; service providers can also help youth identify and pursue opportunities or skills that support their future -- such as education, housing, or employment, she added.

p:ear, a Portland nonprofit providing educational, artistic and recreational opportunities to youth experiencing homelessness, worked with Stewart during the study. She identified p:ear as an example of a service provider examining the bigger picture and helping youth make strides in overall wellness.

"They provide a space for youth to build confidence and develop themselves, pursue activities and do things that can make them feel good about themselves," she said. That includes access to art, job skills training and recreational activities.

Stewart hopes her findings will help inform future research and program development at homeless service centers. She looks forward to opportunities to continue working with p:ear and with youth experiencing homelessness in her role as a graduate student research assistant with PSU's Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative beginning this summer.

The immune system is programmed to rid the body of biological bad guys--like viruses and dangerous bacteria--but its precision isn't guaranteed. In the tens of millions of Americans suffering from autoimmune diseases, the system mistakes normal cells for malicious invaders, prompting the body to engage in self-destructive behavior. This diverse class of conditions, which includes Type I diabetes, lupus, and multiple sclerosis, can be very difficult to treat.

In a new report in Nature Communications, researchers in the laboratory of Thomas Tuschl describe their development of small molecules that inhibit one of the main enzymes implicated in misguided immune responses. This research could lead to new treatments for people with certain autoimmune disorders and, more broadly, sheds light on the causes of autoimmunity.

Cellular security

In eukaryotes, including humans, DNA typically resides in a cell's nucleus, or in other sequestered organelles such as mitochondria. So if DNA is found outside of these compartments--in the cell's cytosol--the immune system goes into high alert, assuming the genetic material was leaked by an invading bacterium or virus.

In 2013, researchers discovered an enzyme called cyclic GMP-AMP synthase, or cGAS, that detects and binds to cytosolic DNA to initiate a chain reaction--a cascade of cellular signaling events that leads to immune activation and usually ends with the destruction of the DNA-shedding pathogen.

Yet, cytosolic DNA isn't always a sign of infection. Sometimes it's produced by the body's own cells--and cGAS does not discriminate between infectious and innocuous DNA. The enzyme will bind to perfectly harmless genetic material, prompting an immune response even in the absence of an intruder.

"There is no specificity. So in addition to sensing foreign microbial DNA, cGAS will also sense aberrant cytosolic DNA made by the host," says postdoctoral associate Lodoe Lama. "And this lack of self versus non-self specificity could be driving autoimmune reactions."

Since the discovery of cGAS, researchers in the Tuschl laboratory have sought to understand its potential clinical relevance. If autoimmune disorders are the result of an erroneously activated immune system, then perhaps, they believe, a cGAS inhibitor could be used to treat these conditions.

Until now, no potent and specific small-molecule compound existed to block cGAS in human cells, though the researchers previously identified one that can do the job in mouse cells. Hoping to fill this gap, Tuschl's team collaborated with Rockefeller's High-Throughput and Spectroscopy Resource Center to scan through a library of almost 300,000 small molecules, searching for one that might target human cGAS.

Building a blocker

Through their screen, the researchers identified two molecules that showed some activity against cGAS--but this result was just the beginning of a long process towards developing an inhibitor that might be used in a clinical setting.

"The hits from library compounds were a great starting point, but they were not potent enough," says Lama. "So we used them as molecular scaffolds on which to make improvements, altering their structures in ways that would increase potency and also reduce toxicity."

Working with the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute, the researchers modified one of their original scaffolds to create three compounds that blocked cGAS activity in human cells--making them the first molecules with this capability. Further analysis by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center revealed that the compounds inhibit cGAS by wedging into a pocket of the enzyme that is key to its activation.

The compounds are now being further optimized for potential use in patients, with an initial focus on treatment of the rare genetic disease Aicardi-Goutières syndrome. People with this condition accumulate abnormal cytosolic DNA that activates cGAS, leading to serious neurological problems. A drug that blocks the enzyme would therefore be of tremendous therapeutic value to those with the disease, who currently have few treatment options.

"This class of drug could potentially also be used to treat more common diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, and possibly neurodegenerative diseases that include inflammatory contributions, such as Parkinson's disease," says Tuschl.

Further, the researchers believe that these compounds could serve as practical laboratory tools.

"Scientists will now have simple means by which to inhibit cGAS in human cells," says Lama. "And that could be immensely useful for studying and understanding the mechanisms that lead to autoimmune responses."