Earth

Tropical Cyclone Trevor formed in the Coral Sea of the Southwestern Pacific Ocean on March 18. NASA's Terra satellite analyzed cloud top temperatures in the storm which gave an indication of the storm's strength. Trevor has already triggered warnings in Queensland, Australia.

he Australian Bureau of Meteorology posted warnings on March 18. A tropical cyclone warming is in force from Orford Ness to Cooktown, and a tropical cyclone watch is in force from Cape York to Pormpuraaw. For local information, visit the Australian Bureau of Meteorology website: http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDQ20023.html.

At 8:25 a.m. EDT (1225 UTC) on Mar. 18, the MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite looked at Tropical Cyclone Trevor in infrared light as it moved to the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland. MODIS found coldest cloud tops had temperatures near minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 62.2 degrees Celsius) around the center of the tropical storm. Storms with temperatures that cold are indicative of strong storms and have been shown to have the capability to generate heavy rainfall.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC posted at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on March 18 that Trevor was located at 12.3 degrees south latitude and 145.0 degrees east longitude. That's approximately 280 nautical miles north of Cairns, Australia. Trevor was moving west. Maximum sustained winds were near 50 knots (57 mph/84 kph) and strengthening. Trevor is currently a tropical storm and is expected to reach hurricane-force.

JTWC expects that Trevor will strengthen to 70 knots (80.5 /129 kph), before making landfall in the Cape York Peninsula on Tuesday, March 19. After crossing the peninsula, the storm will emerge into the Gulf of Carpentaria, where it is expected to re-intensify. The forecast track takes Trevor to a second landfall near the Queensland / Northern Territories border on Friday, March 22.

Clinical practice guidelines issued by specialty societies in North America often recommend health care services linked to their specialties, in contrast with European guidelines and those from independent organizations, argues a commentary published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181496.

"Regardless of country of origin, physicians often recommend procedures and treatments that they are trained to provide, a phenomenon known as 'specialty bias,'" write Drs. Ismail Jatoi, University of Texas Health, San Antonio, Texas, and Sunita Sah, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. "This may explain why medical specialty societies frequently issue guidelines calling for greater use of health care services linked to their specialties ..., thereby exacerbating overdiagnosis, overtreatment and increasing health care costs."

For example, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network in the US included 25 urologists on its 32-member guideline panel for prostate cancer and recommends prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for healthy men aged 45 and older. By contrast, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, with no urologists on its 9-member panel, and the European Society for Medical Oncology, with one urologist on its 4-member panel, both recommend against PSA screening for men of all ages.

The type of health care system, such as fee-for-service, can also affect the type of recommendations, with specialists in such a system recommending more intensive diagnostic and treatment guidelines.

"Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines can improve health care delivery," write the authors. "Yet specialty bias and fee-for-service conflicts of interest threaten their validity and may lead to unnecessary overuse of health care services. More is not necessarily better in medicine; if anything, patient outcomes may be worse the more "care" they receive. Every medical test, procedure and treatment adds risk against potential benefit, and some may lead to more harm than good."

Studies have shown women are more risk-averse than men, more likely to opt for the smaller sure thing than gamble on an all-or-nothing proposition, a trait experts say could help to explain the persistent wage gap between men and women.

New research suggests those gender differences in risk aversion are shaped by culture and the social environment and that those differences can shift, at least in children.

"Environment is extremely important in shaping risk aversion," said Elaine Liu, associate professor of economics and author of a paper on the subject published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "If we can teach girls that they should be more risk loving, perhaps that will shape their future decision-making."

Liu and co-author Sharon Xuejing Zuo of Fudan University looked at the behavior of children from two distinct cultures - the matrilineal Mosuo and the traditionally patriarchal Han - who attended the same school in Yunnan, China.

When the children first began elementary school, Mosuo girls took more risks than Mosuo boys, while Han girls were less likely to take risks than Han boys, in keeping with their parents' cultural norms. But that began to change as the children were exposed to the other culture.

It worked both ways, Liu said. Mosuo girls became more risk-averse, while Han girls became more risk-loving.

"There was a convergence," Liu said. "The Mosuo girls took more risks than Han girls at the beginning, but their attitudes toward taking risks become more similar as they spent more time together."

The researchers studied children in elementary and middle school; Liu said it's not clear whether the changes will be sustained as the children return to their home villages. She and Zuo hope to launch a long-term study to determine if the shift in attitudes toward risk-taking is permanent.

They measured students' attitudes toward risk-taking through a lottery-style game, offering the students six choices ranging from a guaranteed three-yuan payout to a 50/50 percent chance of winning 10 yuan or nothing. Ten yuan would allow the children to buy five notebooks or about five popsicles at a local store; the amount of the reward was chosen after consulting with school principals.

Liu and Zuo conducted their research in Yunnan, a province in southwestern China, because it is one of the few places where children from cultures with distinctly different gender norms come together in one place. But Liu said the basic discovery - that risk aversion is quite malleable at a young age - should be applicable across cultures.

"Gender norms are slow to change, but there are social influences that could play a role in how we shape that behavior," Liu said. And that could have long-term economic consequences, she said, even potentially shrinking the gender pay gap if it led to women choosing riskier but higher-reward career paths.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Scientists studying monarch butterflies have traditionally focused on two sources for their decline - winter habitat loss in Mexico and fewer milkweed plants in the Midwest.

New research conducted by Michigan State University and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, shows that a critical piece of the butterfly's annual cycle was missing - the fall migration. By focusing on this southerly trek, as well as changing the scale at which winter populations are examined, scientists reveal a wider, more-accurate spectrum of threats that have contributed to the monarch population's downward trend.

"Getting accurate monarch counts in the summer is tough," said Sarah Saunders, former MSU integrative biologist and the study's lead author. "Finding them in the fall, though, is nearly impossible as they're moving hundreds of miles daily."

Monarch butterfly numbers have been dropping precipitously for more than two decades ¬- in part due to shrinking winter habitat and increased herbicide use in the Midwest that eliminates their host plants from summer breeding grounds. However, herbicide use and habitat loss have diminished over the past decade, yet monarchs continue to decline.

These key facts told scientists that a big part of the story was being left out, said Elise Zipkin, MSU integrative biologist and the study's senior author.

"Migratory periods are missing from most research because they are the most difficult periods to investigate," she said. "For monarchs, the fall is the least-studied season because the data are so sparse and are generally opportunistic."

In the paper, Saunders and her team built a multi-scale model and included a summer population index to account for year-to-year variations. They then added environmental factors occurring during the fall migration, such as temperature and landscape greenness. A brown, dry fall means fewer nectar resources - where monarchs obtain their energy - to fuel them along their journey.

There's also the threat of OE, or Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a parasite that infects monarchs, causing deformed or smaller wings. Understanding the changing threats affecting animal migration is key to conservation, said Elizabeth Blood, a program director at the National Science Foundation, which funded this research.

"The survival of migratory animals has been an important area of investigation as climate changes spark ecosystem and migratory pattern changes," she said. "This research boosts our understanding of larger processes - from regional to even continental scales - and the impact they have on migratory animals."

The scientists re-evaluated the long-standing base on which monarch estimations are made. Rather than consider the winter population as a single entity, their model used the numbers from all 19 known colonies individually.

"We're the first to examine the winter colonies this way," Zipkin said. "If you aggregate the winter colony data, you can get the wrong result because there are important differences in habitat quantity and quality at the individual colony sites."

"Unsurprisingly, our model shows that all seasons are important; summer, fall and winter factors are all connected," said Saunders, who's currently a quantitative ecologist at National Audubon Society. "In particular, we found that landscape greenness during the fall migration, in addition to the peak summer population size and the amount of habitat at local winter colonies, were the key factors influencing the winter population size."

The interdisciplinary aspect of this research is also noteworthy. A single researcher couldn't collect the data necessary to create this improved model. Decades worth of continental-scale data from across all seasons fuel it. Climatologists, collaborators in Mexico and citizen scientists all have contributed critical information.

Scientists like Zipkin and Saunders are looking at integrative biology through a brand-new lens.

"Thanks to citizen scientists and wider collaborative networks, many different data sources are now available," Zipkin said. "We have unique opportunities to research questions that were unanswerable just a decade ago."

BINGHAMTON, NY - Fostering an inclusive work environment can lead to higher satisfaction, innovation, trust and retention among employees, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Kim Brimhall, assistant professor of social work at Binghamton University's College of Community and Public Affairs, noticed how the nonprofit sector generally suffers from high employee-turnover rates, low work performance and deficits among the leadership, and wanted to find out what could be done to break this cycle. She partnered with a large nonprofit hospital in Los Angeles, surveying employees on topics such as leader engagement, inclusion, innovation, job satisfaction and perceived quality of care. The full study also included one-on-one qualitative interviews, as well as several organizational observations.

Analyzing the data, Brimhall found that leaders who seek the input of organizational members from all job positions and encourage everyone, regardless of educational background or job responsibilities, to take initiative and participate in work-related processes are more likely to increase feelings of inclusion. This then leads to increased innovation, employee job satisfaction and quality of services in nonprofit organizations.

"When nonprofit organization members believe that they are valued for their unique personal characteristics and are recognized as important members of the organization, employee engagement, trust, satisfaction, commitment and retention improve," wrote Brimhall. "Leader engagement, that is, a leader's ability to actively engage all organizational members in critical decision making, may foster a climate for inclusion and positive organizational outcomes, such as a climate for innovation, job satisfaction and perceived quality of care."

The implications of these findings have applicability across national settings and for effective management of nonprofit organizations internationally, wrote Brimhall.

She hopes to develop economically practical, evidence-based tools that leaders can utilize to create inclusive work environments. She is partnering with another large nonprofit hospital to conduct an experimental study testing workplace interventions. These tools could help employees feel included and possibly lead to more innovation in the workplace and overall improvement in their feelings toward their job, which would then translate to improved quality of care given to clients.

The paper, "Inclusion is Important...But How Do I Include? Examining the Effects of Leader Engagement on Inclusion, Innovation, Job Satisfaction, and Perceived Quality of Care in a Diverse Nonprofit Health Care Organization," was published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

Lisbon, Portugal - 17 March 2019: A novel electrocardiogram (ECG) method which uses signals from the ear and hand to check heart rhythm is revealed today at EHRA 2011 a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress. The ECG does not require two hands and could be used by drivers, athletes, and the military.

Study author Dr Raffaele De Lucia, of the University Hospital of Pisa, Italy, said: "Mobile ECG devices present a major opportunity to detect atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder, and thereby prevent strokes and reduce hospitalisations. All commercially available portable ECG devices require both hands, but what if symptoms happen while driving?"

This is the first study to show that the ear can be used for ECG signal detection. The study included 32 consecutive healthy volunteers (cardiology students and nurses). An ECG was first performed by the standard method, which uses the index and middle finger of each hand. A second ECG was conducted using the index and middle finger of the left hand and a clip attached to the left ear. (See figure.)

All ECGs were printed and analysed by the device and by two cardiologists who were blinded to which method had been used. No differences were detected in the ECG results obtained by the two methods.

Dr De Lucia said: "We have shown how the ear can be used as an innovative anatomical site for ECG signal detection in healthy adults. We are now conducting further studies to validate this method in patients with cardiac arrhythmias."

The authors said the findings pave the way for a new kind of single lead ECG wearable device which leaves one hand free, making it easier to use. In addition to detecting previously undiagnosed atrial fibrillation, the device could be used to evaluate physical performance during exercise, prevent fainting, and check the heart during symptoms including dizziness and breathlessness. Patients already diagnosed with cardiac conditions such as atrial fibrillation could also use it to monitor their condition.

Increases in tobacco taxes and smoke-free policies in European countries were significantly related with a reduction in smoking among older adults, according to a new Addiction study.

For the study, investigators examined data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) on adults aged 50 years and older in four waves from 2004 to 2013 from 10 countries.

A negative association between tobacco control policies and smoking was observed especially among those between 50 and 65 years old, and among those with lower levels of education. By contrast, no relationship was found among those older than 65 years and among those with high education. Furthermore, the association was not found to be different between men and women.

"Among tobacco control policies, we found tax increases and smoke-free policies particularly associated with reduction in smoking among the lower educated adults older than 50 years, suggesting that these policies could potentially reduce socioeconomic inequalities in smoking," said lead author Dr. Manuel Serrano-Alarcón, of NOVA University of Lisbon, in Portugal.

Academics at the University of Bristol have taken the first long-term look at potential factors that could lead to suicide attempts in high-risk young people.

Published in The Lancet Psychiatry today (Thursday 14 March) researchers examined questionnaire data from 16 and 21 year olds who are part of Bristol's Children of the 90s study, concentrating on those who'd thought about suicide.

From the sample of 310 16year olds who had experienced suicidal thoughts, researchers wanted to know what proportion would make an attempt on their own life and if those at greatest risk could be identified. This could help clinicians in their assessment of high-risk young people.

They found that 12 per cent of adolescents with suicidal thoughts went on to make a suicide attempt during the five-year follow-up. The researchers looked at lots of different types of predictors and found that the factors that best helped to predict attempts were non-suicidal self-harm, cannabis and other illicit drug use, exposure to self-harm in friends or family, and having a personality type that is more open to new ideas and experiences ('intellect/openness').

The study also looked at factors that predict attempts among those who reported non-suicidal self-harm at 16 years old and found that the best predictors in this group were cannabis and drug use, sleep problems and a less extroverted personality type.

The researchers found that young people who experienced both suicidal thoughts and non-suicidal self-harm at 16 were a particularly high-risk group, with one in five attempting suicide over the follow-up.

Funded by NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, this is the first time academics have looked at predictors of future suicide attempts and it is hoped that the findings will help professionals who work with teenagers assess those at high risk.

Research Fellow at the University of Bristol Dr Becky Mars said:

"Most young people who think about suicide will not make an attempt on their life. To help us identify which teenagers are most at risk, it's crucial that we know more about how we can predict thoughts into actions.

"Although other studies have found differences between young people who have thought about suicide and those who have made an attempt, this is the first study to look at predictors over time. Findings from our study could be used to help those who work with young people identify those in greatest need of timely help, support and interventions.

"We're now planning studies to look at predictors during shorter time frames (hours/days/weeks) and to look at other predictors which are not covered in this study. This is important as many well-established risk factors for suicide (such as mental health problems) do not predict suicide attempts in these high-risk groups"

Co-author and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Bristol David Gunnell has lead on a series of research studies funded by NIHR and MRC to inform suicide prevention strategies. He added:

"While suicidal thoughts and self-harm are common in young people, with around one in six young people reporting self-harm, suicide and suicide attempts are thankfully relatively rare. Being better able to identify those at greatest risk and intervening may help reduce suicides in young people."

Papyrus HopelineUK is a confidential support and advice service for Children and Young People under the age of 35 who are experiencing thoughts of suicide or
anyone concerned that a young person could be thinking about suicide. Call 0800 068 41 41 (Monday to Friday 10am- 10pm, Weekends and Bank Holidays 2pm - 10pm).

The Samaritans can be contacted by anyone FREE any time from any phone on 116 123, even a mobile without credit. This number won't show up on a phone bill. Or email jo@samaritans.org or visit http://www.samaritans.org to find details of a nearby branch, to talk to a trained volunteer face to face.

Jacqui Morrissey, Samaritans Assistant Director of Research and Influencing, said: "Identifying young people most at risk from suicide will help save lives. Looking at a group of young people over a long period, five years, and understanding more about potential predictors of suicide attempts provides us with valuable information.

"We know that the majority of young people, even those who have suicidal thoughts, will not try to take their own lives. This new research should help improve ways of identifying and supporting those young people who are in the high-risk category."

Young people's awareness of alcohol marketing - and their ownership of alcohol-branded merchandise - is associated with increased and higher-risk consumption, a landmark study has found.

Published in BMJ Open, the research - led by the University of Stirling and the Cancer Policy Research Centre at Cancer Research UK - revealed that 11 to 19-year-old current drinkers, who report high alcohol marketing awareness, are one-and-a-half-times more likely to be higher risk drinkers, compared to those who have low or medium awareness.

In young people who have never consumed alcohol, those who own alcohol-branded merchandise are twice as likely to be susceptible to drink in the next year, the research found.

Significantly, the paper reports that 82 per cent of young people recalled seeing at least one form of alcohol marketing in the month preceding the survey, with at least half estimated to have seen 32 or more instances - equating to one per day. Meanwhile, one fifth reported owning alcohol-branded merchandise.

The study - led by Dr Nathan Critchlow, of the University's Institute of Social Marketing (ISM) - is the first to examine awareness of alcohol marketing and ownership of branded merchandise in a demographically representative sample of young people across the UK, including those both above and below the legal purchase age for alcohol.

Dr Critchlow said: "Alcohol marketing is more than advertising; it exists in many different forms - more commonly known as the marketing mix - and we found this was reflected in what young people recalled. More than a third of young people recalled seeing alcohol advertising through television, celebrity endorsement, and special offers in the week before they participated in the survey, while more than a fifth recalled seeing outdoors adverts or adverts on social media.

"Although alcohol consumption can be influenced by a variety of factors, we found that the association between alcohol marketing and increased consumption and higher-risk drinking in current drinkers, remained even after controlling for a range of demographic and confounders, such as parental and peer drinking. This was also true for the association between owning branded merchandise and susceptibility in never-drinkers."

The study used data from the 2017 Youth Alcohol Policy Survey - a cross-sectional, YouGov-conducted survey with 11 to 19-year-olds across the UK. The weighted sample - of 3,399 young people - had an average age of 15.18 years old, an even distribution for gender, and 76 per cent were below the legal purchasing age. Of the weighted sample, 1,590 were current drinkers - with 44 per cent of those classified as being at higher risk - and 1,623 were never drinkers, with half of those classified as susceptible to drink in the next year.

The team measured how frequently young people recalled seeing nine different forms of alcohol marketing in the month preceding the study, ranging from traditional advertising - for example, in the press and on television; alternative marketing - such as sponsorship and competitions; and retail marketing - including price promotions.

Awareness was also estimated across the past month, and young people were categorised as reporting either low awareness (approximately every other day or less), medium awareness (approximately every day), and high awareness (almost twice a day or more).

Dr Critchlow said: "The new study provides insight into the forms of alcohol marketing that young people are aware of, how frequently they recall seeing alcohol marketing, and what factors are associated with higher awareness of alcohol marketing and ownership of alcohol branded merchandise.

"The influence that alcohol marketing has on young people, and how it is self-regulated in the UK, continues to be a topic of debate. The Scottish Government's latest alcohol strategy includes plans to consult on alternative controls for alcohol marketing, and Ireland have recently passed legislation to this effect. Our findings lend support to these steps to examine further feasible, appropriate, and effective ways of reducing exposure in young people."

Dr Jyotsna Vohra, Cancer Research UK's head of cancer policy research, said: "Alcohol can cause seven different types of cancer: mouth, breast, bowel, liver, pharyngeal, oesophageal, and laryngeal. It's responsible for almost 12,000 cancer cases annually in the UK, and worryingly only 1 in 10 people know its link to cancer.

"The more you drink the greater the risk and this is why the Chief Medical Officers' guidelines recommend no more than 14 units per week as a safer level of drinking. We know that not everyone who drinks will develop cancer but it doesn't hurt to cut down."

Emergency room doctors often have only a few minutes to determine which patients are in need of a blood transfusion.

But currently doctors have no direct method to assess the health of one of the most critical component of the blood: platelets. These tiny blood cells play a huge role in helping blood clot after an injury.

Now researchers at the University of Washington have created a novel system that can measure platelet function within two minutes and can help doctors determine which trauma patients might need a blood transfusion upon being admitted to a hospital. The team will publish its results March 13 in Nature Communications.

"Our system requires a tiny amount of blood to look at how healthy platelets are in real time," said co-corresponding author Nathan Sniadecki, an associate professor in the UW Department of Mechanical Engineering. "We found that platelet function is a far better measure of platelet health and whether a trauma patient will need a blood transfusion than current methods."

Platelets are the first responders to any sort of damage to blood vessels.

"They act as a sort of instant patch," Sniadecki said. "They become activated and stick to the damage, and then they rapidly change their shape to stretch and reach out for more of the wound surface or other platelets. Then they begin to come back together to compact and add strength to a clot."

In patients who've experienced trauma, however, platelets can lose the ability to do their jobs, including becoming less able to apply the forces needed to stop bleeding.

"When trauma patients come into the ER, we use a variety of methods to estimate their risk of bleeding, but none of these tests tells us specifically about platelet strength," said co-corresponding author Dr. Nathan White, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the UW School of Medicine.

White, Sniadecki and their team designed a microfluidic device that measures platelet forces in real time. First, the researchers inject a blood sample into the device. As the blood flows through it, the cells hit an obstacle course: tiny blocks and posts jutting up from the base of the device. This activates the platelets. They feel a massive force when they flow over the blocks, and then the surface of both the blocks and the posts are coated with a platelet-activating molecule.

"The block and post structures act like a mini wound surface," said lead author Lucas Ting, who conducted this research as a mechanical engineering doctoral student at the UW. "The platelets attach between the block and post, and they start to snowball. They aggregate to form a miniature plug that then begins to contract and pull the post toward the block. Based on how far the post moves, we can determine how functional the platelets are."

Sniadecki's lab has used post structures in microfluidic devices before to measure cell forces, but this is the first time that blocks have been added to the mix. Without the blocks, the platelets didn't stick to the posts.

"As the platelets whip around the block, they are forced to change direction rapidly, and that activates the platelets," Ting said.

To test their device, the researchers recruited participants from Harborview Medical Center. After providing informed consent, 93 trauma patients and 10 healthy participants had their blood sampled when they arrived at the center.

The results showed a significant difference between the healthy participants' blood and that of the trauma patients. Trauma patients' platelets had decreased forces compared to healthy participants' platelets. Of the trauma patients, 17 required a blood transfusion during their first 24 hours in the hospital. These patients also had the lowest platelet forces compared to the trauma patients who didn't receive a transfusion.

Sometimes trauma patients have fewer platelets, so one current test in the ER is to count the number of platelets. But when the researchers looked at platelet count for this study, all blood samples -- including those from healthy participants -- had a comparable number of platelets.

"It's a big deal not just knowing how many platelets are in the blood but knowing how well they're actually functioning," White said. "It's not always obvious which patients will need a blood transfusion, and a device like this can really help us make decisions quickly."

Currently the team is working to make the device more user-friendly.

"It's still a prototype where you have to have some training in how to operate it to get a reading," said Ting, who is now director of research and development at Stasys Medical Corporation, the company that spun out from this research. "Our goal is to make it user-friendly and comparable to a blood sugar monitoring device where people deposit blood samples on a strip and put it into the reader. Then the reader just takes care of it."

The team also hopes the device will be useful for measuring platelet strength in other areas of medicine, such as measuring how blood-thinning medications like aspirin or Plavix affect different patients or helping neurosurgeons monitor patients for bleeding complications during surgery.

All the cells of an organism contain a copy of DNA in their nucleus. In order to implement the instructions it contains, this DNA must be copied into an RNA molecule, which reaches the ribosomes, which in turn read this information and synthesise proteins. The codons, animo acid triplets that form proteins and are the markers the ribosomes need to know how to produce each protein, are key in this transition process. There exist a total of 61 codons that code for 20 amino acids, and three codons that act as stop signals in the translation process.

Nevertheless, certain organisms use an extra amino acid, selenocysteine, dubbed the 21st amino acid, which lacks its own codon and uses a stop codon after modifying it. For this purpose, it avails itself of complex machinery, with specific enzymes and RNA; this process can prove to be very costly for the cell. But why? What function does this amino acid have in proteins? Why is it present in humans and in the other vertebrates whereas, on the other hand, other species have lost it? Now, researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, part of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, in collaboration with CRG Alumni Marco Mariotti and Vadim N. Gladyshev, from the Harvard Medical School (USA), and Gustavo Salinas from the University of the Republic in Uruguay, have shed some light on these questions.

"In previous studies, we discovered that the machinery of selenocysteine had been lost many times in the course of evolution and we began to take an interest in why it disappears so easily in some groups but not in others", explains the ICREA Research Professor Toni Gabaldón, head of the CRG's Comparative Genomics group.

The fungi were the only organism kingdom in which a species with selenocysteine had never been found, and the researchers decided to focus on them, leveraging the recent publication of a thousand fungi genomes in public-access databases. On analysing them, they discovered, as they reported in the article published in Nature Microbiology, that nine of the 1,000 species actually did have this amino acid.

"It came as a surprise to us, because no fungi were believed to have selenocysteine", says Gabaldón, which explains why the nine species they discovered that did have it belong to relatively unsequenced groups of fungi that "diverged at an early stage in the evolution of fungi, which means that we will probably find more cases of selenocysteine when more genomes of these groups are sequenced".

The ancestor of the fungi that they have identified with this amino acid also had it. Certain lineages have retained it, whereas others have lost it, which could also be the case in other organisms. "The question that remains to be answered is why it is lost in some organisms whereas in others these genes are essential", says Gabaldón. "Understanding why selenocysteine is important in fungi and other branches of the tree of life may help us to understand why it is so important to our species and to define what makes selenium essential to human health", he concludes.

A new biomarker that could be used to provide earlier diagnosis for a life limiting lung condition has been identified by researchers at the University of Bradford.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) affects around 6,500 people in the UK and is caused by a narrowing of the arteries supplying blood to the lungs. This leads to high blood pressure and, eventually, to heart failure.

PAH can occur spontaneously at any age. There is no cure and current therapies can cost up to £100,000 per patient. Symptoms - including shortness of breath and tiredness - are similar to many other cardiovascular conditions, so it can take up to four years to get a diagnosis.

The new study, published in Human Molecular Genetics, identifies a particular protein responsible for a build-up of cells in the blood vessels. It was led by the University of Bradford and includes researchers from the University of Cambridge (UK), Kings College London (UK), University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), Centre for Health Agricultural and Socio-economic Advancements (CHASA, Bangladesh) and Hacettepe University (Turkey).

The study builds on earlier research to investigate the genetic causes of PAH - in particular the mechanism of one faulty gene, known as BMPR-II, which was first identified nearly two decades ago.

Dr Talat Nasim, in Bradford's School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, has previously shown that mutations in BMPR-II are responsible both for two important processes behind the disease. In the first of these, cells forming the wall and lining of the arteries supplying blood to the lungs reproduce excessively; while in the second the mechanism that causes old or unwanted cells to die - apoptosis - is reduced. Together, these processes cause the blood vessels to become narrow or blocked.

Understanding precisely how BMPR-II contributes to each of these processes has taken many years of investigation. In a 2012 study published in Human Molecular Genetics, the team showed how BMPR-II drives the excessive production of cells. The current study focuses on the second challenge - how apoptosis is affected by the faulty gene.

Dr Nasim explains: "We wanted to find out why the cells are not dying, but instead were building up inside the wall of the pulmonary arteries. To do this, we needed to identify and investigate the proteins that are influenced by this gene."

The team discovered that the faulty BMPR-II gene affected one particular protein called Bcl-x. This, in turn, is responsible for making two different proteins, one of which increases cell apoptosis, and the other one reduces it. These two work in balance in the body to regulate cell death. If BMPR-II is faulty, however, the protein for reducing cell apoptosis is increased - preventing cell death from occurring.

"This protein can be used as a biomarker for accurately identifying PAH in patients," says Dr Nasim. "This could help us diagnose PAH at an earlier stage, possibly leading to better treatment options for patients. We can also make other services available, such as genetic counselling, to help patients understand the disease and to identify those at risk of developing it."

Co-author, Professor Nick Morrell, from the University of Cambridge, says: "This exciting work adds significantly to our understanding of how inherited forms of PAH are caused, and potentially offers a new way to diagnose the disease early. Early diagnosis and early treatment means better outcomes for our patients."

Co-author, Professor Richard Trembath from Kings College London, says: "PAH remains a challenging condition to manage and the findings reported in the present work offer additional insights as to both the process of development of PAH and ways of monitoring the progression of the disease. Further studies are now required to determine the utility of this approach."

Dr Nasim's team has filed a patent for the biomarker and is now investigating whether it could also be a target for new drugs. A number of promising compounds are currently being developed and tested in animal models.

Across North America, coyotes are moving into urban environments, and regardless of how they feel about it, urban residents are having to get used to some new animal neighbors. A big question for wildlife researchers is how coyotes habituate to humans, which can potentially lead to conflict.

A study led by a University of Washington Tacoma faculty member, recently published in Ecology and Evolution, suggests coyotes can habituate to humans quickly and that habituated parents pass this fearlessness on to their offspring.

"Even if it's only 0.001 percent of the time, when a coyote threatens or attacks a person or a pet, it's national news, and wildlife management gets called in," said first author Christopher Schell, an assistant professor at UW Tacoma. "We want to understand the mechanisms that contribute to habituation and fearlessness, to prevent these situations from occurring."

The study, done as part of Schell's doctoral work at the University of Chicago, focused on eight coyote families at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Predator Research Facility in Millville, Utah. The research center was founded in the 1970s to reduce coyote attacks on sheep and other livestock.

Until the 20th century, Schell said, coyotes lived mostly in the Great Plains. But when wolves were hunted almost to extinction in the early 1900s, coyotes lost their major predator, and their range began to expand. With continuing landscape changes, coyotes are now increasingly making their way into suburban and urban environments -- including New York City, Los Angeles and cities in the Pacific Northwest -- where they live, mainly off rodents and small mammals, without fear of hunters.

The new study seeks to understand how a skittish, rural coyote can sometimes transform into a bold, urban one -- a shift that can exacerbate negative interactions among humans and coyotes.

"Instead of asking, 'Does this pattern exist?' we're now asking, 'How does this pattern emerge?'" Schell said.

A key factor may be parental influence. Coyotes pair for life, and both parents contribute equally to raising the offspring. This may be because of the major parental investment required to raise coyote pups, and the evolutionary pressure to guard them from larger carnivores.

The new study observed coyote families at the Utah facility during their first and second breeding seasons. These coyotes are raised in a fairly wild setting, with minimal human contact and food scattered across large enclosures.

But during the experiment researchers occasionally placed all the food near the entrance of the enclosure and had a human researcher sit just outside, watching any approaching coyotes, from five weeks to 15 weeks after the birth of the litter. Then they documented how soon the coyotes would venture toward the food.

"For the first season, there were certain individuals that were bolder than others, but on the whole they were pretty wary, and their puppies followed," Schell said. "But when we came back and did the same experiment with the second litter, the adults would immediately eat the food -- they wouldn't even wait for us to leave the pen in some instances.

"Parents became way more fearless, and in the second litter, so, too, were the puppies."

In fact, the most cautious pup from the second-year litter ventured out more than the boldest pup from the first-year litter.

The study also looked at two hormones in the coyotes' fur -- cortisol, the "fight or flight" hormone, and testosterone. The second litter of pups had mothers who experienced more stress during pregnancy, due to the researchers' presence during the experiment, so that may have affected their development in the womb. But hormonal changes do not seem to have been passed down in that way.

Instead, the fur samples showed that the bolder pups had higher cortisol levels in their blood, meaning they ventured to the food despite their fear of humans. Further work would confirm whether, as Schell suspects, the cortisol levels would decline over time as the coyotes began to discount the human threat.

"The discovery that this habituation happens in only two to three years has been corroborated, anecdotally, by evidence from wild sites across the nation," Schell said. "We found that parental effect plays a major role."

Researchers examined the visual response of 113 individuals when observing prehistoric ceramics belonging to different styles and societies. The ceramics analysed cover 4.000 years (from 4.000 B.C. to the change of era) of Galician prehistory (north-west Iberia), and are representative of ceramic styles, such as bell-beaker pottery, found throughout Europe. The results indicate that the visual behaviour follows the same evolutionary trends as those that drive the evolution of the complex societies that built these archaeological materialities.

"We hypothesised that culture and social life influence cognition in a highly stereotyped fashion. Eye movements are the most objective proof of a parallel evolution between the cognitive process, material development and changes in social complexity", explains CSIC researcher Felipe Criado-Boado, from the Institute of Heritage Sciences, in Santiago de Compostela. This study is part of the field of neuroarchaeology, a new scientific field that combines neuroscience with human palaeontology, archaeology, and other social and human sciences.

"The visual prominence of each ceramic style produces a distinct visual response. Prehistoric ceramics comprise an important part of the material world that surrounded the individuals of that time. This is why an analysis of this kind is not only feasible, but also provides very significant results", adds Criado-Boado.

Luis M. Martínez, a researcher from the Institute of Neurosciences, in Alicante, explains that, "in our brain there are neural circuits, or maps, that represent our personal and peripersonal space. These circuits determine the way in which we relate socially, and also with the world around us. With experiments of this kind, we are demonstrating that these representations are modified by the use and making of tools and other cultural artefacts; what we are discovering is that they are quickly incorporated into these neural maps, becoming part of our body schema as if they were an extension of it. These experiments unequivocally demonstrate that there is a very close interaction between cultural changes and brain plasticity, which provides a new perspective on how the brain governs for the transmission of cultural values, beliefs and customs".

The results of this research indicate that the human visual system actively internalises the object it observes, which would demonstrate that there is a perceptual engagement between the observers and the material structures in their environment. "This is why perception cannot be separated from form. Seen from this perspective, it could be proposed that the shape of objects (pottery, in this case) and the pattern of visual exploration they produce have changed over history, and are connected with behaviour in the same way as they are with the social realm, including social complexity," says Criado-Boado.

Another of the conclusions of this study is that technology is an important factor in the mental aspects of human life. This offers a new perspective that helps to explain the processes of innovation and technological change that take place in all historical periods, including the present day. "It is believed that by 2020 there will be 100 billion sensors around the world capturing information of all kinds and processing it digitally, all connected to each other and functioning like an enormous human mind. If this prediction is fulfilled, research in the field of cognitive processes and material culture throughout history may be useful for the future, since it can show how humans rely on images that symmetrically help them to shape a collective consciousness of the world", concludes the researcher.