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Partial breast irradiation produces similar long-term survival rates and risk for recurrence compared with whole breast irradiation for many women with low-risk, early stage breast cancer, according to new clinical data from a national clinical trial involving researchers from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James).

This randomized, phase 3 study compared whole breast irradiation with partial breast irradiation in a large group of women with stage 0, 1 or 2 breast cancer. More than 4,200 patients were enrolled in the trial as part of NRG Oncology cooperative group clinical trial.

Study results showed that while partial breast irradiation does not produce equivalent cancer control for all breast cancer patients with stage 0, 1 and 2 disease, it should still be considered as an alternative for women with DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) and early stage breast cancers deemed "low risk," based on other tumor characteristics.

When looking at the entire study population, women who received partial breast irradiation experienced a 4.6 percent recurrence rate. Those who underwent whole breast irradiation experienced at 3.9 percent rate of recurrence. Toxicity from treatment was similar, as well as the risk for secondary cancers.

However, researchers also looked at how this played out in subsegments of the population and found that rates of recurrence were nearly identical for women with DCIS, regardless of whether they received whole or partial breast irradiation. This was also true for women with breast cancer classified as low-risk, based on the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) clinical guidelines.

Researchers showed that in this subsegment of breast cancer patients, the likelihood of recurrence 10-years post treatment was very low overall and almost identical between women who received whole breast irradiation (2.3 percent) and partial breast irradiation (2.7 percent).

Julia White, MD, co-principal investigator of the national trial and head of breast radiation oncology at the OSUCCC - James says this is very important because it reduces the burden of care for women who can still achieve cancer control with fewer treatments, over a shorter period of time.

"A significant portion of the breast cancer patient population nationally - about 25,000 to 30,000 women -- would qualify for partial breast irradiation. This is tremendously important because it allows us to give women the right amount of treatment for her disease, and potentially allowing better access to effective breast conservation for those who live far from a radiation facility. Partial breast irradiation can also be delivered in five consecutive days versus whole breast, which can involve four to six consecutive weeks of multi-day treatment. There is no denying that the five day treatment is less costly and disruptive to life."

At the OSUCCC - James, breast radiation is also delivered in the face down (prone) position to reduce radiation exposure in the chest wall, which has been linked to increased risk of heart and lung disease post cancer treatment.

New sensational study conducted at the University of Copenhagen disproves traditional knowledge of stem cell development. The study reveals that the destiny of intestinal cells is not predetermined, but instead determined by the cells' surroundings. The new knowledge may make it easier to manipulate stem cells for stem cell therapy. The results have just been published in Nature.

All cells in the foetal gut have the potential to develop into stem cells, a new study conducted at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen concludes. The researchers behind the study have discovered that the development of immature intestinal cells - contrary to previous assumptions - is not predetermined, but affected by the cells' immediate surroundings in the intestines. This discovery may ease the path to effective stem cell therapy, says Associate Professor Kim Jensen from the Biotech Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology (DanStem).

'We used to believe that a cell's potential for becoming a stem cell was predetermined, but our new results show that all immature cells have the same probability for becoming stem cells in the fully developed organ. In principle, it is simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Here signals from the cells' surroundings determine their fate. If we are able to identify the signals that are necessary for the immature cell to develop into a stem cell, it will be easier for us to manipulate cells in the wanted direction'.

Throughout life the organs in the body are maintained by stem cells, which are also able to repair minor tissue damage. A better understanding of the factors that determine whether or not an immature cell develops into a stem cell may therefore be useful in the development of stem cells for therapy and transplantation.

'We have gained greater insight into the mechanisms through which cells in the immature intestines develop into stem cells. Hopefully we are able to use this knowledge to improve treatment of non-healing wounds, e.g. in the intestines. So far, though, all we can say for sure is that cells in the gastrointestinal tract have these characteristics. However, we do believe this is a general phenomenon in foetal organ development'.

Luminescent Cells and Mathematical Collaboration

The surprising findings are the result of a search for understanding of what controls the destiny of intestinal stem cells. Postdoc Jordi Guiu developed a method for monitoring the development of the individual intestinal cells. By introducing luminescent proteins into the cells he could, using advanced microscopy, monitor the development of the individual cells.

After the initial tests, the cells that researchers previously believed to be foetal stem cells were only able to explain a fraction of the growth of the intestines during foetal development. Therefore, they established a collaboration with mathematical experts at the University of Cambridge. And when they studied the data more closely together, they arrived at the surprising hypothesis that all intestinal cells may have the same chance of becoming stem cells. Subsequent tests were able to prove the hypothesis.

'The next step is to determine precisely which signals are necessary for immature cells to develop into the kind of stem cells we need. This is one of our research focusses', says Kim Jensen.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A new father's views on his changing relationship with his wife or partner may depend in part on how much support he feels from her when he is caring for their baby, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that a first-time father tended to feel closer to the mother both as a co-parent and as a romantic partner when he believed he had her confidence when he was involved in child care.

"Fathers are more involved than they have ever been in parenting, but moms are still seen in our society as the expert caregivers," said Anna Olsavsky, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in human sciences at The Ohio State University.

"So how mothers react to their partners' parenting matters a lot. It affects how new dads feel about their whole family situation, including his relationship with his wife or partner."

The study - done with relatively affluent, highly educated dual-earner couples - was published recently online in the journal Family Process and will appear in a future print edition.

This study is one of few to focus on the transition to parenthood from the perspective of fathers, said Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, study co-author and professor of psychology at Ohio State.

"It's still rare to examine the father's view on family processes," Schoppe-Sullivan said.

The researchers used data from the New Parents Project, a long-term study co-led by Schoppe-Sullivan that is investigating how dual-earner couples adjust to becoming parents for the first time. In all, 182 couples, most of whom were married, participated in this study.

The parents were assessed four times: when the mother was in her third trimester of pregnancy and when the baby was 3, 6 and 9 months old.

When the baby was 3 months old, fathers answered questions about what researchers call "maternal gatekeeping," or how much the mother inhibits or welcomes the father's involvement in child care.

Fathers reported how much they felt their partner "opened" or "closed" the gate on them when it came to interacting with the baby.

For example, each dad reported on gate-closing behaviors, such as how often his partner took over baby-related tasks because the mom thought he wasn't doing them properly or how often she gave him irritated looks about his parenting.

Examples of gate opening include encouraging the father to help bathe the baby or mom letting him know she appreciates his contributions to parenting.

When the baby was 6 months old, the fathers were asked about their co-parenting closeness with their partner. For example, they rated how much they felt they were "growing and maturing together through experiences as parents."

Finally, when the baby was 9 months old, the fathers rated how good they felt about their romantic relationship with their partner.

Results showed that whether the mother "opened" or "closed" the gate on the father had a significant impact on how he felt about their relationship as a couple.

"If mothers are critical and less supportive of their partners' parenting, it could have ramifications for the whole family dynamic," Schoppe-Sullivan said.

"Fathers may not only do less child care, they may have more negative views on their relationship with their wife or partner."

But the flip side was also true: Gate opening had a positive effect on how the new dad viewed the couple's relationship.

"There has been some work suggesting that gate opening may be viewed by fathers negatively as demands for them to be more involved in child rearing, but that's not what we found," Olsavsky said.

"Gate opening was perceived positively by fathers. They felt it improved their relationship as a couple."

The researchers emphasized that it is important for both new parents to support each other. But, because of societal norms, fathers may need extra support.

"There is this underlying assumption that mothers are the experts when it comes to parenting. And they have more sources of support in society when it comes to how to be a good parent," Olsavsky said.

"But fathers don't generally get that support from society. The only support they often get as parents is from their partner. That's why it is so important."

The researchers noted that this study was done with couples who were primarily married, white, and middle-class or affluent. All were dual-earner couples. Results may be different in couples with other situations.

NEW YORK, NY (May 15, 2019)--A genomic collision could explain why many kidney transplants fail, even when donors and recipients are thought to be well-matched, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. This genomic collision is a genetic incompatibility between kidney donor and recipient, causing the recipient to mount an immune attack against the donor protein.

The findings, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine, could lead to more precise matching between donors and patients, and reduce kidney transplant failures. The same genomic collision may also potentially occur in heart, liver, and lung transplants.

A Different Possible Mechanism for Kidney Rejection

A successful organ transplant depends in large part on assuring genetic compatibility between donor and recipient. This is done by matching the donor and recipient's human leukocyte antigens (HLAs)--cell surface proteins that help the immune system determine which cells are foreign--as closely as possible. But HLA mismatches can only explain only about two-thirds of transplants that fail for immunological reasons. "The rest of those failures are probably due to less common antigens, or so-called minor histocompatibility antigens. However, the identity of most of these antigens and how they lead to rejection is largely not known," says co-senior author Krzysztof Kiryluk, MD, the Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians of Surgeons.

The researchers hypothesized that a person whose genome carries a kidney gene with a deleted section might be especially sensitive to organs from a donor whose genome carries the full-sized gene. "The recipient would then be exposed to a protein their immune system would sense as foreign," says Kiryluk.

To test their hypothesis, they screened 705 kidney recipients transplanted at Columbia University Irving Medical Center for deletions in 50 kidney genes that were present as full-sized versions in the donor. The deletions associated with rejection were then confirmed in an additional 2,004 donor-recipient pairs from three international transplant cohorts.

What the Study Found

The study found that kidney recipients with two copies of a deletion near a gene called LIMS1 had a significantly higher risk of rejection when the donor kidney had at least one full-sized version of the same gene. The risk of rejection was 63 percent higher among the donor-recipient pairs with this genomic collision, compared to those without this mismatch. "To put this into perspective, the risk of rejection from LIMS1 mismatch is roughly three times as high as the risk due to a single allele mismatch in the HLA," Dr. Kiryluk says.

Kidney transplant recipients with two copies of the deletion who developed rejection had detectable levels of anti-LIMS1 antibodies in their blood--further evidence that this genomic collision contributes to rejection.

"The exact mechanism by which this deletion exerts its effects is unknown," says Kiryluk. "It's likely that it reduces the amount of LIMS1 protein produced, since we find that individuals with two copies of the deletion have lower levels of LIMS1 gene transcript in their kidneys. When these individuals are exposed to a high level of LIMS1 protein in a newly transplanted organ, their immune system is more likely to recognize the LIMS1 antigen as foreign, resulting in rejection."

Transplanted organs commonly experience a significant period of low oxygenation, which appears to compound the genomic collision. In cells that produce LIMS1, the researchers found that low oxygen levels increase LIMS1 production on the cell surface, which may increase the risk of an immune attack.

1 in 7 Transplants in Some Populations May Be Affected

LIMS1 mismatches would be expected to occur in approximately 12 to 15 percent of transplants from unrelated donors among persons of European and African ancestry, but it would be very rare among persons of East Asian ancestry because the deletion is very rare in these populations.

"LIMS1 mismatches could be avoided by pre-transplant genetic screening," Kiryluk says. "But first we need to validate our findings in larger studies."

The findings may apply to other types of organ transplants since LIMS1 is also expressed in the lung, heart, and liver. Similarly, other genetic incompatibilities may also be contributing to rejection of these organs.

"This project illustrates how genetic analysis is empowering clinical care by enabling better matching and the antibody test potentially presents a noninvasive method for screening for organ rejection in individuals with an existing transplant," says co-senior author Ali G. Gharavi, MD, professor of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The LIMS1 gene has gone previously undetected in earlier searches, partly due to the limited sample size of previous studies, Kiryluk says. "We estimate that a traditional genome-wide association study would need to analyze a minimum of 13,000 kidney recipients to find this gene," he adds. "The genomic collision approach provides a new method to find additional mismatches in a smaller number of donor-recipient pairs. And coupled with new methods of antibody detection, is likely to propel future discoveries in this area."

Scientists have discovered a new material that could hold the key to unlocking the potential of hydrogen powered vehicles.

As the world looks towards a gradual move away from fossil fuel powered cars and trucks, greener alternative technologies are being explored, such as electric battery powered vehicles.

Another 'green' technology with great potential is hydrogen power. However, a major obstacle has been the size, complexity, and expense of the fuel systems - until now.

An international team of researchers, led by Professor David Antonelli of Lancaster University, has discovered a new material made from manganese hydride that offers a solution. The new material would be used to make molecular sieves within fuel tanks - which store the hydrogen and work alongside fuel cells in a hydrogen powered 'system'.

The material, called KMH-1 (Kubas Manganese Hydride-1), would enable the design of tanks that are far smaller, cheaper, more convenient and energy dense than existing hydrogen fuel technologies, and significantly out-perform battery-powered vehicles.

Professor Antonelli, Chair in Physical Chemistry at Lancaster University and who has been researching this area for more than 15 years, said: "The cost of manufacturing our material is so low, and the energy density it can store is so much higher than a lithium ion battery, that we could see hydrogen fuel cell systems that cost five times less than lithium ion batteries as well as providing a much longer range - potentially enabling journeys up to around four or five times longer between fill-ups."

The material takes advantage of a chemical process called Kubas binding. This process enables the storage of hydrogen by distancing the hydrogen atoms within a H2 molecule and works at room temperature. This eliminates the need to split, and bind, the bonds between atoms, processes that require high energies and extremes of temperature and need complex equipment to deliver.

The KMH-1 material also absorbs and stores any excess energy so external heat and cooling is not needed. This is crucial because it means cooling and heating equipment does not need to be used in vehicles, resulting in systems with the potential to be far more efficient than existing designs.

The sieve works by absorbing hydrogen under around 120 atmospheres of pressure, which is less than a typical scuba tank. It then releases hydrogen from the tank into the fuel cell when the pressure is released.

The researchers' experiments show that the material could enable the storage of four times as much hydrogen in the same volume as existing hydrogen fuel technologies. This is great for vehicle manufactures as it provides them with flexibility to design vehicles with increased range of up to four times, or allowing them to reducing the size of the tanks by up to a factor of four.

Although vehicles, including cars and heavy goods vehicles, are the most obvious application, the researchers believe there are many other applications for KMH-1.

"This material can also be used in portable devices such as drones or within mobile chargers so people could go on week-long camping trips without having to recharge their devices," said Professor Antonelli. "The real advantage this brings is in situations where you anticipate being off grid for long periods of time, such as long haul truck journeys, drones, and robotics. It could also be used to run a house or a remote neighbourhood off a fuel cell."

The technology has been licenced by the University of South Wales to a spin-out company part owned by Professor Antonelli, called Kubagen.

The risk of 11 to 16-year-olds taking up smoking has reduced following the introduction of a ban on the open display of tobacco products in the UK, according to a new University of Stirling study.

The research also found that, for that age group, the implementation of the policy was followed by reduced cigarette brand awareness; it made cigarettes seem unappealing; and made smoking seem unacceptable.

Published in the British Medical Journal's Tobacco Control and funded by Cancer Research UK, the study also identified extremely high support for a display ban amongst young people.

Lead author Dr Allison Ford, from Stirling's Institute for Social Marketing, said: "This is the first study to show the impacts of a tobacco point-of-sale display ban on young people across the UK before, during and after implementation.

"Our work confirms that placing tobacco out of sight helps safeguard young people. Our findings help to justify this policy approach in the UK and elsewhere."

Previous research has shown that point-of-sale displays are used by tobacco companies to attract and communicate with consumers. Covering up displays is a measure designed to denormalise tobacco and counter these effects.

In the UK, a ban on the open display of tobacco products at the point-of-sale was phased in between 2012 and 2015. In 2012, large stores and supermarkets in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had to put tobacco products out of sight, before Scotland followed suit in 2013. Across the UK, smaller stores had until 2015 to adapt their displays to cover tobacco products.

Dr Ford's team examined the impact of the policy on 11 to 16-year-olds who had never smoked. The Youth Tobacco Policy Survey canvassed the views of 3,791 young people - including 2,953 who had never smoked - across the UK at three time points: in 2011, prior to the implementation of the ban; in 2014, when the ban had been partially implemented; and in 2016, following full implementation.

At each stage, participants were asked whether they noticed cigarettes displayed at point-of-sale; about their awareness of cigarette brands; and about their smoking susceptibility - established by the absence of a firm decision not to smoke. Each person was also asked about their support for the display ban, and whether it made cigarettes seem unappealing and smoking unacceptable.

Dr Ford said: "Prior to the display ban, we found that young never smokers who noticed cigarettes displayed at point-of-sale, and those who were aware of more cigarette brands, were more likely to indicate being susceptible to smoking.

"Both partial and full implementation of the display ban were followed by statistically significant reductions in youth smoking susceptibility and noticing cigarettes at point-of-sale."

Smoking susceptibility among never smokers decreased from 28 percent pre-ban to 23 percent mid-ban, and 18 percent post-ban. Noticing cigarettes at point-of-sale decreased from 81 percent pre-ban, to 28 percent post-ban; and cigarette brand awareness also reduced, with the average number of cigarette brands recalled declining from 0.97 pre-ban to 0.69 post-ban.

"We also found that young never smokers' support for a display ban was very high," Dr Ford continued. "For example, post-ban, 90 percent of never smokers aged 11 to 16 years supported the display ban, while 77 percent indicated that it made cigarettes seem unappealing, and 87 percent that it made smoking seem unacceptable."

Kruti Shrotri, Cancer Research UK's tobacco control manager, said: "Glitzy displays and glamorous packaging helped the tobacco industry to lure the next generation of smokers into taking up a deadly addiction. But contrary to Big Tobacco's belief that banning displays would make no difference this study shows that by putting cigarettes out of sight and out of mind far fewer youngsters are taking up the deathly habit."

Medications have to be safe for mothers-to-be and for their unborn children. Before the authorities will approve a new drug, it must be tested in animal trials on pregnant rodents and, as a rule, pregnant rabbits. Scientists in the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel have now developed a test that allows them to examine a drug's embryotoxicity in cell cultures instead of animals.

The new test does not yet replace the animal trials that are legally required as part of the medication approval process. However, as the new procedure is simple, fast, and inexpensive, researchers will be able to use it in the future to test a large number of drug candidates at an early stage of the development process. Substances that are harmful to embryos will thus be detected early in the drug development process and not only in embryotoxicity studies in animal trials. Because they are so expensive, animal tests are not conducted until much later in the drug development process with only carefully preselected potential drug candidates. As the new test weeds out unsuccessful drug candidates earlier, it may help cutting costs and reducing the number of animal experiments.

Cell culture test with stem cells

The new procedure is an advanced form of the embryonic stem cell test, in which substances are tested in vitro on so-called embryoid bodies. These three-dimensional clumps of cells are formed from embryonic stem cells - in this case, from a mouse - and undergo the first stages of embryonic development over a period of ten days. No viable embryos can be produced from these cells.

Led by ETH Professor Andreas Hierlemann, the research group has now expanded this embryonic stem cell test to include human liver tissue. "There's a whole host of substances that are not toxic in their original form, but can be transformed into adverse substances by the human metabolism - especially by the liver," explains Julia Boos, a doctoral student in Hierlemann's group and lead author of the study, which has been published in the journal Advanced Science. In contrast to the conventional embryonic stem cell test, the newly developed test can detect substances of this nature.

Body on a chip

From beginning to end, the new test takes place in its entirety on a single cell-culture chip, which is equipped with various compartments. The compartments contain microtissue spheres, formed from human liver cells by the ETH spin-off InSphero, and embryoid bodies, grown from mouse stem cells. The liver microtissues and embryoid bodies have a diameter of about half a millimetre and are placed in different compartments, which are connected through microchannels to guarantee a constant liquid exchange between the different groups of cells.

"We're the first to directly combine liver and embryonic cells in a body-on-a-chip approach," Boos says. Just as a pregnant woman's circulatory system links the metabolic processes in her liver with those in her developing embryo, this connected system ensures constant interaction between the liver cells and embryonic cells. "Metabolites created by the liver cells - including metabolites that are stable for just a few minutes - can thus act directly on the embryonic cells," Boos says. She explains that combining the two in a single chip presents an improvement over other existing in vitro tests, which investigate the metabolisation of substances in the liver separately from the effects that these metabolites have on embryonic cells.

Boos goes on to describe another advantage of the new test: "In contrast to tests on living pregnant mice, in our test, the substances are metabolised by human liver cells - in other words, just as they would be in the human body when the medication is administered." She points out that this is relevant, as humans and mice have different metabolisms.

Further development for high-throughput testing

The researchers demonstrated the effectiveness of the new test with the help of cyclophosphamide. This chemotherapeutic drug has virtually no effect in its basic form, but the liver transforms it into a substance that is toxic to cells. Two tests were run with cyclophosphamide: one included the newly developed liver/embryoid body test, and the other involved embryoid bodies alone without liver microtissues. What these tests revealed was that a fourfold lower concentration of cyclophosphamide was enough to have an adverse effect on the development of the embryoid bodies when liver tissue was present in the same environment.

Now, the scientists need to refine the test further before it can be applied in drug development. They are paying particular attention to the materials that are used in the test in addition to how well the procedures can be automated. Automation would be necessary if the pharmaceutical industry or other researchers were to be able to deploy the test on a large scale for high-throughput screening of drug candidates. In addition, the scientists wish to develop a test that uses reprogrammed human stem cells (known as iPS cells) instead of mouse stem cells. Then they would have an in vitro test entirely based on human tissue.

'Quantum technologies' utilise the unique phenomena of quantum superposition and entanglement to encode and process information, with potentially profound benefits to a wide range of information technologies from communications to sensing and computing.

However a major challenge in developing these technologies is that the quantum phenomena are very fragile, and only a handful of physical systems have been identified in which they survive long enough and are sufficiently controllable to be useful. Atomic defects in materials such as diamond are one such system, but a lack of techniques for fabricating and engineering crystal defects at the atomic scale has limited progress to date.

A team of scientists demonstrate, in a paper published in Optica, the success of the new method to create particular defects in diamonds known as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) colour centres. These comprise a nitrogen impurity in the diamond (carbon) lattice located adjacent to an empty lattice site or vacancy. The NV centres are created by focusing a sequence of ultrafast laser pulses into the diamond, the first of which has an energy high enough to generate vacancies at the centre of the laser focus, with subsequent pulses at a lower energy to mobilise the vacancies until one of them binds to a nitrogen impurity and forms the required complex.

The new research was carried out by a team led by Prof Jason Smith in the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, and Dr Patrick Salter and Prof Martin Booth in the Dept of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Warwick. It took place within the research programme of NQIT, the Quantum Computing Technology Hub of the UK Quantum Technologies Programme, with support from DeBeers UK who supplied the diamond sample.

The scientists' new method involves a sensitive fluorescence monitor being employed to detect light emitted from the focal region, so that the process can be actively controlled in response to the observed signal. By combining local control and feedback, the new method facilitates the production of arrays of single NV centres with exactly one colour centre at each site - a key capability in building scalable technologies. It also allows precise positioning of the defects, important for the engineering of integrated devices. The rapid single-step process is easily automated with each NV centre taking only seconds to create.

Prof Martin Booth says: 'Colour centres in diamond offer a very exciting platform for developing compact and robust quantum technologies, and this new process is a potential game-changer in the engineering of the required materials. There is still more work to do in optimising the process, but hopefully this step will help to accelerate delivery of these technologies.'

The scientists believe that this method might ultimately be used to fabricate centimetre-sized diamond chips containing 100,000 or more NV centres as a route towards the 'holy grail' of quantum technologies, a universal fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Prof Jason Smith says: 'The first quantum computers are now starting to emerge but these machines, impressive as they are, only scratch the surface of what might be achieved and the platforms being used may not be sufficiently scalable to realise the full power that quantum computing has to offer. Diamond colour centres may provide a solution to this problem by packing high densities of qubits onto a solid state chip, which could be entangled with each other using optical methods to form the heart of a quantum computer. The ability to write NV centres into diamond with a high degree of control is an essential first step towards these and other devices.'

We are more envious of someone else's covetable experience before it happens than after it has passed, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"Enviable events lose some power over us once those events are in our past," says psychological scientist Ed O'Brien of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "This occurs even when people are left to their own devices -- in our studies, we didn't instruct participants to engage in any particular distraction task or coping strategy, yet they still felt better as long as some time passed."

Previous research has shown that we generally tend to have heightened emotions about future events than past ones -- a party seems more exciting and an exam feels more stressful if they're happening tomorrow than if they happened yesterday.

O'Brien and coauthors Alexander Kristal and Eugene Caruso wanted to know whether the same phenomenon would apply to envy. Envy is an interesting emotion because it can motivate negative outcomes, such as self-dislike, and also positive outcomes, such as feeling inspired. Would timing make a difference in how people experience envy?

In the first study, 620 participants -- including university students, adults from the local area, and online participants -- imagined a close friend getting to have experiences that the participants desired themselves, such as taking a dream vacation, being promoted to a dream job, and buying a dream car. Some imagined how they would feel about the various scenarios in the days and weeks before they happened; others imagined how they would feel in the days and weeks after the events occurred.

The results showed that timing, even when thinking about hypothetical scenarios, mattered. Participants rated the experiences, which were otherwise identical, as less enviable after they happened than before they happened.

Do people show the same pattern of responses in relation to real-world events? To find out, O'Brien and coauthors assessed people's feelings of envy for a peer's Valentine's Day date every day during the month of February 2017. In line with the first study, envy grew as February 14 approached, but dropped on February 15 and stayed relatively low the rest of the month. The researchers replicated these patterns in February 2018 with a new group of participants, tracking envy over the course of three key dates: Envy rose from February 13 to February 14 but then dropped on February 15.

Interestingly, benign and malicious envy seem to have different temporal dynamics. Participants who imagined how they would feel in the days and weeks after an enviable event reported less malicious envy -- including less frustration, dislike, and ill will -- than did those who imagined their feelings in the days and weeks leading up to the event. But participants imagined feeling similar, or even greater, levels of benign envy -- including inspiration, motivation, and liking -- when they thought about the event as having passed.

"Previous research uniformly suggests that events in the future will prompt more extreme reactions because it's more relevant to pay attention to things that might still happen to us," O'Brien says. "But these findings suggest that the passing of time may be particularly linked with reducing the intensity of negative experiences, rather than reducing the intensity of all experiences."

It's possible that knowing this could help us regulate our own emotions. Findings from a final study showed that imagining looking back on an envy-inducing event had the strongest effects on people's well-being, lowering their feelings of envy and stress and increasing their positive mood.

This is important given that our increasing use of social media facilitates social comparison, even with people we will never meet.

"More than 500 million people interact daily on social media such as Facebook, where they disproportionately encounter other people's best moments, promoting a fear of missing out and undermining viewers' well-being," the researchers write.

"There may be subtle power in the timing of information sharing," they add. "A status update of 'All packed for Maui!' may have more influence than 'Back home from Maui!'"

The researchers hope to extend this research to real-world contexts, including social media, and to further explore the differences between benign and malicious envy. Ultimately, the findings reveal that the green-eyed monster may diminish with hindsight.

"There is something of a paradox in our reactions to people who get to have what we want: It stings less if they already have it," O'Brien and colleagues conclude.

Montreal, May 13, 2019 -- Regardless of how much you exercise or how balanced your diet is, controlling your weight is more brain-related than you might have thought. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers from the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) show for the first time in mice that the acyl-CoA-binding protein, or ACBP, has a direct influence on the neurons that allow rodents and humans to maintain a healthy weight.

In April 2015, Thierry Alquier, a CRCHUM researcher and the lead author of this study, had already revealed, with his team, that this same protein allowed astrocytes, cells that support neuronal functions, to communicate variations in fatty acids and lipids in the blood to neurons. Thanks to this essential piece of information, the brain can adjust food intake and energy expenditure - and, ultimately, control its owner's weight.

"With colleagues from the Université de Bordeaux's NutriNeuro laboratory, we now show that neurons that reduce food intake, known as proopiomelanocortin neurons or POMC neurons, are in 'close communication' with astrocytes that produce the protein ACBP in a specific area of the brain: the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus," said Thierry Alquier, associate professor at Université de Montréal.

Essential for the control of feeding and metabolism, this area of the hypothalamus contains two populations of neurons with opposing functions when activated: the first results in an increase in food intake; the second -- POMC neurons common to animals and humans -- promotes a reduction of food intake and an increase in energy expenditure.

A species issue?

"Genetic mutations explain five to 10 per cent of obesity cases," said Alquier. "Among these cases, a large proportion is related to a disruption of this neuronal pathway commonly known as the melanocortin pathway. We observed that the deletion of the ACBP gene in astrocytes of the arcuate nucleus promotes obesity. In mice that were genetically modified to be obese, we observed in the laboratory that injecting them daily with ACBP led to a reduction of food intake and weight loss in the order of 5 per cent over five days, a mechanism that relies on the activation of POMC neurons."

However, the researcher urged caution in translating this discovery to humans. This study is at the basic research stage and was carried out in the laboratory on mice.

Recognized by the World Health Organization as a global public health problem, obesity is a major risk factor for certain chronic illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers, and for musculoskeletal disorders and premature death.

AUSTIN, Texas - Scientists have uncovered new evidence that heated political discourse over proposed laws involving marginalized groups, such as debates about the rights of LGBT people, can contribute to an increase in bullying linked to students' identity in schools. It is the largest study to date to examine the link.

In a new study out Monday, in the journal Pediatrics, scientists at The University of Texas at Austin, Columbia University and Texas State University found that in the run-up to a statewide voter referendum to ban gay marriage in California, young people reported significantly more homophobic bullying. In fact, homophobic bullying peaked that school year and declined after the public debate about the initiative in question, Proposition 8, subsided.

"We think that young people don't hear what adults and lawmakers are talking about, but they do," said Stephen Russell, senior author of the paper and chair of the Human Development and Family Sciences Department at The University of Texas at Austin.

Researchers say the study provides empirical evidence that public debates about policies and laws involving marginalized groups can lead bullies to target young people identified as being part of those groups.

"Public votes and voter referendums on the rights of minority groups occur in approximately half of U.S. states," said Mark Hatzenbuehler, an associate professor of sociomedical sciences and sociology at Columbia University and the paper's first author. "Our findings suggest that the public discourse surrounding these votes may increase risk for bias-based bullying."

The study looked at yearly survey data from nearly 5 million middle and high school students in more than 5,000 schools in California from 2001 to 2015 and whether those students experienced homophobic bullying.

The rate of homophobic bullying rose from 7.6 percent of students reporting they experienced this bullying in the 2001-02 school year to 10.8 percent in the 2008-09 school year when the Proposition 8 vote took place. This occurred even as trends in other types of bullying related to race or ethnicity, religion and gender declined. Russell pointed out that the rate of homophobic bullying that year was higher even than the estimated population of LGBT students.

"The data are telling us that straight kids are getting bullied for this, too," Russell said. "It's all about what the bullies perceive."

After peaking in 2008-2009, the rate of homophobic bullying steadily decreased every year after.

Many schools have initiatives to prevent bullying and bias, so the team also examined whether campuses with a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) club experienced a protective effect against homophobic bullying. They found rates of homophobic bullying in fact were lower on campuses with these clubs during the 2008-09 school year: Homophobic bullying was below 10 percent on campuses with GSA organizations and nearly 13 percent on campuses without a GSA.

The negative impacts of bullying on mental health are well established, but what is not well known is what factors in the culture and society contribute to bullying. Because the paper shows public discourse can play a role, the findings could have implications for discussions of other policy issues that focus on marginalized or minority groups.

"Policies and campaigns related to Black Lives Matter, bathroom bills, immigration -- these can be concerning in how they affect the health and well-being of youth," Russell said. "The public health consequences of these very contentious and media-driven discussions are more important than we knew."

Repetition can be useful if you're trying to memorize a poem, master a guitar riff, or just cultivate good habits. When this kind of behavior becomes compulsive, however, it can get in the way of normal life--an impediment sometimes observed in psychiatric illnesses like Tourette's syndrome and autism spectrum disorders. Now, Rockefeller scientists have identified a brain circuit that underlies repetition in worms, a finding that may ultimately shed light on similar behavior in humans.

Studying the microscopic roundworm C. elegans, the researchers found that defects in one protein cause animals to reorient themselves over and over again. Described in Nature Communications, these observations are bolstered by previous research in mice, and suggest that similar mechanisms may drive repetitive behavior in a range of animals, including humans.

Chemical cleanup

The scientists initially set out to understand how astrocytes, star-shaped cells found in mammalian brains, help neurons do their job. Astrocytes are thought to be responsible for, among other things, disposing of excess neurochemicals at synapses, the connections between neurons. This task is vital because if chemicals are not removed in a timely fashion, they can stimulate neurons in unexpected ways, disrupting normal brain function. To better understand this process, Menachem Katz, a research associate in the lab of Shai Shaham, looked to C. elegans CEPsh glial cells, which he suspected to be the worm equivalents of astrocytes.

Confirming this suspicion, Katz, Shaham, and their colleagues, used mRNA sequencing to show that mouse astrocytes and CEPsh glia have similar genetic signatures. Among other commonalities, both cell types produce the protein GLT-1, the mammalian version of which is responsible for clearing the chemical glutamate away from synapses. This finding, says Shaham, afforded the researchers a unique opportunity to define how astrocytes and GLT-1 work.

"Scientists have been trying to understand the functions of astrocytes for many years, and in mammals it's not easy because these cells are essential for keeping neurons alive," he says. "But in C. elegans there are only four CEPsh glial cells, and they are not required for neuron survival. This allowed us to investigate the specific roles of glutamate transporters, without worrying about the side effects of neuron sickness."

To do so, the researchers created C. elegans lacking GLT-1. Surprisingly, this depletion did not result in glutamate accumulation at synapses, as was expected. Instead, the worms exhibited oscillations in synaptic glutamate levels--and a peculiar behavioral defect.

"These animals changed their direction at a crazy rate. They just kept moving forward and going back, moving forward and going back," says Shaham, the Richard E. Salomon Family Professor. "And when we analyzed this behavior, we discovered that they did so in a really interesting pattern."

Turn, turn, turn

It's perfectly normal for C. elegans to change course every now and then. Typically, the worm reorients itself about once every 90 seconds. But worms lacking GLT-1, the researchers found, took this action to the extreme: at 90 second intervals the animals executed not one reversal, but bursts of them. "It's as if once they start the action, they can't stop repeating it," says Katz.

Further experiments revealed that removal of the glutamate receptor MGL-2 blocked both repetitive reversals and synaptic glutamate oscillations. The researchers concluded that when glutamate is not efficiently cleared, the chemical stimulates MGL-2, which in turn triggers the release of yet more glutamate. This process then repeats on a loop; and every time glutamate is released, it activates the neuron responsible for initiating reversals.

"These findings suggest a simple model for how repetition can occur in worms," says Katz. "And, it turns out, this model may hold up in more complex nervous systems."

Indeed, past experiments have shown that GLT-1 mutations cause repetitive grooming in mice, and that compounds blocking the mouse version of MGL-2 eliminate similar behavior in other contexts. Taken together with the new findings in C. elegans, this research suggests that abnormal glutamate secretion may underlie repetitive behaviors across the animal kingdom--raising the possibility that they may be relevant to understanding pathological repetition in humans.

Consistent with this idea, human genetics studies have found mutations associated with glutamate signaling in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder and autism spectrum disorders, both of which can be accompanied by repetitive behavior.

"We were really excited to see these links in the scientific literature because it means our findings may help uncover a plausible mechanism underlying an important class of human diseases," says Shaham. "And, more broadly, we're showing that candidate genes affected in human disease can be studied and verified in the simpler worm."

Two sniffling chimps could be one too many for a wild chimpanzee community susceptible to respiratory disease outbreaks, report Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at the University of Minnesota. The team's findings were a result of their development of a syndromic surveillance system to noninvasively and preemptively detect a potential outbreak of respiratory disease. The study recently was published in EcoHealth.

"This could significantly improve our ability to intervene and slow down, or even stop, outbreaks among great ape groups," said Dr. Tiffany Wolf, Assistant Professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota. "Hopefully, we can use this technique to better understand disease transmission among wildlife around the world."

Respiratory diseases are increasingly recognized as having a significant impact on great ape populations that have at least some level of contact with humans. In Gombe, respiratory disease is responsible for, or has been associated with, more than 50 percent of mortalities in chimpanzees.

Syndromic surveillance is a type of surveillance that can detect a health issue before a disease is diagnosed, or even before a specific pathogen is known to be involved. It uses easily identifiable indicators that do not require physical contact with an individual or a population.

"Syndromic surveillance is a relatively new approach in wildlife care and has great potential to help us head diseases off at the pass," said Dr. Janet Patterson-Kane, Morris Animal Foundation Chief Scientific Officer. "We are proud to support projects like this that could facilitate early interventions for small populations put at risk by emerging infectious diseases."

For their study, funded in part by Morris Animal Foundation, Dr. Wolf and her team analyzed data from researchers who studied two chimpanzee communities at Tanzania's Gombe National Park, from 2004 to 2012. One community had about 25 individuals, while the other had between 50 and 60. The researchers primarily watched the chimps' behaviors, but also noted different symptoms of respiratory disease, such as coughing, sneezing and runny noses. Dr. Wolf's analysis of data detected 14 outbreaks from 2005 to 2012, eight of which were previously unrecorded.

The team first used this information to establish a baseline normal level of respiratory disease. They examined the frequency of respiratory symptoms over times when outbreaks didn't occur to establish a threshold that, if crossed, could alert observers that an outbreak could occur. Dr. Wolf then developed an agent-based computer model that simulated respiratory disease transmission under various conditions. This allowed the researchers to determine how effective the surveillance system was in detecting outbreaks of different sizes and at different times of the year.

The study showed that if even two chimpanzees are observed with signs of respiratory disease over a period of one week, the community could be on the verge of an outbreak. Once alerted, local wildlife caretakers could then collect noninvasive diagnostic samples, such as fecal matter or chewed up fruit, to try and detect pathogens, including bacteria or viruses. If deemed necessary and possible, veterinary professionals could then intervene.

With a worldwide population estimated to be between 170,000 and 300,000 individuals, chimpanzees are classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. Improving disease outbreak detection is critical to help wildlife professionals manage remaining populations and improve the chances not only for survival, but species recovery.

NASA's Aqua satellite used infrared light to analyze the strength of storms in Tropical Cyclone Lili as it moved through the Southern Indian Ocean. Infrared data provides temperature information, and the strongest thunderstorms that reach high into the atmosphere have the coldest cloud top temperatures.

At 12:50 a.m. EDT (0450 UTC) on May 10, the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite gathered infrared data on Lili. Strongest thunderstorms were north of the center where MODIS found cloud top temperatures as cold as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 45.5 Celsius).

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC noted that Lili's maximum sustained winds were near 35 knots (40 mph/74 kph). At the time, Lili was centered near 9.3 degrees south latitude and 128.2 degrees east longitude, about 238 nautical miles northwest of Darwin, Australia. Lili has tracked to the west-northwest at 3 knots (3.4 mph/5.5 kph).

At 8 a.m. EDT (1248 UTC) animated enhanced infrared satellite imagery and a microwave satellite image showed a partially-exposed low-level circulation with isolated strong thunderstorms now over the southern quadrant. Satellite imagery shows that dry air has been feeding into the storm and sapping the storm's ability to generate the thunderstorms it needs to be maintained. That dry air "entrainment" or movement into Lili is expected to continue. Lili is forecast to track to the west-northwest and dissipate in a day.

Ordinarily, you won't encounter a radiation thermometer until somebody puts one in your ear at the doctor's office or you point one at your forehead when you're feeling feverish. But more sophisticated and highly calibrated research-grade "non-contact" thermometers--which measure the infrared (heat) radiation given off by objects without touching them--are critically important to many endeavors besides health care.

However, even high-end conventional radiation thermometers have produced readings with worryingly large uncertainties. But now researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a portable, remarkably stable standards-quality radiation thermometer about 60 centimeters (24 inches) long that is capable of measuring temperatures to a precision of within a few thousandths of a degree Celsius.

NIST has a long history of studying radiation thermometers. The new prototype instrument, which builds on that work, can measure temperatures between -50 C (-58 F) to 150 C (302 F). The corresponding infrared wavelengths are from 8 to 14 micrometers (millionths of a meter), which is a sort of thermodynamic sweet spot.

"All temperatures are equal, but some are more equal than others," said NIST physicist Howard Yoon, who created the thermometer design and directed the project, described in the journal Optics Express. "That 200-degree span covers nearly all naturally occurring temperatures on Earth. If you make a big impact in measuring objects in that range, it really matters."

In addition to clinical medicine, temperatures in that region are of urgent importance in applications where contact is not appropriate or feasible. For example, surgeons need to measure the temperature of organs prior to transplant. Modern farmers need accurate temperatures when handling, storing and processing food. Satellites require non-contact thermometers for measuring temperatures on land and the surface of the sea.

Conventional radiation thermometers often contain little more than a lens for focusing the infrared radiation and a pyroelectric sensor, a device that converts heat energy into an electrical signal. Their measurements can be affected by temperature differences along the thermometer and by temperature outside the instrument.

The NIST design, called the Ambient-Radiation Thermometer (ART), is fitted with a suite of interior thermometers that constantly gauge temperatures at different points in the instrument. Those readings are sent to a feedback loop system which keeps the 30-cm (12-inch) cylinder containing the detector assembly at a constant temperature of 23 C (72 F).

It also features other design improvements, including a method for reducing errors from what is called the size-of-source effect, which results when radiation enters the instrument from areas outside its specified field of view.

The ART's major advantage is its unprecedented stability. After it has been calibrated against standards-grade contact thermometers, the instrument can remain stable to within a few thousandths of a degree for months under continuous operation. That makes the system very promising for applications that involve remote sensing over long periods.

"Imagine being able to take the NIST design out in the field as traveling radiation thermometers for accurately measuring variables such as land- and sea-surface temperatures," Yoon said. "It could serve as a trustworthy method of calibrating satellite IR sensors and validating the huge weather science programs that are used to predict, for example, the paths and strengths of hurricanes." Its lower range of -50 C (-58 F) makes it suitable for monitoring the temperature of ice over polar regions, typically in the range of -40 C (-40 F) to -10 C (14 F).

There are several methods of making very high-accuracy temperature measurements, but few are well-suited to field work. Platinum resistance thermometers are fragile and need frequent recalibration. The standard temperature source for transferring that calibration to the ART involves a heat-source cavity inside about 42 liters (11 gallons) of liquid.

"Those are the best sources we have," Yoon said. "But it is impractical to measure water temperature by putting a thermometer in the ocean at intervals, and you don't want to constantly calibrate your radiation thermometer using a calibration source like that on board a ship."

Gerald Fraser, chief of NIST's Sensor Science Division, said that "Yoon's innovation makes non-contact thermometry competitive with the best commercial contact thermometers in accuracy and stability in a temperature range that humans experience daily. This enables many new opportunities in product inspection and quality control and in defense and security where conventional contact methods are impractical or too expensive."