Culture

AMHERST, Mass. - Based on field surveys in northern Afghanistan, Zalmai Moheb, an ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Afghanistan Program and a doctoral candidate in environmental conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with others, report this week that they have for the first time documented by direct observation the presence of two rare Asian wild goat species in the country.

The species, both of concern to conservationists, are the markhor (Capra falconeri) or screw-horned goat, and the Siberian ibex (Capra sibirica), which occur in several countries. Both have been reported in Afghanistan, but few studies have been made there in recent years and their distribution is largely unknown, Moheb points out.

The report of field surveys he and colleagues conducted from July to October 2011 has just been published in the annual newsletter of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Caprinae Specialist Group.

Moheb and colleagues report that they directly observed markhor and ibex on the Afghan side of the Amu Darva River, the border with Tajikistan, for the first time in the Shahr-e Buzurg district and the Darwaz region, plus indirect field evidence and local community reports.

They say, "The strip of land along the Amu Darya River from western Darwaz to Shahr-e Buzurg district through Khawahan and Raghistan districts should be a priority site for future markhor and ibex conservation in Afghanistan. If protection measures are taken, this area along with the adjacent protected area in Tajikistan, could act as valuable and viable refuge for sustaining markhor and other wild species that inhabit the region."

Moheb and co-authors Said Naqibullah Mostafawi and Peter Zahler, with the Wildlife Conservation Society at the time of the survey, plus his advisor at UMass Amherst professor Todd Fuller, point out that the animals are "nominally protected" from hunting, but both species are most likely hunted throughout their range by local tribesmen. Zahler is now vice president of conservation initiatives at Woodland Park Zoo, Washington, D.C. and Mostafawi is now a free-lance consultant.

For this work, the research ecologists surveyed a strip of shrubby scrubland along the Amu Darya River in four districts of Afghanistan's northern Badakhshan Province. They visited 46 villages and four field sites, most in valleys, over 115 square miles (300 sq. km) in Shahr-e Buzurg and 770 square miles (1,997 sq. km) in the Darwaz region. They also interviewed and showed photographs to village headmen, hunters and shepherds believed to be the most knowledgeable about local wildlife.

They also visited potential markhor and ibex habitats suggested by sources using experienced local hunters as field guides to confirm animals in the area. In Shahr-e Buzurg the ecologists report 41 of 67 respondents, 61 percent, said that markhor were present and once abundant, but numbers have declined and few remain. The researchers themselves saw four markhor in the Payan-e Moor area and local hunters said they thought about 20 markhor were in the area. They also found horns and markhor skins.

In the Darwaz region, the researchers report that 37 percent, 15 of 40 respondents said markhor existed in the western part of the district, and the researchers themselves saw six animals and four pairs of markhor horns. Further, 56 percent of respondents, 74 or 131, said that ibex occurs in some parts of the region and showed them skin and horns.

Overall, the ecologists say markhor populations in Shahr-e Buzurg are believed to be small and may only survive due to animals coming in from Tajikistan. Markhor populations in Leiwgard in the Kof Ab district of Darwas appear "larger and more stable," though still linked to nearby Tajik populations.

"We suspect that when water level drops in the river during winter, markhor could move between both areas," the authors note. "The remoteness of Leiwgard is likely the primary reason that markhor and ibex still exist in this area." Leiwgard is home to roughly 80 markhor, sources said, along with ibex, brown bear and snow leopards.

Local sources also reported that markhor and ibex share the same area, but markhor prefer lower elevations and steep cliffs, while ibex like higher elevations with colder environments. "This, if true, is one of the very few areas where these two caprid species overlap," the researchers note.

Moheb and colleagues urge taking several conservation management actions to assist markhor and biodiversity in the area, in particular along the Amu Darya River. "This area is a priority for future markhor conservation and for other endangered wildlife such as snow leopard. The area has the advantage of being connected to the M-Sayod Conservancy on the Tajik side of the border, and so efforts could be combined between Afghanistan and Tajikistan to promote conservation in the larger area," they point out. Coordinating conservation efforts could preserve unique habitats and endangered wildlife, they add.

Gun violence, obesity, and the misuse of opioids and alcohol are responsible for roughly 374,000 deaths--15 percent of all deaths--each year in the United States. To protect the public from harmful products, legal action can be used against industries, one example of which--a settlement with the tobacco industry--offers useful lessons for confronting several of today's public health epidemics.

In an article published Sept. 13 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cheryl Healton, dean of the NYU College of Global Public Health, discusses the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry and 46 state attorneys general, five territories, and Washington, D.C. As the largest legal settlement ever executed in the United States, the Master Settlement Agreement reduced smoking rates, saved lives, and was deemed a victory for public health.

"Given its success, the agreement has enormous promise as a model for similar litigation or settlements that could hold industries accountable when they knowingly deceive and injure consumers with their products," Healton writes.

Prior to becoming the dean of the NYU College of Global Public Health, Healton was the founding president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, the tobacco control organization created by the Master Settlement Agreement. She guided the national youth tobacco prevention counter-marketing campaign, truth®, which has been credited with reducing youth smoking prevalence to record lows. Healton's NEJM Perspective encourages similar mass education campaigns to address other major public health problems.

As states' chief legal officers, attorneys general are most often elected by voters, but in some states and territories are appointed by the governor, state legislature, or state Supreme Court. 2018 is a critical year for attorneys general: 30 states are holding elections and several others will appoint new attorneys general.

Attorneys general are responsible for protecting the public and can intervene--individually or collectively--through litigation when public health is threatened. Healton writes that several of the country's most serious public health problems are and should be targets for state attorneys general, including the opioid epidemic, gun violence, excessive consumption of fast food and sugar-sweetened beverages, alcohol use, and fossil fuel effects on climate and air quality. For instance, 41 attorneys general are currently suing or poised to sue opioid manufacturers or distributors, claiming that the companies violated laws by making false claims about opioids' addictiveness and safety, failing to monitor or report excessive deliveries, and allowing fraudulent prescriptions to be filled.

"The trajectory of these major public health problems could be altered by reducing industry manipulation of science and lobbying for policies against the public interest; compensating public coffers for money spent combating these epidemics and redirecting funds to prevention; and using public education, product warnings, and price increases to reduce use of harmful products," writes Healton.

An increasingly vexing epidemic--that of gun violence, including suicide--is difficult to address through action by state attorneys general as a result of the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields the gun industry from litigation and, along with other state legislation, give attorneys general few avenues to pursue legal action.

"In light of this onerous, near-blanket indemnification, not afforded any other industry, education is especially critical to ensure the public is aware of and can combat this special protection which provides the gun industry a 'pass' on protecting consumers and the public at large from the untoward impacts of its products," said Healton.

Healton concludes that by using legal action to hold industries accountable, state attorneys general can and should "strengthen their roles as guardians of the health of the public."

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Requiring physical activity classes in college encourages sedentary students to become more active, while elective classes tend to draw those who are already motivated, new research from Oregon State University has found.

"When there is no requirement but the courses are available as electives, the students who take the courses tend to be those who are already active and motivated. Those students already have an affinity toward physical activity and the institution supports it," said Brad Cardinal, a kinesiology professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU. "That neglects a large group of students who are inactive and unmotivated and who could benefit immensely from such coursework."

The study's findings underscore the benefits of required physical activity education as part of the college curriculum, said Cardinal, a national expert on the benefits of physical activity.

The results were published recently in the Journal of American College Health. The study's co-author is MooSong Kim, who worked on the study as a doctoral student at OSU and is now on the faculty at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma.

Past research has shown that physical activity levels tend to decline rapidly as students transition from high school to college and beyond, even though physical activity offers a range of health and other benefits, and habits made or sustained in college tend to follow people into their adult lives.

"Past studies have shown that having a requirement in college is beneficial down the road," Cardinal said. "Essentially, those studies - including some of our own at OSU - show that students who aren't physically active in college tend to remain inactive later in life."

In a nationwide study published in 2012, Cardinal and colleagues found that fewer than 40 percent of U.S. colleges and universities require students to complete any physical activity education requirements to earn an undergraduate degree, despite a push by physical education organizations and national health agencies concerned about the health implications of a lack of physical activity.

Cardinal and Kim wanted to better understand the impacts of a physical education requirement policy. In their study, they compared exercise motivation, competence and activity levels for students at two universities - one with a physical activity requirement and one without - to see how policies requiring physical activity coursework might affect students' behavior.

In all, 953 students from two universities participated in the study, completing online surveys about their motivation to participate in physical activity classes; their competence in the activity and their physical activity levels.

The results showed that the students who were required to take physical activity classes were less motivated to be active, suggesting that the requirement draws students who might not otherwise engage in physical activity on their own. They also found that the students' motivation increased as they continued in school, with juniors and seniors more motivated than freshmen.

"We found that those who are unmotivated may not be too happy about the requirement initially, but some of them actually cross over and become more motivated to continue with the physical activity," Cardinal said.

He supports a physical activity policy that includes a required academic course focusing on lifetime fitness for health in conjunction with a quality physical activity education course component that focuses on skill acquisition, development and fun, ranging from adventure sports to Zumba dance and everything in between. That is the type of policy in place at Oregon State.

"This combination teaches the concept of lifetime fitness for health, and the understanding of how and why to be physically active, as well as the instruction in physical activity education so students feel confident in their ability to continue being active after the course is complete," Cardinal said. "That combination seems to have the best carry-over value."

While some may bristle at the idea of a blanket requirement, such a policy could actually provide more equitable access for all students, rather than just reaching those who already are inclined to participate, Cardinal suggested.

"If we're offering the programs to everyone, then everyone has the opportunity to learn about the potential benefits of physical activity," he said. "We know that regular physical activity participation is good for health, has cognitive benefits and it stimulates creativity. As such, it is hard to make a compelling case that it should not be required."

"It is not just the students who benefit," Cardinal added. "Society benefits, too. For example, a 2016 study publishing in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that adults who met the national physical activity guidelines saved $2,500 per year annually on medical expenses."

What are researchers doing? The sixth mass extinction continues and is even accelerating, but conservation scientists, it is claimed, have no solutions to offer. Even more worrying, the researchers would be so pessimistic that the warnings they give could be counterproductive. But is this really the case? Two CNRS researchers* have addressed this question. They examined the 12,971 research articles published during the last 15 years in the main scientific journals dedicated to conservation.

Excluding articles dealing with discussions in the discipline, they proposed the first extensive empirical assessment of the scientific background and output of conservation science in describing the current status of biodiversity, the threats, and the solutions accumulated by scientists.

Their initial conclusion is indisputable: the remaining threats to biodiversity today were already identified nearly 40 years ago, when they were quoted the "evil quartet." They are (i) habitat destruction (ii) overexploitation of resources, i.e., overhunting or overfishing for example; (iii) introduction of invasive species; and (iv) co-extinctions that may be triggered by these factors. To these four well established threats we may add the concern of climate change, which further destabilizes natural environments. And it is not "exotic" biodiversity alone that is endangered: most research has focused on European ecosystems, showing that populations of common species and habitats are also suffering. This is, for example, the case for birds in the French countryside**.

But fortunately, conservation research also reports good news: like the comeback of the wolf in Europe and clear improvements resulting from the application of conservation measures. Hence they conclude that conservation science is neither pessimistic nor optimistic -- just realistic. According to the researchers, a lot of sustainable and human-friendly solutions are already available. The major obstacle is the demand for concessions even more favorable to resource exploitation rather than to nature protection, despite timid scientific recommendations.

Products containing the withdrawn blood pressure drug valsartan are not associated with a markedly increased short term risk of cancer, finds an expedited analysis published by The BMJ today.

The findings provide reassuring interim evidence about the risk of cancer in patients treated with valsartan products, but the authors say further studies are required to evaluate the risks for single cancers as well as longer term effects.

In July 2018, some valsartan products manufactured by the Chinese company Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals were suspected of having been contaminated with N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), an impurity that can cause cancer.

Following the discovery, both European medical agencies and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdrew affected valsartan products from the market.

To better understand the possible consequences and help inform regulatory bodies about this potential public health issue, the Danish Medicines Agency collaborated with the University of Southern Denmark to assess the association between use of potentially NDMA contaminated valsartan products and risk of cancer.

Using data from Danish health registries, they included 5,150 patients aged 40 years and over with no previous cancer who used products containing valsartan between 1 January 2012 and 30 June 2018.

Based on product analysis and dose used, patients were classified as being exposed or not exposed to NDMA and were followed from one year after entering the study, for a median of 4.6 years, during which time cases of cancer were recorded.

After taking account of age, sex, and other potentially influential factors, the researchers found that, overall, exposure to potentially NDMA contaminated valsartan products showed no association with cancer compared with exposure to valsartan products that were not contaminated with NDMA. There was also no evidence of a dose-response pattern.

However, when they analysed single cancers, they found a slightly increased (but not statistically significant) risk of colorectal cancer and uterine cancer in patients exposed to NDMA. While they cannot fully explain this, it might require further study.

More importantly, the limited follow-up means that assessment of long-term effects is not possible, and the low number of events makes interpretation of estimates for single cancer outcomes difficult.

Nevertheless, the researchers believe that their results can support regulators in their evaluation of the potential public health impact of NDMA exposure via valsartan drugs - and provide some reassurance for people who might have been exposed.

They conclude: "Our results do not imply a marked increased short term overall cancer risk in users of valsartan contaminated with NDMA. However, uncertainty persists regarding single cancer outcomes, and studies with longer follow-up are needed to assess long-term cancer risk."

In a linked editorial, Rita Banzi and Vittorio Bertele' at the Center for Drug Regulatory Policies in Milan, Italy, say "this study alone cannot dispel doubts about the potential risk for patients in the longer term, but it helps inform decision-making around this episode."

"It also illustrates the usefulness of national registries for examining the relations between risk factors and health problems and how research can give a prompt response whenever public health concerns emerge," they add.

Regulatory actions coupled with the generation of robust evidence, they say "are the keys to responding promptly to emerging public health concerns."

EAST LANSING, Mich. - What if roadkill piled beside the road and never decomposed? What if massive fish kills washed up on beaches and remained for eternity?

First off, it would be disgusting. Second, the Earth might run out of the key elements these organisms contain.

Thanks to a new study by Michigan State University, scientists now have a better way to investigate decomposing plants' and animals' contributions to the ecosystem. This necrobiome, the collective organisms both big and small that helps plants and animals decay, was first defined in 2013 by Eric Benbow, MSU forensic entomologist and microbial ecologist, who led the study. Together with his collaborators, they established a baseline of organisms that play key roles in carrion decomposition.

The paper, published in the current issue of the journal Ecological Monographs, establishes the necrobiome encyclopedia to bridge different aspects of ecological theory and also promote the importance of death in ecosystems. The research also effectively establishes the same framework to examine decaying plant and animal communities while acknowledging their key differences and mechanisms.

This detailed study covers the spectrum of decomposition processes, from decaying seaweed to a catastrophe, such as an entire animal herd dying en masse, Benbow said.

"Decomposer communities are critical, yet there's no standard framework to conceptualize their complex and dynamic interactions across both plant and animal necromass, which limits our comprehensive understanding of decomposition," he said. "Our findings also have implications for defining and testing paradigms related to nutrient recycling, gene flow, population dynamics and other ecosystem processes at the frontier of ecological research."

Discovering how decomposition communities interact with each other and how they drive nutrient and carbon cycling could lead to fundamental shifts in ecosystem science, Benbow added.

A recent New York Times article featured an area's transformation when lightning killed 300 reindeer in Norway. The carcasses drew carnivores, birds, maggots and microbes. Jen Pechal, MSU forensic entomologist and microbial ecologist, who was quoted in the article, called the Norwegian site a hyperlocal "decomposition island," which created massive diversity in a short span of time.

One change in the area resulted in greater plant diversity. Birds feasting on the carrion dropped feces filled with crowberry seeds. The reindeer remains created the perfect soil for crowberry seedlings - an important food source for many animals in the region - to flourish.

Promoting the necrobiome lexicon in the scientific community also can open the door for new areas of research. Take, for example, the two seemingly unrelated concepts of distilling liquor and food security. Distilleries generate mash as a waste product. Rather than seeing a waste byproduct that needs to be disposed, entrepreneurs could view the mash through a lens of new product development.

There are insects that thrive on decaying mash, consuming and converting it, and then they can be dried and transformed into animal feed. Or, in many countries outside the U.S., the insects themselves could be processed for human consumption.

"Our research and this study establish a common language and conceptual tools that can lead to new product discovery," Benbow said. "We're eliminating organic matter and turning it into a value-added product that can add to the world-food cycle. Understanding the species and the mechanisms, which are essentially recycled, can contribute to establishing food security."

Pechal contributed to this study. Scientists from Australian National University, USDA, University of Georgia, University of Idaho, Texas A&M University and Mississippi State University contributed to this research.

Social Security can be enhanced to provide Americans greater protections against financial risk, according to proposals found in a new supplemental issue of the journal Public Policy & Aging Report from The Gerontological Society of America. The innovations suggested would improve Social Security's adequacy in response to three important trends in the U.S.: increased longevity; more workers with low lifetime earnings; and the increased number of adults who spend working years providing unpaid family caregiving or pursuing educational enhancement.

Titled "Innovative Approaches to Improve Social Security Adequacy in the 21st Century," the issue is centered around seven winning submissions from AARP's 2016 Social Security Innovation Challenge.

"Transformative policy solutions take time to develop, refine, and implement, and this is especially true for Social Security, given its size and importance," wrote Debra Whitman, PhD, executive vice president and chief public policy officer at AARP. "I am confident that the innovations in this supplement offer an important new resource for people who are committed to finding new ways to strengthen Social Security's solvency and adequacy."

AARP received an overwhelming number of responses to the challenge from thought leaders across the country. The finalists were chosen by an expert panel, including the directors of the retirement research centers at the University of Michigan, Boston College, and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Each winning innovation was assessed for its impact on both solvency and adequacy using the Urban Institute's Dynamic Simulation of Income Model (DYNASIM), which simulated policy changes on various demographic groups through 2065. This allowed the authors to realize the impact of their proposals on different generations and population subgroups. The analysis also showed interactions between program rules and policy parameters, and allowed the authors to revise or better target their proposals.

To address increased longevity among many Americans, one of the proposals recommended giving people with the retirement saving the option of "catch-up" contributions to Social Security starting in middle age; two others highlighted the potential of incentives for people to delay claiming benefits. For Americans with low lifetime earnings, two of the suggested innovations would see beneficiaries receive benefits that bring them up to or above the poverty line. And for those dealing with caregiving or education issues, one proposal would offer Social Security credits for time spent caregiving, receiving unemployment benefits, or participating in job training; another proposes income support from Social Security while an individual goes to school full time for job training or higher education.

Whitman said she hopes that the seven innovations serve as a catalyst for more ideas.

"We want innovative Social Security options to keep emerging, so that this great foundation of American retirement security keeps delivering on its social insurance mission for American workers and retirees, both today and for generations to come," she wrote.

A single non-photosynthetic plant specimen preserved in a Japanese natural history museum has been identified as a new species. However, it is highly possible that this species is already extinct. These findings were published on September 13 in Phytotaxa.

This plant was discovered in Kobe, Japan, in 1992, and preserved with its identity unknown. No new specimens were found in follow-up surveys between 1993 and 1999, and the plant's original habitat was destroyed by land development in 1999.

A research team led by Project Associate Professor Kenji Suetsugu (Kobe University Graduate School of Science) is carrying out surveys to classify the taxonomy and ecology of non-photosynthetic plants called mycoheterotrophs. These plants do not photosynthesize, instead leading a parasitic existence drawing nutrients from fungi and tree roots. Many species only appear above ground during brief fruiting and flowering periods, making them very hard to find and identify.

As part of the survey, Professor Suetsugu, in collaboration with Dr. Nobuhira Kurosaki (Visiting Professor at the University of Hyogo) and independent botanists Mr. Osamu Nakanishi and Mr. Tomiki Kobayashi, re-examined a plant specimen preserved in the Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Hyogo. The specimen in this study was originally found in 1992 in the Nishi district of Kobe by the above-mentioned Mr. Nakanishi and Mr. Kobayashi, accompanied by Mr. Takashi Saburomaru.

When first discovered, the plant was identified as belonging to the family Burmanniaceae because of its non-photosynthesizing properties and the unusual shape of its flowers. It seemed to be closely related to the Oxygyne hyodoi species discovered in Japan's Aichi prefecture, but it was not clear whether the specimen was O. hyodoi itself or something else. This time, after close scrutiny of the plant's morphological characteristics, the team showed that it was not a member of Oxygene but Thismia, mainly due to the position and shape of the anthers. After dissecting the flower and closely studying the shape of the petals and stamen, they realized that it had characteristics not found in any other species of Thismia identified so far. The team named it Thismia kobensis after its place of discovery, and presented it as a new species.

Thismia kobensis was discovered in 1992 as a single specimen, with no further samples of the same species found. In 2010 it was reported as extinct by Hyogo prefecture. "Because it has now been recognized as a new species, we are hopeful that living specimens of T. kobensis can be discovered in other places." says Professor Suetsugu.

Mycoheterotrophic plants are parasites - in order to survive they need a stable ecosystem with abundant resources, and they are very sensitive to environmental changes. Therefore, a large number of mycoheterotrophs are now in danger of extinction, and this study strongly suggests that some mycoheterotrophic species may be dying out before they are recognized.

Many plant specimens are preserved in museums. Even if the original collector is unable to identify the specimen, samples stored by public organizations can be identified by future generations. This discovery of a new species, based on a specimen of a plant that is presumably extinct, highlights the importance of collecting specimens in order to fully understand the biodiversity of our environment.

A new USC Dornsife study indicates that aging may have originated at the very beginning of the evolution of life, at the same time as the evolution of the first genes.

"This could be a game changer for research on longevity and aging. It may also be relevant to the scientific discussions surrounding CRISPR9 gene editing," said John Tower, biologist at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. "We found that when it comes to genes, aging may not always be a negative trait. It may help an organism survive."

The findings, published on Sept. 11 in the journal Origins of Life and Evolution and Biospheres, may reshape scientific conversations about a long-held hypothesis of aging first proposed by the biologist George C. Williams.

Williams had suggested in a 1957 paper that as part of natural selection, biology favors genes that will optimize functions and characteristics necessary for reproduction within a specific period of time. But later in life, those genes that enhance reproduction actually contribute to aging. Williams' hypothesis was known as "antagonistic pleiotropy."

There are several examples of this biological tradeoff. The gene p53, for example, suppresses cancer, but it is known to accelerate aging in cells.

Tower, an expert on the biology of aging, said that under this hypothesis, aging of the organism is a consequence of natural selection for optimal reproduction. He wondered, though: Is aging is always a negative trait at the level of individual genes?

To test this, Tower and a team of researchers developed a scenario with molecules can replicate themselves. Such molecules are believed to be the evolutionary origin of modern genes.

Using computer modeling, the researchers paired an unstable short-lived gene, B, and its interactions with a longer-living gene, A, to create a new replicator, AB. In some simulations, the fact that B was short-lived enhanced beneficial aspects of A that would maximize the proliferation of the AB replicator.

"The results suggest that evolution can favor the limited stability of genes as a way to increase complexity and the reproductive fitness of the organism," Tower said. "Interventions designed to stabilize genes might help combat aging."

Venoms produced by snails, snakes, scorpions and spiders contain numerous bioactive compounds that could lead to therapeutic drugs or insect-specific pesticides. Yet little is known about venoms produced by insects, in part because each bug contains such a tiny amount. Researchers recently responded to this challenge by conducting one of the first intensive studies of ant venom. They have now published their findings in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.

Ants produce venom for many reasons, such as defending themselves from predators, capturing prey or thwarting microbial infection. Prior studies have shown that venom is a complex cocktail that contains thousands of peptides, but fewer than 100 have been characterized in a couple of ant venoms. So Axel Touchard and colleagues set out to identify the peptides produced by a species of stinging ant known as Tetramorium bicarinatum, which is common in tropic and subtropical areas.

The researchers collected the material for their "venomics" study by dissecting ant venom sacs and glands. Using a wide range of techniques, they identified more than 2,800 venom peptides, most of which were fragments of 37 full-length peptide precursors called myrmicitoxins. The scientists sorted these precursors into three broad categories based on amino acid sequence; one category consists of an entirely new sequence never before observed in any venom. The researchers also showed that the myrmicitoxins shared some sequence similarities with peptides produced by other species, including other types of ants, as well as wasps, mosquitoes and fruit flies. The team says that venom peptides likely evolved from a relatively small set of ancestral genes that have been impacted by exposure to different prey and microbial pathogens.

There are two main treatments for stroke caused by a clot in a blood vessel in the brain. One treatment, mechanical thrombectomy, involves pulling the clot out with a specialized catheter that is inserted into the artery in the groin and guided by imaging to the clot. This procedure is only performed at hospitals that specialize in these techniques. The other treatment, which is more widely accessible, involves giving a patient a clot-busting drug that helps the body dissolve the clot.

Quick decision making on which treatment is best for which patient is critical because the clot deprives brain cells of oxygen causing them to die. For physicians, knowing which patients will benefit the most from the clot-buster Alteplase (also known as tPA) just got easier.

University of Calgary scientists with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) have discovered that clots have different compositions and depending on where they are located in the brain, administering tPA can be almost as effective as thrombectomy given sufficient time.

"We've known that, when administered quickly, tPA can be effective in stroke, but until now, we didn't realize how effective it can be and we didn't understand the specific reasons why it works better in some cases than others," says Dr. Bijoy Menon, MD, associate professor in the departments of Clinical Neurosciences, Radiology and Community Health Sciences at the CSM. "Our findings show that some clots are permeable, which allows the tPA to penetrate the blockage and dissolve it. We saw that within two hours, greater than 50 per cent of permeable blockages had dissolved."

The UCalgary study led out of the Foothills Medical Centre is the largest of its kind to date, involving nearly 600 patients at 12 medical centres in five countries (Canada, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Spain and Turkey). The findings are published in JAMA.

"Despite earlier research on the benefit of using tPA, we know there is still some reluctance in the medical community to use it. These findings should provide physicians with definitive evidence on the value of giving patients tPA as soon as they've confirmed the stroke is due to a clot," says Dr. Andrew Demchuk, MD, professor in the departments of Clinical Neurosciences and Radiology. "It's critical that anyone showing symptoms of a stroke be given a CT-angiogram as soon as possible to confirm the blockage. The scan will guide whether tPA is likely to dissolve the clot and may inform whether the patient also needs thrombectomy."

A CT-angiogram (computer tomography scan) is a common noninvasive diagnostic tool that allows physicians to see images of the blood vessels in the brain. Researchers found that clots in the carotid artery of the brain do not respond to tPA, and for these patients, thrombectomy is required.

"Strokes happen at anytime, anywhere. Knowing who needs thrombectomy can help physicians make better decisions on how to prioritize patient transfers to specialized centres for this procedure," says Menon. "Data gathered in Europe showed that up to one-third of hospital transfers aren't necessary."

"Stroke is an important health care problem and one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide," says Dr. Brian H. Rowe, scientific director, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, which supported this study. "Through continued scientific research, important discoveries like this one will improve our ability to match patients with the most effective treatment for this particular injury. This will help speed up recovery times, reduce the associated impacts such as paralysis, and it will improve patient outcomes and ultimately save lives."

Drs. Menon and Demchuk add that for the science community these findings will help researchers better design studies that target dissolving the clot with new clot busting drugs or combination treatments.

Led by the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Brain and Mental Health is one of six strategic research themes guiding the university towards its Eyes High goals. The strategy provides a unifying direction for brain and mental health research at the university and positions researchers to unlock new discoveries and treatments for brain health in our community.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Want the best results out of your employees? Then be nice to them.

New research from Binghamton University, State University at New York finds that showing compassion to subordinates almost always pays off, especially when combined with the enforcement of clear goals and benchmarks.

"Being benevolent is important because it can change the perception your followers have of you," said Chou-Yu Tsai, an assistant professor of management at Binghamton University's School of Management. "If you feel that your leader or boss actually cares about you, you may feel more serious about the work you do for them."

Tsai and his fellow researchers wanted to determine how both the presence and lack of benevolence affects the job performance of followers.

Tsai partnered with Binghamton University colleagues Shelley Dionne, professor and associate dean of the School of Management, and Francis Yammarino, distinguished professor, as well as An-Chih Wang of China Europe International Business School, Seth Spain of Concordia University, Hsiao-Chi Ling of Kainan University, Min-Ping Huang of Yuan Ze University, Li-Fang Chou of National Cheng Kung University and Bor-Shiuan Cheng of National Taiwan University for the research.

They surveyed nearly 1,000 members of the Taiwanese military and almost 200 adults working full-time in the United States, and looked at the subordinate performance that resulted from three different leadership styles:

Authoritarianism-dominant leadership: Leaders who assert absolute authority and control, focused mostly on completing tasks at all costs with little consideration of the well-being of subordinates

Benevolence-dominant leadership: Leaders whose primary concern is the personal or familial well-being of subordinates. These leaders want followers to feel supported and have strong social ties.

Classical paternalistic leadership: A leadership style that combines both authoritarianism and benevolence, with a strong focus on both task completion and the well-being of subordinates.

The researchers found that authoritarianism-dominant leadership almost always had negative results on job performance, while benevolence-dominant leadership almost always had a positive impact on job performance. In other words, showing no compassion to your employees doesn't bode well for their job performance, while showing compassion motivated them to be better workers.

They also found that classical paternalistic leadership, which combines both benevolence and authoritarianism, had just as strong an effect on subordinate performance as benevolent-dominant leadership. Tsai said the reason for this phenomenon may extend all the way back to childhood.

"The parent and child relationship is the first leader-follower relationship that people experience. It can become a bit of a prototype of what we expect out of leadership going forward, and the paternalistic leadership style kind of resembles that of a parent," Tsai said.

"The findings imply that showing personal and familial support for employees is a critical part of the leader-follower relationship. While the importance of establishing structure and setting expectations is important for leaders, and arguably parents, help and guidance from the leader in developing social ties and support networks for a follower can be a powerful factor in their job performance," Dionne said.

Because of the difference in work cultures between U.S. employees and members of the Taiwanese military, researchers were surprised that the results were consistent across both groups.

"The consistency in the results across different cultures and different job types is fascinating. It suggests that the effectiveness of paternalistic leadership may be more broad-based than previously thought, and it may be all about how people respond to leaders and not about where they live or the type of work they do," Yammarino said.

Tsai said his main takeaway for managers is to put just as much or even more of an emphasis on the well-being of your employees as you do on hitting targets and goals.

"Subordinates and employees are not tools or machines that you can just use. They are human beings and deserve to be treated with respect," said Tsai. "Make sure you are focusing on their well-being and helping them find the support they need, while also being clear about what your expectations and priorities are. This is a work-based version of 'tough love' often seen in parent-child relationships."

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have made a surprising discovery: during fetal development, a particular immune cell seems to play a key role in determining the male or female characteristics of the brain.

"This a totally new discovery," says Margaret McCarthy, professor and chairman of the UMSOM Department of Pharmacology. "Prior to this, we didn't know that these cells played a role in this process at all."

The study, which was published today, appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Prof. McCarthy and her colleagues studied immune cells known as mast cells, which originate in the bone marrow but are found on body surfaces such as the skin, mouth, nose and eyes. They are also found on the outside surface of the brain in a membrane known as the meninges. Mast cells are signaling molecules, and when activated, they release a range of molecules, including serotonin, histamine and other inflammatory substances. In general they act as triggers for other immune system cells to respond to an injury or threat to the body.

"Mast cells are basically a signaling system, they release these substances, which signal to other immune cells to come and help out," says Prof. McCarthy.

At the same time, they also exist, in small numbers, in a specific area of the brain known as the preoptic area. The preoptic area contributes to the control of sexual motivation and parenting behavior, basic behaviors that occur in nearly all species. During development, between 10 and 70 mast cells exist in this area. This study found that in males there are more of the cells in this area than in females, typically about twice as many, and they are more actively releasing their signaling molecules, in particular histamine.

Surprisingly, the histamine released by the mast cells in males signals to another immune cell, the microglia, and instructs them to make prostaglandins, another inflammatory signaling molecule. In previous research, Prof. McCarthy's lab has shown how prostaglandins induce the development of neural connections in the preoptic area.

In research on rats, Prof. McCarthy and her colleagues found this crucial development occurs in the first week of postnatal development, and plays a large role in determining differences between the male and female brains. She says the findings amazed her: "This one type of cell, and a very small number of these cells, is orchestrating this complex multicellular process to permanently change the circuitry of the brain to make it different in males and females."

In many animals, including both rats and humans, certain regions of male and female brains are quite different. Imaging studies in humans suggest that females tend to have more cross-hemisphere connections, while males tend to have more connections within each hemisphere.

There are also differences in the size of certain parts of the brain. Certain parts of the hypothalamus are larger in men than women. This divergence may play a role in determining sexual orientation. In gay men, this hypothalamic region is smaller than in heterosexual men; it is typically the same size as in heterosexual women.

On the cellular level male and female brains are also sometimes different. Males tend to have more dense synaptic connections in the preoptic area, while in other areas, females have more dense synaptic connections.

Prof. McCarthy has focused much of her work on the neuroscience of sex differences. In previous research she found sex and gender differences in levels of a protein associated with language acquisition and development. This finding may be associated with higher levels of communication among females in some species.

In previous research, she had found that another kind of immune cell known as microglia appear to play a role in masculinization, in part through their production of prostaglandins, a neurochemical normally associated with illness. In recent years, scientists have increasingly realized that the immune system is integral to the development of the brain;

Prof. McCarthy and her colleagues are now doing additional research on the links between the immune system and brain sex differences. They will next focus on the role of histamine, one of the chemicals released by mast cells, to discover more about precisely what role it plays in the process.

Giving up a kidney to a stranger requires a certain sense of selflessness, what's come to be known in social science as extraordinary altruism. University of Pennsylvania psychologist Kristin Brethel-Haurwitz wanted to understand the connection between this trait and empathy, specifically empathy for distress emotions.

Using fMRI scans, Brethel-Haurwitz and colleagues from Georgetown University discovered that these altruistic kidney donors were more sensitive to a stranger's fear and pain than a control group, with activation happening in a brain region called the anterior insula, which is key for emotions like pain and disgust. This research, published in Psychological Science, is the first to show a clear link between real-world altruism and empathy for the pain of strangers.

"This can be hard to study in a lab because it's based on self-reporting and inherently, in that process, there may be biases," says Brethel-Haurwitz, a postdoctoral fellow in Penn's Department of Psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences. "So we took this population of real-world altruists, people who have donated a kidney to a stranger, to try to better understand their empathic process."

It was important for the researchers to get at what Brethel-Haurwitz calls "pure human altruism," a selfless act taken without expectation of anything in return. Donating a kidney is costly and painful and as such altruistic kidney donors often get pushback, not praise, for giving their organ to someone they don't know. Also, the process is often anonymous and nonreciprocal, meaning they may never know or meet the organ recipient. These factors made the group a strong population for such work.

For this study, Brethel-Haurwitz and colleagues recruited 57 people, 29 extraordinary altruists and 28 healthy adults who had not donated a kidney, as the control. After answering a questionnaire to determine baseline empathy, each individual was matched with a stranger as a study partner and then completed a series of 90 task trials, 30 each during three 12-minute blocks.

During the first two blocks, the participant viewed a live video feed of her partner receiving painful pressure to her right thumbnail while researchers monitored brain activity via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In Round 3, the participant personally experienced the thumbnail pressure as an fMRI tracked brain function. To differentiate between neural activity related to pain and that related to fear, each trial had periods of anticipation (half in each block were "safe," meaning participants knew no thumb pressure would occur, and half were "threat" trials with the potential for pain) followed by a period during which pain was administered or omitted.

Overlaying the two resulting fMRI brain scans--one made during the altruist's pain, the other while she observed someone else in pain--provided an unmistakable link between the selflessness trait and empathy.

"Prior research of ours has shown that these donors demonstrate more neural sensitivity to distress, specifically fear, in other individuals. The amygdala was more active when they viewed photos of people in fear, but there wasn't someone actually in distress in front of them," Brethel-Haurwitz explains. "Here, when the altruists are feeling pain and watching the pain of others, the neural activity matches pretty closely."

What's more, the results confirm the researchers' theory about the role of the anterior insula, a bilateral region of the brain considered a hub of neural activity. "It's thought to be a salience detector, so, when something important is happening, it's more likely to be active," Brethel-Haurwitz explains. "It's also been shown to activate in prior studies of empathy for pain, so we hypothesized it would come up here, though we weren't as certain we would see it for fear." Enhanced self-other overlap in the anterior insula in altruists for both pain and fear suggests that this region may respond more generally to distress-related emotions.

Next Brethel-Haurwitz plans to take her research in a new direction, working with Penn professor Joseph Kable on why selfish individuals make selfish decisions.

Work with the altruistic donors will continue at Georgetown, led by Abigail Marsh, Brethel-Haurwitz's former doctoral advisor.

"It's hard to get at any pure aspect of human behavior," Brethel-Haurwitz says. "But, once you do, you get closer to a greater understanding of what happens in the brain when people take certain emotion-driven actions."