Earth

NASA's Aqua satellite took the temperature of Tropical Storm Flossie as it continued to strengthen and organize in the Eastern Pacific.

Tropical Depression 7E formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean on Sunday, July 28 about 580 miles (930 km) south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. On July 29 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and was renamed Flossie.

Infrared light enables NASA to take the temperatures of clouds and thunderstorms that make up tropical cyclones. The stronger the storms are indicate that they extend high into the troposphere and have cold cloud top temperatures.

An infrared look at Flossie by NASA's Aqua satellite on June 29, at 0459 UTC (0859 UTC) revealed where the strongest storms were located within the system. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed Flossie and found cloud top temperatures of strongest thunderstorms as cold as or colder than minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) circling the center. Cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms that have the capability to create heavy rain.

NOAA's National Hurricane Center or NHC noted, "A series of fortuitous microwave images was helpful in locating the center of circulation and revealed significant banding improvements in the south semicircle portion of the cyclone."

At 11 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. HST/1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Flossie was located near latitude 12.5 degrees north and 114.6 degrees west longitude. Flossie is far from land areas, so there are no coastal watches in effect. Flossie's center is about 780 miles (1,260 km) south-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico.

NHC said Flossie is moving toward the west near 18 mph (30 kph) and this general motion is forecast to continue through Tuesday night, July 30. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 50 mph (85 kph) with higher gusts.

Further strengthening is expected, and Flossie is expected to become a hurricane on Tuesday.

When making choices, people tend either to go with what they know or try something new. We experience this trade-off every day, whether choosing a route to work or buying breakfast cereal. But does one strategy have an advantage over another? Researchers decided to examine this question by looking at fishing boat captains, who face this choice again and again when deciding where to fish.

To find out which strategy leads to greater success in the real world, scientists from the University of California, Davis, and their coauthors examined 540,000 fishing vessel position records from nearly 2,500 commercial fishing trips in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, along with their revenues. The results are published today in the journal Nature Communications.

"It looks like exploration pays off in the face of uncertainty," said co-leading author Shay O'Farrell, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Professor James Sanchirico from the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy. "This is particularly important in the context of global environmental change, when disturbances such as storms and droughts are predicted to increase."

FUTURE-PROOFING OUR LIVELIHOODS

The study found that some vessels consistently explore new territory more than others and invest more time and resources into sampling new places to fish. In times of stability, exploratory vessels performed no better or worse on average than vessels that stuck with consistency.

"In relatively stable environments, we would expect that any gains from switching behaviors would usually go away, otherwise vessels would be changing how they fish," Sanchirico said.

But when boats were suddenly forced to fish elsewhere during a 2009 closure of popular fishing grounds in the Gulf, those with a history of exploration experienced significantly less impact from the disruption. That may be because the boat captains could draw from their history of exploration to select new grounds.

O'Farrell suggests the findings may hold lessons for times of uncertainty.

"One way in which we can future-proof our livelihoods is by exploring new options," O'Farrell said. "That way, if our current options become unavailable or less attractive in the future, we can fall back on our knowledge of alternatives. Sharing our knowledge could make us even more resilient still, as we can draw from a larger pool of experience."

Scientist have identified a link between exposure to high levels of oestrogen sex hormones in the womb and the likelihood of developing autism. The findings are published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The discovery adds further evidence to support the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism first proposed 20 years ago.

In 2015, a team of scientists at the University of Cambridge and the State Serum Institute in Denmark measured the levels of four prenatal steroid hormones, including two known as androgens, in the amniotic fluid in the womb and discovered that they were higher in male foetuses who later developed autism. These androgens are produced in higher quantities in male than in female foetuses on average, so might also explain why autism occurs more often in boys. They are also known to masculinise parts of the brain, and to have effects on the number of connections between brain cells.

Today, the same scientists have built on their previous findings by testing the amniotic fluid samples from the same 98 individuals sampled from the Danish Biobank, which has collected amniotic samples from over 100,000 pregnancies, but this time looking at another set of prenatal sex steroid hormones called oestrogens. This is an important next step because some of the hormones previously studied are directly converted into oestrogens.

All four oestrogens were significantly elevated, on average, in the 98 foetuses who later developed autism, compared to the 177 foetuses who did not. High levels of prenatal oestrogens were even more predictive of likelihood of autism than were high levels of prenatal androgens (such as testosterone). Contrary to popular belief that associates oestrogens with feminisation, prenatal oestrogens have effects on brain growth and also masculinise the brain in many mammals.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, who led this study and who first proposed the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism, said: "This new finding supports the idea that increased prenatal sex steroid hormones are one of the potential causes for the condition. Genetics is well established as another, and these hormones likely interact with genetic factors to affect the developing foetal brain."

Alex Tsompanidis, a PhD student in Cambridge who worked on the study, said: "These elevated hormones could be coming from the mother, the baby or the placenta. Our next step should be to study all these possible sources and how they interact during pregnancy."

Dr Alexa Pohl, part of the Cambridge team, said: "This finding is exciting because the role of oestrogens in autism has hardly been studied, and we hope that we can learn more about how they contribute to foetal brain development in further experiments. We still need to see whether the same result holds true in autistic females."

However, the team cautioned that these findings cannot and should not be used to screen for autism. "We are interested in understanding autism, not preventing it," added Professor Baron- Cohen.

Dr Arieh Cohen, the biochemist on the team, based at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, said: "This is a terrific example of how a unique biobank set up 40 years ago is still reaping scientific fruit today in unimagined ways, through international collaboration."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Infants 17 months of age expect leaders - but not others - to intervene when one member of their group transgresses against another, a new study reveals.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, add to growing evidence that children in their second year of life have a well-developed understanding of social hierarchies and power dynamics, said University of Illinois psychology professor Renée Baillargeon, who led the research. The study was conducted in Baillargeon's Infant Cognition Lab by graduate student Maayan Stavans, who then proceeded to postdoctoral studies on a Fulbright Fellowship at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel.

"We know that adults expect the leaders of social groups to intervene to stop within-group transgressions," Stavans said. "We wanted to know how early those expectations appear in human development, so we examined the question in very young children."

The research relied on a well-established method that gives insight into the reasoning of children too young to fully express themselves verbally: Infants typically stare longer at events that unfold in ways they don't expect.

"By tracking how long children stare at different events, we gain insight into what they think," Stavans said.

The study involved 120 infants. In a series of experiments, the researchers used bear puppets to enact skits in front of infants who sat comfortably on a parent's lap. Some of the children watched scenarios involving a protagonist bear that two other bears treated as a leader, and some saw a protagonist bear that appeared to have no authority over the other two bears.

In all the scenarios, the protagonist presented the other bears with two toys for them to share, but one bear quickly grabbed both toys, leaving none for the other bear. Next, the protagonist either rectified this transgression by redistributing one of the toys from the wrongdoer bear to the victim bear, or the protagonist ignored the transgression by approaching each bear without redistributing a toy.

"The scenarios differed in the status of the protagonist - was she a leader or not? - and in the protagonist's response to the transgression - did she rectify the situation or ignore it?" Baillargeon said.

"Infants stared longer when the leader ignored the wrongdoing than when she rectified it," Baillargeon said. "This suggests that infants expected the leader to intervene and right the wrong in her group, and were surprised when she took no such action."

The children also stared longer at the wrongdoer bear than they stared at the victim bear when the leader ignored the transgression, as if something about the wrongdoer would explain the leader's reluctance to correct her.

The infants did not appear to be surprised when a protagonist who was not a leader failed to redress the same wrongdoing.

In two experiments, infants consistently stared longer when leaders failed to act against wrongdoers, Stavans said. "But they held no particular expectation for intervention from nonleaders."

In a third experiment, one of the bears announced that she did not want a toy and the other bear took both toys. The infants in this experiment stared longer when the leader intervened to make sure that each bear had one toy.

"It was as if the infants understood that in this case there was no transgression, so they viewed it as overbearing for the leader to redistribute one of the toys to a bear who had made it clear she didn't want one," Stavans said.

The findings provide new evidence that infants can reason about leaders, Baillargeon said. "We knew from previous work that children this age have specific ideas about how followers will behave toward their leaders," she said. "Now we see that they also have complementary expectations about how leaders will behave toward their followers."

AMHERST, Mass. - In the latest paper from the Geobacter Lab led by microbiologist Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he and colleagues report "a major advance" in the quest to develop electrically conductive protein nanowires in the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens for use as chemical and biological sensors. Details appear in the current issue of the American Chemical Society journal, ACS Synthetic Biology.

Electrically conductive protein nanowires found in Geobacter have been a subject of intense study in his lab for several years, Lovley notes, because they offer so many advantages over expensive silicon nanowires and carbon nanotubes that require toxic chemicals and high energy processes to produce.

By contrast, Geobacter's nanowires can be sustainably mass-produced and grown with renewable feedstocks. They require low energy input - one estimate says it costs 100 times less energy to produce them than silicon nanowires - and they can be recycled, the microbiologist notes. Protein nanowires are more sensitive, thinner and more flexible than silicone wires so more can be packed into a smaller space, with better sensing capabilities. They are also stable in water or bodily fluids, an important feature for biomedical applications.

Lovley, who discovered the electricity-conducting microbes in Potomac River mud more than 30 years ago, says, "In our previous research we focused on tuning the conductivity of the wires by modifying the gene for the protein that Geobacter assembles into the wire. We now have a toolbox of wires to choose from with a million-fold range in conductivity. That provides broad flexibility for electronic device design."

"One of the most promising applications for protein nanowires is biomedical and environmental sensors," he explains. "We want to design the wire that specifically binds a biologic or chemical of interest. When that molecule binds to the wire it will be obvious as a change in electric signal."

"The next goal was to see if we could modify the nanowires' surface properties without destroying their conductivity, which is what we've shown in this latest proof-of-concept paper," Lovley points out. His lab's recent studies demonstrate that peptides up to 9 amino acids long can be added to the nanowires' amino acid backbone, and "decorating" it with even more peptides is possible.

The researchers tested two different peptide "decoration" scenarios - so named because the peptides exposed along the outside of the wires are like tiny bulbs on a string of Christmas lights, Lovley says.

They first constructed a strain of G. sulfurreducens that made synthetic nanowires decorated with a six-histidine "His-tag" that specifically bound nickel to the wire surface. Next they demonstrated the possibility of producing wires with two decorations, the His-tag and a "linker" nine-peptide "HA-tag" exposed on the outer surface. They also demonstrated that the number of decorations on the wire could be controlled by introducing a genetic circuit to control expression of the HA-tag. Neither tag diminished the wires' conductivity, the authors report.

These broad possibilities for modifying the nanowires with peptides, plus their "green," sustainable attributes hold promise for further advances, the researchers say. The nanowires' properties "can now be readily modified to have new functionalities. For example, as we show in the paper, peptides can be designed to specifically bind chemicals or biologics of interest, which will be useful for designing nanowire sensors."

The researchers led by Profesoor Raphael Stoll therefore expect their results to form a basis for future therapeutic strategies to combat cancers caused by HMGA1a. They report in the journal Nucleic Acids Research on July, 24 2019.

While the correct function of many proteins depends on their three-dimensional structure, some appear to adopt random forms. For one of them, a team of researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) has shown that the supposed disorder is not disorder after all: the protein HMGA1a adopts dynamic, more compact structures that depend on its phosphorylation. A malfunction of HMGA1a can lead to cancer. The researchers led by Profesoor Raphael Stoll therefore expect their results to form a basis for future therapeutic strategies to combat cancers caused by HMGA1a. They report in the journal Nucleic Acids Research on July, 24 2019.

Many - but not all - proteins in a living cell have a defined three-dimensional structure, which is absolutely necessary for their correct activity. The interrelationship between the structure and function of proteins is the focus of many research initiatives that extend to the development of innovative drugs.

At least 30 per cent of all proteins are unstructured

"However, based on recent research results, it is predicted that at least 30 per cent of all proteins in cells containing a nucleus are partially or even completely unstructured," says Raphael Stoll, head of the Biomolecular Spectroscopy research group. Despite or precisely because of this remarkable feature, these proteins have special, sometimes crucial, functions in both healthy and disease-causing processes. These include, for example, the regulation of the cell cycle, the transmission of biological signals, and the development of cancer or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.

One of these seemingly disordered proteins is the high-mobility group protein A1a (HMGA1a). It is highly abundant in the cell nucleus and is important for embryonic development, cell differentiation, and is also involved in the development of uncontrolled cell proliferations, called neoplasia.

The first full-length structural model

The Bochum-based research team has succeeded in showing for the first time that the HMGA1a protein does not adopt completely random forms, but rather dynamic, more compact structures. This enabled the researchers to create the first full-length structural model of the HMGA1a protein.

They were also able to describe the structural effects of the phosphorylation of the HMGA1a protein on its function. The attachment of phosphoryl groups alters the function of many proteins and they are thus switched on or off. Phosphoryl groups can also influence the protein's ability to bind to other cell components. HMGA1a binds to DNA. This process is very important for its biological mode of action as HMGA1a, for example, is involved in regulating the formation of RNA and reorganising chromosomes.

Structure and binding probabilities change

The researchers applied nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which is able to provide information not only on the structure but also on the dynamics of proteins. "Our results show that the dynamic and compact structures of this protein depend on its phosphorylation state," reports Raphael Stoll. Within the cell, the HMGA1a protein is phosphorylated by casein kinase 2. This has an effect on the electrostatic network in the HMGA1a protein and thus changes the dynamic structural ensemble of this protein. Further experiments revealed that these changes even affect the ability of the HMGA1a protein to bind to its natural target sequence in the DNA of the cell nucleus.

The global price of ivory increased tenfold since its 1989 trade ban by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), new research has found. The University of Bristol Veterinary School study, published in Biological Conservation [25 July], is the first to analyse trends in global ivory market values since the ban came into effect.

Higher ivory market prices lead to higher poaching incentives, and therefore greater numbers of elephants being killed. Despite the CITES ban on ivory, poaching associated with its illegal trade has not prevented the suffering of elephants and is estimated to cause an eight per cent loss in the world's elephant population every year.

Using a large dataset of ivory prices collected between 1989 and 2017 from literature searches and visits to ivory markets across Africa, Europe and Asia, together with information such as ivory product type (raw, polished, carved), weight, region, and legality, the researchers were able to determine the factors that drive increases in ivory prices.

Since the ban, ivory has become an increasingly valuable commodity, with Asian markets having the highest prices and Africa the lowest. From the data, the researchers were able to determine that the global average price of ivory increased tenfold (~1,019 per cent) between 1989 and 2014 and appears to be slowly decreasing since. Factors that influence activity include where in the world the ivory was sold; whether the ivory had been carved or worked in any way; the legality of the sale; and finally, the total volume of ivory that was estimated to have been traded that year.

Monique Sosnowski, lead author who carried out the research at the Bristol Veterinary School as part of her MSc in Global Wildlife Health and Conservation, said: "With poachers killing an estimated 100 elephants of the remaining 350,000 each day, we believe our findings are significant to global wildlife conservation policy-making.

"Until now, very little has been known about global ivory prices since the international ban in 1989. We hope that a greater understanding of the factors that drive the price of ivory will lead to better informed policy interventions that lead to a more secure future for the long-term survival of elephants and other animals that suffer due to the ivory trade."

The researchers hope that by revealing these trends and the variables relevant to price determination, better decisions can be made with regards to global ivory policies. Understanding regional price trends and associated demand, together with knowing which factors influence market price, can inform conservationists, law enforcement, and policy makers on where to focus efforts on anti-trade campaigns, wildlife conservation, and education. For example, focusing limited resources on efforts to more heavily regulate trade in East Asia, where ivory demand, and thus the price, is highest, could decrease poaching and increase future security for elephants.

The next steps for the research team include incorporating their conclusions into bioeconomic models. Existing models could be modified with regional and historical price trends to improve their accuracy and then applied for global simulation studies to develop more effective policy design. This may add evidence to support decisions concerning the CITES ivory ban, national trade regulations, as well as to global ivory stockpile management.

A similar framework could also be applied to other endangered species experiencing poaching and illegal trade in their products, such as rhinos and tigers, to achieve new co-ordinated conservation efforts for global wildlife.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia accounts for one in five adult leukemias, and is the most common pediatric cancer in the United States. While new immune therapies have helped improve survival rates, some patients are unresponsive to existing treatment regimens. In addition, drug-related toxicities and drug resistance are rampant for these patients, spurring an urgent need for new therapy options.

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have developed a new combination treatment regimen that enhances the immune system’s ability to kill leukemias that do not respond to standard treatments. The regimen includes a therapeutic antibody designed to draw natural killer immune cells to cancer cells. The antibody attached specifically to acute lymphoblastic cancer cells as early as 30 minutes after treatment, and remained attached for two days, serving as a flag to attract natural killer immune cells. The researchers were able to maximize the antibody’s efficacy by adding a second, anti-tumor molecule to the regimen.

Results published in Cancer Immunology Research describe how the antibody attaches to a specific protein on the surface of acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells (B-cell Activating Factor, or BAFF-R). Once the antibody attaches to a cancer cell, natural killer cells also attach to the antibody and this antibody acts like a bridge connecting cancer cells to natural killer cells, where it quickly gets to work destroying the cancer cell. The antibody connects with natural killer cells through a second protein commonly found on their surfaces (CD16).

The researchers, Reshmi Parameswaran, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and MD/PhD student in her lab and the Department of Pathology, Yorleny Vicioso, created a new acute lymphoblastic leukemia mouse model for the study. They used mouse models with growing, drug-resistant cancer cells collected from human patients. Then, they tested treatments over the course of disease progression—starting with the antibody alone.

“If we started to treat mice with the antibody early during disease development, leukemia was almost eradicated by this treatment method; however, if treatment was administered late when the tumor had grown and established its own microenvironment, the antibody alone was less effective,” said Parameswaran, who is also a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and a St. Baldrick’s Scholar.

As cancer cells grow, they secrete molecules that disrupt and confuse the body’s natural immune responses. The area around an established tumor—its surrounding “microenvironment”—can contain myriad molecules that inhibit immune cells. Parameswaran’s team found unusually high levels of an inhibitory molecule called TGF-beta in the bloodstreams of the mice. Closer inspection revealed that the cancer cells were secreting TGF-beta directly, which accumulated over time in their microenvironments as a defense against natural killer cells. TGF-beta in the microenvironment inhibit the ability of natural killer cells to kill cancer cells by more than half.

“There was a clear negative effect of the tumor microenvironment on natural killer cell killing capacity,” Parameswaran said. “So, we added a TGF-beta receptor inhibitor to our antibody treatment regimen.”

Using their mouse disease model, the researchers showed that the combination of these two treatments enhanced killing of acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells—even if the disease was advanced. Antibody and TGF-beta receptor inhibitor treatment increased natural killer cell activity against cancer cells by up to 35 percent. The researchers confirmed the combination’s efficacy in mice injected with acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells from four different patients.

The combination treatment could represent a promising new regimen for late-stage acute lymphoblastic leukemia, particularly benefitting adults who are unresponsive to existing options. Data from the new study suggest the antibody, which that attaches to BAFF-R on cancer cells, could be more effective in older patients.

“We looked at BAFF-R expression in a small group of 16 patients and all of them expressed this receptor. It’s promising as a therapeutic avenue for late-stage disease” Parameswaran said. Data from larger patient sets will help us draw a definitive conclusion.”

The custom BAFF-R antibody is currently being tested as a therapy to treat autoimmune diseases and rheumatoid arthritis in two clinical trials. The TGF-beta inhibitor was recently tested in a first-in-human clinical trial for treatment for advanced-stage solid tumors. The new mouse model study provides critical preclinical data to support combining the two treatment in human trials, Parameswaran said.

A new study spearheaded by Earth scientists at the University of Cologne's Institute of Geology and Mineralogy has constrained the age of the Moon to approximately 50 million years after the formation of the solar system. After the formation of the solar system, 4.56 billion years ago, the Moon formed approximately 4.51 billion years ago. The new study has thus determined that the Moon is significantly older than previously believed - earlier research had estimated the Moon to have formed approximately 150 million years after solar system's formation. To achieve these results, the scientists analysed the chemical composition of a diverse range of samples collected during the Apollo missions. The study 'Early Moon formation inferred from hafnium-tungsten systematics' was published in Nature Geoscience.

On 21 July 1969, mankind took its first steps on another celestial body. In their few hours on the lunar surface, the crew of Apollo 11 collected and brought back to Earth 21.55 kg of samples. Almost exactly 50 years later, these samples are still teaching us about key events of the early solar system and the history of the Earth-Moon system. Determining the age of the Moon is also important to understand how and at which time the Earth formed, and how it evolved at the very beginning of the solar system.

This study focuses on the chemical signatures of different types of lunar samples collected by the different Apollo missions. 'By comparing the relative amounts of different elements in rocks that formed at different times, it is possible to learn how each sample is related to the lunar interior and the solidification of the magma ocean,' says Dr Raúl Fonseca from the University of Cologne, who studies processes that occurred in the Moon's interior in laboratory experiments together with his colleague Dr Felipe Leitzke.

The Moon likely formed in the aftermath of a giant collision between a Mars-sized planetary body and the early Earth. Over time, the Moon accreted from the cloud of material blasted into Earth's orbit. The newborn Moon was covered in a magma ocean, which formed different types of rocks as it cooled. 'These rocks recorded information about the formation of the Moon, and can still be found today on the lunar surface,' says Dr Maxwell Thiemens, former University of Cologne researcher and lead author of the study. Dr Peter Sprung, co-author of the study, adds: 'Such observations are not possible on Earth anymore, as our planet has been geologically active over time. The Moon thus provides a unique opportunity to study planetary evolution.'

The Cologne scientists used the relationship between the rare elements hafnium, uranium and tungsten as a probe to understand the amount of melting that occurred to generate the mare basalts, i.e., the black regions on the lunar surface. Owing to an unprecedented measurement precision, the study could identify distinct trends amongst the different suites of rocks, which now allows for a better understanding of the behaviour of these key rare elements.

Studying hafnium and tungsten on the Moon are particularly important because they constitute a natural radioactive clock of the isotope hafnium-182 decaying into tungsten-182. This radioactive decay only lasted for the first 70 million years of the solar system. By combining the hafnium and tungsten information measured in the Apollo samples with information from laboratory experiments, the study finds that the Moon already started solidifying as early as 50 million years after solar system formed. 'This age information means that any giant impact had to occur before that time, which answers a fiercely debated question amongst the scientific community regarding when the Moon formed,' adds Professor Dr Carsten Münker from the UoC's Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, senior author of the study.

Maxwell Thiemens concludes: 'Mankind's first steps on another world exactly 50 years ago yielded samples which let us understand the timing and evolution of the Moon. As the Moon's formation was the final major planetary event after Earth's formation, the age of the Moon provides a minimum age for Earth as well.'

Contagious yawning is observed in many mammals, but there is no such report in human babies. Whether babies recognize yawning is an unanswered question.

A new study in Chuo University and Japan Women's University provides a new insight to this question. It suggested that 5- to 8-month-old babies show face-specific brain activity in response to yawning. This study was published online in Scientific Reports on July 23, 2019.

In this study, at first, researchers focused on the babies' looking time to yawning and mouth movement: opening mouth and moving tongue sideways against the cheek. In the experiment, 3- to 8- month-old babies were presented yawning and mouth movement side by side, and they looked at the yawning for longer that at the mouth movement. This result suggests that babies in first half year of their life prefer yawning.

Next, researchers measured the 5- to 8- month-old babies' brain activity while they viewed yawning and mouth movement each using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). From previous fNIRS studies, it was found that the hemodynamic responses in the occipitotemporal areas increased in response to facial movement because this area plays a role in face processing. Based on such evidence, it was expected that the hemodynamic responses increased when babies were viewing yawning compared to mouth movement. As expected, babies' hemodynamic response increased in response to yawning, but not to mouth movement. This implies that the neural basis of preference for yawning is seen even in younger babies.

"This is the first study revealing the babies' preference for yawning, and its neural activity related to yawning processing," said Shuma Tsurumi from Chuo University.

Neuroblastoma accounts for 15% of total childhood cancer deaths. The survival rate of high-risk neuroblastoma patients is 50%.

For the first time, Australian researchers from Children's Cancer Institute have discovered that a gene called JMJD6 plays an important role in the most aggressive form of the disease. The research is published today in the journal, Nature Communications.

The discovery opens up a new way to treat neuroblastoma, using drugs that target this gene.

It has long been known that a gain of the chromosomal region 17q is associated with the form of neuroblastoma with the poorer prognosis, however the particular genes within that chromosomal region that are important in neuroblastoma - and therefore are potential drug targets - have until now eluded researchers.

Associate Professor Tao Liu and his research team from Children's Cancer Institute found a candidate gene, called JMJD6, from a tumour data base of 209 patients, finding the gene active in more than one in four patients with the aggressive form of neuroblastoma.

They turned off the gene in neuroblastoma cell lines and animal models of the disease and found that this led to a:

Reduction in the growth of neuroblastoma cells

Reduction in tumour progression

Increased survival

Importantly, the research team, including Dr Matthew Wong, used a combination of drugs targeting JMJD6 gene expression in a mouse model of the disease. The researchers found that after three weeks of drug combination treatment, neuroblastoma tumour size was reduced by 80% compared to the control. According to Associate Professor Liu, similar drugs to the ones used in their experiments are currently in clinical trials for other cancers, making it more likely that this particular treatment strategy will be available for clinical trials of neuroblastoma.

Researchers at King's College London have used single cell RNA sequencing to identify a type of cell that may be able to regenerate liver tissue, treating liver failure without the need for transplants.

In a paper published today in Nature Communications, the scientists have identified a new type of cell called a hepatobiliary hybrid progenitor (HHyP), that forms during our early development in the womb. Surprisingly, HHyP also persist in small quantities in adults and these cells can grow into the two main cell types of the adult liver (Hepatocytes and Cholangiocytes) giving HHyPs stem cell like properties.

The team examined HHyPs and found that they resemble mouse stem cells which have been found to rapidly repair mice liver following major injury, such as occurs in cirrhosis.

Lead author Dr Tamir Rashid from the Centre for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine at King's College London said: "For the first time, we have found that cells with true stem cell like properties may well exist in the human liver. This in turn could provide a wide range of regenerative medicine applications for treating liver disease, including the possibility of bypassing the need for liver transplants."

Liver disease is the fifth biggest killer in the UK* and the third most common cause of premature death, and the number of cases is continuing to rise. It can be caused by lifestyle issues such as obesity, viruses, alcohol misuse or by non-lifestyle issues such as autoimmune and genetic mediated disease.

Symptoms of liver disease include jaundice, itching and feelings of weakness and tiredness and in more severe cases, cirrhosis. The only treatment for severe liver diseases at present is a liver transplant which can lead to a lifetime of complications and for which the need for donor organs greatly outweighs the increasing demands.

"We now need to work quickly to unlock the recipe for converting pluripotent stem cells into HHyPs so that we could transplant those cells into patients at will. In the longer term, we will also be working to see if we can reprogramme HHyPs within the body using traditional pharmacological drugs to repair diseased livers without either cell or organ transplantation," said Dr Rashid.

A new way of concentrating radiotherapy dose in tumours, while minimising damage to healthy cells, has been proposed in research led by scientists at the University of Strathclyde.

The study proposes that focusing high-energy particle beams on a small spot deep inside the body could potentially enable clinicians to target cancerous tumours precisely, while reducing the dose to surrounding tissue.

External beam radiotherapy involves treating patients with either high energy X-rays or particle beams. Tumour cells are killed by the radiation, which is usually administered in multiple fractions, which are applied daily over several weeks. The main goal is to kill tumour cells using beams of radiation while minimising damage to healthy cells.

The study has been published in the Nature Research journal Scientific Reports.

Professor Dino Jaroszynski, who leads the project, said: "Around half of the population will suffer from cancer at some time in their lives. Of these people, half will be treated using radiotherapy or a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

"One of the challenges in radiotherapy is to deposit a high radiation dose in a way that the dose fully 'conforms' to the tumour, to ensure that all cancerous cells are killed, while preventing damage to healthy cells. Our study shows that we can very simply focus radiation onto a tumour to irradiate it while reducing the dose in surrounding healthy tissue.

"In a similar way to a magnifying glass focusing the sun's rays to a small spot, we propose to focus a particle beam to a small spot using a magnetic lens to ablate the tumour."

Common forms of radiation currently used in radiotherapy include X-rays produced by electron beams from 'medical' linear accelerators, or linacs, that generate a type of radiation known as bremsstrahlung X-rays, which then target the tumour.

These relatively low energy electron beams from the linac can also be used directly to irradiate tumours but they do not penetrate deeply into the body and therefore are not commonly used.

One of the disadvantages of using X-rays in radiotherapy is that they are absorbed in the body and their effects diminish, resulting in a high entrance dose. Proximal and distal doses - before and after the tumour - can also be as high as, or higher than, the radiation dose in the tumour.

To irradiate the tumour precisely with sufficient radiation to kill all tumour cells, the X-ray beam is often rotated while pointing at the tumour from different directions, while the patient remains stationary.

An effective radiotherapy modality uses heavier particles such as protons and ions. These have the advantage of radiation doses that can be confined to a small region called the "Bragg peak". Proton radiotherapy facilities are available but are very expensive.

Dr Enrico Brunetti, a Research Fellow in Strathclyde's Department of Physics involved in the project, said: "This work presents a comprehensive numerical study of fundamental issues encountered in cancer treatment with very high energy electrons for a wide range of geometries. Results suggest that technology and beam transport systems routinely employed in high-energy particle accelerators could find direct application in this field, expanding the range of tools available for radiotherapy."

Karolina Kokurewicz, a Strathclyde PhD student working on the project, said: "Electrons, much like protons, have properties specific to particles. The significantly smaller electron mass, however, must be compensated for by increasing their energy and therefore inertia to achieve an effect similar to high mass particles. We push the envelope to fully investigate the potential advantages of very high energy electrons (VHEEs) in radiotherapy.

"In our studies, we show that a VHEE beam, when focused, can be easily controlled to target precisely tumours similar to beam scanning modalities. The net effect is a greatly enhanced dose profile that conforms closely to the target volumes and potentially provides better tumour control. It is a first step to realise the real potential of VHEEs."

Professor Jaroszynski said: "We are setting up a new medical beamline at the Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma-based Accelerator (SCAPA) at Strathclyde, to use laser-produced high energy electron accelerators to investigate the ideas published in our paper.

"These ultra-compact laser-wakefield accelerators are only millimetres long and can be easily focused; most of the space is taken up by the power supply, which is the laser. This is a very exciting new project that has potential to eventually transform radiotherapy by reducing its cost, while improving its effectiveness."

A major greenhouse gas, CO2 produced from burning fossil fuels is still mostly released into the atmosphere, adding to the burden of global warming. One way to cut down on it is through a carbon capture: a chemical technique that removes CO2 out of emissions ("postcombustion"), preventing it from entering the atmosphere. The captured CO2 can then be either recycled or stored away in in gas or liquid form, a process known as sequestration.

Carbon capture can be done using so-called "high-performance membranes", which are polymer filters that can specifically pick out CO2 from a mix of gases, such as those coming out of a factory's flue. These membranes are environmentally-friendly, they don't generate waste, they can intensify chemical processes, and can be used in a decentralized fashion. In fact, they are now considered as one of the most energy-efficient routes for reducing CO2 emissions.

Scientists led by Kumar Varoon Agrawal at EPFL Valais Wallis have now developed a new class of high-performance membranes that exceeds post-combustion capture targets by a significant margin. The membranes are based on single-layer-graphene with a selective layer thinner than 20 nm and are highly tunable in terms of chemistry, meaning that that can pave the way for next-generation high-performance membranes for several critical separations.

Current membranes are required to exceed 1000 gas permeation units (GPUs), and have a "CO2/N2 separation factor" above 20 - a measure of their carbon-capturing specificity. The membranes that the EPFL scientists developed show six-fold higher CO2 permeance at 6,180 GPUs with a separation factor of 22.5. The GPUs shot up to 11,790 when the scientists combined optimized graphene porosity, pore size, and functional groups (the chemical groups that actually react with CO2), while other membranes they made showed separation factors up to 57.2.

"Functionalizing CO2-selective polymeric chains on nanoporous graphene allows us to fabricate nanometer-thick yet CO2-selective membranes," says Agrawal. "This two-dimensional nature of the membrane drastically increases the CO2 permeance, making membranes even more attractive for carbon capture. The concept is highly generic, and a number of high-performance gas separations are possible in this way."

DURHAM, N.C. -- A team of Peruvian and American scientists have uncovered the 18-million-year-old remains of the smallest fossil monkey ever found.

A fossilized tooth found in Peru's Amazon jungle has been identified as belonging to a new species of tiny monkey no heavier than a hamster.

The specimen is important because it helps bridge a 15-million-year gap in the fossil record for New World monkeys, says a team led by Duke University and the National University of Piura in Peru.

The new fossil was unearthed from an exposed river bank along the Río Alto Madre de Dios in southeastern Peru. There, researchers dug up chunks of sandstone and gravel, put them in bags, and hauled them away to be soaked in water and then strained through sieves to filter out the fossilized teeth, jaws, and bone fragments buried within.

The team searched through some 2,000 pounds of sediment containing hundreds of fossils of rodents, bats and other animals before they spotted the lone monkey tooth.

"Primate fossils are as rare as hen's teeth," said first author Richard Kay, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke who has been doing paleontological research in South America for nearly four decades.

A single upper molar, the specimen was just "double the size of the head of a pin" and "could fall through a window screen," Kay said.

Paleontologists can tell a lot from monkey teeth, particularly molars. Based on the tooth's relative size and shape, the researchers think the animal likely dined on energy-rich fruits and insects, and weighed in at less than half a pound -- only slightly heavier than a baseball. Some of South America's larger monkeys, such as howlers and muriquis, can grow to 50 times that heft.

"It's by far the smallest fossil monkey that's ever been found worldwide," Kay said. Only one monkey species alive today, the teacup-sized pygmy marmoset, is smaller, "but barely," Kay said.

In a paper published online July 23 in the Journal of Human Evolution, the team dubbed the animal Parvimico materdei, or "tiny monkey from the Mother of God River."

Now stored in the permanent collections of the Institute of Paleontology at Peru's National University of Piura, the find is important because it's one of the few clues scientists have from a key missing chapter in monkey evolution.

Monkeys are thought to have arrived in South America from Africa some 40 million years ago, quickly diversifying into the 150-plus New World species we know today, most of which inhabit the Amazon rainforest. Yet exactly how that process unfolded is a bit of a mystery, in large part because of a gap in the monkey fossil record between 13 and 31 million years ago with only a few fragments.

In that gap lies Parvimico. The new fossil dates back 17 to 19 million years, which puts it "smack dab in the time and place when we would have expected diversification to have occurred in the New World monkeys," Kay said.

The team is currently on another fossil collecting expedition in the Peruvian Amazon that will wrap up in August, concentrating their efforts in remote river sites with 30-million-year-old sediments.

"If we find a primate there, that would really be pay dirt," Kay said.