Earth

Against the background of global warming, extreme heat has occurred more frequently and caused adverse socioeconomic effects. In the midsummer of 2018, a severe extreme heat episode attacked Northeast Asia, causing numerous fatalities. For instance, the extreme heat that attacked Japan in July 2018 resulted in about 24 000 hospitalized patients and more than 90 deaths. To understand what caused the extreme heat over Northeast Asia, a scientific collaboration of climatologists examined the forces of the tropical circulation and sea surface temperature. Their results have recently been published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters.

"The extreme heat over Northeast Asia was caused by an anomalous anticyclone, which corresponded to the northwestward extension of the western North Pacific subtropical high and facilitated the occurrence of extreme heat via a subsidence anomaly," explains Ruidan Chen, the first author of the paper, who is an Associate Professor in the School of Atmospheric Sciences at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.

Chen also noted that the anomalous anticyclone over Northeast Asia was accompanied by a prominent cyclonic anomaly over the western North Pacific. "The cyclonic anomaly over the western North Pacific was accompanied by anomalous convection, which favored descending and anticyclonic anomalies over Northeast Asia through a local meridional cell," says Chen.

The researchers further discovered that cooling over the southeastern tropical Indian Ocean contributed to the above anomalous atmospheric circulation. "Cooling over the southeastern tropical Indian Ocean would have favored the cyclonic anomaly over the western North Pacific by triggering anomalous cross-equatorial flow and a local meridional cell," Chen explains.

The mechanism revealed by the case in 2018 also operates in climate statistics, verifying the robust influence of the southeastern tropical Indian Ocean. Considering the consistency of the sea surface temperature anomaly over this region, it could be a potential predictor for the climate over Northeast Asia.

Photoreceptor cells in our eyes can adjust to both weak and strong light levels, but we still don't know exactly how they do it. Emeritus Professor Fumio Hayashi of Kobe University and his colleagues revealed that the photoreceptor protein rhodopsin forms transient clusters within the disc membranes in retina. These clusters are concentrated in the center of disc membranes, and act as platforms in the process of light to chemical signal conversion. The findings were published as a highlighted paper in Communications Biology on June 14.

The research team for this study include Associate Professor Kenichi Morigaki (Biosignal Research Center, Kobe University), Emeritus Professor Shohei Maekawa (Graduate School of Science, Kobe University), Associate Professor Keiji Seno (Faculty of Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine) and Researcher Natsumi Saito (School of Medicine, Jichi Medical University).

Within the rod-shaped photoreceptor cells in our retinas there are roughly 1,000 layers of disc-shaped membranes, a few micrometers in diameter. These are lipid bilayer membranes embedded with high concentrations of the photoreceptor protein rhodopsin. Rhodopsin is a prototypical member of G protein-coupled-receptor (GPCR) that is responsible for collecting various information about our external environment.

In this study, researchers used the latest technology and analysis methods to investigate the single molecule dynamics of rhodopsin and G protein transducin as well as lipid molecules within disc membranes.

Single-molecule tracking of rhodopsin

Rhodopsin is sensitive to light, so instead of using the standard visible light fluorescent dye the team used near-infrared dye for the single-molecule tracking. They confirmed that rhodopsin moves quite freely within disc membranes, and predicted that if rhodopsin is forming temporary clusters, the molecule would move from moment to moment at different speeds. They collected 500 individual "tracks" created by the rhodopsin movements (Figure 1 left), obtained a three-state model by using Bayes inference machine learning technology (Figure 1 center) and found that rhodopsin transitions between three diffusive states (Figure 1 right).

Clusters that form and disappear

When they increased the fluorescent marking of rhodopsin, the team was able to observe the repeated generation and extinction of rhodopsin clusters (Figure 2). Properties such as the diffusion speed and lifespan of the clusters matched with the slowest diffusion observed in single-molecule tracking. The team also discovered that rhodopsin distribution within disc membranes is not uniform as previously thought: they are spread thinly around the edges and concentrated in the center, where they easily form clusters.

Inequality between the center and the periphery

The raft-forming nature of rhodopsin molecules when they draw close to each other suggests that rhodopsin clusters are similar to rafts. The distribution of rhodopsin in disc membranes is weighted towards the center (Figure 3 left), indicating that raftophilic proteins and lipid molecules gather in the center of the disc membrane, whereas raftophobic molecules tend to gather at the edges. The team verified this by showing that the typical raftophobic phospholipid di-DHA-PE is localized at the membrane edges (Figure 3 right).

Summary

The study demonstrates that (1) rhodopsin makes raftophilic clusters, providing a transient scaffold for the activation of G-protein signal transducing, and (2) rhodopsin clusters are rejected from the periphery of membranes, and collect in the center. These discoveries suggest that both transient non-uniformity and structural non-uniformity regulated by the surrounding framework play unexpectedly important roles, not only in this case but also in various other cell membranes.

This provides a vital piece of very basic knowledge. Developments in basic research are essential for understanding the complex morphogenesis and maintenance of photoreceptors, as well as pathological conditions such as retina pigment abnormalities. In this study the team focused on molecules related to the activation process of light signal conversion, but the deactivation process is also an unknown domain. We will continue to pursue further developments in research on both the activation and deactivation processes.

Philadelphia, June 24, 2019 - The epileptic "aura" is a subjective phenomenon that sometimes precedes the visible clinical features of a seizure. Investigators tested three epileptic patients prior to potential surgery to try to determine where their seizures originate. They observed that these patients reported an ecstatic aura only when the dorsal anterior insula of the brain was stimulated. Their findings in the journal Brain Stimulation, published by Elsevier, provide additional support of a major role played by the dorsal anterior insula in ecstatic experiences.

Throughout history some people have experienced states of ecstasy. In these moments they describe a blissful altered consciousness with a sense of hyper-reality, a hyper awareness of the present moment, and a feeling of union with the Universe. Attaining or producing these states is a key component of many religious traditions.

"An important modern question is whether these states arise from activity in specific brain regions and if so, where," explained lead investigator Fabrice Bartolomei, MD, PhD, Aix-Marseille University, INSERM, INS, Institute of Neuroscience Systems, and APHM, Timone Hospital, Clinical Neurophysiology and Epileptology Department, Marseille, France. "A better understanding of the network mechanisms underlying this fascinating subjective experience may help to unravel some mysteries of human consciousness. The insula, a lobe in the brain behind the ears that is insulated because it is hidden deep in the brain, has recently been proposed to be a key region to elicit these symptoms."

Some patients with epilepsy experience a type of aura referred to as "ecstatic." Patients use terms like "hyper-reality," "clarity," "evidence," "certainty," "understanding," "insight," "enlightenment," or "epiphany" to describe this state. The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, who experienced such seizures himself, gave a famous description in his novel The Idiot, in which one of his characters reports feeling "overflowing with unbounded joy and rapture, ecstatic devotion, and completest life."

Investigators describe three patients with refractory focal epilepsy, who had probes inserted into their brains to try to determine where their seizures originated, potentially to remove those regions surgically and cure their disease. They studied functional connectivity changes in several brain areas during the induction of ecstatic auras by direct electrical stimulation of the dorsal anterior insular cortex in patients implanted with intracerebral electrodes (stereotactic-EEG, SEEG) during their pre-surgical evaluation. These patients were selected on the basis of the occurrence of ecstatic symptoms triggered by direct intracerebral electrical stimulation of the antero-dorsal part of the insula.

Electrical stimulation was performed in a bipolar fashion to each contact in the gray matter during a three-second period to map functional cortices and trigger habitual seizures. One stimulation inducing ecstatic changes in each patient was analyzed. Functional connectivity analysis was performed by measuring interdependencies between SEEG signals before and after stimulations.

Each patient reported an ecstatic aura only when the dorsal anterior insula was stimulated. Investigators measured brain wave activity (EEG) during periods of ecstasy and found that the anterior insula was serving as a critical node or hub in the network activity, suggesting that in some way this region can produce or release this feeling.

"The field of brain stimulation is still in its infancy. While these patients had to have wires inserted into their brains in order to produce ecstasy, in the future it may be possible to stimulate this spot non-invasively," commented Dr. Bartolomei.

"Science routinely progresses through hypothesis-driven research conducted by large teams of researchers," added Mark George, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Brain Stimulation. "However, accidental 'discoveries' are also important. These serendipitous observations can help us understand the world around us, particularly the world within our skulls, the human brain. Perhaps in the near future we can use noninvasive brain stimulation methods to stimulate this region and determine if it truly is the seat of ecstasy.

Dr. George cautions that, while this is an important clue for the field, it is important to remember that these results were observed in patients with epilepsy, so we do not yet know if this effect is generalizable to people without epilepsy. Understanding the brain networks involved in consciousness and altered states is important for many reasons, some therapeutic and others philosophical and cultural.

Researchers have discovered a mysterious group of neurons in the amygdala -- a key center for emotional processing in the brain -- that stay in an immature, prenatal developmental state throughout childhood. Most of these cells mature rapidly during adolescence, suggesting a key role in the brain's emotional development, but some stay immature throughout life, suggesting new ideas about how the brain keeps its emotional responses flexible throughout life.

"Most brain cells have matured far beyond this stage by the time you are born," said study lead author Shawn Sorrells, PhD, a former UCSF researcher who is now assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh. "It's fascinating that these are some of the very last cells to mature in the human brain, and most do so during puberty, precisely when huge developments in emotional intelligence are going on."

The amygdala is an almond-shaped brain structure located deep in the brain's temporal lobes (you actually have two, one on each side of the brain) that plays a key role in learning appropriate emotional responses to our environment. During childhood and adolescence -- long after most of the rest of the human brain is finished growing -- the amygdala continues to expand by as many as two million neurons, a late growth spurt that researchers believe is likely to play a key role in human emotional development, and which may go awry in neurodevelopmental disorders. For example, this expansion is absent in children with autism, and mood disorders that frequently emerge in adolescence, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have also been linked to problems with amygdala development.

Recent studies had detected a unique group of immature neurons in a region of the amygdala called the paralaminar nuclei (PL), which could help explain the amygdala's rapid growth, but researchers had little idea where these cells came from or what role they play in mature brain circuits -- even whether they are excitatory or inhibitory, the two main functional classes of neurons.

In the new study, published June 21, 2019, in Nature Communications, researchers from the lab of Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, PhD, the Heather and Melanie Muss Endowed Chair and Professor of Neurological Surgery and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF, set out to understand the identity of these cells and their role in the amygdala's rapid growth during childhood.

The researchers examined postmortem human amygdala tissue from 49 human brains -- ranging in age from 20 gestational weeks to 78 years of age. Using both anatomical and molecular techniques to classify individual neurons' maturity and function within neural circults, they found that the percentage of immature cells in the PL region of the amygdala remains high throughout childhood, but declines rapidly during adolescence: from birth to age 13, the number of immature cells declines from approximately 90 percent to just under 70 percent, but by the end of adolescence, only about 20 percent of PL cells remain immature.

Based on quantification of neurons in different stages of development coupled with analysis of gene expression patterns in individual neurons extracted from PL, the researchers showed that as the immature cells disappear, they are replaced by mature excitatory neurons -- suggesting that the cells have taken their place in the amygdala's maturing emotion processing circuitry. Since this is the first time these neurons have been clearly studied, scientists don't know exactly what function the neurons serve, but the timing of their maturation suggests they may play a role in the rapid emotional development that occurs during human adolescence.

"Anyone who's met a teenager knows that they are going through a rapid and sometimes tumultuous process of emotional learning about how to respond to stress, how to form positive social bonds, and so on," Sorrells said. "At the same time, adolescence is when many psychiatric disorders known to involve the amygdala first manifest, suggesting that perhaps something has gone wrong with the normal process of emotional and cognitive development -- though whether these cells are involved is a matter for future study."

Notably, the researchers also found that some immature neurons appear to remain in the amygdala throughout life, and were even found in one 77-year-old brain. These results were in stark contrast to the hippocampus -- a nearby structure in which the authors recently found that newborn and immature neurons completely decline to undetectable levels by adolescence.

"This is consistent with what we have seen before: that immature neurons are vanishingly rare in the adult hippocampus, but they do appear to persist in the amygdala," Alvarez-Buylla said. "As far as we can tell, these cells aren't being born throughout life, but seem to be maintained in an immature state from birth, though we can't say this for sure given the techniques we've used here."

In other animals, such as mice, new neurons continue to be born throughout life in the memory-forming hippocampus -- and possibly at low rates in the amygdala -- which researchers believe allows the brain to continuously rewire neural circuits to adapt to new experiences and environments. Following on the authors' 2018 study showing that the birth of new neurons declines in the human brain during childhood and is very rare or absent in adults, the new study suggests that the human brain may maintain reserves of immature neurons throughout life, using these "Peter Pan" cells in a similar manner to the neurogenesis seen in other species -- as new cells to be called on as needed to keep the brain's emotional responses flexible and adaptable into old age.

"You could imagine these immature cells let the brain continue to sculpt the structure of neural circuits and their growth once you are out in the world experiencing what it's like," Sorrells said. "Of course, that's just speculation at this point -- one of the fascinating questions these findings open up for future study."

Neurogenesis Sidebar:

Whether new neurons are born in the adult primate or human brain remains controversial. In 2018, Alvarez-Buylla, Sorrells and colleagues published results of the most rigorous search yet for new neurons in the human hippocampus, and they found that the birth of new neurons declined rapidly in childhood and was undetectable in adults.

Subsequently, other groups published data that appears to show newborn neurons in the adult human hippocampus, but Alvarez-Buylla and colleagues believe these studies rely too strongly on a small number of molecular markers for newborn neurons. They have shown that these markers can also be found in fully mature neurons and in non-neuronal cells called glia -- which are known to continue dividing throughout life.

"Identifying new neurons is technically very challenging," Alvarez-Buylla said. "It's easy to forget that the molecular markers we use to identify particular molecules are not produced for our benefit -- cells are using these molecules for their own biological needs, which are always going to be messy from the perspective of someone looking for simple classification. This is why we have endeavored to examine as many lines of evidence as possible -- not just molecular markers but also cells' shape and appearance -- to make sure we are confident in what types of cells we are actually looking at in these analyses."

The new study in the amygdala uses comprehensive single-cell gene expression techniques to sensitively detect immature neurons based on multiple lines of molecular evidence, and reinforces the group's earlier findings in the hippocampus -- showing that the precursors that divide to give birth to new neurons disappear within the first two years of life in the human amygdala, and that most immature neurons disappear during adolescence.

"Single-cell sequencing not only clearly identifies these long-lived immature neurons, but also shows that they express many developmental genes involved in axon development, synaptogenesis, dendrite morphogenesis, and even neuronal migration," Sorrells said. "These cells could be erroneously assumed to be newborn neurons, but based on our developmental perspective, and the fact that we see few dividing cells present nearby, it looks as though they are already present at birth and decline throughout life."

While exploring the way alien species invade cities around the world, South African PhD student Ashlyn L. Padayachee (University of KwaZulu-Natal, UKZN) and her supervisors, Serban Proches (UKZN) and John Wilson (SANBI and Stellenbosch University) remember suddenly being stricken.

What they realised was that while cities were gradually starting to prepare for climate change, their responses to invasions were rather reactive. Even though management focused on widespread invasive species, which were currently having the most negative impacts on native biodiversity, the researchers noted that if those decision makers had only targeted the next highly damaging invaders ahead of their arrival, the associated costs would have greatly decreased.

Consequently, the team developed a methodology, based on three key aspects: priority species, points of first introduction and sites of naturalisation, in order to identify the most probable and concerning invasive species for Durban (eThekwini in KwaZulu Natal), a coastal city in South Africa. Furthermore, their work, published in the open-access journal Neobiota provides decision makers from around the world with a new tool, that is easy to use and adjustable to the specificity of different cities.

Firstly, the researchers identified cities with a similar climate to Durban and used existing alien species watch lists, environmental criteria and introduction pathways to identify species, which are not present in South Africa, but are considered of unacceptable risk of invasion. The team continued by figuring out which of those selected species are likely to have pathways facilitating their introduction to the city and developed a climatic suitability model for each. Finally, the scientists linked the climate and pathway information, so that they could identify sites within Durban to be considered as a focus for the contingency planning for particular species.

As a result, the authors identified three alien species as priorities for Durban: Alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides), American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) and the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta).

In terms of points of introductions, the data highlighted the Durban Harbour, especially for the red imported fire ant. Plant nurseries and garden centres, as well as pet and aquarium shops were also identified as important sites for the three studied species. Additionally, suitable habitats located near the points of introduction, such as river systems and built infrastructure, were found in need of monitoring.

In conclusion, the implementation of prioritisation schemes to consider the three aspects (species, pathways, and sites) allows managers to focus resources on those species which pose a greater risk of invasion and impact.

"This will only ever be one part of a broad range of biosecurity efforts, but it is one where, we believe, we can be prepared," comment the authors.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Young people are less likely to be carded for cigarettes in certain types of shops, particularly in those that heavily advertise tobacco, a new study has found.

When researchers who were 20 and 21 visited a variety of shops in a city on the verge of implementing a law prohibiting sales to people younger than 21, more than 60 percent of cashiers didn't ask them for identification, found the study, which appears online in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

And these young adults slipped by without an age check most often when they visited small stores, tobacco shops and shops plastered with tobacco ads.

"Our findings suggest that certain types of stores -- tobacco shops, convenience stores and those with a lot of tobacco advertising -- are more likely to sell tobacco to a young person without checking his or her ID," said Megan Roberts, an assistant professor of health behavior and health promotion at Ohio State, and a member of the university's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

"One implication of this finding is that enforcement may benefit from targeted outreach and monitoring at these locations."

The study included fieldworker visits to a randomly sampled list of 103 tobacco retailers in the summer of 2017. The visits were made in Columbus, Ohio, where enforcement of a new Tobacco 21 law had not yet begun.

The plan was to get a baseline idea of how young adults on the edge of the cutoff age were being carded in the city, information that could potentially drive future enforcement decisions, said Niru Murali, who participated in the study as part of her undergraduate work in Ohio State's College of Public Health.

Though the frequency of carding found in the study was low - and disappointing from a public health standpoint - it aligned with previous research, she said.

The most interesting new information found in this study was that certain retailers were less likely to ask for ID, Murali said.

More than 64 percent of grocery stores checked IDs, compared with about 34 percent of convenience stores and tobacco shops. Bars, restaurants and alcohol stores were even less likely to card the fieldworkers: only 29 percent requested ID.

"In addition to variation by type of store, we saw that those that heavily advertised were less likely to card us. It makes sense, if you think about it, that people who are plastering their windows with tobacco ads probably are trying to make a lot of money off those products and may be more likely to look the other way when selling to a young adult," Murali said.

Retailers are supposed to card anyone who looks younger than 30 under the Columbus Tobacco 21 law. The idea behind the city's law, and others like it, is to decrease the long-term health toll that tobacco takes by preventing young people from starting to smoke. Previous research has shown that those who start by the age of 18 are almost twice as likely to become lifelong smokers when compared to individuals who start after they turn 21.

Murali said strategic enforcement is important, and it may be helpful for those enforcing the laws to be sensitive to the fact that they present a financial hit, particularly for small business owners.

"From a public health standpoint, we're trying to stop people from smoking initiation that has an effect on the rest of their life. But from the business perspective, tobacco is a huge source of income for them," she said.

"I think it's going to be really important to work on this during enforcement - how do you make this an easier pill to swallow for folks who are losing income?"

Added Roberts, "Having a minimum legal sales age for tobacco is important for reducing youth access to tobacco. Not only does it prevent young people from purchasing tobacco for themselves, but it prevents them from buying tobacco and distributing it to other, often younger, peers."

Vienna, 24 June 2019: Despite a time limit imposed in many countries on the freeze-storage of sperm, a new study from China has found that the long-term cryopreservation of semen in a sperm bank does not affect future clinical outcomes. Results of the study are presented today in Vienna at the 35th Annual Meeting of ESHRE by Dr Chuan Huang of the Changsa-Hunan Sperm Bank in China.

The findings are based on a retrospective analysis of 119,558 semen samples from sperm donors at the Hunan Sperm Bank. For the purpose of the analysis, the samples were arranged in three groups: those kept in cryostorage for between six months and five years; those stored for between six and ten years; and those stored for between 11 and 15 years.

The study first found that the frozen sperm's survival rate after thawing did decline over the 15 year study period - from 85% to 74% survival. However, this decline made little difference to the pregnancy and live birth rate in women using these samples for donor insemination, with cumulative live birth rates of 82.17%, 80.21% and 80.00% in the three storage groups respectively. Success rates were similarly comparable when the frozen sperm samples were used in IVF, with live birth rates of 81.63%, 79.11% and 73.91% in the three groups.

The authors stress that these very high success rates were achieved with screened donor sperm, which is not necessarily representative in quality of sperm from the general population.(1) 'Donors at our sperm bank must be in good health according to physical examination and psychological evaluation, said Dr Huang, 'and have no familial history of a genetic disease, so I think these live birth rates are appropriate.' However, she added, the implications of the study remain, 'that the long-term storage of sperm does not appear to affect live birth rates'.

There have been at least two reports in the medical literature on successful pregnancies using human semen stored for longer than 20 years, the first from the UK after 21 years storage, and the second from the USA after 40 years storage.(2)

However, many regulatory authorities set a time limit on sperm (and egg) storage of ten years, with longer exceptions for medical reasons (such as for fertility preservation ahead of cancer treatment). But the literature offers no clear explanation for any these time limits.(3) Some andrologists suggest that at the time the limits were set there was a fear that the sperm cells might be at risk of DNA damage, but there has been no evidence of that.

Dr Huang reports that the regulations governing China's 26 sperm banks set no limit on the duration of semen storage, although the screening of sperm donors and semen is conducted strictly according to guidelines of the Chinese Ministry of Health - for sperm quality (concentration, motility) and infection. All samples must be cryopreserved for a minimum 6-month quarantine prior to rescreening for HIV.

Nevertheless, because this study found a small but statistically significant decline in sperm survival rate over the 15-year study period Dr Huang and colleagues do recommend that 'sperm banks should provide sperm in their order of cryopreservation'. Many studies have shown that some sperm cells do not survive the freezing and thawing process.

To solve one of the key obstacles in big-data science, KAUST researchers have created a framework for searching very large datasets that runs easily on different computing architectures. Their achievement allows researchers to concentrate on advancing the search engine, or query engine, itself rather than on painstakingly coding for specific computing platforms.

Big data is one of the most promising yet challenging aspects of today's information-heavy world. While the huge and ever-expanding sets of information, such as online-collected data or genetic information, could hold powerful insights for science and humanity, processing and interrogating all this data require highly sophisticated techniques.

Many different approaches to querying big data have been explored. But one of the most powerful and computationally effective is based on analyzing data with a subject-predicate-object triplestore structure of the form (e.g., apple, is a, fruit). This structure lends itself to being treated like a graph with edges and vertices, and this characteristic has been used to code query engines for specific computing architectures for maximum efficiency. However, such architecture-specific approaches cannot be readily ported to different platforms, limiting the opportunities for innovation and advancement in analytics.

"Modern computing systems provide diverse platforms and accelerators, and programming them can be intimidating and time consuming," say Fuad Jamour and Yanzhao Chen, Ph.D. candidates in Panos Kalnis's group in KAUST's Extreme Computing Research Center. "Our research group focuses on building systems and algorithms for processing and analyzing very large datasets. This research addresses the desire to write a program once and then use it across different platforms."

Rather than the previously used graph-traversal or exhaustive relational-indexing approaches, the group queried triplestore data by using an applied mathematical approach called sparse-matrix algebra.

"Our paper describes the first research graph-query engine with matrix algebra at its core to address the issue of portability," says Jamour. "Most existing graph-query engines are designed for single computers or small distributed-memory systems. And porting existing engines to large distributed-memory systems, like supercomputers, involves significant engineering effort. Our sparse-matrix algebra scheme can be used to build scalable, portable and efficient graph-query engines."

The team's experiments on large-scale real and synthetic datasets achieved performance comparable with, or better than, existing specialized approaches for complex queries. Their scheme also has the capacity to scale up to very large computing infrastructures handling datasets of up to 512 billion triples.

"These ideas can facilitate building analytics components in graph databases with cutting-edge performance, which is currently in high demand," says Chen.

Alexandria, Va., USA - At the 97th General Session & Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), held in conjunction with the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) and the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR), AADR Immediate Past President Raul Garcia, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA, presented a poster on "Survey of Dental Researchers' Perceptions of Sexual Harassment at AADR Conferences 2015-2018." The IADR/AADR/CADR General Session & Exhibition is held at the Vancouver Convention Centre West Building in Vancouver, BC, Canada from June 19-22, 2019.

AADR studied perceptions and experiences of sexual harassment among registrants for AADR Annual Meetings. Registrants of AADR meetings from 2015-2018 were emailed an invitation to an anonymous, online survey. Demographics were assessed categorically by age, gender, race/ethnicity, frequency of meeting attendance, academic degree type, IADR Division/Section membership and academic status.

Bivariate analyses included eight types of perceived harassment, reports of any type of perceived harassment, and affirmative responses to the survey item assessing perceived experiences with sexual harassment at a scientific workplace or other career-related venue. Restricted analyses were additionally conducted among individuals who reported any type of harassment to identify respondents' demographic characteristics and the statistical significance of bivariate associations among them.

Of the completed surveys, 21% responded affirmatively to experiencing one or more of the eight types of harassment surveyed. Within the 21%, experience with 'put downs' or condescending remarks occurred most frequently (70%) and perceived harassment of a sexual nature was less common, by comparison with 37.8% reporting experience with 'sexist remarks'; 33.1% reporting staring, leering or 'ogling' that was uncomfortable; 22.7% reporting 'touching' that was uncomfortable; 11% reporting unwanted attempts at a romantic relationship; and

While most respondents had no personal experience with harassment at AADR meetings, the fact that one in five did experience one or more of the eight types of harassment should be cause for concern. In 2018, the AADR introduced a new Professional Conduct at Meetings Policy, but further actions may be required.

This poster presentation, #2231, was held on Friday, June 21, 2019 at 11 a.m. in West Exhibition Hall B of the Vancouver Convention Centre West Building, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

San Francisco, CA - June 21, 2019 - New research has found that six probiotic Bacillus strains are resistant to several antibiotics. Genetic analysis of other Bacillus strains has shown genes that contribute to antibiotic resistance towards various types of drugs and methods in which they can still grow in their presence. The research is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

"This data can provide us with insights into what genes are contributing to antibiotic resistance and whether they can be transferred to other bacteria that cause harm to humans and domesticated animals," said Emmanuel Flores, a Masters student at CSU Fresno. "This work can be used as a form of monitoring antibiotic resistance and make accurate predictions in potential antibiotic resistance threats found in functional foods and livestock feed," he said.

Bacillus is a group of bacteria that has been commonly used in probiotic products. These products are claimed to have some health benefit to the gut of those who consume these products. This research aimed to determine if any Bacillus bacteria used in probiotics are resistant to antibiotics that are commonly used in health clinics.

"Since bacteria have shown to be capable of transferring antibiotic resistance to other bacteria, we aim to determine if probiotic Bacillus are capable of transferring their own antibiotic resistance to bacteria that cause illnesses such as food poisoning," said Flores.

Their results thus far have shown us that probiotic Bacillus has the potential to transfer antibiotic resistance. However, further tests need to be performed to determine what types of harmful bacteria are likely recipients of antibiotic resistance. The researchers plan to run a test that will facilitate the transfer of antibiotic resistance bookended by a test that will determine which antibiotics the harmful bacteria have gained resistance against.

Probiotics are available to the general public and come in the form of many functional foods and livestock feeds. "Monitoring the spread of antibiotic resistance by focusing on probiotics has been overlooked and should take place since the global impact of antibiotic resistance is increasing," said Flores.

Laboratory work was performed by Emmanuel Flores who is a Masters student in Dr. Van Laar's laboratory at CSU Fresno. He has worked under the guidance of Dr. Van Laar, Dr. Sistrom (UC Merced), and Mo Kaze (PhD student, UC Merced). Funding for this study was provided by the Bridge to Doctorate program and the CSU Fresno Graduate Net Initiative's Graduate Research Grant awarded to Emmanuel. This work will be presented at ASM Microbe 2019 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California on Friday, June 21st, 2019.

San Francisco, CA - June 21, 2019 - Salt-tolerant bacteria grown in brine were able to revive after the brine was put through a cycle of drying and rewetting. The research has implications for the possibility of life on Mars, as well as for the danger of contaminating Mars and other planetary bodies with terrestrial microbes. The research is presented at ASM Microbe 2019, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

"Ours is the first demonstration of microbes surviving and growing after being dried and then re-wetted with humidity only," said Mark Schneegurt, PhD, Professor of Biological Sciences at Wichita State University, Wichita, KS.

While parched, Mars' surface has abundant sulfate salts of calcium, iron, and magnesium which could form saturated brines--even at some of the frigid temperatures that prevail on the red planet's surface--that could be compatible with terrestrial microorganisms, or that could harbor Martian microbes.

Despite the red planet's apparent aridity, humidity is thought to reach 80% to 100% at night and then plummet during the daytime as temperatures rise.

"The likelihood is high that at times surface salts may be able to attract sufficient water to form brines that can support microbial growth," said Dr. Schneegurt. "The current research may also help redefine what constitutes a habitable zone, broadening the search for life to other icy worlds."

In the study, the investigators grew species of Halomonas and Marinococcus obtained from Hot Lake, in Washington, and Great Salt Plains, in Oklahoma, in media containing 50% magnesium sulfate and 50% water. They took small drops of the grown culture and dried them in a container with water-absorbing chemicals under a vacuum, which takes about two hours. The dried drops were locked in a Mason jar with some water or a salt solution, and the jar fills with humidity. Within a day, the salts in the dried culture absorb enough water to make a liquid brine, at which point the bacterial cells revive. While there is modest cell death with each cycle--typically less than 50%--a substantial proportion of cells survive.

In experiments where water was not added directly to the dried cultures, the investigators maintained the cultures in a sealed jar, above a layer of water or a salt solution. The dry, water-attracting magnesium sulfate formed a saturated brine in less than a day by absorbing moisture from the air inside the jar. Surviving cells revived, and began to grow, reaching high culture densities.

"Liquid water is key to life," said Dr. Schneegurt. "Liquid water on Mars is likely saturated with salts. We work at the limits of life to demonstrate microbial tolerances to high salts and low temperatures."

"Understanding how microbes can grow on Mars relates directly to the risks of contaminating Mars or other celestial bodies with organisms that can potentially grow on these worlds. This also speaks to the definition of habitable zones and the search for life on Mars and the icy worlds," said Dr. Schneegurt.

Children need protection when using programmable Internet computing devices - and Lancaster University scientists have drawn up new guidelines to help designers build in safeguards.

Young people are growing up in a digital world where everyday objects contain sensors and stream data to and from the Internet - a trend known collectively as the Internet of Things (IoT).

Children are also getting hands-on - using small-scale easy-to-program devices such as the BBC micro:bit to experiment and get creative with digital technologies.

These kinds of devices are very useful educational tools that children are using to build their knowledge and digital skills - and the developers of the BBC micro:bit took a very considered ethical approach to developing their device. However, unless properly considered, Internet-connected devices can present risks to children and others around them.

These risks can include peer-to-peer abuse or bullying, dangers of abuse by adults, as well as risks related to the use, exploitation, commercialisation, or insecure management of any data the children generate by using the devices.

Dr Bran Knowles, Lecturer in Data Science at Lancaster University's School of Computing and Communications, said: "Children who are learning to programme IoT devices still have critical gaps in their understanding of privacy and security. In addition, their parents may also lack technical understanding of IoT, which makes it difficult for them to help ensure their children are managing their privacy and keeping safe.

"Formal training is available for online safety issues such as social media bullying and sexting, but, as yet, there is no IoT component to this curriculum.

"It is essential therefore that the designers of these IoT devices anticipate the full spectrum of contexts in which children may use these devices and adopt strategies that will ensure they have properly considered, and mitigated, the potential safety and privacy risks to children and their families.

"Our research provides a framework to help designers approach these critical risks with their own devices, while still enabling these devices to have enough functions activated so that they still provide a fun learning experience." she said.

The Lancaster University team's methodology includes working with supervised groups of school children to explore a wide range of ways that young people may want to use Internet-connected computing devices.

The findings from these sessions, alongside findings from workshops with child safety experts, help designers to create fictionalised 'use scenarios' that provide a detailed picture of how children will use the devices. Key questions can emerge from these scenarios that form the basis for developing risk mitigation checklists when designing digital tools.

Virginia Tech researchers discovered that wheat plants "sneezing" off condensation can vastly impact the spread of spore-borne diseases, such as wheat leaf rust, which can cause crop yield losses of up to 20 percent or more in the United States and higher average losses in less developed agricultural nations.

The study, published June 19, and featured on the cover of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, is part of a three-year grant obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study the dispersal of wheat pathogens by rain splash and jumping-droplet condensation.

Jonathan Boreyko, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering is a co-principal investigator on the grant and David Schmale, professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is the primary investigator of the nearly $500,000 project.

"Professor Schmale had seen some of the work we've been doing on condensation and was curious to see what we could learn about condensation on wheat leaves," said Boreyko. "The project didn't start with any expectations, but people already knew that rain splash and wind caused pathogenic spores to be removed from plants and spread to others, and we wanted to see if condensation might also have a role to play in spore dispersal."

The students involved in the study were told not to expect jumping droplets in their condensation tests, as the droplets are known to only occur on specific surfaces, namely superhydrophobic surfaces normally associated with exotic materials, such as lotus leaves and gecko skin. Superhydrophobic surfaces are non-wetting, and when spherical condensate grows, droplets merge together to release surface tension, which is converted into kinetic energy, which propels them from the surface.

"Conceptually, what the plants are doing is sneezing," Boreyko said. "The jumping droplets, at the rate of 100 or more an hour, are a violent expulsion of dew from the surface. It's good for the plant because it is removing spores from itself, but it's bad because, like a human sneeze, the liquid droplets are finding their way onto neighboring plants. Like a cold, it's easy to see how a single infected plant could propagate a disease across an entire crop."

The paper, co-first-authored by Saurabh Nath and Farzad Ahmadi, engineering mechanics graduate students in Boreyko's lab, showed the jumping droplets can dramatically increase the dispersal of disease spores.

"We wanted to find out, first if the condensation droplets can carry spores, and while 90 percent of them carry only a single spore, we have seen instances where a droplet has carried as many as 11," Ahmadi said. "We also looked at how high the spores can jump and whether they can get past the boundary layer of the leaf."

The boundary layer, which is about a millimeter thick, is the region of air near the leaf's surface where the wind doesn't affect the droplet. If the kinetic energy from merging moves the jumping droplet above the boundary layer, the droplet can be taken by the wind. Depending upon the wind speed, it's feasible for the droplet to then be moved great distances, including to neighboring fields or farms.

"Using water-sensitive paper we measured how high the droplets can jump," Ahmadi said. "A blue dot on the paper shows us a droplet, and a reddish dot shows us a spore, so in this way we can calculate both the height and the number of spores in the droplet."

The droplets in Ahmadi's tests routinely jumped from 2-5 millimeters from the surface of the leaf, well above the distance necessary to be taken by the wind to be re-deposited elsewhere.

"It's important to realize these droplets are microscopic in size," explained Boreyko. "Each droplet is about the same size as the thickness of a human hair - about 50 micrometers - so this is all happening at a scale we don't notice. A 0.1 meter per second wind can support the weight of a jumping droplet, whereas a droplet directly on the leaf requires a wind of 10 meters per second - 100 times stronger to be removed. Once it's in the wind, there is, hypothetically, no limit to how far it can be carried."

The low wind speed needed to carry the droplets means that the spore-ridden dew drops can have a large impact on crop health over a very wide area. "We know now that wind and rain aren't the only factors in the spread of disease among crops," Boreyko said.

The next phase of the continuing experiment for Boreyko and his team is to see how far the wind can carry the spore-bearing droplets. Using water-sensitive paper spread out in varying distances from a wheat leaf, the team will use fans to simulate wind and collect data on droplet and spore dispersal.

- The deployment, successfully achieved by Ericsson and Telefónica, includes a new 5G Massive MIMO Radio running on 3.5GHz band, along with virtual Evolved Packet Core and User Data Consolidation.

- Part of the 5G EVE project, use cases of 5G-controlled Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and real-time video analytics running in the 5TONIC lab have been demonstrated by Ericsson, Telefónica and IMDEA Networks at EuCNC event in Valencia

- Ericsson, Telefónica and UC3M boost their partnership in 5G innovation with the launch of EU 5GROWTH project, collaborating with INNOVALIA on 5G solutions for Zero-Defect Manufacturing

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) together with Telefónica and IMDEA Networks have demonstrated brand-new 5G use cases for Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) 2019 event held in Valencia, Spain, June 17-21.

During the event, two concurrent use cases executed over the same 5G end-to-end infrastructure at the 5TONIC lab were demonstrated on 5G EVE booth in Valencia. The first one showed ASTI commercial AGVs connected to 5TONIC's E2E network being remotely and real-time controlled from the edge of the network, meeting the requirements of 10-20 milliseconds maximum end-to-end latency and 99,999 percent reliability.

The second use case characterizes both 5G network and deep neural network performance for real-time image recognition and video analytics based on video streamed across 5TONIC infrastructure to an edge cloud location to a deep neural network application. For both use cases a common KPI framework continuously tracks multiple KPIs - including latency, user data rate, reliability and 5G availability - all displayed on a simple dashboard, making it possible and easy for both communication service providers and vertical industries to carry out early and agile validations of innovative 5G use cases.

These milestone demonstrations were achieved only one year after the 5G EVE project was launched within the lab. In 2018, the 5TONIC co-innovation lab founded by Telefónica and IMDEA Networks in Madrid and backed by Ericsson was selected as EU 5G reference platform for open 5G experimentation and was awarded the 5G EVE project to support that mission.

"5TONIC has consolidated a virtuous cycle of exploration, co-creation and innovation in applied 5G uses cases, enabling 5G initiatives from a wide range of vertical sectors. The lab has certainly become the meeting point for 5G innovation in Spain, as well as a key reference for 5G R&D in Europe. From Ericsson, we are glad to contribute to 5TONIC with our 5G technology and expertise to support that mission", says Manuel Lorenzo, Head of Technology and Innovation at Ericsson R&D Madrid.

Moving forward and as a result of the projects' exceptional results, 5G EVE is also proving instrumental in achieving two basic aims of the 5TONIC lab: to expand its portfolio of vertical collaborations at both a national and European level; and to catalyse the deployment of 5G E2E infrastructure at 5TONIC lab to support those collaborations.

Further evidence of the new collaborations with verticals enabled by 5G EVE sees Ericsson, Telefónica and UC3M reinforce their alliance in 5G innovation by becoming key players in the EU 5GROWTH project, working in collaboration with Innovalia, in Spain, to develop and validate 5G solutions for Zero-Defect Manufacturing. This project was kicked off on June 10 and has a powerful international reach including the involvement of European operators such as TIM, Altice and Telefónica, vertical firms such as COMAU, EFACEC and INNOVALIA, and top academic institutions like UC3M, Scuola Sant'Anna, and Politecnico di Torino.

In parallel with the ecosystem development, on June 13, Ericsson and Telefónica successfully implemented 5G NSA technology at the 5TONIC open innovation lab. This new deployment includes a new 5G Massive MIMO Radio running on 3.5GHz band along with 5G virtual Evolved Packet Core and User Data Consolidation. The first 5G data transmission has been completed using a 5G WNC Pocket Router and tests will continue with new commercial 5G-capable routers and phones to cater for new uses cases at 5TONIC.

"Completing their 5G technology deployment at 5TONIC lab, Ericsson and Telefónica have fully activated 5G NSA according to Rel 15 of 3GPPP. The equipment supplied by Ericsson includes its sophisticated 6488 Active Antenna System (AAS), with Massive MIMO, and emitting on C Band with Telefónica license. The deployment also incorporates Ericsson Cloud Packet Core and Ericsson User Data Management and Consolidation, which provides complete network functionality for 5G networking at 5TONIC lab in IMDEA Networks premises. A number of experimentation and innovation activities encompassed in both bilateral collaborations of Telefónica with verticals and 5G PPP projects with involvement of Universidad Carlos III, Telefónica and Ericsson (such as 5G EVE, 5GROWTH, 5G-TRANSFORMER) will immediately leverage this complete Ericsson 5G platform", says Arturo Azcorra, Managing Director of IMDEA Networks and Vice chairman of 5TONIC.

Alexandria, Va., USA - At the 97th General Session & Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), held in conjunction with the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) and the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR), Aline de Castilho, University of Campinas, Brazil, presented a poster on "Cytotoxicity and Physical Properties of Glass Ionomer Cement Containing Flavonoids." The IADR/AADR/CADR General Session & Exhibition is held at the Vancouver Convention Centre West Building in Vancouver, BC, Canada from June 19-22, 2019.

De Castilho and coauthors sought to explore whether incorporation of flavonoids into glass ionomer ceramics could improve its biocompatibility without adversely impacting its's physical properties by examining the cytotoxicity on human keratinocytes and the physical properties. The flavonoids Apigenin, Liquiritigenin, Naringenin and Quercetin were manually incorporated into GIC according to their minimal inhibitory concentration previously determined. In the control group, no incorporation was performed. The physical properties of the GICs containing or not flavonoids were evaluated by compressive strength, diametral tensile strength, surface roughness and hardness.

The results showed that GIC without flavonoids were significantly more cytotoxic than the experimental groups. Compressive strength, diametral tensile strength and surface roughness of the experimental GICs were comparable to those of the control group, but the hardness was significantly increased by the incorporation of Naringenin and Quercetin. Overall, the incorporation of flavonoids improved the biocompatibility as well as enhanced the hardness of the GIC, not influencing negatively other physical properties of the restorative material.

This poster presentation, #2121, was held on Friday, June 21, 2019 at 11 a.m. in West Exhibition Hall B of the Vancouver Convention Centre West Building, Vancouver, BC, Canada.