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Kayak paddles, snowshoes, skateboards. Outdoor sporting goods used to be a tough market for 3D printing to break into, but fused particle fabrication (FPF) can change that.

A team led by engineers from Michigan Technological University and re:3D, Inc. developed and tested the Gigabot X, an open source industrial FPF 3D printer, which can use waste plastic particles and reform it into large, strong prints. Because of the unique challenges presented by sporting goods -- size, durability, specificity -- the team chose several Upper Peninsula-inspired items.

In their new paper, published in Additive Manufacturing, the team lays out how fab labs, which are prototyping and technical workshops that allow personal digital fabrication, and other 3D printing hubs like makerspaces, public libraries or schools can economically sustain themselves while printing environmentally friendly products using FPF. In some cases, the return on investment for a Gigabot X reached above 1,000 percent for high-capacity use paired with recyclable feedstock. Listen to one of the students involved explain the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltA15GsUVF0&t=26s

"This isn't a gadget to make toys for your kids; this is an industrial machine meant to make real, large, high-performance products. With well over 1,000 Fab Labs worldwide spreading fast and morphing into environmentally friendly 'green fab labs', the Gigabot X could be a useful tool to add to their services as well as other makerspaces," said Joshua Pearce, Richard Witte Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "Of course, for our testing we wanted to use recycled plastic."

That's a hallmark of the Gigabot X -- last year a Michigan Tech and re:3D collaborative study showed that it could be used with a wide range of plastics plucked from the waste stream to live on in a new productive life. The system is based on a previous design from the MOST Lab, the recyclebot, which makes waste plastic filament for 3D printers. Pearce's team has looked deep into better ways to sort, sift and classify plastic to improve its 3D printability. Melting and extruding, however, does weaken plastic, it can withstand five cycles before it's mechanically compromised. What's new with the Gigabot X is the process called fused particle fabrication (FPF) or fused granular fabrication (FGF) that skips the step of making filament before 3-D printing and saves on one melt cycle. Basically, it prints directly from shredded waste. The Gigabot X's size and versatility to use any material including waste is reflected in the machine's economics.

While not cheap by household standards -- the Gigabot X runs around $18,500 -- the upfront investment has greater potential return. The team used three case studies: a skateboard deck, double-bladed kayak paddle -- both child-sized and adult-sized fitted on an aluminum pipe -- and snowshoes.

Using their sporting goods prints, Pearce and his team compared costs of low-end and high-end options for commercially available products, prints with commercial filament, prints with commercial pellets and prints with recycled plastic. They ran these against four capacity scenarios: continuous printing, one new start per day, two new starts per day and printing once per week. The printed kayak paddle, which was the trickiest to produce and compare because of the metal pipe, was financially comparable to the least expensive off-the-shelf paddle. Skateboards and snowshoes were both easy to produce and significantly lower in cost than commercial products. FPF printing beat the economics of even the cheapest decks using commercial pellets and dropped in cost using waste plastic. Over their lifetime, if operated even only once a day, the Gigabot X could produce millions of dollars of sporting goods products.

"Once the capital costs are taken care of, which can often be less than a year, FPF or FGF machines have an enormous potential to make profit. Economically, they absolutely make sense," said Pearce. "The bottom line is that Gigabot Xs pay for themselves under a reasonable load and provide double or triple digit returns on investment under most scenarios. Essentially, if you're using it more than once a week then you're making money easily."

For green fab labs as well as the burgeoning makerspace scene around the world, the Gigabot X presents a customizable, open source, environmentally friendly and fun option to help sustain its 3D printing center.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The quest to keep plastic out of landfills and simultaneously satisfy the needs of the food industry is filled with obstacles.

A biodegradable replacement for petroleum-based products has to meet all sorts of standards and, so far, attempts at viable replacements from renewable sources have faced limited success due to processing and economic constraints. Among the obstacles, products to date have been too brittle for food packaging.

But new research from The Ohio State University has shown that combining natural rubber with bioplastic in a novel way results in a much stronger replacement for plastic, one that is already capturing the interest of companies looking to shrink their environmental footprints.

Almost all plastics - about 90 percent - are petroleum-based and are not biodegradable, a major environmental concern.

In a new study published in the journal Polymers, the research team reports success with a rubber-toughened product derived from microbial fermentation that they say could perform like conventional plastic. This new study highlights the greatest success in this area so far, according to the scientists.

"Previous attempts at this combination were unsuccessful because the softness of the rubber meant the product lost a lot of strength in the process," said lead author Xiaoying Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher in Ohio State's Department of Food Science and Technology.

The new study involved melting rubber into a plant-based thermoplastic called PHBV along with organic peroxide and another additive called trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA).

The end product was 75 percent tougher and 100 percent more flexible than PHBV on its own - meaning it is far easier to shape into food packaging.

Other research teams have combined rubber and PHBV, but the products have been too weak to withstand all the demands of a food package - from processing, to shipping, to handling in stores and homes, especially containers that are used for freezing and then microwaving, said the study's senior author, Yael Vodovotz, a professor of food science and technology at Ohio State.

Increased flexibility, without a significant loss of strength, is particularly important when it comes to plastic films commonly used to package everything from fresh produce to frozen foods, she said.

While other attempts at making this type of rubber-enhanced bioplastic have reduced the strength of the PHBV by as much as 80 percent, only 30 percent of the strength was lost in this study - a much more manageable amount, Zhao said.

Toughness, which was improved, is different from strength, explained study co-author Katrina Cornish, an expert in natural rubber and professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State.

"Imagine trying to pull a block of concrete apart with your hands. That's testing its strength. But karate chopping it with your hand or foot is testing its toughness - how easily it breaks," Cornish said.

"You can never pull it apart, but if you're strong enough you can break it."

Much of the researchers' current focus is on the potential use of various biodegradable - and otherwise environmentally conscious - materials they might use as fillers to further strengthen the mix. They've discussed using the "cake" left behind after a fellow researcher extracts oil from spent coffee grounds. Tomato skins are under consideration, as are eggshells.

"We want something that would otherwise go to waste that is sustainable and also relatively cheap," Vodovotz said.

They're even looking at the potential to attack two environmental problems at once, by seeing how invasive grasses that environmentalists are yanking out of waterways might play with the rubber-infused mix.

"We could dry them, grind them up and potentially use these grasses as a fibrous filler," Vodovotz said.

Beyond packaged foods, a bioplastic could potentially be used in other food-related applications such as utensils and cutting boards.

And the researchers are looking to collaborate with colleagues outside of food science to consider other applications for their product, such as to create building materials, gloves for those working in food service, or parts for cars and airplanes.

As the team works to move its technology out of the lab and into the food industry, there will be many details to work out depending on a company's individual priorities and concerns, Vodovotz said, and that may mean tinkering with the mix.

"As we get closer and closer to working with food manufacturers, there are specific questions our potential partners are asking," Vodovotz said. "We have to be very careful about what we use in this process in order to meet their needs, and they have very specific parameters."

Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed the largest cohort to date of pediatric patients with high-risk neuroblastoma treated with proton radiation therapy (PRT), finding both that proton therapy was effective at reducing tumors and demonstrated minimal toxicity to surrounding organs.

The study is published online in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology.

"These data are extremely encouraging and could be a game-changer for a number of reasons," said lead author Christine Hill-Kayser, MD, Chief of the Pediatric Radiation Oncology Service at Penn Medicine and an attending physician at CHOP. "Not only did we observe excellent outcomes and minimal side effects that validate the use of PRT in high-risk neuroblastoma patients, we answered a lingering question about proton therapy--the concern that because it is so targeted, tumors may come back. Tumors mostly did not come back - suggesting PRT is effective, less toxic and a superior choice for our young patients who must endure intense treatment modalities in an effort to cure this high-risk cancer."

Neuroblastoma is the most common cancer in infants, accounting for more than 10 percent of all childhood cancer deaths. Primary neuroblastoma tumors are commonly adrenal tumors, which are very close to the kidney, liver, pancreas and bowel in children, making them hard to treat without harming vital organs in tiny bodies. Treatment usually involves a combination of therapies including chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.

Researchers studied 45 patients with high-risk neuroblastoma who received PRT at both institutions between 2010 and 2015. CHOP cancer patients who need radiation therapy are treated at Penn Medicine, including PRT through the Roberts Proton Therapy Center.

Unlike traditional photon radiation using x-rays, PRT is a non-invasive, precise cancer treatment that uses a beam of protons moving at very high speeds to destroy the DNA of cancer cells, killing them and preventing them from multiplying. Highly targeted, PRT has significant promise for treating tumors in very young children and may reduce radiation exposure to healthy, developing tissue that may result in lifelong impacts.

Five years after treatment, the longest recorded period of study in the largest cohort of patients to date, researchers observed excellent outcomes, with 82 percent of patients still alive, and 97 percent free of a primary site tumor reoccurrence.

Toxicities, or side effects, are measured on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most severe. No patient observed in the study experienced grade 3 or 4 long-term acute liver or kidney toxicity, with the majority of patients experiencing grade 1 side effects from PRT.
"We've showed PRT is not only effective in the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma, but it also spared damage to the developing liver, kidneys and bowel that may occur in pediatric patients exposed to traditional radiation," said Hill-Kayser. "While we look forward to longer-range data on these patients 10 years down the road, the excellent outcomes we see here, coupled with the fact the precision proton approach did not increase recurrence rates, support the expanded use of proton therapy in neuroblastoma and other high-risk childhood cancers."
Additional studies with extended follow-up and larger patient numbers are planned.
The Cancer Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia offers one of the most established and experienced pediatric proton radiation therapy programs, in collaboration with Penn Medicine at the Roberts Proton Therapy Center. For more information, please click here: Pediatric Proton Therapy Center.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 9, 2019-- A new, first-of-its-kind space weather model reliably predicts space storms of high-energy particles that are harmful to many satellites and spacecraft orbiting in the Earth's outer radiation belt. A paper recently published in the journal Space Weather details how the model can accurately give a one-day warning prior to a space storm of ultra-high-speed electrons, often referred to as "killer" electrons because of the damage they can do to spacecraft such as navigation, communications, and weather monitoring satellites. This is the first time researchers have successfully predicted those killer electrons across the whole outer belt region.

"Society's growing reliance on modern-technology infrastructures makes us especially vulnerable to space weather threats," said Yue Chen, a space scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author of the study. "If our GPS or communications satellites fail, it could have wide-reaching, negative impacts on everything from air travel to bank transactions. So being able to accurately predict space weather has been a goal for a long time. This model is a firm step towards being able to do that."

At the Earth's equator, the outer radiation belt--also called the outer Van Allen belt--begins approximately 8,000 miles above the Earth and ends beyond 30,000 miles. High-speed high-energy electrons inside this belt are known for their high variability, especially during solar storms, when new particles from the sun enter the Earth's space environment--making them extremely difficult to predict.

This model takes the unique approach of connecting the dots between the killer electron population and the measurements made by a Los Alamos National Laboratory geosynchronous equatorial orbiting satellite, as well as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite in low-Earth orbit within a 3.5-year period. By establishing a correlation between the electrons and satellite measurements in low-Earth orbit, Chen and his colleagues were able to identify the informational triggers needed for predictions and develop a reliable model to forecast changes of high-energy electrons within the outer belt.

"We're very excited about the potential for future enhancements to this model," said Chen. "The more research and refinements we do, the increased potential for us to have more reliable forecasts with longer warning time before the arrival of new killer electrons."

The enhanced power of the new measuring technique to characterize materials at scales much smaller than any current technologies will accelerate the discovery and investigation of 2D, micro- and nanoscale materials.

Being able to accurately measure semiconductor properties of materials in small volumes helps engineers determine the range of applications for which these materials may be suitable in the future, particularly as the size of electronic and optical devices continues to shrink.

Daniel Wasserman, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering, led the team that built the physical system, developed the measurement technique capable of achieving this level of sensitivity and successfully demonstrated its improved performance. Their work was reported today in Nature Communications.

The team's design approach was focused on developing the capability to provide quantitative feedback on material quality, with particular applications for the development and manufacturing of optoelectronic devices. The method demonstrated is capable of measuring many of the materials that engineers believe will one day be ubiquitous to next-generation optoelectronic devices.

Optoelectronics is the study and application of electronic devices that can source, detect and control light. Optoelectronic devices that detect light, known as photodetectors, use materials that generate electrical signals from light. Photodetectors are found in smartphone cameras, solar cells and in the fiber optic communication systems that make up our broadband networks. In an optoelectronic material, the amount of time that the electrons remain "photoexcited," or capable of producing an electrical signal, is a reliable indicator of the potential quality of that material for photodetection applications.

The current method used for measuring the carrier dynamics, or lifetimes, of photoexcited electrons is costly and complex and only measures large-scale material samples with limited accuracy. The UT team decided to try using a different method for quantifying these lifetimes by placing small volumes of the materials in specially designed microwave resonator circuits. Samples are exposed to concentrated microwave fields while inside the resonator. When the sample is hit with light, the microwave circuit signal changes, and the change in the circuit can be read out on a standard oscilloscope. The decay of the microwave signal indicates the lifetimes of photoexcited charge carriers in small volumes of the material placed in the circuit.

"Measuring the decay of the electrical (microwave) signal allows us to measure the materials' carrier lifetime with far greater accuracy," Wasserman said. "We have discovered it to be a simpler, cheaper and more effective method than current approaches."

Carrier lifetime is a critical material parameter that provides insight into the overall optical quality of a material while also determining the range of applications for which a material could be used when it's integrated into a photodetector device structure. For example, materials that have a very long carrier lifetime may be of high optical quality and therefore very sensitive, but may not be useful for applications that require high-speed.

"Despite the importance of carrier lifetime, there are not many, if any, contact-free options for characterizing small-area materials such as infrared pixels or 2D materials, which have gained popularity and technological importance in recent years," Wasserman said.

One area certain to benefit from the real-world applications of this technology is infrared detection, a vital component in molecular sensing, thermal imaging and certain defense and security systems.

"A better understanding of infrared materials could lead to innovations in night-vision goggles or infrared spectroscopy and sensing systems," Wasserman said.

High-speed detectors operating at these frequencies could even enable the development of free-space communication in the long wavelength infrared - a technology allowing for wireless communication in difficult conditions, in space or between buildings in urban environments.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- The biggest source of global energy consumption is the industrial manufacturing of products such as plastics, iron, and steel. Not only does manufacturing these materials require huge amounts of energy, but many of the reactions also directly emit carbon dioxide as a byproduct.

In an effort to help reduce this energy use and the related emissions, MIT chemical engineers have devised an alternative approach to synthesizing epoxides, a type of chemical that is used to manufacture diverse products, including plastics, pharmaceuticals, and textiles. Their new approach, which uses electricity to run the reaction, can be done at room temperature and atmospheric pressure while eliminating carbon dioxide as a byproduct.

"What isn't often realized is that industrial energy usage is far greater than transportation or residential usage. This is the elephant in the room, and there has been very little technical progress in terms of being able to reduce industrial energy consumption," says Karthish Manthiram, an assistant professor chemical engineering and the senior author of the new study.

The researchers have filed for a patent on their technique, and they are now working on improving the efficiency of the synthesis so that it could be adapted for large-scale, industrial use.

MIT postdoc Kyoungsuk Jin is the lead author of the paper, which appears online April 9 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Other authors include graduate students Joseph Maalouf, Nikifar Lazouski, and Nathan Corbin, and postdoc Dengtao Yang.

Ubiquitous chemicals

Epoxides, whose key chemical feature is a three-member ring consisting of an oxygen atom bound to two carbon atoms, are used to manufacture products as varied as antifreeze, detergents, and polyester.

"It's impossible to go for even a short period of one's life without touching or feeling or wearing something that has at some point in its history involved an epoxide. They're ubiquitous," Manthiram says. "They're in so many different places, but we tend not to think about the embedded energy and carbon dioxide footprint."

Several epoxides are among the chemicals with the top carbon footprints. The production of one common epoxide, ethylene oxide, generates the fifth-largest carbon dioxide emissions of any chemical product.

Manufacturing epoxides requires many chemical steps, and most of them are very energy-intensive. For example, the reaction used to attach an atom of oxygen to ethylene, producing ethylene oxide, must be done at nearly 300 degrees Celsius and under pressures 20 times greater than atmospheric pressure. Furthermore, most of the energy used to power this kind of manufacturing comes from fossil fuels.

Adding to the carbon footprint, the reaction used to produce ethylene oxide also generates carbon dioxide as a side product, which is released into the atmosphere. Other epoxides are made using a more complicated approach involving hazardous peroxides, which can be explosive, and calcium hydroxide, which can cause skin irritation.

To come up with a more sustainable approach, the MIT team took inspiration from a reaction known as water oxidation, which uses electricity to split water into oxygen, protons, and electrons. They decided to try performing the water oxidation and then attaching the oxygen atom to an organic compound called an olefin, which is a precursor to epoxides.

This was a counterintuitive approach, Manthiram says, because olefins and water normally cannot react with each other. However, they can react with each other when an electric voltage is applied.

To take advantage of this, the MIT team designed a reactor with an anode where water is broken down into oxygen, hydrogen ions (protons), and electrons. Manganese oxide nanoparticles act as a catalyst to help this reaction along, and to incorporate the oxygen into an olefin to make an epoxide. Protons and electrons flow to the cathode, where they are converted into hydrogen gas.

Thermodynamically, this reaction only requires about 1 volt of electricity, less than the voltage of a standard AA battery. The reaction does not generate any carbon dioxide, and the researchers anticipate that they could further reduce the carbon footprint by using electricity from renewable sources such as solar or wind to power the epoxide conversion.

Scaling up

So far, the researchers have shown that they can use this process to create an epoxide called cyclooctene oxide, and they are now working on adapting it to other epoxides. They are also trying to make the conversion of olefins into epoxides more efficient -- in this study, about 30 percent of the electrical current went into the conversion reaction, but they hope to double that.

They estimate that their process, if scaled up, could produce ethylene oxide at a cost of $900 per ton, compared to $1,500 per ton using current methods. That cost could be lowered further as the process becomes more efficient. Another factor that could contribute to the economic viability of this approach is that it also generates hydrogen as a byproduct, which is valuable in its own right to power fuel cells.

The researchers plan to continue developing the technology in hopes of eventually commercializing it for industrial use, and they are also working on using electricity to synthesize other kinds of chemicals.

"There are many processes that have enormous carbon dioxide footprints, and decarbonization can be driven by electrification," Manthiram says. "One can eliminate temperature, eliminate pressure, and use voltage instead."

A study of pregnant women with systemic lupus erythematosus has identified early changes in the RNA molecules present in the blood that could be used to determine the likelihood of them developing preeclampsia. The study, which will be published April 8 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, may also help researchers develop treatments to prevent other pregnancy complications associated with lupus, including miscarriage and premature birth.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own healthy tissues. The disease predominantly affects women and carries an increased risk of developing complications during pregnancy; approximately one fifth of pregnant lupus patients develop problems ranging from preeclampsia to fetal death and preterm delivery.

“Early biomarkers are needed to help predict pregnancy outcome and inform treatments to decrease morbidity and mortality in lupus pregnancies,” says co-senior author Virginia Pascual, the Drukier Director of the Drukier Institute for Children’s Health at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. To address this problem, Dr. Pascual teamed up with Dr. Jane E. Salmon, a Professor of Medicine and of Medicine in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and the Collette Kean Research Professor at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Dr. Salmon and her team recruited healthy and lupus pregnant women as part of the PROMISSE study, a longitudinal NIH-funded study aimed at identifying biomarkers of lupus pregnancy complications.

To identify potential biomarkers, Pascual, Salmon, and colleagues compared blood samples taken at regular intervals from either pregnant lupus patients or healthy pregnant women. The researchers counted the different types of immune cells present in these samples and, as a measure of which genes were active in these cells, analyzed the RNA molecules they produced over the course of pregnancy and in the postpartum period.

In a healthy pregnancy, the immune system is prevented from attacking the developing fetus. Accordingly, Pascual, Salmon, and colleagues found that several components of the immune system, including antibody-producing plasma cells and the proinflammatory interferon response, were suppressed in healthy pregnant women. An additional analysis of women undergoing assisted reproductive therapy suggested that the interferon response, in particular, is downregulated within days of embryo implantation. At later stages of pregnancy, however, some components of the immune system, such as the number of neutrophil cells, were elevated in healthy pregnant women.

Pascual, Salmon, and colleagues found that lupus patients with uncomplicated pregnancies showed similar changes in their immune systems. However, neutrophil levels increased earlier than normal in patients that developed preeclampsia. By analyzing the RNAs present in the blood of these patients during early pregnancy, the researchers were able to identify a unique immune signature that could predict the development of preeclampsia more accurately than existing clinical factors.

“Our results need to be independently validated, but they suggest that early changes in gene expression in maternal blood could help predict preeclampsia in lupus patients,” Salmon, co-senior author, says.

In addition, the researchers found that patients who developed other complications failed to properly suppress their interferon response and plasma cell activity.

“Overall, we have identified significant changes in immune pathways during healthy pregnancy and found that failure to modulate them properly is associated with complications in pregnant lupus patients,” Pascual says. “Our findings provide a framework for future studies aimed at developing therapeutic strategies to improve health outcomes for mothers with lupus and their offspring.”

Dr. Pascual has received a research grant and consulting honorarium from Sanofi-Pasteur. Dr. Salmon has received an investigator-initiated grant from UCB Pharmaceuticals.

Researchers at the University of Sydney have produced hard data that demonstrates collaborating with Indigenous peoples changed the outcome of a scientific research project. It is the first empirical evidence that culturally diverse teams produce improved results in conservation research.

Dr Georgia Ward-Fear, a conservation biologist and herpetologist (amphibians and reptiles), said this was the first published study to measure the scientific contribution that Indigenous peoples bring to a research project, beyond the moral or ethical value.

"This is of major importance for Indigenous peoples around the world," Dr Ward-Fear said. "Traditional owners often don't have a voice in science. This is a case study for Indigenous groups globally to hold up and say 'we deserve a voice' and 'we deserve input into research'."

James 'Birdy' Birch, a leading ranger from the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation in the Kimberley said: "The university-educated scientists have research tools, data and methods that work for them. But we have every-day lived experience. We have knowledge of the land and the animals passed down over thousands of years. If we put these skills together, it paints a clearer picture."

Working with traditional owners of the land

Dr Ward-Fear, from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, and her team have been working in the Kimberley, a remote area of northern Western Australian. Her conservation work involves protecting large goannas from the devastating impacts of invasive, poisonous cane toads.

Over 18 months, teams made up of a Western scientist and an Indigenous ranger would set out at daybreak to find and capture the goannas - which can grow up to 1.7 metres in length and weigh more than six kilograms. They fitted the lizards with radio transmitters and then released them and trained them to avoid eating the large toads. They did this by approaching the animal in the field, and feeding the goanna a small toad, large enough to make them sick but not kill them. This put the lizards off eating the toads once the invasion arrived.

The aversion training, developed with Emeritus Professor Rick Shine, has been hugely successful and is now being rolled out on a large scale via the Cane Toad Coalition, a consortium of scientists, government authorities, conservation groups and the Australian Research Council.

But Dr Ward-Fear said the success of the initial project would not have been possible without the input of the Balanggarra Rangers, who are traditional owners of the land.

"Working with Indigenous rangers, you get to see their unique skillsets. Once we showed that the trial worked, I was curious to see whether this contributed to the success of the study in a way we could quantify," Dr Ward-Fear said.

"Even though we worked in teams and had the same opportunity to spot the lizards, there were significant differences in the animals that the rangers spotted," Dr Ward-Fear said. "The rangers have amazing observation skills and ability to see animals in a landscape. They could see the shape of a goanna when they were not moving, were in the shade or dappled light or from much further away. The Western scientists tended to see animals that were closer, out in the open or moving."

Published today in Conservation Letters, the study found the Indigenous rangers were able to find and collect a subset of large varanid lizards (goannas) that Western scientists were unable to spot. Importantly, these lizards displayed different behavioural profiles throughout the study: they were more 'shy' than the bolder lizards foraging in broad daylight; and they also learned the aversion technique better than the braver lizards.

"These ranger-spotted animals responded better to the conservation technique and they actually drove the significant result of the study," Dr Ward-Fear said. "If we hadn't worked with rangers and we hadn't collected that subsample of animals then our results wouldn't have been significant."

Local knowledge

James 'Birdy' Birch is the head ranger with the Balanggarra Rangers. He said the rangers had unique skills to offer the scientists.

"We had access to country for a start," Mr Birch said. "We knew where the goannas were and we caught over 100 of them. We just had a keen eye. We could see them miles away.

"My rangers all grew up on this country hunting for goanna with their parents. It is knowledge passed down for thousands of years."

Mr Birch believes science can benefit from combining the two "ways of looking".

"You've got the Western way of looking with all the tools and the data, and you've got the Indigenous way of looking at things. Together, Western science and Indigenous knowledge, they complement each other. We've got our skills and you guys have got your skills, we can put them together and find out so much, we were amazed by the results."

Dr Ward-Fear said the scientific community already knows it is ethical to work with the traditional owners of the land. "But now we know there is ethical and scientific value in working together in meaningful collaborations," she said.

Orlando, Fla. (April 8, 2019) - The Dusky Arion slug produces a defensive glue that fouls the mouthparts of any would-be predator. Two new studies reveal more about how this glue achieves its strong sticking power and flexibility, insights that could be used to create better medical adhesives.

"Typical sutures like staples and stitches often lead to scarring and create holes in the skin that could increase the chance of infection after surgery," said Rebecca Falconer, who conducted one of the studies. "Understanding the roles of adhesive proteins in the slug glue would aid in the creation of a medical adhesive that can move and stretch yet still retain its strength and adhesiveness."

Falconer and Christopher Gallego-Lazo, undergraduate researchers in the lab of Andrew Smith, PhD, at Ithaca College, will present their research at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting during the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting to be held April 6-9 in Orlando, Fla.

Falconer analyzed 11 proteins unique to the slug glue that were previously identified by Smith's research team. Using recombinant DNA technology, she produced abundant amounts of each protein for analysis. The techniques she developed could also be used to reproduce the proteins for a manmade glue.

The analysis revealed that some of the proteins tend to bind to themselves or with other proteins to form a three-dimensional network. These findings suggest that this oligomerization may be required for some of the proteins to be most functional.

Gallego-Lazo's study focused on understanding the double network structure that makes the slug glue highly deformable but able to withstand large amounts of force. The glue has a stiff protein network that uses sacrificial bonds to absorb energy, protecting an intertwined deformable network of carbohydrates.

Gallego-Lazo discovered that changing specific chemical bonds within the slug glue's protein network modified the glue's strength. These bonds can be reformed naturally, enabling the glue to deform while maintaining its strength.

"Few studies on biological adhesives have identified the exact nature of the bonds holding the glue together," said Gallego-Lazo. "This knowledge can guide the development of an organic synthetic adhesive that would reduce the risk of infection and scarring compared to stitches and staples and could be applied rapidly and simply."

Rebecca Falconer and Christopher Gallego-Lazo will present the findings from 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday, April 8, in Exhibit Hall-West Hall, Orange County Convention Center (E148 631.15 poster) (abstract) (E149 631.16 poster) (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting.

Shark and ray species commonly caught in the Mediterranean and Black seas are not being reported in official statistics, new research from the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia shows.

A new study published in Marine Policy reveals that 97 per cent of the sharks and rays caught and brought to market domestically by fleets from the European, North African and Middle Eastern countries that surround these seas are not reported by species.

"The Mediterranean and Black Seas have historically harboured a high diversity and abundance of sharks and rays, but now between between 53 per cent and 71 per cent of them face an elevated risk of extinction," said Madeline Cashion, lead author of the study, who carried out the research at the Sea Around Us initiative at UBC's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.

By not keeping track of the different species of sharks and rays that they are bringing to port, countries may be further threatening those already at risk.

"Part of the problem is that many sharks and rays in the region are caught as bycatch in fisheries targeting other species and are brought to port either because there is a small market for them or because, by law, they cannot be thrown back at sea," Cashion said. "If neither fishers nor authorities keep detailed records of what is being caught, then it's very difficult to detect declines and design effective measures to protect threatened species."

Despite the lack of reporting, Cashion found in her research that sharks and rays have become increasingly rare following centuries of exploitation and the more recent expansion and intensification of fisheries in the Mediterranean, in particular of the non-European ones. In many cases, catch data is the only source of information to know if species still exist where they were historically found.

"The problem is that detailed catch data is hard to come by because species identification can be very tricky," Cashion said. "Good reporting relies on the financial and logistical support of governments and fisheries management organizations. Fishers can't be expected to take it on alone."

Given the threats posed by the fishing industry to at-risk sharks and rays due to the lack of specific information, the researchers call for a better implementation of existing data collection and reporting policies.

They also call for official statistics to start accounting for fish that are caught and thrown back into the ocean and those that are caught incidentally.

"To understand the real trends of shark and ray exploitation and abundance, we need to know what is discarded at sea because not all species survive after being pulled up by a net," said Daniel Pauly, co-author of the study and the Sea Around Us Principal Investigator. "For example, 98 per cent of scalloped hammerheads die but when it comes to thornback rays, only 2 per cent of them perish. We just need to know what is being caught."

WASHINGTON -- When people feel that their own good impressions of themselves are at risk, they may try to increase their savings, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"People who are insecure about their lives and the broader world save as a means of securing their future in anticipation of a possible emergency," said Yael Steinhart, PhD, of Tel-Aviv University and lead author of the study.

The findings were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Personal savings in the United States have decreased, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. As of January 2018, the average annual personal savings rate was 3.2 percent, down from an average of 8.26 percent during the prior 60 years.

Steinhart and her co-author, Yuwei Jiang, PhD, of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, conducted a series of experiments involving 2,410 U.S. and Israeli citizens and analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of 1,200 people in the Netherlands. While specifics differed slightly, the experiments were all designed to examine the relationship between self-image threats, or something that challenged the positive perceptions that people have about themselves (e.g., that they are smart), and the tendency to save money.

In all cases, the researchers found that people who experienced self-image threats had a greater intent to save money. This may be because participants preferred to save money to reduce their worries and anxiety and to gain assurance about the future, according to Steinhart.

"Saving constitutes an important measure of economic well-being," said Steinhart. "A person's welfare should increase as they save more, because saving offers a sense of security about the future."

In one experiment, participants played a Sudoku computer game. They were then randomly told that their score put them in the top, middle or bottom third of all the players. They were also asked to rate their saving tendencies by completing a questionnaire and reporting the amount they would save if they received $1,250. People who were told their scores were in the bottom third, and thus experienced a high self-image threat, reported more savings than those who were told they scored in the middle or upper third.

Another experiment looked at the influence of social connections. Participants described an event in which they felt bad or good about themselves and indicated the number of friends they met with and talked to on the phone in an average week. The researchers also asked them to quantify their number of friends based on whether they had a few or many.

Participants then imagined they received $500 and indicated how much of that they would deposit in a savings account. Those who had more social connections, and felt better about those connections, tended to save less money.

"Friends may substitute for money as a psychological resource and buffer individuals from anxiety about the future," said Steinhart.

Orlando, Fla. (April 7, 2019)--A new study suggests that sunscreen protects the skin's blood vessel function from harmful ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure by protecting dilation of the blood vessels. Perspiration on the skin may also provide protection to the skin's blood vessels from sun damage. The findings will be presented today at the American Physiological Society's (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2019 in Orlando, Fla.

UVR from the sun has been well-documented as a contributing factor to skin cancer and premature skin aging. UVR has also been found to reduce nitric oxide-associated dilation of skin blood vessels (vasodilation) by reducing the amount of nitric oxide available in the skin. Nitric oxide is a compound essential for blood vessel health. Vasodilation of the skin's blood vessels plays an important role in regulating body temperature and responding to heat stress, both locally in the skin and throughout the body.

Researchers from Pennsylvania State University studied the effect of UVR exposure with sunscreen or sweat on nitric oxide's ability to promote vasodilation of skin blood vessels. Healthy young adults with light-to-medium skin tone were exposed to UVR on one arm while the other arm served as a control and did not receive UVR treatment. The dosage of UVR was roughly equivalent of spending an hour outside on a sunny day, but without the reddening of sunburn. Three sites on the UVR-exposed arm of each participant were randomly assigned one of three treatments:

one site received UVR only,

a second site received UVR with a chemical sunscreen on the skin, and

a third site received UVR with simulated sweat on the skin.

The UVR-only site was found to have less nitric oxide-associated vasodilation than in the control arm. However, the sunscreen- and sweat-treated sites did not show these reductions in nitric oxide-associated vasodilation. "Further, when sunscreen was applied prior to UVR, UVR exposure actually augmented [nitric oxide-associated vasodilation] compared to [the control arm], or when sweat was on the skin," the research team wrote. "The presence of sunscreen or sweat on the skin may play a protective role against this effect [of UVR]."

"For those who spend a lot of time working, exercising or participating in other various activities outdoors, using sunscreen may protect not only against skin cancer, but also against reductions in skin vascular function," wrote S. Tony Wolf, MA, first author of the study.

Orlando, Fla. (April 7, 2019) - Researchers are reporting new findings on how bacteria involved in gum disease can travel throughout the body, exuding toxins connected with Alzheimer's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and aspiration pneumonia. They detected evidence of the bacteria in brain samples from people with Alzheimer's and used mice to show that the bacterium can find its way from the mouth to the brain.

The bacterium, Porphyromonas gingivalis, is the bad actor involved in periodontitis, the most serious form of gum disease. These new findings underscore the importance of good dental hygiene as scientists seek ways to better control this common bacterial infection.

"Oral hygiene is very important throughout our life, not only for having a beautiful smile but also to decrease the risk of many serious diseases," said Jan Potempa, PhD, DSc, a professor at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry and head of the department of microbiology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. "People with genetic risk factors that make them susceptible to rheumatoid arthritis or Alzheimer's disease should be extremely concerned with preventing gum disease."

While previous researchers have noted the presence of P. gingivalis in brain samples from Alzheimer's patients, Potempa's team, in collaboration with Cortexyme, Inc., offers the strongest evidence to date that the bacterium may actually contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Potempa will present the research at the American Association of Anatomists annual meeting during the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting, held April 6-9 in Orlando, Fla.

The researchers compared brain samples from deceased people with and without Alzheimer's disease who were roughly the same age when they died. They found P. gingivalis was more common in samples from Alzheimer's patients, evidenced by the bacterium's DNA fingerprint and the presence of its key toxins, known as gingipains.

In studies using mice, they showed P. gingivalis can move from the mouth to the brain and that this migration can be blocked by chemicals that interact with gingipains. An experimental drug that blocks gingipains, known as COR388, is currently in phase 1 clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease. Cortexyme, Inc. and Potempa's team are working on other compounds that block enzymes important to P. gingivalis and other gum bacteria in hopes of interrupting their role in advancing Alzheimer's and other diseases.

The researchers also report evidence on the bacterium's role in the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis, as well as aspiration pneumonia, a lung infection caused by inhaling food or saliva.

"P. gingivalis's main toxins, the enzymes the bacterium need to exert its devilish tasks, are good targets for potential new medical interventions to counteract a variety of diseases," said Potempa. "The beauty of such approaches in comparison to antibiotics is that such interventions are aimed only at key pathogens, leaving alone good, commensal bacteria, which we need."

P. gingivalis commonly begins to infiltrate the gums during the teenage years. About one in five people under age 30 have low levels of the bacterium in their gums. While it is not harmful in most people, if it grows to large numbers the bacteria provoke the body's immune system to create inflammation, leading to redness, swelling, bleeding and the erosion of gum tissue.

Making matters worse, P. gingivalis even causes benign bacteria in the mouth to change their activities and further increase the immune response. Bacteria can travel from the mouth into the bloodstream through the simple act of chewing or brushing teeth.

The best way to prevent P. gingivalis from growing out of control is by brushing and flossing regularly and visiting a dental hygienist at least once a year, Potempa said. Smokers and older people are at increased risk for infection. Genetic factors are also thought to play a role, but they are not well understood.

Jan Potempa will present this research on Sunday, April 7, from 1-1:30 p.m. in Room W208A, Orange County Convention Center (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting.

Orlando, Fla. (April 7, 2019)--Estradiol is a commonly prescribed estrogen therapy. Previous research has found that rats treated with the hormone experience an increase in sugar consumption. But according to new research, blocking the body's opioid receptors can reverse this effect. The findings will be presented today at the American Physiological Society's (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2019 in Orlando, Fla.

Estradiol is a naturally occurring estrogen hormone and common medication used in various hormone treatments, such as menopausal hormone therapy and birth control. Previous studies by this research team found giving estradiol replacement in a rat model of menopause caused the rats to consume more of an offered sugar solution.

Because the opioid system is known to contribute to overindulgence of highly palatable foods, the researchers decided to examine its role in estradiol's impact on sugar intake. Rats were assigned to either estradiol treatment or a control. Researchers then continuously infused rats with either naltrexone, which blocks opioid receptors, or saline. In a second experiment, the research team injected naltrexone or DAMGO, a synthetic compound that stimulates the opioid system, into an area of the brain associated with reward (the nucleus accumbens). In the first experiment, naltrexone treatment reversed the estradiol-related increase in sugar consumption. Injection of DAMGO stimulated sugar intake in both treated and control rats, but the effect was smaller in estradiol-treated rats than in control rats. These suggests that the opioid system plays a role in the estrogen-induced enhancement of sugar intake, but opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens is not likely to be directly involved in the estrogen-induced enhancement of sugar intake.

Lead author Kurumi Iida noted that these findings suggest that extra sugar intake caused by estradiol "is possibly mediated by the opioid system." However, a potential site of the action for this phenomenon remains unknown.

Kurumi Iida, an undergraduate student at Nara Women's University in Nara, Japan, will present "Involvement of the opioid system in the 17β-estradiol-induced enhancement of sucrose intake in ovariectomized rats" Sunday, April 7, at a poster session in West Hall B of the exhibit hall of the Orange County Convention Center.

A clinical review, published today (Saturday 6 April 2019) for the BMJ, provides new interim advice for doctors and clinicians in prescribing cannabis-based products and cannabinoids to treat certain conditions.

Since a policy change in November 2018, specialist doctors registered with the General Medical Council (GMC), have been permitted to prescribe new medicines which derive from cannabis. Yet, research into these products has, to date, been limited creating an 'information vacuum' about these medicines, their benefits or harms.

A new review authored by leading scientists and clinicians from the University of Bath and University College London (UCL) points to the array of different cannabis-based products and cannabinoids available, and a clear need to educate both patients and clinicians into what these different products do and how they might help.

In particular, it points to important differences between products containing THC (the main psychoactive and intoxicating constituent of cannabis) versus CBD (the non-intoxicating element). Although in certain medicines CBD and THC are combined for clinical benefit, in others these components can work independently, playing different roles in improving certain symptoms.

For example, several studies have found that a combination of THC and CBD can alleviate symptoms of chronic pain, while CBD alone may be effective for treatment-resistant epilepsy. By contrast THC alone may be effective for treating nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy. THC and CBD are both 'cannabinoids' that act in different ways on the body's endogenous cannabinoid system.

The cannabis plant produces over 144 different cannabinoids such as THC or CBD. Some medicinal products contain THC and/or CBD derived from the cannabis plant, while others contain synthetically produced cannabinoids. CBD is also available in non-medicinal products such as oils and tinctures.

Lead author, Dr Tom Freeman of the University of Bath's Addiction and Mental Health Group explains: "In this complex and rapidly evolving field, there are several different cannabis-based and cannabinoid medicinal products. These differ in their THC and CBD content, who can prescribe them, and the conditions they may be used to treat. Here we provide an update for clinicians in advance of forthcoming NICE guidelines.

"A key message is that CBD products widely sold online and in health food shops lack quality standards and should not be treated as medicinal products."

Research on cannabis was previously restricted because it was listed in Schedule 1, implying that it had no medical value. Cannabis was recently moved to Schedule 2 in the UK.

Dr Freeman adds: "Research on unlicensed cannabis products has been limited to date. The rescheduling of cannabis and allocation of dedicated UK research funding will improve the evidence we have to guide clinical decision-making."

Co-author, Dr Michael Bloomfield Head of Translational Psychiatry at University College London (UCL) added: "There have been leaps and bounds in our scientific knowledge in recent years, which combined with confusing claims about the medicinal uses of these drugs can be potentially perplexing for doctors and patients. We hope that our new guidance is helpful to doctors and patients worldwide. Much more research is needed into this new class of medicine."

Co-author Dr Chandni Hindocha of the Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit at UCL added: "Resources must be made available to update and educate clinicians about cannabis and cannabinoid based medicines. We would like to encourage doctors to maintain a compassionate and evidence-based approach when engaging with their patients in this rapidly developing field, in order to provide the best standard of care."