Earth

Imagine your favorite beach filled with thousands of ducks and gulls. Now envision coming back a week later and finding condos being constructed on that spot. This many ducks in one place surely should indicate this spot is exceptionally good for birds and must be protected from development, right?

It depends, say Michigan State University researchers.

In a new paper published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, scientists show that conservation and construction decisions should rely on multiple approaches to determine waterbird "hotspots," not just on one analysis method as is often done.

"Waterbirds can move far in a short time, and they also are known to aggregate in clusters of hundreds or even thousands," said Elise Zipkin, MSU integrative biologist and study co-author. "Just because there are many birds in a particular location at a particular time, doesn't necessarily mean the location is a hotspot. It is important to distinguish whether that location is used repeatedly by the birds or if it is just a one-off use."

Knowing how many species and individuals use a designated area, and how often, can help determine whether building a housing development, creating a wind farm or establishing a marine sanctuary is the best choice. Yet, the new research found that the most popular methods to determine animal hotspots can produce vastly different conclusions.

"Our research didn't find one method was better than the others, but we did learn that certain methods might be better in some situations than in others, and in fact, the best approach may be to use a combination of methods," Zipkin said. "The more data-driven ways to make a decision, the better."

Allison Sussman, former MSU graduate student and lead author, notes that conservation and management decisions are often long-lasting and should be done carefully with full understanding of the data and methods being used.

The team studied a wide range of Great Lakes waterbirds including loons, ducks, mergansers, gulls and scaup. The bird data were evaluated using four different hotspot analysis methods. Not one produced the same results, though a couple were similar.

"The Great Lakes are home to hundreds of bird species and are a phenomenal resource not only ecologically, but recreationally and commercially as well," said Sussman, currently a database and GIS specialist at the U.S. Geological Survey. "If we want to preserve our beaches, shorelines and rivers we need to know which areas are actually hotspots that need conserving. Using the right combination of methods is important to achieve the right outcomes."

While the team studied Great Lakes waterbirds, the goal was to determine which hotspot methods are most appropriate to inform conservation management decisions generally.

"The Great Lakes, the Galapagos or the Amazon - it doesn't matter where on Earth you are - conservation is a timely and important topic," Sussman said. "Hopefully our findings can be used to make better management decisions in protecting the planet."

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Research has shown that, despite great efforts, one in three children continue to experience bullying in school. However, research also has indicated that environmental and psychological factors might play an important role in minimizing bullying behaviors.

Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that students who feel a greater sense of belonging with their peers, family and school community are less likely to become bullies. Their findings suggest that parents and teachers should consider ways to create a supportive and accepting environment both at home and at school.

Christopher Slaten and Chad Rose, associate professors in the MU College of Education, along with Jonathan Ferguson, a graduate candidate in the counseling psychology program, analyzed survey responses from more than 900 middle school students from rural schools throughout the U.S. The survey addressed their sense of belonging among peers, family and school community as well as bullying behavior. For example, they were asked if they upset others for the fun of it or if they spread rumors.

The results indicate that the more a student feels like they belong among their peers and family, the more likely they will feel like they belong at school. In addition, the more they feel like they belong within their school community, the less likely they were to report bullying behaviors. This indicates that parents might be able to play a proactive role in increasing their child's sense of belonging at school by focusing on improving family belongingness. Slaten suggests that one of the ways parents can increase a child's sense of family belonging is to organize activities that cater to every child's interests.

"If you have children with varying interests, it might be beneficial to suggest the whole family get together to attend each other's events and activities, even if it doesn't please the whole crowd every time," Slaten said. "By encouraging siblings to support each other, parents can help their children feel like their interests are accepted and that they fit within the family unit."

Rose adds that teachers and school leaders also should consider techniques and programs that create a supportive environment for students. Some examples include starting clubs for students with various interests, offering to lend an ear to students who need someone to talk to and consider community-building events.

"What we have found is that students' perceptions of how supportive and accepting their school environment is has the power to alter bullying behavior," Rose said. "This means that even acts of simple compassion and efforts to create an accepting and supportive space for students can help prevent bullying in schools. This is empowering news for teachers, students and their families."

CORVALLIS, Ore. - West Coast forest landowners are expected to adapt to climate change by gradually switching from Douglas-fir to other types of trees such as hardwoods and ponderosa pine, according to a new Oregon State University study.

The study, the first to estimate an economic model of forest-planting choices by landowners as a function of climate, is published in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.

Natural science analyses of forests and climate find evidence that Douglas-fir will be less productive in the Pacific Northwest under a warming climate, but those analyses haven't considered how landowners will respond, said David Lewis, an economist in OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences and co-author on the study.

Lewis co-authored the study with lead author Yukiko Hashida, a 2017 Ph.D. graduate from OSU who is now an assistant professor at the University of Georgia. "Our finding is based on evidence of forest planting choices along the West Coast," Lewis said. "The overall share of the forest landscape comprised of Douglas-fir will change gradually since only a small fraction of land is harvested every year."

About half of all non-federal forestland that is harvested in Oregon and Washington is currently replanted with Douglas-fir by landowners. But Douglas-fir will be less productive in the warming climate. The tree's ability to sequester carbon will diminish and landowners are more likely to switch to other trees, Lewis said.

Modeling by Hashida and Lewis suggests that share of Douglas-fir planting by landowners will shrink to 25% by the end of the century as landowners adapt their management to the projected warming climate.

The study also finds that a carbon pricing policy that subsidizes forest landowners for sequestering carbon will accelerate the transition out of Douglas-fir. The carbon price rewards the climate-induced relative shift in productivity away from Douglas-fir and to hardwoods and ponderosa pine.

Adding a policy that pays landowners to sequester and store carbon in forests will shrink the share of harvested land planted in Douglas-fir even further, to about 15%, he said.

Current policy examples of carbon sequestration in forests include the use of carbon offsets in California's cap-and-trade program for carbon, which was a model for Oregon's proposed program that failed to pass in the recently completed legislative session. The U.S. Conference of Mayors recently passed a resolution calling on Congress to pass a federal carbon pricing bill.

There will be trade-offs resulting from transitions out of Douglas-fir to other trees, Lewis said.

"Our model shows a change in the forest landscapes will generate habitat losses for wildlife specialized to Douglas-fir and habitat gains for wildlife specialized to other forest types," he said. "Subsidizing carbon sequestration may create unintended changes in the composition of forests and wildlife habitat."

Hurricane Erick has become the first tropical cyclone to enter the Central Pacific Ocean during the 2019 Hurricane Season and Hawaii is keeping an eye on the storm. NASA's Aqua satellite is also keeping eyes on Erick, too, and analyzed the water vapor content within the storm.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed Hurricane Erick on July 30 at 7:20 a.m. EDT (1120 UTC) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument gathered water vapor content and temperature information. The MODIS image showed highest concentrations of water vapor and coldest cloud top temperatures were in a thick ring of storms around the newly developed eye and in a fragmented band of thunderstorms north-northwest of Erick's center.

MODIS data also showed coldest cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius) in those storms. Storms with cloud top temperatures that cold have the capability to produce heavy rainfall. The circular eye was indicated by warmer temperatures near minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34.4 degrees Celsius). Those warmer temperatures, although still very cold, mean that there are high clouds covering the eye. High cirrus clouds covering the eye mean that it would not yet be seen on visible satellite imagery.

Water vapor analysis of tropical cyclones tells forecasters how much potential a storm has to develop. Water vapor releases latent heat as it condenses into liquid. That liquid becomes clouds and thunderstorms that make up a tropical cyclone. Temperature is important when trying to understand how strong storms can be. The higher the cloud tops, the colder and the stronger they are.

On Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC or 11 p.m. HST on July 29), NOAA's National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the center of Hurricane Erick was located near latitude 13.1 degrees north and longitude 141.4 degrees west. About 1,015 miles (1,635 km) east-southeast of Hilo Hawaii. Erick is moving toward the west near 17 mph (28 kph). A west-northwest course at a slower forward speed is expected to begin on Tuesday and continue through Thursday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 80 mph (130 kph) with higher gusts. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 15 miles (30 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles (130 km). The estimated minimum central pressure is 988 millibars.

NHC said additional strengthening is forecast through Wednesday. Weakening is expected starting by late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

Cloud top temperatures provide information to forecasters about where the strongest storms are located within a tropical cyclone. NASA's Aqua satellite took Tropical Storm Flossie's cloud top temperatures to get that information.

NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed the storm on July 29, at 6:35 a.m. EDT (1035 UTC) using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument. The stronger the storms, the higher they extend into the troposphere, and they have the colder cloud temperatures.

AIRS found coldest cloud top temperatures as cold as or colder than minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) south of the center. At 11 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center analyzed infrared data and said, "Flossie's low-level center has migrated southward toward the strongest convection and is positioned just north of the coldest cloud tops."

Cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms that have the capability to create heavy rain.

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, the center of Tropical Storm Flossie was located near latitude 12.2 degrees north and longitude 119.3 degrees west. That puts the center of Flossie about 965 miles (1,550 km) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Flossie is moving toward the west near 16 mph (26 kph) and a turn to the west-northwest is expected later today. Maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph (100 kph) with higher gusts. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1001 millibars (29.56 inches).

Flossie is expected to strengthen to a hurricane later today, and then is forecast to become a major hurricane Wednesday night.

Physical activity has many well-known health benefits, but its association with lung function in childhood and adolescence is not well understood. A new study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by "la Caixa", has for the first time demonstrated an association between regular physical activity during childhood and higher lung-function values in adolescent girls.

The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, examined the relationship between physical activity, from childhood to adolescence, and lung function in adolescence in 2,300 boys and girls participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a United Kingdom-based birth cohort also known as "Children of the 90s".

The children's physical activity was recorded using an Actigraph sensor over seven-day periods at 11, 13 and 15 years of age and their lung function was analysed by spirometry at 8 and 15 years of age. The children's parents also completed questionnaires on sociodemographic, psychological and lifestyle-related factors.

The researchers defined three physical-activity trajectories: low, moderate and high. "Girls in the moderate and high physical-activity trajectories had a higher exhalation capacity--that is, greater forced expiratory volume--than girls in the low physical-activity trajectory," explained lead author Célina Roda.

In contrast, no such association was observed in boys. One possible explanation, according to Roda, is that "growth spurts occur earlier in girls than in boys, so any effect of physical activity on lung function can be more easily observed at an earlier age in girls".

The findings showed that less than 7% of the children achieved the level of physical activity recommended by the World Health Organisation--a minimum of 60 minutes each day. At 11 years of age, boys engaged in an average of 24 minutes of physical activity per day, compared with 16 minutes in girls. In general, boys were more active than girls at all ages.

"The high prevalence of physical inactivity observed in children is worrying. Extrapolated to the population as a whole, this is a factor that could have a considerable impact on lung function," commented Judith Garcia Aymerich, Head of the Non-Communicable Diseases and Environment Programme at ISGlobal and coordinator of the study. "Strategies for promoting physical activity in childhood could be highly beneficial for the respiratory health of the population," she added.

"Further studies that take into account environmental factors such as air pollution are needed to determine whether these factors influence the benefits of physical activity on lung function."

For the first time, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have studied and outlined the development of sebaceous glands in the skin. The study provides greater insight into the development and maintenance of the skin and how cancer mutations affect the behaviour of stem cells.

Most people are familiar with the sebaceous glands which are responsible for moisturising the skin, and during puberty sometimes more so. But even though the glands are a main component of our skin, scientists know surprisingly little about how they form and how they are subsequently maintained.

In a new study, researchers from the Biotech Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology (DanStem) at the University of Copenhagen have gained new insight into how the skin, and in particular the sebaceous gland, forms during development and how it is replenished throughout life. Moreover, they reveal how a mutation often found in cancer affects normal cell behaviour.

'We demonstrate for the first time ever how the sebaceous glands that contribute to the natural moisture of the skin are formed and how they are maintained throughout life by stem cells. This knowledge may be transferred to individuals with sebaceous gland conditions, e.g. acne or very dry skin', says Postdoc Marianne Stemann Andersen from BRIC.

At the same time, the study shows that the behaviour of the stem cells changes when the researchers introduce a specific and frequently found cancer mutation to the skin stem cells. Surprisingly, the mutation did not as expected cause cells to divide more often; instead stem cells had a tendency to generate more stem cells and not mature sebaceous gland cells when they divided.

'In this case, the result is a sebaceous gland which - similar to tumours - continues to grow. We hope this knowledge can contribute to the design of better cancer treatment', says Associate Professor and Head of the Study Kim Jensen from BRIC and DanStem.

Difference in Cell Division

In the study, the researchers tracked stem cell division in the skin of live mice. Here individual stem cells were coloured with fluorescent proteins. This enabled the researchers to follow stem cells during a number of cell divisions and essentially generate family trees describing the heritage of individual cells.

During the formation of the sebaceous gland, the researchers found that when a stem cell divided and gave rise to two daughter cells, this more often led to the formation of two new stem cells than into mature sebaceous gland cells. This way, the sebaceous gland continued to grow until it had reached its mature size. At this point the behaviour of the stem cells changed, and new cells only emerged when mature sebaceous gland cells would burst to release their moisturising lipids on the skin and thereby be lost from the sebaceous gland.

In mice where the researchers introduced a specific mutation often found in human cancers into stem cells of the sebaceous gland this behaviour changed dramatically. Here even in adult mice the sebaceous gland continued to grow.

'We used to believe that this mutation led to more frequent cell divisions. However, our research shows that its effect on how often cells divide is very mild. Instead, stem cells with the cancer mutation are much more likely to divide into two new stem cells than generating mature sebaceous gland cells. This explains why the sebaceous gland continues to grow after we introduce this mutation to the skin', says Postdoc Svetlana Ulyanchenko from BRIC.

'In connection with cancer therapies that target cells that divide frequently, this means that cancer cells and normal cells are just as likely to be targets of the treatments. If we are able to determine what controls how often cells divide when mutated, we may be able to develop therapies that specifically affect cancer cells'.

In the future, the research team headed by Associate Professor Kim Jensen wants to expand its analysis to other cancer mutations and study how different mutations in the same cell interplay and change stem cell behaviour. According to the researchers, such studies would offer a main basis for far more effective cancer treatment.

The cell polarity protein Par3 controls mechanic changes in the skin and plays an important role in cell division. Malfunction can lead to DNA damages. The balance of the system is of great importance: while too much differentiation leads to loss of stem cells and therefore premature aging, too many cell divisions can be a cause of skin cancer. The new study by a team around Sandra Iden about how polarity regulators control cellular mechanics in the skin was now published in Nature Communications.

The skin serves as a crucial barrier to the outside world. Its task is not only to keep pathogens or toxic chemicals out of the body, but also to keep water inside and maintain hydration. In order to function properly, the skin epidermis constantly needs to keep a balance of cells it sheds off and new cells that replenish the lost ones. The skin epidermis is made up of several layers with different functions. Skin stem cells are responsible for the self-renewing capacity of the skin.

In a previous study, the researchers showed that inactivation of the polarity protein Par3 resulted in a decline of stem cells, impaired skin homeostasis and premature skin aging. Back then, however, the underlying mechanisms remained unclear. 'We were now able to show that Par3 has a direct influence on the homeostasis of the skin by controlling the mechanical properties of keratinocytes, the main skin epithelial cell,' said leading scientist of the study Dr Sandra Iden. The polarity protein Par3 controls the mechanical properties of the main skin epithelial cells, called keratinocytes. It has functions that are conserved from worms and flies to mammals. Par3 also regulates barrier function and cell division orientation.

The recent work started with two separate approaches. One of the first authors, Martim Dias Gomes, said: 'We realized that inactivating Par3 leads to failures in cell divisions, resulting in DNA damage responses.' At the same time, his colleague and co-first author Soriba Letzian was working on another project: 'We challenged mouse skin with UV light - but observed an unexpected DNA damage response already in absence of the harmful light, when Par3 was missing. That was the moment we realized that the DNA damage response and the aberrant cell divisions might be tightly linked,' he said. Based on these results, they teamed up and together examined possible causes of these mitotic failures.

As they now show, Par3 is an important regulator of contractility of keratinocytes, which is required to maintain the accuracy of cell division events. The absence of Par3 led to mitotic errors, causing an alert signal and a cascade of DNA damage responses that then fuelled premature differentiation, and potentially the skin stem cell decline. These findings were surprising, as during the development of epithelial tissues Par3 was considered to serve tissue function rather through orienting mitotic spindles.

These new findings thus revealed that core polarity proteins like Par3 steer mechanochemical networks essential to keep a healthy self-renewal capacity. 'We are glad that we were able to contribute a piece of the puzzle of how the skin epithelium is maintained intact, and hope that this will serve future medical applications,' Sandra Iden concludes.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 23, 2019 -- Several screening tests for cervical cancer have been developed in recent years. One technique uses immunofluorescent staining to determine the levels of biomarkers to indicate a cell is undergoing HPV-related cancerous growth. Immunostaining for these proteins, however, can be time-intensive. One new approach, discussed in this week's Biomicrofluidics, from AIP Publishing, looks to provide a way to screen cervical cells with immunostaining more efficiently, drawing inspiration from an unlikely source.

Researchers have demonstrated a new device that can trap and analyze single cells for HPV-related cervical cancer screening. The device uses an array of wells for single cells to sit in, each with microscopic electrodes lining the bottom, and an electrical phenomenon known as dielectrophoresis to trap those cells for analysis.

The design, said author Soo Hyeon Kim, was inspired by the game Pachinko, in which small steel balls navigate a board studded with brass pins toward baskets that denote various prizes.

"Major challenges were trapping suspended cells at the single-cell level and analyzing them using antibodies with minimum loss of trapped cells," he said. "By just putting a small structure behind the microwell, the cells were efficiently stayed in the microwells even with the unstable flow used for delivery of reagents."

Immunostaining involves creating antibodies that can enter a cell and bind to target proteins and fluoresce. Cells containing higher levels of two proteins related to cellular growth and proliferation, called p16 and Ki-67, reliably indicate the presence of cancerous cells.

Such techniques, though, often require researchers to carefully prepare one cell at a time. This can be particularly problematic, since sometimes not all cells from the same cancerous show the same abnormal behavior.

The group's approach, called electroactive microwell array with barriers (EMAB), is one of the first to combine electrostatic forces from each well's electrodes with a physical structure that acts as a Pachinko basket for each cell.

During experiments, the device effectively trapped 98% of the cells that passed through it and was able to hold on to 92% of them before analyzing them using immunofluorescent staining.

Kim said that combining EMAB with p16/Ki67 dual immunostaining could be a useful tool to provide molecular evidence that might help pathologists make a cervical cancer diagnosis. He hopes the technique evolves and can be adapted for use in diagnosing ovarian cancer and circulating tumor cells.

The group's next project is to use the device in the clinic.

Osaka, Japan - The bacterial genus Mycobacterium has the dubious honor of including species responsible for two of the best-known chronic human infectious diseases: tuberculosis and leprosy. But unlike their more famous cousins, for which effective treatment strategies have long been available, it is the 200 or so lesser known Mycobacterium species that are currently causing a resurgence in pulmonary diseases in recent times.

Referred to collectively as nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), these species are widely found in soil and water. However, if given the chance, NTM can cause serious skin and lung infections in susceptible patients. One of the biggest impediments to the treatment of NTM infections is the difficulty in telling the bacteria apart, particularly at the subspecies level. Accurate identification is crucial though, as different species show varying levels of responsiveness to different antibiotic therapies.

To address the lack of an accurate and sensitive identification method for NTM, a research team from Osaka University and the University of the Ryukyus in Japan have developed software that reliably identifies NTM based on sequence data from bacterial genes. In a paper published this month in Emerging Microbes and Infections, the researchers explain how they developed the software and what it means for the treatment of NTM infections.

"Among the current NTM identification methods, the most sensitive and accurate are based on genomic information," says author Shota Nakamura. "However, despite the recognized need for high quality genomic data that allows NTM identification to the subspecies level, current databases only contain assemblies for 148 species. Therefore, in this study, we sequenced the genomes of a further 27 species and resequenced the genomes of 36 species."

Using their newly acquired sequences in conjunction with 7,484 previously published genome assemblies, the researchers developed a comprehensive database of 175 NTM species identified based on the sequences of 184 separate genes. Known as multilocus sequence typing, each species can be differentiated by its specific combination of sequence differences within the 184 genes. The database also included other Mycobacterium species for comparison.

"Once we had assembled our database, we developed software, called mlstverse, that compares unknown sequences against the database, resulting in accurate identification of NTM," explains lead author of the study Yuki Matsumoto. "When we compared our method with other approaches for the identification of 29 clinical NTM isolates, mlstverse was the only method that identified all 29 isolates to the subspecies level."

The possible applications are promising--Takeshi Kinjo, a medical doctor in the University of Ryukyus Hospital, says that "this method can potentially be used to identify NTM from clinical specimens, allowing the implementation of targeted therapies and improving the cure rates of NTM-associated infections."

UMD researchers are connecting climate change to urban and suburban stormwater management, with the ultimate goal of increasing resiliency to major storm events. With models not only predicting more rain, but an increased frequency of particularly intense and destructive storms, flooding is a major concern in communities that are becoming more settled with more asphalt. Flooding doesn't just cause property damage, but it impacts the health of the Chesapeake Bay through increased nutrient runoff and pollution. In a new case study published in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, researchers examine two distinct watersheds and demonstrate that even small decentralized stormwater management practices like rain gardens can make a big cumulative difference to the resiliency of a watershed, using predictive modeling to assess what climate change will demand of our future stormwater management systems.

"What we design now is in place for 20 or 30 years, so we should design it with future climate conditions in mind as opposed to what the past rain has looked like," explains Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman, assistant professor in Environmental Science & Technology. "This work puts emphasis on what's happening in local upland spaces that has immediate implications for the people who are living in these watersheds for future flood mitigation, but connects this to the broader issues of how increased runoff links to the health of the Chesapeake Bay."

With this study, Pavao-Zuckerman and graduate student Emma Giese take a practical look at what suburban areas are currently doing to manage their stormwater, and provide some evidence on how and why to implement green infrastructure based on how these systems will hold up in the future. Pavao-Zuckerman and Giese leveraged data available from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for two watersheds in Clarksburg, Maryland, a suburban town in Montgomery County that is only growing and continuing to develop. These two watersheds each have a distinct development history - one has several larger-scale detention ponds or stormwater basins for a more traditional approach to stormwater management, while the other has a heavy presence of smaller-scale green infrastructure like rain gardens, dry detention ponds, and sand filters. Both watersheds were monitored before and after development to see the impacts of green infrastructure, and both are near a weather monitoring station with climate data that is readily accessible.

"Green infrastructure consists of things with a much smaller footprint than a stormwater basin, but there are more of them in the watershed, so it comes down to measuring the aggregated effect of a lot of small things in one watershed rather than one or two large things in another watershed," says Pavao-Zuckerman. "Partnering with the USGS to have a good data source at the watershed scale and finding the right model for the question was key."

To model future climate change scenarios for these two watersheds, Pavao-Zuckerman and Giese enlisted the help of Adel Shirmohammadi, professor and associate dean in the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources. "Together, we were able to use the USGS data to train the Soil and Water Assessment Tool or SWAT model, taking into account the geography of the watersheds, slope, soil type, impervious surface, built versus open space, and other parameters to determine how much rainfall actually becomes runoff or flooding risk," says Pavao-Zuckerman.

Using this model, Pavao-Zuckerman and Giese were then able to take climate change projection data for increased storm frequency and rainfall to run a variety of future scenarios and see how these different watersheds would manage. "We've already seen a significant increase in rainfall in the present day, so we were surprised to see that our baseline present day measure was already seeing the effects of increased rain," says Pavao-Zuckerman.

Ultimately, Pavao-Zuckerman and Giese found that the watershed with more green infrastructure was able to buffer and absorb more of the increased rainfall than the more traditionally designed watershed with larger stormwater basins. However, with larger or more intense rain events, both systems failed to handle the amount of rain successfully. "We are seeing more large storm events so either the systems are overwhelmed or are still saturated by the time the next storm event comes," says Pavao-Zuckerman. "So it is really the bigger rain events where we are seeing things not work as well, and that's concerning partly because we know that with climate change these more intense events are going to become more common. This points to the need to plan for these more intense weather events in stormwater management infrastructure."

To combat this issue, Pavao-Zuckerman and Giese did find that increasing the capacity for some of the existing systems or increasing the presence of green infrastructure in the watersheds made them more resilient to future extreme rain events. With that in mind, Pavao-Zuckerman and Giese worked with Amanda Rockler, watershed restoration specialist and senior agent with UMD Extension and the Maryland Sea Grant Program, to provide insight into what was feasible to implement. "Our work allows us to see what the added return on investment in these different climate and stormwater management scenarios might be," says Pavao-Zuckerman. "It's more concrete than just saying more green infrastructure is better, which isn't practical and might have a cost-benefit trade off."

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Cryo-electron microscopy is now the most popular method for determining protein structures, which helps researchers develop drugs for different kinds of ailments. Over the last several decades, it has replaced X-ray crystallography because it can image proteins that can't easily be formed into large crystals. The new technique was so revolutionary that it won its developers the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

The final product of cryo-EM is a map of the density of atoms in biological molecules, but to achieve the level of detail researchers need, they need to conduct further analysis. A new study in the journal Nature Methods outlines a technique to bring low-resolution maps up to par.

The approach researchers use to do this depends on the level of detail they start with. Maps at 2 to 3 ångström (Å, a unit of length used to express the size of atoms and molecules) are generally considered high-resolution. However, maps of this quality are difficult to achieve, and many are still commonly produced in the range of 4 to 10 Å. Of all the proteins deposited to the Electron Microscopy Data Bank from 2016-18, more than 50% were solved at intermediate resolution.

"If the resolution is better than three, then conventional tools can trace amino acid position and build a map of atom positions. But frequently cryo-EM cannot give you a 3 Å map," said Daisuke Kihara, a professor of biological sciences and computer science at Purdue University. "In maps of 5 Å or lower, you usually can't see chain connectivity at all."

Proteins are actually chains of amino acids, and bonding between amino groups and carboxyl groups sometimes creates certain patterns of folding. These patterns, known as alpha helices and beta strands, form the secondary structure of the protein.

In maps from 5 to 8 Å, some fragments of the secondary structure of proteins are usually visible, but tracing the entire chain would be very difficult. Kihara's new method, known as Emap2sec, uncovers secondary structures in maps from 6 to 10 Å.

Emap2sec has a deep convolutional neural network at the core of its algorithm. These networks are deep-learning systems primarily used to classify images, cluster them by similarity and perform object recognition. It works for protein structure identification in 3D maps because the method "convolves" local map density features to images of a larger region as the information passes through layers of neural network. The local prediction is made in the context of a large region of the map.

Identified secondary structures in 3D maps help researchers to assign known structures of proteins that have already been solved into the map. This means they sometimes have a starting point, or at least a clue of what some of the structure looks like. Emap2sec can help researchers fit their piece into the puzzle more quickly and easily. The identified structure information might also be helpful in finding errors in structure modeling.

BEER-SHEVA, Israel...July 29, 2019 - Babies show empathy for a bullied victim at only six months of age, according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Hebrew University in Israel.

In a paper published in British Journal of Psychology, researchers through two experiments contributed to the debunking of the theory that babies only develop the ability to empathize after one year.

"The findings indicate that even during a baby's first year, the infant is already sensitive to others' feelings and can draw complicated conclusions about the context of a particular emotional display," says Dr. Florina Uzefovsky, head of the BGU Bio-Empathy Lab, and senior lecturer in BGU's department of psychology and the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience. "Even during the first year of life, babies are able to identify figures who "deserve" empathy and which ones do not, and if it appears that there is no justification for the other one's distress, no preference is shown."

In the first experiment, researchers determined that five- to nine-month-old infants demonstrate a clear pro-victim preference. They showed 27 infants two video clips depicting a square figure with eyes climb a hill, meet a circular friendly figure, then happily go down the hill together, all the while displaying clear positive or neutral feelings. (click here for video 1). In the second video, however, the same round figure hits and bullies the square figure until it goes back down the hill, showing distress by crying and doubling over. (click here for video 2)

The researchers then had the babies show their preference by choosing one of the square figures presented to them on a tray. More than 80% of the participants chose the figure that had shown distress, thus showing empathic preference towards the bullied figure. When shown the same set of figures without the context of why there was sadness or a positive mood, the babies showed no preference for either figure.

Blocking dopamine receptors in different regions of the amygdala reduces drug seeking and taking behavior with varying longevity, according to research in rats published in eNeuro.

The amygdala contains receptors for dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in reward seeking, and has been shown to influence cocaine reward behaviors, making it a target for addiction treatment research.

Matthew Lattal and Earnest Kim at Oregon Health & Science University blocked dopamine receptors in the amygdala of rats that were self-administering cocaine. The rats were trained to push a lever that caused another lever to appear, which modeled drug-seeking behavior, and to press the second lever to receive a dose of cocaine, which was the actual drug-taking behavior.

Blocking dopamine receptors in the basolateral amygdala gradually decreased drug seeking and taking behaviors, even when the rats were placed in a new environment. In the central amygdala, blocking dopamine caused a rapid decrease in drug seeking and taking. The effect was reversed when the rats entered a new environment.

These findings clarify the unique roles of the basolateral and central amygdala and reveal that blocking dopamine during cocaine use weakens the effects of the drug. This offers insight into potential therapies for drug addiction and relapse.

Deep brain stimulation of the cingulate cortex worsens memory recall, according to research in epilepsy patients published in JNeurosci. The technique could be a way to target specific brain areas in the treatment of memory disorders.

Vaidehi Natu and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center stimulated the posterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved in memory, using electrodes inserted into the brains of epilepsy patients to treat seizures. The participants were shown a list of words, distracted, and then asked to recall the words.

Natu's team discovered that stimulating the cingulate cortex reduced the number of recalled words and modified hippocampal brain waves compared to no stimulation. This establishes a direct role for the cingulate cortex in memory encoding and demonstrates that memories can be manipulated via deep brain stimulation, which has implications for the treatment of memory disorders.