Earth

Climate change and other external forces are causing rapid marine community shifts in Japan's coastal ecosystems. Better understanding of species distribution dynamics, as driven by these factors, can improve conservation efforts and climate change management.

The National Institute for Environmental Studies, Hokkaido University, and the National Institute of Polar Research have shown for the first time that the combined effect of climate warming, dominant poleward-flowing surface currents, and deforestation by intrusive herbivorous fish is behind the rapid community shifts from temperate macroalgae to tropical coral that are taking place in Japan's temperate coastal waters. The study highlights the need for proactive management adapting to current and future climate change, and can aid the conservation of macroalgae beds and coral reefs.

Macroalgae and coral are major habitat-forming organism groups that support high biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services to humans. In Japan, warm-water corals are mainly associated with the subtropical waters of its southern islands while canopy-forming algae are more abundant in the comparatively colder temperate waters of central Japan. In recent years, however, climate warming has allowed corals to gradually expand their distribution into the warmed temperate zone, where the distribution of the less dispersive macroalgae is shrinking.

"This 'tropicalisation' of temperate marine communities is not an isolated phenomenon. It is happening in different places around the world, like in Australia, the Mediterranean or even in the Arctic where it is called 'borealisation' instead," says Hokkaido University Assistant Professor Jorge García Molinos of the research team. "Indeed, it is a natural consequence of climate warming at biogeographical transition zones where multiple species live at or close to their distribution limits, like in our case with the corals and kelps."

Other than the effect of warming, this phenomenon has been linked to the expansion of tropical herbivorous fish, associated to the corals, and the poleward-flowing, warm ocean currents that facilitate the expansions of both fish and coral into temperate zones. However, this is the first study looking at the relationships among all these factors at a multi-species, community level.

To explain this phenomenon, the researchers examined 439 documents containing tens of thousands of records (mainly 1950-2015) detailing the occurrence of macroalgae, coral and herbivorous fish across the Japanese archipelago. Using this rich historical database, they reconstructed the shifts in the distribution of the main species, which were then related to long-term variations in spatial patterns of ocean temperatures and current velocity using statistical models to analyze the effects of climate change and ocean currents on community shifts.

The results showed that coral and fish expanded their distribution ranges faster and further than macroalgae. The expansion of macroalgae to the north was outpaced by the shrinkage of their range to the south, while the southern limits of the ranges of most coral remained unchanged. However, all species were found to be shifting their distribution slower than the rate of warming. As expected, such community shifts were mostly observed in zones along the Kuroshio and Tsushima currents, particularly areas around the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, and primarily associated to an increase in grazing by tropical herbivorous fish. Nonetheless, model predictions for the coming decades suggest a significant increase in the probability of these events occurring elsewhere along the east and west coasts of central Japan. They also suggest that competition between species will increase as a driving mechanism behind the community shifts.

As global warming progresses, living organisms migrate to habitats of a more suitable temperature. However, for some less-mobile organisms the current pace of climate change might prove too fast. "This study demonstrates the magnitude and complexity of influence that climate change has on macroalgae beds and coral reefs and the importance of addressing these issues from a multi-species perspective," says Hokkaido University Associate Professor Masahiko Fujii, who also participated in the study. "We believe this information can be used to help inform proactive adaption to climate change and conserve both macroalgae and coral."

BOSTON, Aug. 20, 2018 -- Scientists report they have successfully developed and tested the world's first ultrathin artificial retina that could vastly improve on existing implantable visualization technology for the blind. The flexible device, based on very thin 2D materials, could someday restore sight to the millions of people with retinal diseases. And with a few modifications, the device could be used to track heart and brain activity.

The researchers are presenting their work today at the 256th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 10,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

"This is the first demonstration that you can use few-layer graphene and molybdenum disulfide to successfully fabricate an artificial retina," Nanshu Lu, Ph.D., says. "Although this research is still in its infancy, it is a very exciting starting point for the use of these materials to restore vision," she says, adding that this device could also be implanted elsewhere in the body to monitor heart and brain activities.

The retina, located at the back of the eye, contains specialized photoreceptor cells called rods and cones that convert incoming light into nerve signals. These impulses travel into the brain via the optic nerve where they are decoded into visual images.

Diseases such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and retinitis pigmentosa can damage or destroy retinal tissue, leading to vision loss or complete blindness. There is no cure for many of these diseases, but silicon-based retinal implants have restored a modicum of vision to some individuals. However, Lu says these devices are rigid, flat and fragile, making it hard for them to replicate the natural curvature of the retina. As a result, silicon-based retinal implants often produce blurry or distorted images and can cause long-term strain or damage to surrounding eye tissue, including the optic nerve. Lu, who is at the University of Texas at Austin, and her collaborator Dae-Hyeong Kim, Ph.D., who is at Seoul National University, sought to develop a thinner, more flexible alternative that would better mimic the shape and function of a natural retina.

The researchers used 2D materials, including graphene and molybdenum disulfide, as well as thin layers of gold, alumina and silicon nitrate to create a flexible, high-density and curved sensor array. The device, which resembles the surface of a flattened soccer ball or icosahedron, conforms to the size and shape of a natural retina without mechanically disturbing it.

In laboratory and animal studies, photodetectors on the device readily absorbed light and passed it through a soft external circuit board. The circuit board housed all of the electronics needed to digitally process light, stimulate the retina and acquire signals from the visual cortex. Based on these studies, the researchers determined that this prototype artificial retina is biocompatible and successfully mimics the structural features of the human eye. They say it could be an important step in the quest to develop the next generation of soft bio-electronic retinal prostheses.

Moving ahead, Lu is exploring ways to integrate this technology into mechanically and optically imperceptible electronic tattoos that are laminated on the skin surface to gather real-time health information. Lu says that the team plans to add transistors to these transparent e-tattoos to help amplify signals from the brain or the heart so they can be more easily monitored and treated. These ultrathin sensors and electrodes can also be implanted on the surface of the heart to detect arrhythmias. Lu says doctors could potentially program them to act like tiny pacemakers, sending electrical impulses through the heart to correct the problem.

BOSTON, Aug. 20, 2018 -- About 50,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed annually with head, neck, nasal and oral cancers. Most are treated with radiation, and of those, 70-80 percent develop a painful and debilitating side effect called severe oral mucositis (SOM). While some drugs are available to treat SOM once it develops, none can prevent it. But today, researchers are reporting on a new drug, called GC4419, that appears to do just that. Although still in clinical trials, it has already been designated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a "breakthrough therapy."

The researchers will present their results today at the 256th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 10,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

"It is exciting to publicly report on the structure and synthesis of GC4419 for the first time," says Dennis P. Riley, Ph.D., leader of the study. "We believe GC4419 has the potential to address an important unmet medical need in the treatment of cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy, and we look forward to commencing a Phase 3 trial with GC4419 in head and neck cancer patients this year."

Oral mucositis (OM) is a painful and problematic complication during cancer treatment, especially radiation therapy, which breaks down the epithelial cells lining the mouth. Patients suffering from OM experience severe pain, inflammation, ulceration and bleeding. Most patients receiving chemoradiotherapy develop SOM, as defined by the World Health Organization as grade 3 or 4 of OM. In the most severe cases, patients can't swallow or consume liquids or solid food, often leading to the use of feeding tubes and narcotic analgesics. Patients are also susceptible to infections that can lead to hospitalization.

Radiation therapy creates elevated superoxide radical levels, which are believed to be responsible for most of the side effects associated with this treatment, including OM. "The synthetic enzyme we designed and made mimics the function of the naturally occurring superoxide dismutase, an enzyme that converts superoxide to molecular oxygen and hydrogen peroxide," says Riley, who is with Galera Therapeutics. "Hydrogen peroxide is very toxic to cancer cells but not to normal cells. Thus, we create two opportunities to improve radiation therapy: reducing toxicity for normal cells while increasing the toxicity to the cancerous ones."

Designing and creating the synthetic superoxide dismutase was complex, and Riley's team tried many variations of synthetic enzyme mimics before settling on GC4419. The research began decades ago when Riley worked at Monsanto/Searle. The molecules his team were working with had four chiral carbon centers, which meant there were a very large number of potential mimics.

"We had to figure out which isomer would work best and be the most 'druggable,'" he reports. "Our current synthesis involves using a template to make the 15-membered macrocylic ring complex in a single GMP [Good Manufacturing Practice] step. It uses pyridine-2,6- dicarboxyaldehyde, manganese(II) chloride and a linear tetramine synthesized from S,S-1,2 diaminocyclohexane. It is an elegantly simple 'one-pot' synthesis that yields the desired molecule with more than 99.5 percent chemical purity."

GC4419 successfully completed Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, showing safety and efficacy in preventing SOM in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. If further clinical trials are successful and GC4419 gets FDA approval, Riley says, "there's no reason it could not be used to prevent side effects from radiation treatment of other cancers. You can think of pancreatic cancer, for example, in which you might want to use high-dose radiation for locally advanced disease, but the pancreas is too close to other organs that cannot handle the side effects of radiation. We are currently studying GC4419's anti-tumor effect in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in pancreatic cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center. If successful, this drug has the potential to change the management of radiation therapy since 70 percent of all solid tumors are treated with radiation."

A press conference on this topic will be held Monday, August 20, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time in the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Reporters may check-in at the press center, Room 102 A, or watch live on YouTube http://bit.ly/ACSLive_Boston2018. To ask questions online, sign in with a Google account.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - When adults are participants in school recess - leading games, monitoring play and ensuring conflicts are mediated quickly - children are more likely to be engaged in recess activities, a new study has found.

The study, which focused on the recess environment and student engagement during school recess periods, also found that students were more likely to be active and engaged during longer recess periods; that boys were more engaged in recess that girls; and that recess provides more than a quarter of students' school-based physical activity each day.

"This study underscores the importance of a high quality recess experience for children, including the need for adults who are actively engaged with the children on the playground," said William Massey, an assistant professor in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences and lead author of the study.

"While recess is often perceived as a break for students and teachers alike, recess can also be an opportunity for teachers and students to interact in more informal settings, for teachers to model healthy behavior and appropriate social skills and for students and teachers to develop stronger relationships," Massey said. "Importantly, other research has shown these factors contribute to student success."

Massey's findings were published recently in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports. Co-authors of the study are Megan Stellino of the University of Northern Colorado and Margaret Fraser of Concordia University Wisconsin.

Recess is seen by educators and policymakers as a valuable part of a child's school day, in part because physical activity plays an important role in helping to curb high child obesity rates.

The Academy of Pediatrics, for example, has deemed recess as essential, and some states are now mandating recess in schools, Massey said. But many states have no standard recess requirement and children in urban, low-income schools are less likely to have opportunities for physical activity.

In the new study, Massey and his colleagues examined several variables that affect both a child's engagement in recess activities and the amount of physical activity they netted during recess periods.

"If kids are active in a way that is not conducive to development, such as bullying or fighting, then just looking at how much time they spend being active misses an important part of the story," said Massey, whose research interests include the implications of play, sports and other physical activity on youth development, particularly in urban and low-income areas. "Quality and quantity are both important when it comes to recess."

Massey and his colleagues outfitted 146 children in grades 4-6 from seven schools with fitness tracking devices to monitor their physical activity during the school day, including recess. They also observed recess activity for 8,340 students at nine schools and analyzed the quality of the recess environment and the students' engagement in activities.

They found that the average recess period was nearly 23 minutes and that students averaged just under 42 steps per minute during recess. The researchers also found that boys averaged about 10 more steps per minute than girls in each recess period.

Overall, recess contributed to 27 percent of the students' daily step count average, even though it made up just 5.6 percent of the children's school day. The findings also showed that the longer the recess time, the more steps per minute a child took and the more moderate to vigorous physical activity they engaged in.

"Interestingly, our data suggests that if you give children more time, they are more active with the time they have," Massey said. "This finding supports recent efforts to extend recess to 30 minutes a day by states such as Florida, Arizona and New Jersey, in that shorter recess periods may not be provide the opportunity to move in health-enhancing ways."

The researchers also found that adult engagement and supervision during the recess period - adults actively participating in games and activities, making sure equipment is out and ready for use and ensuring conflicts are resolved quickly - is the strongest predictor of children's engagement in recess activities.

"That suggests that adults are important role models and facilitators for children, especially in cases when children lack the social-emotional skills needed to navigate the recess environment," Massey said. "This doesn't mean that adults should dictate what children do during recess. It means recess should be viewed as a continuation of the school day in which children can play, interact and learn in a natural environment."

The study provides new insight into some factors that may shape the school recess experience, but more research is needed to better understand how both the quality and quantity of recess affect children during the school day, he said.

Dartmouth scientists have created a more sustainable feed for aquaculture by using a marine microalga co-product as a feed ingredient. The study is the first of its kind to evaluate replacing fishmeal with a co-product in feed designed specifically for Nile tilapia. The results are published in the open access journal, PLOS ONE.

Aquaculture is the world's fastest growing food sector, surpassing the global capture fisheries production in 2014. It provides more than 50 percent of the food supply to humans; however, it poses several environmental concerns. Aquaculture feed (aquafeeds) draws on 70 percent of the world's fishmeal and fish oil, which is obtained from small, ocean-caught fish such as anchovies, sardines, herring, menhaden, and mackerel¬, that are essential to the lower end of the marine food chain. Analysts project that by 2040, the demand for fishmeal and fish oil will exceed supply. Aquafeeds also draw on large amounts of soy and corn from industrial farms, which pose other environmental concerns due to the use of fertilizers and potential runoff into rivers, lakes and coastal waters. In addition, aquafeeds may trigger nutrient pollution in aquaculture effluent, as fish are unable to fully digest soy and corn, which are major feed ingredients.

To address the environmental sustainability concerns regarding aquafeed, a Dartmouth team has been developing sustainable feeds for Nile tilapia, which examine the effectiveness of replacing fishmeal and fish oil with different types of marine microalgae. Marine microalgae are excellent sources of essential amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids, and can therefore, meet the nutrient requirements of fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are important for maintaining fish health; they also have neurological, cardiovascular and anti-cancer benefits to humans.

The Dartmouth research team's latest work replaces fishmeal with a marine microalga co-product, Nannochloropsis oculata, which is rich in both protein and omega-3 fatty acids, including eicosapentaenoic acid, that are essential to fish growth and quality. The co-products are left-over algae meal, after the oils have been extracted from commercially-grown algae biomass to manufacture nutraceuticals, chemicals and fuel applications. The co-product is available at commercial scale and continued increases in supply are expected. The study's findings show promise in replacing conventional protein ingredients in tilapia feeds.

The results demonstrated that the co-product had higher protein content than the whole cells but had lower digestibility than whole cells. The co-product showed the highest digestibility of lysine, an essential amino acid that is often deficient in terrestrial crop-based aquafeed ingredients, as well as the highest eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) digestibility.

The team also evaluated several feeds with varying percentages of co-product replacing fishmeal. When 33 percent of fishmeal was replaced with the co-product, the Nile tilapia had fish growth and a feed conversion ratio and survival rate similar to those on the reference diet for which fishmeal was seven percent of the diet. The team hypothesizes that the co-product may need to be enhanced with enzyme(s) to maximize nutrient availability and counter the lower digestibility observed in the experiment.

"The possibilities for developing a sustainable approach to aquaculture are exciting. Our society has an opportunity to shift aquafeed's reliance on fish-based ingredients to a fish-free product that is based on marine microalgae, and our findings provide new insight into how we can get there," says lead author, Pallab Sarker, a research assistant professor at Dartmouth.

The research builds on the team's earlier work developing a marine microalga feed for Nile tilapia made from Schizochytrium sp., which evaluated how the feed affected digestibility and growth. The results demonstrated that Schizochytrium sp. was highly digestible lipid and DHA, an omega 3 fatty acid source for tilapia. The tilapia not only had higher weight gain but better feed conversion compared to those on a control diet containing fish oil, when the Schizochytrium sp fully replaced the fish oil.

As part of the team's goal to eliminate aquafeed's reliance on marine fish and terrestrial crop inputs, they are combining Nannochloropsis co-product with other marine microalgae to make aquaculture feeds more sustainable.

Primary school students are more likely to eat a nutritional breakfast when given 10 extra minutes to do so, according to a new study by researchers at Virginia Tech and Georgia Southern University.

The study, which is the first of its kind to analyze school breakfast programs, evaluated how students change their breakfast consumption when given extra time to eat in a school cafeteria. The study also compared results of these cafeteria breakfasts to results of serving in-classroom breakfasts to the same group of students.

"It's by far the most sophisticated, accurate measurement of school breakfast intake ever done," said Klaus Moeltner, a professor of agricultural and applied economics in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "We know exactly how much the students consumed and how much time they had to consume it."

Using food weighting stations developed by co-author Karen Spears of Georgia Southern University, the researchers collected information on the number of students who ate a school breakfast, how much they ate, and their exact nutritional intake.

The findings, recently published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, revealed that the number of school breakfasts consumed increased by 20 percent when students were given 10 extra minutes to eat in the cafeteria, and an additional 35-45 percent when breakfasts were served inside classrooms, bringing the overall rate of breakfast consumption close to 100 percent.

"The percent of students that go without breakfast because they didn't eat at home and they didn't have time to eat at school goes from 4 to 0 percent when given 10 minutes more to eat, so the most vulnerable segment is taken care of," said Moeltner.

And while the results suggest that more students eat breakfast when it is served inside classrooms, the researchers acknowledge the extra costs associated with in-classroom breakfasts.

"When you move breakfast into the classroom, you have to serve all the students for free, and the associated costs needed to feed all the students must be covered by low income subsidies," said Moeltner. "But many schools don't have a large enough proportion of subsidized students and therefore cannot afford to serve in-classroom breakfasts because they lack the subsidies to offset the costs."

Thus, the findings have significant implications for schools that cannot afford classroom breakfasts, but could allow more time for cafeteria breakfasts.

The study also provided additional insights into student breakfast consumption habits.

Third- and fourth-grade students from the three Reno-area schools that participated in the study were given wristbands as they arrived on campus that tracked their arrival time as well as individual consumption and nutrition data. In addition, students completed a daily questionnaire to gain further insight into whether they ate breakfast at home, how hungry they were upon arrival at school, which transportation method they used to get to school, and whether they liked any of the food offered.

Analysis of the data showed that the transportation method used to get to school did not impact whether or not students ate breakfast, and that students did not overeat because of the extra time provided.

"Our results show that there's no change in average consumption, which is reassuring," said Moeltner. "Kids aren't overeating because of the extra time. Instead, they're substituting - if they used to eat breakfast at home, now they eat it at school."

The researchers are now analyzing the breakfast waste data collected during the study with hopes of publishing further research on the topic.

With the rich data provided by the study, researchers can examine many school breakfast questions. For now, the results on breakfast consumption when given extra time are clear, and researchers advise educational institutions and policymakers to consider implementing additional time for school breakfasts.

The new treatment will serve as both diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors. This breakthrough in the technologies of cancer diagnosis and treatment was made by an interdisciplinary Russian-German collaboration of chemists, physicists, and biologists from NUST MISIS, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (RNRMU), and the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany).

For the first time ever, scientists have shown that a hybrid nanomaterial based on magnetite-gold particles can serve as a universal platform to both detect cancer cells anywhere in the body and to complete targeted deliveries of drugs to these cells. The discovery makes it possible to create and implement a completely new generation of cancer treatments in the coming years.

The results of this fundamental research conducted at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology and medicine have been published in Scientific Reports, one of the most prestigious scientific journals.

"The interdisciplinary collaboration of scientists led by Maxim Abakumov, a Candidate of Chemical Sciences and the Head of the NUST MISIS Biomedical Nanomaterials Laboratory, has managed to develop a platform for simultaneous diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The aggregation of diagnosis and therapy at the cellular level -- so-called theranostics -- is now considered one of the most promising areas in modern medicine. Scientists now [have] to learn how to detect pathogenic cells at the earliest stage of the disease", said Alevtina Chernikova, Rector of NUST MISIS.

If these pathogenic cells are tagged with magnetic nanoparticles, they can be diagnosed with the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and subsequently destroyed by either a drug or a magnetic field that heats and kills cancer cells.

"We have managed to combine gold (Au) and magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles into a hybrid that has both magnetic properties and is capable of carrying the drug [to a tumor]. It turned out as a kind of 'nanodumbbell' which could become a platform -- a universal base -- of future theranostics, and we have shown that in our research", said Maxim Abakumov, one of the project participants, assistant professor at RNRMU, and Head of the NUST MISIS Biomedical Nanomaterials Laboratory.

This manmade nanohybrid has been tested both in vitro and in vivo. Laboratory tests on mice with grafted tumors have already been completed.

"The article considers a model of a mouse breast tumor and shows the possibility to deliver the hybrid Fe3O4-Au particles to the tumor, loaded with the anti-tumor drug doxorubicin. The drug is released inside the tumor and has a therapeutic influence", added Mariya Efremova, the project`s co-worker, junior research assistant at the Laboratory for Chemical Design of Bionanomaterials for Medical Applications at Lomonosov Moscow State University, and an engineer at the NUST MISIS Biomedical Nanomaterials Laboratory.

It is possible to place almost any drug (in place of doxorubicin) into the "nanodumbbell", and this makes this hybrid an ideal platform to detect tumor cells and deliver drugs; previously proposed methods were only suitable for certain types of drugs and only worked on certain types of cancer cells. Such versatility allows us to hope for the emergence of a new generation of treatments for malignant tumors in the coming years.

According to the most optimistic researchers on the project, it will be possible to proceed to pre-clinical trials in just two to three years time, as there is a few years' of work remaining to be completed before clinical trials on real patients. However, the concept of theranostics has still not been applied in clinical practice anywhere in the world, although Russian scientists are on the front lines of this area.

"As a scientific discipline, theranostics is now developing very quickly. The proposed platform demonstrates impressive and diverse effectiveness in lab conditions, however, it still has a long way [to go before getting] to patients", said Marina Sekacheva, Head of the Center for Personalized Oncology "OncoTarget" at Sechenov University.
Sekacheva believes that doctors should provide maximum practical support to fundamental scientists and continuously work with them on potentially groundbreaking projects such as this one.

A new research study published in the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management tackles an important, unresolved question in the biology of invasive plants. Which is most important to the establishment of new invasive communities - proximity to seed sources, canopy disturbance, or soil disturbance?

A research team from Miami University decided to compare those three factors in a mature Maryland forest where the invasive species wine raspberry, Japanese barberry, multiflora rose and Japanese stiltgrass are found.

Twice over a three-year interval, scientists conducted a complete census of invasive plants growing in a nine-hectare plot. Any invasives they found were mapped relative to the forest canopy, soil disturbances and an index of 'seed rain' that was based on proximity to reproducing plants and the distances seeds disperse.

The team found that seed rain was a significant predictor of where new plants of wine raspberry, Japanese barberry and Japanese stiltgrass established. Not enough seed sources were found to assess the impact of seed rain on multiflora rose.

Gaps in the forest canopy were found to contribute to the establishment of multiflora rose and Japanese stiltgrass. Canopy gaps also promoted fruit production by Japanese barberry and wine raspberry - interacting with seed rain to increase the number of plants establishing in and near these areas.

Soil disturbances predicted the establishment of Japanese barberry, but not the other three invasive plants.

"These findings are especially useful for land managers with limited resources," says David Gorchov, Ph.D., a professor at Miami University. "If the invasive plants you are battling have seed production or seedling growth strongly associated with new canopy gaps, you can target your control efforts in those areas with a high likelihood of success."

Socio-economic position determines the environmental hazards--such as air pollution and noise--that pregnant women are exposed to in urban areas, although the nature of the association varies from city to city. This was the main conclusion of a new study conducted with the participation of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Banking Foundation.

The urban exposome is the set of environmental factors that an individual is exposed to in an urban environment over the course of his or her life. These factors include air pollution, noise, meteorological factors and contact with green spaces. The unequal exposure to different factors depending on social, economic and demographic factors is known as environmental inequality.

The study forms part of the HELIX project and was recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives. The primary aim was to describe the urban exposome of 30,000 pregnant women in nine European urban areas: Bradford (United Kingdom); Poitiers and Nancy (France); Sabadell, Valencia and Gipuzkoa (Spain); Kaunas (Lithuania); Oslo (Norway); and Rhea (Greece). The study found associations between participants' socio-economic status and 28 environmental indicators, including exposure to air pollutants (nitrogen dioxide and suspended particles less than 2.5 μm and 10 μm in diameter), traffic noise, proximity to natural spaces, public transport, facilities and walkability.

As in previous studies, the findings were mixed. In Bradford and Valencia, pregnant women with a low socio-economic status were exposed to higher levels of environmental hazards. In Sabadell and Oslo, however, it was high-status women who lived in the least healthy environments.

"This study allowed us to observe differences associated with socio-economic position in various cities," commented Oliver Robinson, researcher at Imperial College London and lead author of the study. "This does not necessarily mean that more deprived women are always exposed to higher levels of hazards. Depending on the city you're looking at, the association can go one way or the other. However, in a number of cities, deprivation is associated with simultaneous exposure to higher levels of multiple hazards associated with city living. Our study focused on pregnant women and these situations could contribute to the inequalities in health that we observe in the paediatric population", adds Robinson.

ISGlobal researcher Xavier Basagaña, coordinator of the study, concluded: "These findings are important for local authorities and urban planners, who need to understand the nature of the environmental inequities in their cities so that they can remedy them and work towards reducing health inequities."

MINNEAPOLIS - The eyes may be a window to the brain for people with early Parkinson's disease. People with the disease gradually lose brain cells that produce dopamine, a substance that helps control movement. Now a new study has found that the thinning of the retina, the lining of nerve cells in the back of the eye, is linked to the loss of such brain cells. The study is published in the August 15, 2018, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"Our study is the first to show a link between the thinning of the retina and a known sign of the progression of the disease -- the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine," said study author Jee-Young Lee, MD, PhD, of the Seoul Metropolitan Government - Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center in South Korea. "We also found the thinner the retina, the greater the severity of disease. These discoveries may mean that neurologists may eventually be able to use a simple eye scan to detect Parkinson's disease in its earliest stages, before problems with movement begin."

The study involved 49 people with an average age of 69 who were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease an average of two years earlier but who had not yet started medication. They were compared to 54 people without the disease who were matched for age.

Researchers evaluated each study participant with a complete eye exam as well as high-resolution eye scans that use light waves to take pictures of each layer of the retina. In addition, 28 of the participants with Parkinson's disease also had dopamine transporter positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to measure the density of dopamine-producing cells in the brain.

Researchers found retina thinning, most notably in the two inner layers of the five layers of the retina, in those with Parkinson's disease. For example, for those with Parkinson's disease, the inner most layer of the retina in one section of the eye had an average thickness of 35 micrometers (μm) compared to an average thickness of 37 μm for those without the disease.

In addition, the thinning of the retina corresponded with the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine. It also corresponded with the severity of disease. When disability from the disease is measured on a scale of one to five, the people with the most thinning of the retina, or thickness of less than 30 μm, had average scores of slightly over two, while people with the least thinning, or thickness of about 47 μm, had average scores of about 1.5.

"Larger studies are needed to confirm our findings and to determine just why retina thinning and the loss of dopamine-producing cells are linked," said Lee. "If confirmed, retina scans may not only allow earlier treatment of Parkinson's disease but more precise monitoring of treatments that could slow progression of the disease as well."

A limitation of the study was that the retina scans focused only on a limited area of the retina. The study was also a snapshot in time and did not follow participants over a long period of time.

Lausanne, Switzerland - In a series of studies, social psychologists show that educational tracking - grouping students based on their achievement levels - encourages evaluators to artificially create social class inequalities. Three studies reveal that evaluators consider a lower track more suitable for a low socioeconomic status (SES) pupil and a higher track more suitable for a high-SES pupil, even when school achievement was identical. The results appear in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

"Our research suggests that the selection required by the tracking system may lead evaluators to artificially create academic differences among students, as a function of their socio-economic status," says Anatolia Batruch one of four researchers from Université de Lausanne, Switzerland associated with the studies. Frédérique Autin, Fabienne Bataillard and Fabrizio Butera are the other collaborators on the project.

The researchers designed their experiments to resemble actual tracking dilemmas that can occur in Swiss schools when teachers and the principal can offer a second chance to pupils who are borderline cases for a higher track. These tracking systems, grouping students by abilities and academic achievements, are similar throughout many countries.

In the first two studies, college students playing the role of teachers, (N =99), and teachers, (N = 70) decided which school track was suitable for a pupil whose socioeconomic status (SES) was manipulated. Although the students' achievement was identical, participants considered a lower track more suitable for lower SES than higher SES pupils, and the higher track more suitable for higher SES than lower SES pupils.

A third study (N = 160, first year college students), explored the language used to describe the function of school and its goals. The results showed that a focus on selection, or "to orient students according to academic abilities and lead everyone to the maximum of their potential", led tracking to be associated to SES inequalities--even when achievement was identical--more than when participants were presented with a description focused on education.

"Allowing students who almost meet the criteria to follow an academic path could be interpreted as offering these students a privilege, which is, in the case of our studies, more readily offered to high-SES students than to low-SES students," says Fabrizio Butera.

Batruch and colleagues would like to explore evaluators expectations in future research, and how those expectations might be influenced by the "selective practice of tracking."

The ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States is a key contributor to the most recent declines in life expectancy, suggests a study published by The BMJ today.

A second study shows an increase in US death rates in midlife (people aged between 25-64 years) involving all major racial groups, and cites a broad range of conditions as potential causes.

Together, these findings point to an urgent need to examine systemic causes of declining health in the US.

Life expectancy is a measure of the health and wellbeing of a population. Widespread or sustained declines in life expectancy may signal problems in a nation's social and economic conditions or in the provision or quality of its healthcare services.

The first study, authored by Jessica Ho at the University of Southern California and Arun Hendi at Princeton University, looked at trends in life expectancy across 18 high income countries and found that most countries experienced declines in life expectancy in 2015.

This is the first time in recent decades that these many high income countries simultaneously experienced declines in life expectancy for both men and women, and the size of these declines were larger than in the past.

In the non-US countries, these declines were largely concentrated at ages 65 and older and likely related to a particularly severe influenza season. The main causes of death driving these declines included influenza and pneumonia, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer's disease and other mental and nervous system disorders.

But in the US, the decline was concentrated at younger ages, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, and largely driven by increases in drug overdose deaths related to its ongoing opioid epidemic. The authors point out that the US decline is particularly troubling in light of its already low life expectancy ranking relative to its peer countries.

And unlike other countries in the study, life expectancy in both the US and the UK continued to decline in 2016, which the researchers say raises questions about future trends in these countries.

A second study, also published today, suggests that the problem is larger than the opioid epidemic. It shows increased death rates from dozens of causes among people in all racial and ethnic groups.

Using national data to compare midlife death patterns from 1999 to 2016, Steven Woolf at Virginia Commonwealth University and colleagues found that although drug overdoses, suicides, and alcoholism were the leading cause of excess deaths, mortality rates also increased dramatically for organ diseases involving the heart, lung, and other body systems. "The opioid epidemic is the tip of an iceberg," said Woolf.*

Previous studies had documented a rise in "deaths of despair" among middle-aged white people in the US, but this is the first study to show that the trend now encompasses multiple body systems and is striking multiple racial and ethnic groups. These increases are offsetting years of progress in lowering death rates among black and Hispanic adults.

Furthermore, although overall death rates were higher among men than among women, the relative increase in fatal drug overdoses and suicides was greater in women, consistent with other reports of the worsening health disadvantage among women in the US.

The authors say "no single factor, such as opioids, explains this phenomenon" and suggest that their study "signals a systemic cause and warrants prompt action by policy makers to tackle the factors responsible for declining health in the US."

Both studies are observational, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, and the authors highlight several limitations that may have affected their results.

Nevertheless, taken together, these two studies highlight warning signs that must not be ignored and should prompt urgent review of systemic causes of declining health in the US.

In a linked editorial, Domantas Jasilionis at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany says life expectancy is a key characteristic of human development and declines should be taken seriously. Historical evidence suggests that discontinuities in secular trends can lead to prolonged health crises--they are warning signs of fundamental and longstanding societal and health problems.

He points to the negative health consequences of growing social deprivation and austerity policies, but notes that high life expectancies in the UK and many other high income countries (including the Nordic countries with strong pro-equitable social policies) coexist with large or even increasing health disparities. In future, persisting notable health disadvantages of some population groups may become an important obstacle for sustainable health progress at the national level.*

He calls for more reliable data to underpin effective policies, and says "more effort must be made to convince international and national agencies to invest in robust register based systems that allow timely and accurate monitoring of changes in longevity," he concludes.

It is the first time that extensive tests have been carried out on an intact prehistoric mummy, consolidating the researchers' previous findings that embalming was taking place 1,500 years earlier than previously accepted.

Dating from c.3700-3500 BC, the mummy has been housed in the Egyptian Museum in Turin since 1901, but unlike the majority of other prehistoric mummies in museums, it has never undergone any conservation treatments, providing a unique opportunity for accurate scientific analysis.

Like its famous counterpart Gebelein Man A in the British Museum, the Turin mummy was previously assumed to have been naturally mummified by the desiccating action of the hot, dry desert sand.

Using chemical analysis, the scientific team led by the Universities of York and Macquarie uncovered evidence that the mummy had in fact undergone an embalming process, with a plant oil, heated conifer resin, an aromatic plant extract and a plant gum/sugar mixed together and used to impregnate the funerary textiles in which the body was wrapped.

This 'recipe' contained antibacterial agents, used in similar proportions to those employed by the Egyptian embalmers when their skill was at its peak some 2,500 years later.

The study builds on the previous research from 2014 which first identified the presence of complex embalming agents in surviving fragments of linen wrappings from prehistoric bodies in now obliterated tombs at Mostagedda in Middle Egypt.

The team, which includes researchers from the Universities of York, Macquarie, Oxford, Warwick, Trento and Turin, highlight the fact that the mummy came from Upper (southern) Egypt, which offers the first indication that the embalming recipe was being used over a wider geographical area at a time when the concept of a pan-Egyptian identity was supposedly still developing.

Archaeological chemist and mummification expert, Dr Stephen Buckley, from the University of York's BioArCh facility, said: "Having identified very similar embalming recipes in our previous research on prehistoric burials, this latest study provides both the first evidence for the wider geographical use of these balms and the first ever unequivocal scientific evidence for the use of embalming on an intact, prehistoric Egyptian mummy.

"Moreover, this preservative treatment contained antibacterial constituents in the same proportions as those used in later 'true' mummification. As such, our findings represent the literal embodiment of the forerunners of classic mummification, which would become one of the central and iconic pillars of ancient Egyptian culture."

Dr Jana Jones, Egyptologist and expert on ancient Egyptian burial practices from Macquarie University, said: "The examination of the Turin body makes a momentous contribution to our limited knowledge of the prehistoric period and the expansion of early mummification practices as well as providing vital, new information on this particular mummy.

"By combining chemical analysis with visual examination of the body, genetic investigations, radiocarbon dating and microscopic analysis of the linen wrappings, we confirmed that this ritual mummification process took place around 3600 BC on a male, aged between 20 and 30 years when he died."

Professor Tom Higham, Deputy Director Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, said: "There are very few mummies of this 'natural' type available for analysis. Our radiocarbon dating shows it dates to the early Naqada phase of Egyptian prehistory, substantially earlier than the classic Pharaonic period, and this early age offers us an unparalleled glimpse into funerary treatment before the rise of the state.

"The results change significantly our understanding of the development of mummification and the use of embalming agents and demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary science in understanding the past."

As sea levels rise due to climate change, so do the global hazards and potential devastating damages from tsunamis, according to a new study by a partnership that included Virginia Tech.

Even minor sea-level rise, by as much as a foot, poses greater risks of tsunamis for coastal communities worldwide.

The threat of rising sea levels to coastal cities and communities throughout the world is well known, but new findings show the likely increase of flooding farther inland from tsunamis following earthquakes. Think of the tsunami that devasted a portion of northern Japan after the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake, causing a nuclear plant to melt down and spread radioactive contamination.

These findings are at the center of a new Science Advances study, headed by a multi-university team of scientists from the Earth Observatory of Singapore, the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University, and National Taiwan University, with critical support from Virginia Tech's Robert Weiss, an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences, part of the College of Science.

"Our research shows that sea-level rise can significantly increase the tsunami hazard, which means that smaller tsunamis in the future can have the same adverse impacts as big tsunamis would today," Weiss said, adding that smaller tsunamis generated by earthquakes with smaller magnitudes occur frequently and regularly around the world. For the study, Weiss was critical in helping create computational models and data analytics frameworks.

At Virginia Tech, Weiss serves as director of the National Science Foundation-funded Disaster Resilience and Risk Management graduate education program and is co-lead of Coastal@VT, comprised of 45 Virginia Tech faculty from 13 departments focusing on contemporary and emerging coastal zone issues, such as disaster resilience, migration, sensitive ecosystems, hazard assessment, and natural infrastructure.

For the study, Weiss and his partners, including Lin Lin Li, a senior research fellow, and Adam Switzer, an associate professor, at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, created computer-simulated tsunamis at current sea level and with sea-level increases of 1.5 feet and 3 feet in the Chinese territory of Macau. Macau is a densely populated coastal region located in South China that is generally safe from current tsunami risks.

At current sea level, an earthquake would need to tip past a magnitude of 8.8 to cause widespread tsunami inundation in Macau. But with the simulated sea-level rises, the results surprised the team.

The sea-level rise dramatically increased the frequency of tsunami-induced flooding by 1.2 to 2.4 times for the 1.5-foot increase and from 1.5 to 4.7 times for the 3-foot increase. "We found that the increased inundation frequency was contributed by earthquakes of smaller magnitudes, which posed no threat at current sea level, but could cause significant inundation at higher sea-level conditions," Li said.

In the simulated study of Macau - population 613,000 - Switzer said, "We produced a series of tsunami inundation maps for Macau using more than 5,000 tsunami simulations generated from synthetic earthquakes prepared for the Manila Trench." It is estimated that sea levels in the Macau region will increase by 1.5 feet by 2060 and 3 feet by 2100, according to the team of U.S.-Chinese scientists.

The hazard of large tsunamis in the South China Sea region primarily comes from the Manila Trench, a megathrust system that stretches from offshore Luzon in the Philippines to southern Taiwan. The Manila Trench megathrust has not experienced an earthquake larger than a magnitude 7.8 since the 1560s. Yet, study co-author Wang Yu, from the National Taiwan University, cautioned that the region shares many of the characteristics of the source areas that resulted in the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, as well as the 2011 earthquake in northern Japan, both causing massive loss of life.

These increased dangers from tsunamis build on already known difficulties facing coastal communities worldwide: The gradual loss of land directly near coasts and increased chances of flooding even during high tides, as sea levels increase as the Earth warms.

"The South China Sea is an excellent starting point for such a study because it is an ocean with rapid sea-level rise and also the location of many mega cities with significant worldwide consequences if impacted. The study is the first if its kind on the level of detail, and many will follow our example," Weiss said.

Policymakers, town planners, emergency services, and insurance firms must work together to create or insure safer coastlines, Weiss added.

"Sea-level rise needs to be taken into account for planning purposes, for example for reclamation efforts but also for designing protective measures, such as seawalls or green infrastructure."

He added, "What we assumed to be the absolute worst case a few years ago now appears to be modest for what is predicted in some locations. We need to study local sea-level change more comprehensively in order to create better predictive models that help to make investments in infrastructure that are or near sustainable."

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The mechanics behind how an important process within the cell traps material before recycling it has puzzled scientists for years. But Penn State researchers have gained new insight into how this process seals off waste, much like a trash bag.

The process, called autophagy, allows cell waste and damaged material in the cell to be recycled into energy or new proteins. But while scientists know that a membrane called the phagophore must close around this waste material before it can be recycled, the exact mechanisms behind how these membranes close has been a mystery.

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, the researchers designed a special process called an assay that allowed them to study the several stages of autophagy as the autophagosomes -- like trash bags -- open and seal around cell waste. Using this process, they found key insights into how phagophores close, sealing off the autophagosome.

In the study, the researchers used the new assay, which is patent pending, to identify that a mechanism -- "endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT)" -- plays a role in autophagosome closure. Specifically, a component of ESCRT called "CHMP2A" is involved in how the membranes close.

Hong-Gang Wang, Lois High Berstler professor of pediatrics and pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine, said that while the study only examined the mechanics of this process, the findings have possible future implications for treating certain cancers.

"The key to cancer progression is proliferation," Wang said. "If cancer cells want to multiply, they use autophagy to burn up waste material for energy to grow. So while autophagy removing this waste in healthy cells is a good thing, once those cells are cancerous, you might want to change gears and block autophagy to stop them from creating energy and multiplying. This is where learning how to stop these trash bags from closing around this waste comes in."

The researchers found that during autophagy, CHMP2A moves to the phagophore where it helps control the inner and outer membranes of the autophagosome as it closes. Additionally, they found that inhibiting "AAA-ATPase VPS4" -- a mechanism that kick starts ESCRT -- impairs the autophagosome from closing. Together, these findings are an important piece of how scientists understand autophagy and autophagosome closure.

"Basically, this assay has the potential to impact the autophagy field," Wang said. "Now that we have the assay and have identified the machinery involved in the autophagosome membrane closure, we move on to the next step, which is examining ways to use this machinery to stop phagophore closure to possibly treat cancers, including pediatric acute myeloid leukemia."

Wang said that autophagy has been thought to both help maintain cancer cell survival as well as contribute to chemotherapy resistance. In one of his previous studies in mice, Wang found that removing a certain autophagy gene in acute myeloid leukemia-initiating cells while transplanting bone marrow cells significantly improved survival of the mice. This suggests that autophagy plays a role in the beginning of certain types of leukemia.

In the future, Wang said he and the other researchers will further their understanding of autophagosomal membrane closure, as well as explore whether blocking autophagosomal membrane closure can be used to treat cancer.