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Since some years ago, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been a constantly evolving reality. The possibility that machines (nodes) can communicate with each other has paved the way for applications that promise to have a profound impact on our lives. They include smart farming, home automation and communication between vehicles.

One of the key elements of the IoT is wireless communication between machines, known as Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication. Unlike mobile networks such as 4G, or WiFi networks, a significant proportion of M2M communications is characterized by very low transmission speeds, very small data packets and a huge number of devices. These features represent a major challenge in terms of coordinating telecommunications networks.

Recent research presents efficient, low complexity algorithms so that the Internet of Things via satellite is increasingly accessible, thanks to the implementation of advanced random access schemes by satellite. The research is developed in a study published in International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking, of which one of its authors is Giuseppe Cocco, a researcher at the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) and at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), along with researchers from the European Space Agency.

The number of sensors connected to the same satellite can be extremely high

Let us suppose that a crop has a moisture sensor connected to a satellite that transmits information only when the humidity falls below a certain threshold. The sensor might not send any information for a long time and when it does decide to do so, the amount of data is very small (just a few bits). In this case, the volume of control data needed to establish a connection with the satellite network may exceed the amount of useful data (payload) transmitted by the sensor.

Although this may not seem like a problem if dealing with a single sensor, in the case of satellite networks the number of sensors connected to a single satellite can be extremely high. Even though each sensor transmits a small amount of data very occasionally, the total volume of traffic can be very large. In addition, removing or reducing control information in M2M traffic could lead to signals from different sensors interfering with each other, which could cause a loss of sent information and, in the event of heavy traffic, even to a network collapse.

In this context it is understood how M2M traffic control information is a significant but necessary waste of resources to avoid interference, which can lead to the need to use a broader bandwidth, bigger and more expensive satellites or more of them, a higher cost of M2M communication and a negative impact on the development of the IoT.

To solve this problem, in recent years new advanced systems of multiple random access have been developed that allow greatly limiting control information without affecting the performance of the network. These systems work so counterintuitively, that is, instead of trying to avoid interference, they increase it, leaving each node to transmit multiple copies of the same message without knowing if anyone else is transmitting at the same time.

"The trick is in how the receiver exploits this interference to clean the received signal, extracting useful information from it", explains Cocco. "To get an idea of how these systems work, you can think about how you eat an artichoke: every time you remove a leaf you eat the good bit of it, but the leaves that are below are also released, so there is at least one new leaf that can be removed every time", adds the co-author of the article.

Several articles in international scientific journals have confirmed that random multiple access based on the transmission of multiple copies of each message is very promising. However, these studies use simplifications (needed to work more simply with equations and simulations) that do not allow assessing the performance of these systems in a real environment, the authors of the study explain.

"Our contribution goes beyond these simplifications. We have studied the impact on the entire system of various elements present in real systems (such as imperfections in low cost electronics that are typical of many IoT nodes) and have developed algorithms that help strengthen the system against them. Thus, we have made a particular effort to develop algorithms that are at the same time efficient and of low complexity, so that IoT via satellite is increasingly efficient and accessible for everyone", concludes Cocco.

Chemical defenses of plants not only affect the growth and development of herbivores, but also, indirectly, the next consumers in the food chain. A new study shows that herbivores and their predators have evolved efficient strategies to deal with toxic plant secondary metabolites. Caterpillars of the diamondback moth deploy a specific gut enzyme to render the toxic substances of their host plant harmless. Without the activity of this enzyme, growth, survival and reproduction are impaired. Nevertheless, predatory lacewing larvae feed on poisoned caterpillars without serious negative consequences, because they have their own detoxification mechanism. (eLife, December 2019, doi:10.7554/eLife.51029).

In order to successfully feed on a plant, herbivores need to overcome the chemical substances the plant produces to defend itself. One group of these defensive compounds is the glucosinolates, which are produced by all species of cruciferous vegetables, including cabbage, broccoli and horseradish, but also by the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Glucosinolates are easily converted into toxic isothiocyanates. Some herbivores deploy mechanisms to prevent the formation of isothiocyanates. Among them is the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella, a major agricultural pest that specializes on cabbage and related plant species. Repeated mass outbreaks have made this herbivore an economically important pest of vegetables worldwide.

A group of scientists from the Department of Biochemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune, India, wanted to find out whether the enzymatic transformation of glucosinolates is in fact a detoxification mechanism that is crucial for the growth, survival and reproduction of the pest insect. Moreover, the caterpillars of the diamondback moth are a part of a food chain because they are consumed by other insects, such as lacewing larvae. Lacewing larvae are voracious predators that feed on many different types of insect prey. For this reason, they are also used as beneficial organisms in biological pest control. The scientists therefore wanted to know how glucosinolates in herbivores would affect their predators.

First, the researchers showed that diamondback moth larvae that feed on cruciferous plants produce more of a specific detoxification enzyme. However, larvae that were no longer able to produce the enzyme were clearly impaired in their development when they were feeding on plants that produced glucosinolates in their leaves: Their growth was decreased, their survival rate was lower and they had fewer off-spring. Chemical analysis revealed that these caterpillars contained high amounts of poisonous isothiocyanates.

For the scientists, this discovery proved that enzymatic detoxification is crucial for the survival of the diamondback moth. However, Daniel Giddings Vassão, group leader in the Department of Biochemistry who led the study with Sagar Pandit from the partner institute in Pune, also points out that the formation of the enzyme is costly for the insects: "Although the presence of the enzyme significantly increases the caterpillars' performance, this benefit comes with costs. Insects perform much better on plants without any glucosinolates at all. The ecology of plant defenses is very complex. Even when an herbivore has developed a clever chemical reaction to detoxify a plant defense compound, the plant may continue to produce chemical defenses as long as detoxification depletes insect resources."

The scientists not only wanted to know how the caterpillars of the diamondback moth deal with plant defenses, but also whether plant defensive compounds affect the next level of the food chain, that is predatory insects that feed on these caterpillars. "We thought that blocking the chemical transformation of glucosinolates in diamondback moth caterpillars would have an unfavorable impact on predatory lacewings. However, to our surprise, we found that lacewings suffered almost no negative effects when fed on such caterpillars," commented Ruo Sun, the first author of the study. Whether lacewing larvae feed on caterpillars that can detoxify glucosinolates or on caterpillars that contain highly toxic isothiocyanates, makes hardly any difference: Lacewing larvae grow a little more slowly when feeding entirely on poisonous caterpillars; however, this does not have any impact on their fitness and does not change their choice of prey. Further investigations revealed that lacewing larvae are also able to render isothiocyanates harmless, although they deploy a different detoxification mechanism than the larvae of the diamondback moth.

The results are also of interest with regards to possible strategies to fight this economically important pest, according to Jonathan Gershenzon, director of the Department of Biochemistry: "Our study shows that the ability of the diamondback moth to survive and develop successfully on glucosinolate-containing plants depends on its ability to chemically metabolize these defenses. Meanwhile, the common green lacewing, a generalist predator of the diamondback moth also metabolizes glucosinolates, but in a different manner. Future efforts to control the diamondback moth might therefore employ an integrated pest control strategy: interfering with diamondback moth detoxification while at the same time deploying predators, such as lacewings, that are not affected even if the herbivore lacks a detoxification system."

A study out of the University of Florida offers a comparison between introduced species that attempt to outcompete native plants within an ecosystem and certain native plant species that mimic that behavior to create similar undesirable results. Lyn Gettys explored this phenomenon within aquatic ecosystems to reveal the consequences of excessive aquatic plant growth, regardless of the origin of the species.

Gettys' findings are described in the article "Breaking Bad: Native Aquatic Plants Gone Rogue and the Invasive Species That Inspire Them" published in HortTechnology.

Gettys refers to the importance of the clarity her article provides when she notes, "Many people assume that introduced plants are always bad and native plants are always good, but Nature isn't so black and white. Some introduced plants need a lot of TLC to grow well, while some native species grow exuberantly and take over cultivated and natural areas. The focus of this article is to shine a light on some of Nature's gray areas by describing a sampling of native aquatic plants that, despite their endemic status, can wreak the same kind of havoc as introduced 'weeds'."

Conventional wisdom suggests that only introduced species can be considered invasive and that indigenous plant life cannot be classified as such because they belong within their native range. However, it has become increasingly clear that some native plants can grow aggressively, outcompete other native species, and form dense monocultures, resulting in the same problems associated with invasions by introduced plants.

Aggressive growth of alien species can change soil texture and deplete substrate nutrient reservoirs, resulting in insufficient resource availability for indigenous plant life. Exotic trees may produce dense canopies that reduce the amount of light available for photosynthesis for the native plants beneath their cover.

Gettys points out that aquatic ecosystems are not immune to the hazards posed by invasiveness. An important biotic factor that can result in explosive growth of an invasive plant is the lack of specialist biological stressors. When a plant is introduced to a new ecosystem where these stressors are not present, they are uninhibited against unchecked growth in the invaded range.

Overgrowth of aquatic plants can inhibit water movement and negatively impact flood control operations, thereby increasing the risk of catastrophic flooding of communities, farms, roadways, and other anthropocentric infrastructure during heavy rainfall events.

By definition, invasive species are introduced and not native to the ecosystem in which they become problematic. However, it is becoming evident to resource managers that excessive growth of indigenous plants can cause similar ecosystem disruptions.

This overgrowth of local plants is not currently fully understood, but several factors contribute to these newly observed growth patterns. Warmer average temperatures can facilitate range expansion by allowing plants to move into areas that have become newly hospitable. Reduction of natural enemies can occur in response to changing environmental conditions, disease, predation, and intentional or inadvertent pest control operations.

Aquatic ecosystems are especially vulnerable to invasion by exotic plants that have exuberant growth and can create risks to human health, clog irrigation intakes, interfere with recreation, and inhibit water movement.

It is widely accepted that introduced species pose significant risks when they invade our waters, but little thought has been directed to the phenomenon of native species that sometimes grow excessively and form nuisance-level populations that can cause the same disruptions historically associated with non-native plants.

For many lung cancer patients, the best treatment options involve checkpoint inhibitors. These drugs unleash a patient's immune system against their disease and can yield dramatic results, even in advanced cancers.

But checkpoint inhibitors come with a huge caveat: They only help a small subset of patients. Doctors struggle to predict who these patients are and -- just as important -- who they aren't.

Results from a new study published Dec. 19 in the journal JCI Insight could help improve those forecasts.

After analyzing tumor samples from 28 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, researchers linked a common immune cell with treatment failure. The culprit: neutrophils, the most abundant type of white blood cell.

The paper shows that the balance between neutrophils and another type of immune cell -- disease-fighting T cells -- could accurately predict which patients would respond or not. If more neutrophils than T cells were crowded into a tumor, the drugs did not curb the patients' cancers. But if the balance was reversed, checkpoint inhibitors revved up patients' immune systems against their disease.

"The study is the first to implicate neutrophils in the failure of checkpoint inhibitors," said senior author Dr. McGarry Houghton, a lung cancer immunologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "Our findings also hint at a way to help patients who have this cellular signature."

In a mouse model of NSCLC, the researchers administered a drug that decreased the number of neutrophils in and around tumors. That in turn boosted the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors -- T cells now had a clear path to attack diseased cells in the mice. The researchers now want to test this approach in NSCLC patients through a clinical trial.

"As the immunotherapy field has evolved, the main question has become: Can you identify people who will respond to these treatments?" Houghton said. "But here we're really interested in identifying the 80% of people who don't respond and finding new ways to help them."

Neutrophils are the most common white blood cell in the human body, which churns out billions of them a day. They play a vital role in the immune system, serving as first responders after infection or injury.

Early cancer researchers didn't think they played a role in the disease, Houghton said. "Cancer is a chronic disease, so people didn't think they would be very important because they don't live very long. How could they influence cancer if they're only living a few hours?"

Today, researchers know that some neutrophils can suppress the activity of T cells. And even if individual neutrophils are short-lived, collectively they can secrete chemical messages over a long timeframe. While the new paper doesn't explore precisely how neutrophils are interfering with the checkpoint inhibitors, Houghton said, the link is clear.

"This ratio of neutrophils and T cells accurately tells you who's going to respond or not," he said. "As far as we know, this is the first time anybody has shown neutrophils contribute to (checkpoint inhibitor) treatment failure."

The researchers hope that knowledge could translate to better outcomes in patients. Houghton plans to launch a clinical trial combining the neutrophil-blocking drug with checkpoint inhibitors as part of the Fred Hutch Lung Specialized Project of Research Excellence.

And they will continue to search for markers that can predict whether immunotherapy is likely to help a given patient. Being able to sort patients by their cellular signature could help doctors pick the right treatment and avoid toxicities in people unlikely to benefit from the drug, Houghton said.

"This idea of personalized immunotherapy isn't here yet," Houghton said. "But knowing which of these subtypes a patient falls into would, in the future, allow for more targeted studies and treatments. We're trying to take steps in that direction."

WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Coastal wetlands provide stunning views and are hosts to a vast biodiversity. But they provide another service to the warming Earth: they capture carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in their sediment at high rates. In the United States alone, coastal wetlands can offset the yearly carbon dioxide emissions from 800,000 cars. But as sea level rises with climate change, will coastal wetlands be overwhelmed, or will they retain their power as carbon sinks?

New research from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) demonstrates that the wetlands will prevail. "We found even though sea level will continue to rise at different rates [from location to location], sediment accrual rates in coastal wetlands will outpace sea level rise, " says MBL Ecosystems Center scientist Jianwu (Jim) Tang, senior author on the study, published in Nature Communications.

More importantly, the carbon sequestered in coastal wetlands will stay locked away as new sediment deposits on top, allowing the marshland to act as a vault for excess carbon in the environment, the study found.

Although coastal wetlands cover only about 2 percent of the ocean surface, they are estimated to sequester more than 50 percent of the carbon captured by the ocean per year. And they fix carbon in their sediments at rates 10 to 100 times higher than forests.

The key to the study's finding is that salt marshes be allowed to accrue sediment as they naturally would. However, humans have a track record of altering salt marshes in ways that reduce their effectiveness to offset climate change. Excessive nitrogen pollution from agricultural runoff or building dikes to block tidal flows, for example, hamper the ability of marshes to sequester carbon. And coastal overdevelopment also destroys these natural carbon sinks.

"We have to understand that coastal wetlands are so valuable," says Tang. "Yes, they are beautiful and attract fish and have a recreational purpose. But people don't realize that they have another, very important ecosystem value. Conservation and even restoration of wetlands, in some cases, will help us to increase and protect their function as carbon sinks to the benefit of society and the warming planet."

From toucans to hummingbirds, the varying shapes and sizes of bird beaks show evolution in action.

Beaks are versatile, allowing birds to eat, regulate their temperature, and sing; these survival functions help determine beak length and size. Despite the complexity of beaks, most evolutionary studies have exclusively focused on a single function, like thermoregulation, rather than how a confluence of several functions impacts beak shape.

Using behavioral observations, morphological measurements, and mathematical analyses, researchers in the Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), in a collaborative project with a lab in the Czech Republic, have found that beak shape is a compromise between its many functions - a valuable insight into the nuanced processes driving evolution.

In addition, beak morphology impacts the songs the birds produce, which influences these animals' mating and communication practices. The scientists' findings, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, may also shed light on how birds are evolving in the present day in response to increasing urbanization and climate change.

Adapting to the environment

"There's something widely known in biology called Allen's rule; you tend to find animals with longer extremities in hotter regions and animals with shorter extremities in colder regions," said Dr. Nicholas Friedman, a postdoctoral researcher in the Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit. "Birds with really big beaks tend to live in the tropics, and those with little beaks tend to live in cold regions."

To see Allen's Rule in action, the researchers measured the average winter minimum temperatures and summer maximum temperatures endured by different species of Australian honeyeater bird. The scientists studied honeyeaters due to their morphological and geographic variety and abundance across Australia.

The scientists also studied beak evolution in relation to foraging behavior. Friedman and his colleagues used about 10,000 field observations of foraging activity in 74 species of Australian honeyeaters spread across Australia compiled by co-author Eliot Miller.

Friedman also took photographs of 525 bird specimens from a natural history museum in London. At OIST, he digitized the images to study beak morphology in detail.

Additionally, the scientists listened to hundreds of bird songs and measured their frequencies and speeds.

After obtaining this data, the researchers mapped different functions to beak curvature and depth, including nectar eaten, and the summer and winter temperatures they survived.

Shaping a better understanding of evolution

Upon further analysis, the scientists found that foraging ecology had a greater effect on the shape of the beak (curved versus straight), while climate had just as much of an effect on beak size. The shape and size of a beak also influences the song that is produced - a larger beak means a slower, deeper song.

"This paper therefore connects three things: thermoregulation/Allen's Rule, foraging behavior and song behavior together through the beak. We can then better understand how this influences mating and communication behavior," said Friedman.

Friedman's findings also have valuable implications for the future. Humans have had a great impact on the environment over recent years, and Friedman is interested to study how animals will evolve in response to climate change and urbanization.

"We've already seen birds change their song in response to noise pollution, and we've seen changes in beak size and body size due to climate," said Friedman. "These birds are evolving in real time in response to climate change."

Researchers identify possible link between cannabis use and structural changes to heart.

Regular cannabis use could affect the structure and function of the heart, research led by a team at Queen Mary University of London suggests.

Analysing MRI images from the UK Biobank population study, the team identified an association between regular cannabis use and an enlarged left ventricle - the heart's main pumping chamber - together with early signs of impairment of heart function.

The results are published today in JACC Cardiovascular Imaging.

Lead author Dr Mohammed Khanji, Senior Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary, said: "Our findings are not conclusive but the research took place against a backdrop of decriminalisation and legalisation of recreational cannabis use in many countries. We urgently need systematic research to identify the long-term implications of regular consumption of cannabis on the heart and blood vessels. This would allow health professionals and policymakers to improve advice to patients and the wider public."

The study analysed cardiac scans for 3,407 individuals with an average age of 62 who did not have cardiovascular disease. Most (3,255) rarely or never used cannabis, 105 had used it regularly but more than five years before they were interviewed and 47 were current regular users.

The latter group were more likely to have larger left ventricles and show early signs of impaired heart function, measured by how the heart muscle fibres deform during contraction. However, there appeared to be no difference between the three groups in the overall mass of the left ventricle or the amount of blood ejected with each heartbeat.

No changes were identified in the size and function of the other three chambers of the heart.

The analysis also found that people who had used cannabis regularly but given up had similar heart size and function to those who had rarely or never taken the drug.

Although the study took account of factors such as age, diabetes, blood pressure, smoking and alcohol consumption, Dr Khanji acknowledged it did have limitations. These included the over-representation of Caucasian participants (96%), the relatively low number of regular cannabis users, the reliance on self-reported usage of a drug that remains illegal in the UK and the possible impact of unmeasured confounding factors.

However, Dr Khanji, who is also a consultant cardiologist at Newham University Hospital and Barts Heart Centre, part of Barts Health NHS Trust, said: "We believe this is the first study to systematically report changes in heart structure and function associated with recreational cannabis using cardiac MRI, which is a very sensitive imaging tool and the current reference standard for assessing cardiac chambers.

The World Health Organisation has warned about the potential harmful health effects of non-medical cannabis use and called for more research specifically around the cardiac impact."

To many people, the term "urban growth" connotes shiny new high-rise buildings or towering skyscrapers. But in a new analysis of 478 cities with populations of more than 1 million people, researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) found urban growth is seldom typified by such "upward" growth. Instead, the predominant pattern in cities across the world is outward expansion: Think suburbs instead of skyscrapers.

These outward patterns of urban growth are generally considered inefficient and unsustainable because of their high energy and maintenance demands and intensive land use. However, the study points to opportunities to promote more sustainable development in many of the world's growing cities where outward growth is occurring at a slower pace.

"While these trends are probably not sustainable in the long term, it's not too late to shape the future of what these cities look like," said Richa Mahtta, a research associate at F&ES and lead author of the paper. "However, we must act soon, before all the urban infrastructure is built and energy consumption becomes locked in. Once cities are fully established, both their spatial patterns and associated human behavior are difficult to change."

According to their findings, notable exceptions to this global trend are found in East and Southeast Asia -- including parts of China and South Korea -- where there has been a steep rise in construction of high-rise buildings.

The paper, which is published in Environmental Research Letters, is co-authored by Karen Seto, a professor of geography and urbanization science at F&ES, and Anjali Mahendra, director of research at the World Resources Institute's Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.

"This is the largest dataset that maps both upward and outward urban growth, and it shows that for most of the world's cities with populations greater than 1 million, urban-related energy demand pathways are still in their infancy," Seto said.

Using remote sensing data to analyze the horizontal and vertical growth of the cities, the researchers categorized the world's urban areas into five urban growth typologies:

Stabilized (32 percent), where there is negligible outward growth and low upward growth (e.g., North America, South America, and Europe).

Outward (11 percent), where changes in horizontal expansion are high and vertical growth is low, (e.g., India, Africa, and China).

Budding outward (46 percent), where the initial urban footprint was low, outward expansion is moderate, and upward expansion very low, a pattern that is happening all around the world.

Mature upward (5 percent), where development is already well established, upward growth is moderate, and outward growth negligible (e.g., Osaka, Japan and Paris, France).

Upward and outward (6 percent), where urban growth is occurring vertically and horizontally (e.g., including some large cities in China, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates).

While geographic boundaries and higher land prices limit expansion in some areas (Hong Kong and Singapore) and population declines are affecting others (Japan and South Korea), in many urban areas of China (Shanghai, Suzhou, and Wuxi), increased population and the country's role in land acquisition, construction, and investment are driving growth that is both vertical and horizontal.

In contrast, in places where populations are growing but zoning is sometimes restrictive (India) or economic development policies are lacking (parts of Africa), the combination of factors is driving low-rise, outward urban expansion.

Since nearly half of the world's urban growth in terms of land area falls under the category of "budding outward," where growth is slow-paced, there remains a significant window of opportunity to shape future urban growth, Mahtta said.

"For these places especially, we have to change their course of urban development to make it more low carbon, walkable, resource efficient, and resilient," she said. "There's still time."

Experts from the MAD (Analytical and Digital Marketing) Research Group from the University of Seville have drawn attention to the fact that the very nature of online banking, according to the data analysed, is the cause of the reticence of the over-55s to use it as they do not feel comfortable navigating the 'digital world'. To combat this situation, the experts recommend developing more intuitive applications with appropriate signposting and instructions to help avoid errors. This would make it possible for them to know that they were doing the right thing, so reinforcing their confidence.

"E-inclusion among older people is a worry for numerous national and international public bodies. We have shown that self-sufficiency and technological anxiety influence the behaviour of older adults, as well as the perceived usefulness of an online service, such as, in this case, online banking. Therefore, on a social level, measures must be directed towards increasing their self-confidence and reducing the anxiety that participation in the online world produces", explains the University of Seville teacher Ángel Fco. Villarejo-Ramos.

The study, published by researchers from the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of Seville, enjoyed the participation of 576 students from the Aula de la Experiencía (Class of Experience) of the University of Seville and indicates, also, the lack of benefit or usefulness perceived in the use of these technologies, as other of the barriers that impede the use of online banking by older adults.

"We have to show them that these things are useful in their daily lives. In this sense, it would be interesting to show older adults who benefit from online services, who could serve as models to follow for their peers. In addition, we have shown the important influence of the environment of individual self-perception and behaviour. The environment, of which family members and friends form part, can be converted into a very worthwhile tool for stimulating learning and increasing the use of online banking. The family environment makes it possible to increase their level of self-sufficiency and so reduce anxiety levels", the experts add.

The environment which older adults find themselves in has a powerful influence. Firstly, social influences from the near environment (social persuasion) can increase self-sufficiency and reduce anxiety by means of help, advice and support from family and friends. Secondly, the experience lived, by means of advertising contexts that show older adults as models of behaviour capable of managing an online service, such as digital banking. This projection of experience can be used as a source of self-sufficiency and make it possible for older adults to experience lower levels of anxiety.

The consequences of such communication favour active ageing, social participation and the independence of older adults with regard to Information and Communication Technology. This will reduce public spending on dependence and improve the quality of life of older adults. Therefore, training, social support and advertising are fundamental instruments for achieving the e-inclusion of older adults.

In summary, this work concludes that, to reduce anxiety and increase self-sufficiency, it is necessary to guarantee a safe, reliable, simple and private digital environment for older users. So, business have to communicate clearly the usability, guarantees and security that they online services offer, underlining the benefits that can be obtained from their use, while taking into account the circumstances of older adults. Businesses must design usable apps based on a user-friendly and accessible interface; show the experiences of use of other older users; and interactive designs that facilitate learning and the appearance of favourable affective states.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University researchers have discovered that a chemical compound found in essential oils improves the healing process in mice when it is topically applied to a skin wound -- a finding that could lead to improved treatments for skin injuries in humans.

IU scientists also reported that skin tissue treated with the chemical compound, beta-carophyllene -- which is found in lavender, rosemary and ylang ylang, as well as various herbs and spices such as black pepper -- showed increased cell growth and cell migration critical to wound healing. They also observed increased gene expression of hair follicle stem cells in the treated tissue. The scientists did not find any involvement of the olfactory system in the wound healing.

Their research was published Dec. 16 in the journal PLOS ONE.

"This is the first finding at the chemical-compound level showing improved wound healing in addition to changes in gene expression in the skin," said Sachiko Koyama, corresponding author on the paper, who, at the time of this research, was an associate scientist at the IU School of Medicine and is currently a visiting scientist in the IU College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology. "The way gene expression changed also suggests not only improved wound healing but also the possibility of less scar formation and a more full recovery.

"It's an example that essential oils work; however, it's not through our sense of smell."

Essential oils are natural, concentrated oils extracted from plants. Their use by humans dates back to ancient Egypt, but the scented oils have experienced a resurgence in popularity in the U.S. over the past few years, with many people using them for aromatherapy.

Koyama, whose original field of study is pheromones, said she wasn't interested in essential oils at first. The project started when she saw several students studying the wound healing process in mice in the Medical Sciences Program at the IU School of Medicine-Bloomington. Having previously worked in the IU College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, where scientists are working with cannabinoid receptors, Koyama knew that beta-caryophyllene activates not only olfactory receptors but also cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2), which has anti-inflammatory impact when it is activated.

"In the wound healing process, there are several stages, starting from the inflammatory phase, followed by the cell proliferation stage and the remodeling stage," she said. "I thought maybe wound healing would be accelerated if inflammation was suppressed, stimulating an earlier switch from the inflammatory stage to the next stage."

This accelerated the wound healing process, she said, but the resulting change in gene expression indicates that the improved healing is not merely achieved through activation of the CB2 receptor.

"It's possibly more complicated," Koyama said. "Our findings suggest the involvements of some other routes in addition to CB2. I hope to clarify the mechanisms of action in the near future."

Although the study's results are promising, Koyama said she wouldn't recommend that people start treating their injuries with just any essential oils, as her research applies to a very specific chemical compound with known purity, diluted in a specific concentration.

"It's not very precise to use the essential oils themselves because there are differences," she said. "Even if you say you used lavender, when the lavender was harvested, where it was harvested, how it was stored -- all of this makes a difference in the chemical composition."

Koyama said further research is required to figure out how beta-carophyllene might be used to develop new treatments for skin wounds in humans. She said she hopes to better understand the mechanisms that accelerate the healing process and to find a combination of chemical compounds that could be used together to accelerate drug delivery and chemical stability, which is important for avoiding or suppressing allergic responses caused by oxidation of the chemical compounds.

"We still need thorough scientific studies at the chemical-compound level and also to test the combinations of these chemical compounds," Koyama said. "For example, there are studies showing that linalool -- another compound found in lavender -- can suppress anxiety through the olfactory system. There could be the best combinations of chemical compounds at specific ratios, and we might be able to do prescriptions of aroma chemical compounds, depending on the specific treatment goals.

"There are many things to test before we can start using it clinically, but our results are very promising and exciting; someday in the near future, we may be able to develop a drug and drug delivery methods using the chemical compounds found in essential oils."

A lot can happen in a year, especially when it comes to science. As 2019 draws to a close, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, is highlighting the year's biggest stories in chemistry, top research trends and important developments in a special issue. In addition, the magazine makes some bold predictions for chemistry in 2020.

2019's top trends underscore important advances in the chemistry enterprise, with topics including the impact of air pollution, a better understanding of the human microbiome, and new advances in cleaning up water contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). C&EN's most-read article described a new method that uses a $10 magnet to extract more hydrogen from water, which could help make clean-burning fuel a reality. Other top research featured in the issue includes advances in machine-learning and new insights into microplastics, 3-D printing and more.

With 2019 wrapping up, C&EN asked experts what to watch for in the coming year. Predictions for 2020 include further advancements in artificial intelligence, including combining machine-learning algorithms with automated instrumentation to improve synthesis processes. Other guesses include a focus on developing greener processes for making nitrogen-based compounds and materials -- essential components of medicines, recyclable materials and a variety of consumer goods.

A new study from North Carolina State University shows that ongoing habitat management could help prevent hurricane-driven extinctions. The study found that a rare Florida plant, the pineland croton, weathered the damage from Hurricane Irma better in plots that were under human management than those left alone. The work could have implications for management of rare species in the face of extreme conditions.

Pineland croton is a perennial shrub found in the pine rockland forests of south Florida. This rare plant requires fire to survive, and is the only host plant for two species of endangered butterfly - Bartram's scrub-hairstreak and the Florida leafwing. Without croton, the butterflies will go extinct.

"It may seem strange to associate fire with places like the Everglades and Florida Keys, but these plants flourish in rocky, dry areas that aren't usually seasonally flooded," says Erica Henry, postdoctoral researcher at NC State and first author of a paper describing the work. "Historically, pine rocklands burned frequently, and the croton seems to both seed and re-sprout following fire. But in the Keys particularly, using fire to maintain these habitats isn't possible due to human development."

Henry was initially interested in determining the most effective means of managing croton populations in Everglades National Park and the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key. However, in 2017 Hurricane Irma struck Florida and created another opportunity for research.

"We had been looking at managed and non-managed plots in both locations - the Everglades and the Keys - since 2015," Henry says. "Our initial focus was on the difference between mechanical understory removal and/or controlled burns versus nonmanagement, but Irma gave us the opportunity to see if any sort of human management helped recovery in the aftermath of a natural disaster."

Prior to the storm, Henry found that croton populations with consistent fire management in Everglades National Park were stable, whereas those on Big Pine Key that hadn't been burned in 15 years were declining at a rate of 20% per year. "This is a fast rate of decline and causes real problems for the butterflies that depend on these plants," Henry says.

Henry resampled plants from both sites 10 months after Irma. The two locations experienced differing effects from Irma: the Keys suffered from storm surge and wind gusts up to 160 mph, while the Everglades were not overwashed and experienced wind gusts up to 100 mph. Plant survival in both locations was much higher in managed plots than in unmanaged plots, but being outside Irma's eyewall meant plants in the Everglades did better overall.

"The hurricane was especially bad on Big Pine Key," Henry says. "Areas on the Key that hadn't been managed suffered the most, but the habitat management seemed to help."

The endangered butterfly, Bartram's scrub-hairstreak - whose numbers were declining prior to Irma - hasn't been seen on Big Pine Key since, but are still present in the Everglades National Park. Henry hopes the research will give park and land management officials strategies to harden habitats against natural disasters.

"It seems that even in extreme conditions best practices remain best practices," Henry says. "The pine rockland habitat depends on human management. In areas where that doesn't happen, we lose species and biodiversity. Management gives these habitats a better chance for survival in an era of rapid change."

The research appears in Global Change Biology and was funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB 1801289), Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges and Everglades National Park. Aerin Land of Everglades National Park, Martha Reiskind of NC State and Nick Haddad, formerly of NC State and currently at Michigan State University, also contributed to the work. A video from the researcher presenting this work, for embedding in articles, is here: https://youtu.be/Fxx_Tx5LCtI

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 18, 2019 -- Compulsive drinking may be due to dysfunction in a specific brain pathway that normally helps keep drinking in check. The results are reported in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

In the United States, 14 million adults struggle with alcohol use disorder (AUD)-- formerly known as alcoholism. This disorder makes individuals unable to stop drinking even when they know the potential risks to health, jobs, and relationships.

"Difficulty saying no to alcohol, even when it could clearly lead to harm, is a defining feature of alcohol use disorders," said Andrew Holmes, PhD, senior investigator of the study and Chief of the Laboratory on Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). "This study takes us a step further in understanding the brain mechanisms underlying compulsive drinking."

Many complex parts of behavior--emotion, reward, motivation, anxiety--are regulated by the cortex, the outer layers of the brain that are responsible for complex processes like decision-making. Unlike drugs like cocaine, alcohol has broad effects on the brain, which makes narrowing down a target for therapeutic treatment much more difficult.

"We want to understand how the brain normally regulates drinking, so we can answer questions about what happens when this regulation isn't happening as it should," said Lindsay Halladay, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Santa Clara University, and lead author of the study.

To study how the brain regulates drinking, Halladay and colleagues trained mice in the lab to press a lever for an alcohol reward. Once trained, the mice were presented with a new, conflicting situation: press the same lever for alcohol and receive a light electric shock to their feet, or avoid that risk but forfeit the alcohol. After a short session, most mice quickly learn to avoid the shock and choose to give up the alcohol.

Halladay's team first used surgically-implanted electrodes to measure activity in regions of the cortex during that decision.

"We found a group of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex that became active when mice approached the lever but aborted the lever press," said Halladay. "These neurons only responded when the mice did not press the lever, apparently deciding the risk of shock was too great, but not when mice chose alcohol over the risk of shock. This means that the neurons we identified may be responsible for putting the brakes on drinking when doing so may be dangerous."

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a role in many forms of decision-making and communicates with many regions of the brain, so Halladay's team explored those external connections.

The team used optogenetics, a viral engineering technique that allowed them to effectively shut down precise brain pathways by shining light in the brain. They shut down activity of cells in the mPFC that communicate with the nucleus accumbens, an area of the brain important for reward, and found that the number of risky lever presses increased.

"Shutting down this circuit restored alcohol-seeking despite the risk of shock," said Halladay. "This raises the possibility that alcohol use disorder stems from some form of dysfunction in this pathway."

Understanding compulsive drinking in some people relies on identifying the neural pathway that keeps drinking in check.

"Current treatments just aren't effective enough," said Halladay. "Nearly half of all people treated for AUD relapse within a year of seeking treatment."

Once scientists understand exactly how wiring in the brain is different for individuals with AUD compared to those without the disorder, more effective treatments can be developed.

URBANA, Ill. - During early adolescence, especially the transition to middle school, kids face a number of challenges both socially and academically. Peer rejection, bullying, and conflict with friends are common social stressors. These challenges can affect adolescents' ability to form positive peer relationships, a key developmental task for this age group.

Parents can act as social "coaches," offering support and advice to youth as they navigate these challenges by offering specific suggestions for facing challenges head-on or by encouraging kids' autonomy, to "figure it out" on their own. University of Illinois researchers are finding that not all kids benefit from the same types of parental coaching because kids respond to stress differently.

In a recent study, published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, researchers report on the connection between how mothers advise their children to respond to specific peer stress scenarios and youth stress responses during conversations about real peer experiences. They also identify what mothers do or say that is particularly helpful in facilitating youth adjustment and well-being in the face of these stressors.

"As we're thinking about the transition to middle school, we're looking at the extent to which mothers are encouraging their child to use active, engaged coping strategies, such as problem solving, help-seeking, or reframing or thinking about the situation in less threatening or negative ways," says Kelly Tu, assistant professor of human development and family studies at U of I.

The study also looks at how mothers may recognize that their children are transitioning into adolescence and looking for more autonomy and independence. "We wanted to examine the extent to which mothers are taking a step back, saying, 'I'm going to let you handle this in your own way--what you think is best or what works for you,'" Tu says.

Mothers and youth in the study participated during the transition from fifth grade to sixth grade. Mothers were given hypothetical peer stress scenarios such as peer exclusion, peer victimization or bullying, and anxiety about meeting new peers, as well as a variety of coping suggestions. Mothers were asked to report on how they would typically advise their child to respond.

Researchers also observed conversations between youth and their mothers about real peer stress situations. Common topics that were discussed included being around kids who are rude, having problems with a friend, and being bullied, teased, or hassled by other kids.

During the conversations, researchers measured skin conductance level--the electrical activity happening in the skin as part of the physiological "fight or flight" stress response system--from youth's hands. "We assessed youths' physiological arousal during these problem-solving discussions to examine how the different levels of reactivity may indicate different needs of the adolescent," Tu explains.

For instance, greater reactivity during the conversations may reflect youths' higher levels of physiological arousal or anxiety in recalling that stressful experience and talking it through with the mother. Whereas less reactivity during the problem-solving conversation might serve as an indicator of youths' insensitivity to the stressful experience. And these different response patterns may require different parenting approaches.

"We found that mothers' active, engaged coping suggestions were more beneficial for low reactive youth. Low reactive youth may not be attending to cues in these conversations about stressful or challenging peer experiences, and so they may behave in ways that are unexpected, non-normative, or inappropriate. But when parents give them specific advice for how to manage challenging peer situations, this appears to be helpful," Tu says.

However, the same active, engaged approached predicted worse adjustment for kids exhibiting higher arousal. "Instead, self-reliant suggestions actually predicted better adjustment for these kids," Tu explains.

"These findings are interesting because this suggests that a multi-step process might work best for kids who are exhibiting high physiological arousal related to peer problems. If you're anxious or stressed, and your parent is telling you to face the problem head on, that might actually create more anxiety.

"But when a parent gives a highly aroused youth more autonomy about how to cope with the peer stressor, this seems to be more beneficial because parents are giving them more space and time to work through the situation in their own way," Tu says. Thus, parents may want to consider the match of their coping suggestions with adolescents' stress reactivity.

Boston University professor Mark Grinstaff, and his team of researchers, are working to find eco-friendly alternatives to plastics. After two years of experimentation, Grinstaff's team unveiled an alternative biodegradable adhesive that is made entirely of naturally derived chemical components. Published in Nature Communications, the team says the adhesive's formula easily adapts to suit a wide range of industrial and medical applications that benefit from sticky materials.

"We are replacing current materials that are not degradable with something better for the environment while still maintaining the properties we expect from a performance standpoint," says Grinstaff, a BU College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Translational Research, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of chemistry, and director of the Grinstaff Group. "We can have both, we just have to be smart about how we do it."

"We wanted to mimic the plastic binders in paints that make them stick to the wall," explains Anjeza Beharaj, who earned her PhD in organic chemistry while working in Grinstaff's lab, which works primarily with polymers, large molecular structures made up of chemically linked materials.

Although polymers are often thought to be synonymous with plastic, they can also be made of naturally derived materials--even our DNA is considered a polymer. Beharaj and Grinstaff worked with undergraduate researcher Ethan McCaslin and William A. Blessing, who recently earned a PhD in chemistry at BU, to develop an adhesive system made of biodegradable polymers that can effectively stick to anything just as well as, if not better than, plastic-based products on the market today.

The key ingredient is carbon dioxide," Beharaj explains. About 20 to 40 percent of the biodegradable adhesive, which has the consistency of honey or molasses, is composed of CO2. "We tend to think of carbon as a polluting gas in the atmosphere, and it can be, in excessive amounts. But what's exciting is that this material repurposes carbon dioxide that would otherwise go into the atmosphere, and there's a potential for oil refineries and production plants to repurpose the gas for environmentally friendly polymers. So it's a win for the environment and a win for the consumer, as it can potentially lower the price of goods since CO2 is a cheap raw material," she says.

Grinstaff and Beharaj estimate that their adhesive will take a year or less to fully break down in the environment, unlike plastic which will pollute landfills for hundreds of years.

"This represents good progress toward making products greener, which should be a priority for the scientific community right now," says McCaslin.

McCaslin is hopeful that the adhesive will "inspire more researchers to work toward a similar goal of making products more eco-friendly," he says.

Grinstaff's team envisions the biodegradable adhesive solution could be tailored to fit the many needs of today's plastic adhesives. By adjusting the ratio of polymers and CO2 in each batch of adhesives, they are able to make the material's adhesion stronger, weaker, or able to respond to certain kinds of surfaces. The adhesive strength can range from that of Scotch tape to permanent wood glue, and it can be tailored to stick to metal, glass, wood, Teflon, and even wet surfaces.

The naturally derived and biodegradable materials are also completely safe to use on or in the human body, according to Beharaj. The adhesives could potentially replace metal used in surgeries to hold bone together, making some surgical procedures less invasive. They could also be used on the surface of skin to protect cuts, scrapes, wounds, or post-surgical incisions.

With such a huge array of possibilities, the next step is to find the best way to use and market the adhesives.

"The question right now is finding the best application, and we'll start by learning what the needs are from different communities," says Grinstaff. "People in the surgical field will have a different idea than someone in packaging, but we can address both markets."