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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- One gift some dads may want for Father's Day: not being judged for their parenting style.

About half of fathers in a new national poll say they have faced criticism and second-guessing about their parenting choices on everything from what they feed their kids to how they play with them.

And while many fathers say they respond to criticism in a positive way, such as making a change to some aspect of their parenting (49 percent) or seeking out more information on the topic (40 percent), others had the opposite reaction, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at the University of Michigan.

For over a quarter of fathers polled, criticism made them feel less confident as a parent and 1 in 5 say it discourages them from being more involved in parenting. Many fathers (43 percent) also believe the criticism is often unfair.

The report is based on responses from a nationally-representative sample of 713 fathers of children 0-13 years old.

"Fathers who are loving and engaged can have a positive impact on their children's development and well-being," says poll co-director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.

"While some fathers say criticism prompts them to seek more information about good parenting practices, too much disparagement may cause dads to feel demoralized about their parental role," Clark says. "Family members - especially the other parent - should be willing to acknowledge that different parenting styles are not necessarily incorrect or harmful."

Dads most often felt criticized about how they disciplined a child, with two-thirds saying this was the top category for parenting put downs, according to the report.

It's not uncommon for parents to disagree over issues such as the age a child should be expected to follow certain rules or appropriate consequences for misbehavior, Clark says. But it's one of the most important areas for parents to find common ground.

"Addressing a child's misbehavior is one of the greatest challenges of parenting and parents aren't always on the same page when it comes to expectations and consequences," Clark says.

"Inconsistency between parents in responding to a child's behavior can send mixed messages to the child, and result in conflict and criticism between parents."

The second top daddy shaming category was diet and nutrition, with 2 in 5 dads saying they were criticized for what they fed their kids. Nearly a third of fathers also felt judged for not paying enough attention to children and an equal number said they were told they played too rough.

Other topics of criticism related to a child's sleep (24 percent), appearance (23 percent), and safety (19 percent).

And the most common source of criticism often came from within the family - usually the other parent (44 percent of the time.)

"In some instances, this may be a reflection of historical gender roles, where mothers are viewed as more natural caregivers, and fathers as having limited parenting capabilities that need supervision or correction," Clark says. "When this occurs, minor differences in parenting style can cause conflict over the 'best' way to parent."

"Cultural norms, family dynamics and prior experience with his own father can also shape a dad's parenting style and influence the expectations of others," she adds.

The same goes for criticism about being too rough or not paying attention. While fathers may engage in more physical play with their children, mothers, co-parents, or other adults may perceive that the father is not adequately protecting the child from injury.

Grandparents were the next greatest dad critics (24 percent), followed by fathers' own friends (9 percent).

Nine in 10 fathers said that most dads do a good job taking care of their kids, according to the poll report. Still, some fathers describe situations in which other adults seem to discount their parental role: 11 percent have felt that a teacher assumed they were not knowledgeable about their child's needs or behavior, and 12 percent have felt that a doctor or nurse assumed they were not knowledgeable about their child's health.

Nearly a quarter of fathers polled (23 percent) have also felt excluded from communication about their child's activities.

It's important that professionals and family members don't make dads feel irrelevant when it comes to children's lives, Clark says.

"Some fathers say they feel that professionals who interact with their child are dismissive of their parental role," she says.

"Even subtle forms of disparagement can undercut fathers' confidence or send the message that they are less important to their child's well-being. Professionals who work with children should avoid negative assumptions about fathers' level of involvement or interest in parenting."

Clark adds: "Family members should also be mindful of comments or critiques that may make dads feel like they don't know how to parent the 'right' way.'"

New findings of a multi-university research team show the pesticide DDT persists in remote lakes at concerning levels half a century after it was banned, affecting key aquatic species and potentially entire lake food webs.

"What was considered yesterday's environmental crisis in the 1950s through 1970s remains today's problem," says lead author Dr. Josh Kurek, Assistant Professor in Geography and Environment at Mount Allison University. "Decades of intense insecticide applications to our conifer forests have left a lasting mark on these lakes--and likely many others in eastern North America."

Between 1950 and 1970 prior to legal restrictions, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) insecticides were widely applied to eastern North American forests to manage naturally occurring insect outbreaks, such as spruce budworm. Although often applied to forests by airplane, chemicals like DDT are highly persistent and can eventually wash into lakes from their surrounding landscape. This study looked at dated sediments from the bottom of five remote lakes located within different watersheds in north-central New Brunswick, Canada. Lake sediments provide a well-recognized and powerful archive of environmental conditions, which allows researchers to assess chemical and biological conditions in lakes before, during, and after pesticide use.

The study was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, highlights the chemical legacy of one of North America's largest aerial spray programs of insecticides ever coordinated by forest stakeholders.

Historical trends in the lake sediments mirrored the known use of this pesticide in the province, with high levels of DDT in sediment layers from the 1960s and 70s. Levels of DDT in lake sediments were among the highest found in previously-sprayed areas of Canada and the U.S., suggesting very intensive past use of pesticides for spruce budworm control. Surprisingly, DDT and its toxic breakdown products are still very high in modern sediments--above levels where harmful biological effects tend to occur.

Additionally, an important invertebrate within lake food webs, the small water flea Daphnia sp., has declined substantially, often coincident with increased DDT. Loss of Daphnia sp. often negatively impacts lake food webs. These impacts may lead to greater algae production and fewer prey for fish.

"We have learned a lot of tough lessons from the heavy use of DDT in agriculture and forestry. The biggest one is that this pesticide was concentrated through food webs to levels that caused widespread raptor declines in North America," notes McMaster University professor and study co-author Dr, Karen Kidd, Jarislowsky Chair in Environment and Health. "The lesson from our study is that pesticide use can result in persistent and permanent changes in aquatic ecosystems."

Doctors are calling for reform to rules governing when terminally ill prisoners are suitable for early release on compassionate grounds (ERCG) amid concerns that the current approach is discriminatory.

Data obtained from the UK Ministry of Justice and shared with The BMJ suggests that UK prisoners at the end of life are more likely to be granted ERCG if they have cancer than other conditions.

Jim Burtonwood, a palliative care specialty doctor who led the research, explains that under current legislation, the UK justice secretary can legally grant ERCG where there is a risk of harm to the prisoner from ongoing imprisonment, potential benefit through release, low risk of recidivism and adequate arrangements for safe care in the community.

But crucially, death must be expected "very soon" and HM Prisons and Probation Service consider this to be within three months.

Using Freedom Of Information requests to the Ministry of Justice, Burtonwood and colleagues found that in five years between 2013 and 2017, only 48 applications for ERCG were successful, while in the same period there were 845 recorded deaths from natural causes in prison.

What's more, in 2017, all six prisoners who had successful ERCGs had some form of cancer. This was despite the fact that 39% of all expected deaths from natural causes in English and Welsh prisons at that time were due to non-cancer causes, such as chronic lung disease (COPD) and dementia.

Burtonwood says the current ERCG legislation could be deemed to be discriminatory according to the 2010 Equality Act, and should be made more flexible.

"The rules as they stand favour those conditions like cancer with either clear prognoses or more predictable trajectories," he told The BMJ. "We saw that prisoner patients with COPD, dementia or heart failure were the ones that tended to be rejected, usually on the basis that their prognosis wasn't clear enough for people to make confident judgements about ERCG."

He acknowledges that decisions must be balanced against the risk of public harm, and notes that prison GPs may feel under pressure over making a definitive prognosis, because of the potential adverse publicity that could ensue if a patient lives longer than expected.

But he argues that for terminally ill prisoners, extending the ERCG requirement for a three month prognosis or recognising the uncertainty that comes with some of the non-cancer conditions "might help bring the UK into line with other European countries and allow for a more appropriate use of ERCG without adverse effects on public safety."

Current legislation regarding ERCG "appears to inadvertently treat patients differently according to their underlying diagnosis," he concludes. "It lies with clinical researchers to investigate the impact on patients, but with government and other policy makers to ensure parity of treatment through our laws."

Persistent poverty affects one in five children in the UK, and is associated with poor physical and mental health in early adolescence, suggests research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Ending child poverty should become a policy priority to ensure that UK children achieve their full potential, argue the researchers.

Child poverty is rising in the UK. In 2016-17, 30% (4.1 million) children were reported to be living in poverty, up from 27% in 2010-11. By 2023-24, the proportion living in relative poverty is on course to hit 37%, affecting an extra 1.1 million children.

Persistent poverty is associated with poorer mental, social, and behavioural development in children, as well as worse educational outcomes, employment prospects, and earning power into adulthood.

What's less clear is whether specific patterns of exposure to poverty have different effects on adolescent physical and mental health.

To explore this further, a team of UK researchers analysed data on 10,652 children from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, a large nationally representative sample of babies born between 2000 and 2002 who have been tracked throughout childhood.

Poverty (defined as less than 60% of average household income) was measured at 9 months, and at 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14 years of age.

Mental health was measured using a validated questionnaire; physical health was measured by obesity (BMI); and parents were asked to report any longstanding illness when their child was 14.

Almost one in five (19.4%) children experienced persistent poverty across all time points, whereas more than 60% (62.4%) of children didn't. A further 13.4% of children experienced poverty in early childhood (between 9 months and 7 years), while the remaining 5% experienced it in late childhood (11 to 14 years).

After adjusting for the mother's education and ethnicity, the researchers found that compared with children who never experienced poverty, any period of poverty was associated with worse physical and mental health in early adolescence.

In particular, those in persistent poverty had a 3 times higher risk of mental ill health, a 1.5 times greater risk of obesity, and nearly double the risk of longstanding illness than children who had never been poor.

Poverty in early childhood was also associated with a higher risk of obesity in adolescence than in late childhood, while mental ill health and longstanding illness were more strongly associated with poverty in late childhood.

This is an observational study, and as such, can't establish cause. What's more, some measures were based on parents' self-report, so may not have been completely accurate, while missing data may also have affected the results, say the researchers.

But they point out that this is a large, nationally representative study, rich in data on family characteristics, added to which the findings are consistent with those of other similar studies.

They warn that the impact of rising levels of poverty on children's mental health "is likely to have profound implications for social policies and their associated social costs, given mental health tracks from early life to adulthood."

And they call for "a renewed commitment" by the UK government to prioritise ending child poverty. Health professionals "are well-placed to argue that policies and services in the UK should fulfil our moral and legal responsibility to ensure that every child is able to achieve their full potential," they suggest.

When it comes to making friends, it appears dolphins are just like us and form close friendships with other dolphins that have a common interest. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B by an international team of researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Zurich and Western Australia, provides further insight into the social habits of these remarkable animals.

Shark Bay, a World Heritage area in Western Australia, is home to an iconic population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, and the only place where dolphins have been observed using marine sponges as foraging tools. This learnt technique, passed down from generation to generation, helps certain dolphins, "spongers", find food in deeper water channels. While the tool-using technique is well-studied in female dolphins, this study looked specifically at male dolphins.

Using behavioural, genetic and photographic data collected from 124 male dolphins during the winter months in Shark Bay over nine years [2007 to 2015], the team analysed a subset of 37 male dolphins, comprising 13 spongers and 24 non-spongers.

Male spongers spend more time associating with other male spongers than they do non-spongers, these bonds being based on similar foraging techniques and not relatedness or other factors.

Dr Simon Allen, a co-author of the study and senior research associate at Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, explains: "Foraging with a sponge is a time-consuming and largely solitary activity so it was long thought incompatible with the needs of male dolphins in Shark Bay - to invest time in forming close alliances with other males. This study suggests that, like their female counterparts and indeed like humans, male dolphins form social bonds based on shared interests."

The study provides new insight into homophilous behaviour in the social network of tool-using dolphins.

Manuela Bizzozzero, lead author of the study at the University of Zurich, added: "Male dolphins in Shark Bay exhibit a fascinating social system of nested alliance formation. These strong bonds between males can last for decades and are critical to each male's mating success. We were very excited to discover alliances of spongers, dolphins forming close friendships with others with similar traits."

New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlight need for increased, sustained investment in the development of mental health services in areas affected by conflict.

One in five people (22%) living in an area affected by conflict has depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, and about 9% of conflict-affected populations have a moderate to severe mental health condition, according to an analysis of 129 studies published in The Lancet. The figures are substantially higher than the global estimate for these mental health conditions in the general population, which stands at one in 14 people (as shown in the Lancet infographic).

Depression and anxiety appeared to increase with age in conflict settings, and depression was more common among women than men.

The findings suggest that past studies underestimated the burden of mental health conditions in conflict-affected areas - with higher rates of severe mental health conditions (5% at any one time in the new study compared to 3-4% over a 12-month-period in the 2005 estimates), and also of mild to moderate mental health conditions (17% at any one time in the new estimates compared to 15-20% over a 12-month period in previous estimates).

Overall, the mean prevalence was highest for mild mental health conditions (13%), for moderate the prevalence was 4%, and for severe conditions the prevalence was 5%.

The revised estimates use research from 129 studies and data from 39 countries published between 1980 and August 2017, including 45 new studies published between 2013 and August 2017. Settings that have experienced conflict in the last 10 years were included. There was limited data for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, so estimates for these conditions were based on global estimates and do not take into account any increased risk of these conditions in conflict settings. Cases were categorised as mild, moderate or severe. Natural disasters and public health emergencies, such as Ebola, were not included.

"I am confident that our study provides the most accurate estimates available today of the prevalence of mental health conditions in areas of conflict," said lead author of the study Fiona Charlson of the University of Queensland, Australia and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, USA. "Estimates from previous studies have been inconsistent, with some finding inconceivably low or high rates. In this study we used more stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria for the literature search, and advanced search strategies and statistical methods." [1]

Currently, there are major conflict-induced humanitarian crises in a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. In 2016, the number of armed conflicts reached an all-time high, with 53 ongoing conflicts in 37 countries and 12% of the world's population living in an active conflict zone. Nearly 69 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced by violence and conflict, the highest number since World War II.

"The new estimates, together with already available practical tools for helping people with mental health conditions in emergencies, add yet more weight to the argument for immediate and sustained investment, so that mental and psychosocial support is made available to all people in need living through conflict and its aftermath," said study author Dr Mark van Ommeren, of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization. [1]

Dr van Ommeren concludes: "In conflict situations and other humanitarian emergencies, WHO provides support in many ways: firstly, by supporting coordination and by assessing the mental health needs of populations affected, secondly by determining what existing support is available on the ground and what more is needed; and thirdly by helping provide the capacity for support when it isn't sufficient, either through training or bringing in additional resources. Despite their tragic consequences, when the political will exists, emergencies can be catalysts for building quality, sustainable mental health services that continue to help people in the long-term." [1]

The authors note some limitations due to the complexity of data collection in conflict settings, which means that there is variation in the data used, and so there is uncertainty in the estimates. In addition, cultural variation in diagnosis and changes in diagnostic criteria might have affected prevalence estimates.

Past research has suggested that psychosis is more common in populations affected by conflict. However, the new estimates for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are based on global averages, not specifically conflict settings, so these may underestimate the issue.

Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Cristiane S Duarte, Columbia University, USA, says: "The many challenges inherent to generating information capable of guiding policy in the absence of reliable data need to be balanced against the alarming need suggested by current estimates: the prevalence of mental disorders (depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia) was 22·1% (95% uncertainty interval 18·8-25·7) at any point in time in the conflict-affected populations assessed and the burden is substantial. Work towards producing more accurate estimates needs to continue. Improved estimates can guide strategic implementation of services and more effective allocation of scarce resources. Notwithstanding its limitations, current estimates warrant greater investment in prevention and treatment of mental disorders in conflict-affected populations."

Men who experience domestic violence and abuse face significant barriers to getting help and access to specialist support services, according to a study by researchers at the University of Bristol's Centre for Academic Primary Care and Centre for Gender and Violence Research published in BMJ Open today [Wednesday 12 June].

The study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, looked at what stops men in abusive relationships from seeking help and how services could be improved to make help-seeking easier.

The researchers analysed interview-based studies of men in heterosexual and same-sex relationships and organised their findings into a series of themes.

Fear of not being believed or being accused as the perpetrator, embarrassment at talking about the abuse, and feeling 'less of a man' were found to be key reasons why men did not seek help.

Men also worried about the welfare of their partner, damaging their relationship or losing contact with their children if they opened up to someone outside their personal network of family and friends. Others lacked the confidence to seek help as a result of the abuse.

The study also found that men were often either not aware of specialist support services or felt they were not appropriate for male victims of abuse. When men did seek help, they did so usually when their situation had reached a crisis point.

Confidentiality was very important to those seeking help from services, as were trust, seeing the same person over time, and a non-judgemental attitude.

There were mixed views about how easy it was to open up to health professionals, such as GPs, but men consistently expressed a preference for receiving help from a female professional.

Dr Alyson Huntley, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, and lead author of the study said "Our review has revealed that the experience of many men who are victims of domestic abuse is similar to those of women. For example, fear of disclosure, shame and lowered confidence. Like women, although male victims wanted the violence to stop, they did not necessarily want to end the relationship. Men expressed concern about losing contact with their children and this is a major theme in the wider domestic violence literature."

Professor Gene Feder, a GP and Professor of Primary Care and co-author, said: "While both men and women are reluctant to seek professional help for their abuse, there is an added barrier for men voiced in these studies, that they may be falsely accused of being the perpetrator. The men also raised wider concerns about masculinity.

"We recommend that services are more inclusive and tailored to more effectively address the needs of all genders, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. They should offer ongoing support and be widely advertised. In addition, specialised training is needed to address the specific needs of men and to foster greater levels of trust.

"Domestic violence can have a serious impact on health and wellbeing, so we would encourage anyone experiencing abuse from an intimate partner to seek help from their GP who will be able to refer or signpost to specialist services for ongoing help and support."

From medicine to fragrances, nature provides many of the key chemical compounds needed in an endless number of pharmaceuticals and consumer products. Now, a cutting-edge technique engineered by researchers at University of South Florida is changing the way scientists isolate these precious molecules.

"Plant natural products are already widely used across so many industries," said Ramon Gonzalez, PhD, professor in the USF Department of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering and a Florida 21st Century World Class Scholar. "Taxus brevifolia, for example, the Pacific yew plant, contains molecules that are used to produce a chemotherapy drug for several cancer treatments. The problem is that many of these products are expensive and difficult to extract efficiently."

Gonzalez and his research team focused their efforts on a class of plant natural products (PNPs) called isoprenoids. With more than 50,000 of these isoprenoids synthesized in nature, they represent one of the most structurally and chemically diverse classes of molecules known to man.

Lycopene, for example, is an isoprenoid that gives tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables their color. Aside from its natural pigmentation, lycopene is can be taken to lower blood pressure, prevent heart disease and has even been shown to help prevent several types of cancer.

Citrus fruit peels also contain a type of isoprenoid called limonene. When extracted, limonene is used as the lemon or orange fragrance in cleaning products, or as a flavoring agent in different medications.

"Nature didn't develop these pathways to efficiently produce these molecules for our use," Gonzalez said. "These metabolic pathways serve their own function in these plants, and because of that it's challenging to extract these isoprenoids in the amounts researchers would ideally like to. Not to mention the inherent cost and time required to cultivate the plants needed to extract the molecules from."

To overcome this fundamental problem, Gonzalez and his team worked to develop an innovative new process for synthesizing isoprenoids. In essence, they have been able to create a synthetic metabolic pathway that will allow scientists to access these essential compounds in a controlled and efficient way.

Their work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, outlines the team's development of engineered microorganisms for synthesizing isoprenoids. By developing these microbes in a lab, researchers are able to modify their biological function and use the microbe's metabolism as a pathway for biosynthesis.

Think of it like brewing beer. In beer, yeast metabolizes sugar to create the desired product - alcohol. For researchers, they leverage the microbe's metabolism to produce different products - in this case, isoprenoids. By engineering what they call an isoprenoid alcohol pathway within the microbe, scientists are able to introduce a carbon source which passes through the pathway to produce isoprenoid molecules. The benefits are two-fold; not only do these advancements allow researchers the ability to synthesize isoprenoids in microbes directly, but the pathway itself is optimized to maximize efficiency.

"We believe our research will change the decades-long paradigm for isoprenoid biosynthesis, which until now had fully relied on engineering the two pathways existing in nature," Gonzalez said. "It's an exciting advancement that we feel will have wide ranging impacts on research happening around the world."

As men everywhere brace for an onslaught of ties, tools, wallets and novelty socks gifted for Father's Day, here are two questions fathers of young children should ask themselves: What activities are best for bonding with my child, and when should those activities take place?

New research from the University of Georgia reveals that both the type of involvement--caregiving versus play--and the timing--workday versus non-workday--have an impact on the quality of the early father-child relationship.

The study by Geoffrey Brown, published in the Journal of Family Psychology, reveals that fathers who choose to spend time with their children on non-workdays are developing a stronger relationship with them, and play activities seem particularly important, even after taking into account the quality of fathers' parenting.

"Fathers who make the choice to devote their time on non-workdays to engaging with their children directly seem to be developing the best relationships," said Brown, assistant professor in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences. "And on those non-workdays, pursuing activities that are child centered, or fun for the child, seems to be the best predictor of a good father-child relationship."

However, fathers who spend lots of time helping out with child care-related tasks on workdays are developing the best relationships with their children. And men who engage in high levels of play with their children on workdays actually have a slightly less secure attachment relationship with them.

"It's a complicated story, but I think this reflects differences in these contexts of family interaction time on workdays versus non-workdays," Brown said. "The most important thing on a workday, from the perspective of building a good relationship with your children, seems to be helping to take care of them."

In early childhood, the most common way to conceptualize the parent-child relationship is the attachment relationship, according to Brown. Children form an emotional bond with their caregivers, and it serves a purpose by keeping them safe, providing comfort and security, and modeling how relationships should work.

Decades of research have focused on mother-child attachment security, but there's much less research on the father-child relationship and how a secure attachment relationship is formed.

For this study, Brown and his colleagues worked with 80 father-child pairs when the children were about 3 years old. The team conducted interviews and observed father-child interaction in the home, shooting video that was evaluated off site and assigned a score indicating attachment security.

"We're trying to understand the connection between work life and family life and how fathers construct their role. It's clear that there are different contexts of family time," Brown said. "Relying too much on play during workdays, when your child/partner needs you to help out with caregiving, could be problematic. But play seems more important when there's more time and less pressure.

"Ultimately, fathers who engage in a variety of parenting behaviors and adjust their parenting to suit the demands and circumstances of each individual day are probably most likely to develop secure relationships with their children."

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Northern Indian Ocean and took the temperature of Tropical Cyclone Vayu as it moved northward in the Arabian Sea. NASA found the storm intensifying/ Warnings are now in effect for India's Gujarat coast.

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 by NASA's Aqua satellite on June 10, at 0511 UTC (0911 UTC) revealed where the strongest storms were located within Tropical Cyclone Vayu, formerly known as Tropical Cyclone 02A. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed cloud top temperatures 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 and in thunderstorms northwest of the center. Cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms that have the capability to create heavy rain.

On June 11, cloud top temperatures continued to cool, as Vayu intensified. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center stated, "multi-spectral satellite imagery showed "tightly-curved banding wrapping into a formative, small eye, which supports the initial position with good confidence." Satellite imagery showed Vayu has a compact core, approximately 90 nautical miles in diameter with bands of thunderstorms wrapping around it from the western quadrant.

On June 11 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the center of Tropical Cyclone Vayu was located near latitude 16.4 degrees south and longitude 70/9 degrees east. Vayu was moving to the north and had maximum sustained winds were near 65 knots (75 mph/120 kph) making the storm a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Vayu to intensify quickly, peaking at 95 knots (109 mph/176 kph) on June 12 before starting to weaken on June 13. That means hurricane-force winds, storm surge and heavy rain can be expected along the western coast of India is Vayu moves north over the next several days.

For updated forecasts from the India Meteorological Department, visit: http://www.imd.gov.in

Predicting what someone's face looks like based on a DNA sample remains a hard nut to crack for science. It is, however, getting easier to use such a sample to filter the right face from a face database, as an international team led by KU Leuven has shown. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.

Our physical appearance, including our face, is hardwired into our genetic material. Scientists have already identified multiple genes that determine the shape of our face - from the distance between our nostrils to the shape of our chin.

From DNA to face

Still, that doesn't mean that we can draw somebody's face based on a DNA sample, explains electrotechnical engineer Peter Claes of KU Leuven, the senior and corresponding author of the study. "We believe that the shape of our face is determined by thousands of genes, but also by the food we eat and other living conditions. Therefore, it is unlikely that we will ever be able to accurately predict a lifelike face from DNA alone."

And yet, for forensic analysis and other applications, the ideal scenario would be to find a match between a DNA sample from a crime scene and someone in a DNA database. But those databases are limited. If the DNA doesn't match anyone in the database, however, it could still be used to predict what the perpetrator's face looks like and make a sketch. This sketch could then be compared to a database with the faces of known criminals, for example.

"This method mostly helps rule people out. In practice, we don't usually get any further than a sort of reference face, such as 'a European male'. That's not much use to a forensic investigator. Unfortunately, while we are learning about more and more genes that determine certain aspects of our face, this does not yet sufficiently translate to a better match between the predicted face and the faces in the database."

From face to DNA

The researchers have now developed a reverse approach that works better: "Instead of going from DNA to face, we're trying to go from face to DNA. Using special software, we measure each face and check if this face is a possible outcome based on a unique bit of DNA."

"It then becomes a game of 'guess who'. If the face is male and the DNA says it is a woman, all the men are eliminated. If the hair is blond and the genetic material confirms this, that eliminates all other hair colours. "

"The more genes we identify, the more accurate this method becomes, and it will only continue to improve as our knowledge of the relevant genes grows."

So what if the face you're looking for is not in the database? "Then you will at least have a list of faces that look a lot like the one you are looking for. Instead of a single reference face, such as 'Asian female', you will have a list of Asian females who are most similar to the person you want to find."

This requires large face databases, such as ID card or driver's license databases. So, of course, there is an ethical-legal matter to consider, says Claes. "Working with databases that contain private information such as DNA or faces requires strict supervision to prevent misuse."

Osaka, Japan - Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are an emerging type of cancer immunotherapy that uses the immune system to attack cancer cells. However, in some patients they cause the immune system to attack healthy cells, leading to autoimmune diseases. When pancreatic beta cells are attacked, this can lead to type 1 diabetes. In a case report published in Diabetes Care, researchers from Osaka University provide insight into this unintended consequence of ICIs.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by the destruction of pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin. Recent clinical studies in patients with cancer have found that ICIs can in rare cases lead to this form of diabetes. Exactly how ICIs might do this, though, is a mystery.

The researchers came across a singular circumstance in a patient with kidney cancer who was treated with ICIs. The situation allowed them to examine tissue stains and take a closer look at the disease. "The patient's cancer had metastasized and spread to his pancreas, which had to be removed," lead author Sho Yoneda explains.

When the team looked at the pancreas, they found the hallmark signs of type 1 diabetes. "We saw substantial infiltration of T cells into the pancreatic tissue and very few surviving beta cells," Yoneda continues. "What was interesting was that the remaining beta cells had little or no expression of the immune tolerance protein PD-L1. This was unexpected, because previous studies had reported elevated PD-L1 in the beta cells of patients with typical autoimmune type 1 diabetes."

PD-L1 tells the immune system that a cell is not a foreign threat. This process, called immune tolerance, stops the immune system from attacking vital tissues and organs--like the pancreas.

"ICIs block the effect of proteins like PD-L1 and essentially shut down immune tolerance," says Iichiro Shimomura, professor at Osaka University and co-author of the study. "This is excellent for treating cancer because tumors often express PD-L1, which allows them to hide from the immune system. The problem is that by shutting down immune tolerance, you increase the likelihood that the immune system will also start to attack healthy tissue."

It remains unclear whether ICIs caused the observed damage to the patient's pancreas, and the role played by PD-L1 is still unclear. "There is still a great deal to be learned about how checkpoint inhibitors contribute to autoimmune diseases," Shimomura adds. "Still, this case suggests that therapies targeting PD-L1 may cause cellular changes that can ultimately lead to type 1 diabetes."

University of Colorado Boulder researchers have developed nanobio-hybrid organisms capable of using airborne carbon dioxide and nitrogen to produce a variety of plastics and fuels, a promising first step toward low-cost carbon sequestration and eco-friendly manufacturing for chemicals.

By using light-activated quantum dots to fire particular enzymes within microbial cells, the researchers were able to create "living factories" that eat harmful CO2 and convert it into useful products such as biodegradable plastic, gasoline, ammonia and biodiesel.

"The innovation is a testament to the power of biochemical processes," said Prashant Nagpal, lead author of the research and an assistant professor in CU Boulder's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. "We're looking at a technique that could improve CO2 capture to combat climate change and one day even potentially replace carbon-intensive manufacturing for plastics and fuels."

The project began in 2013, when Nagpal and his colleagues began exploring the broad potential of nanoscopic quantum dots, which are tiny semiconductors similar to those used in television sets. Quantum dots can be injected into cells passively and are designed to attach and self-assemble to desired enzymes and then activate these enzymes on command using specific wavelengths of light.

Nagpal wanted to see if quantum dots could act as a spark plug to fire particular enzymes within microbial cells that have the means to convert airborne CO2 and nitrogen, but do not do so naturally due to a lack of photosynthesis.

By diffusing the specially-tailored dots into the cells of common microbial species found in soil, Nagpal and his colleagues bridged the gap. Now, exposure to even small amounts of indirect sunlight would activate the microbes' CO2 appetite, without a need for any source of energy or food to carry out the energy-intensive biochemical conversions.

"Each cell is making millions of these chemicals and we showed they could exceed their natural yield by close to 200 percent," Nagpal said.

The microbes, which lie dormant in water, release their resulting product to the surface, where it can be skimmed off and harvested for manufacturing. Different combinations of dots and light produce different products: Green wavelengths cause the bacteria to consume nitrogen and produce ammonia while redder wavelengths make the microbes feast on CO2 to produce plastic instead.

The process also shows promising signs of being able to operate at scale. The study found that even when the microbial factories were activated consistently for hours at a time, they showed few signs of exhaustion or depletion, indicating that the cells can regenerate and thus limit the need for rotation.

"We were very surprised that it worked as elegantly as it did," Nagpal said. "We're just getting started with the synthetic applications."

The ideal futuristic scenario, Nagpal said, would be to have single-family homes and businesses pipe their CO2 emissions directly to a nearby holding pond, where microbes would convert them to a bioplastic. The owners would be able to sell the resulting product for a small profit while essentially offsetting their own carbon footprint.

"Even if the margins are low and it can't compete with petrochemicals on a pure cost basis, there is still societal benefit to doing this," Nagpal said. "If we could convert even a small fraction of local ditch ponds, it would have a sizeable impact on the carbon output of towns. It wouldn't be asking much for people to implement. Many already make beer at home, for example, and this is no more complicated."

The focus now, he said, will shift to optimizing the conversion process and bringing on new undergraduate students. Nagpal is looking to convert the project into an undergraduate lab experiment in the fall semester, funded by a CU Boulder Engineering Excellence Fund grant. Nagpal credits his current students with sticking with the project over the course of many years.

"It has been a long journey and their work has been invaluable," he said. "I think these results show that it was worth it."

Osaka, Japan - Polypropylene (PP) is everywhere, being one of the most widely used plastics in human life. A versatile material, its naturally inert surface can be modified for specific applications. Researchers at Osaka University have now developed a convenient light-driven process for oxidizing PP without harmful waste.

As reported in ChemComm, the process uses radicals to make the plastic react. The surface of PP bristles with methyl groups (-CH3), which constitute the side chains of the polymer. The strong C-H bonds in methyl groups make PP an unreactive material, which for many purposes is exactly what is needed. However, these bonds can be cleaved by the highly reactive chlorine dioxide radical, ClO2* .

"In applications like printing and medical materials, plastics must be surface-modified," explains study co-author Tsuyoshi Inoue. "Oxidizing C-H bonds is a textbook case in organic chemistry. With polymers, however, the risk is that anything strong enough to do this may also break the C-C bonds of the main chain, ripping the polymer apart. Luckily, the ClO2* radical is selective to react the side chain."

The highly reactive radical is easily made by mixing sodium chlorite and hydrochloric acid. It then just needs to be photochemically activated--for this, the Osaka team chose an LED lamp as the light source. The activated ClO2* now splits into Cl* , which whips off an H atom from the side chain of PP; and O2, which marches in afterward to oxidize the exposed -CH2* group.

As a result, while the bulk polymer remains intact, the surface now bears a multitude of carboxylic acid groups (-CO2H), with major effects on the chemical reactivity. For example, the colorless plastic can now be stained with cationic dyes, such as Rhodamine B or Brilliant Green, which react with the anionic carboxylate ions. The originally water-repellent surface also becomes more hydrophilic.

"The reaction actually proved to be doubly selective for our purposes," says lead author Kei Ohkubo. "Not only did it cleave the C-H instead of C-C bonds, it specifically oxidized those on the side chain, even though they are stronger than those on the main chain. This is because the oxidation step, involving O2, is most favorable when the target for oxidation is CH2* ."

Previous methods for oxidizing olefinic polymers such as PP and polyethylene were either poorly controlled or highly polluting. The new process is thus the first clean and convenient solution to this problem, and may prove to be a valuable industrial tool in the customization of synthetic plastics.

Physical activity in early childhood may have an impact on cardiovascular health later in life, according to new research from McMaster University, where scientists followed the activity levels of hundreds of preschoolers over a period of years.

They found that physical activity in children as young as three years old benefits blood vessel health, cardiovascular fitness and is key to the prevention of early risk indicators that can lead to adult heart disease.

The study, named "Health Outcomes and Physical activity in Preschoolers", published today in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to demonstrate the benefits of physical activity on blood vessel health in preschoolers.

"Many of us tend to think cardiovascular disease hits in older age, but arteries begin to stiffen when we are very young," explains Nicole Proudfoot, a graduate student in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University and lead author on the study.

"It's important to start any kind of preventative measures early. We need to ensure small children have many opportunities to be active to keep their hearts and blood vessels as healthy as possible," she says.

More than 400 children between the ages of three and five were involved in the study. Over the course of three years, the researchers measured and analyzed key markers of heart health: cardiovascular fitness, arterial stiffness and blood pressure.

The researchers calculated cardiovascular fitness by measuring how long the children could last on a treadmill test and how fast their heart rates recovered after exercise. They measured arterial stiffness by how fast their pulse traveled through their body and used ultrasound imaging to measure the stiffness of the carotid artery. They also measured blood pressure.

They tracked physical activity each year by having the children wear an accelerometer around their waist for one week, allowing researchers to determine the amount and intensity of their activity each day.

The researchers determined that while arteries stiffen over time, the process is slower in young children who have been more active. Those children also showed more endurance on the treadmill, suggesting they had better cardiovascular fitness, and their heart rates came down faster after exercise. While the findings showed total physical activity had favourable effects on cardiovascular health, more intense physical activity was more beneficial.

"This research suggests that intensity matters," says Brian Timmons, an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster and the Canada Research Chair in Child Health & Exercise Medicine, who supervised the research. "Children benefit the most from energetic play, which means getting out of breath by playing games such as tag. And the more, the better."

The physical activity does not have to happen all at once, he suggests. Children should be active throughout the day.

The findings were similar among boys and girls who participated in the study, though researchers found physical activity had a positive influence on blood pressure in the girls only.

"We know physical activity is key to cardiovascular health, but these findings point to the protective effects it can have very early in life," says Maureen MacDonald, dean of the Faculty of Science at McMaster and co-investigator on the study. "In future, we hope to examine if these beneficial effects of physical activity on heart health indicators in early childhood carry on into later childhood and eventually adulthood."