Tech

More than 50 species of tree snail in the South Pacific Society Islands were wiped out following the introduction of an alien predatory snail in the 1970s, but the white-shelled Partula hyalina survived.

Now, thanks to a collaboration between University of Michigan biologists and engineers with the world's smallest computer, scientists understand why: P. hyalina can tolerate more sunlight than its predator, so it was able to persist in sunlit forest edge habitats.

"We were able to get data that nobody had been able to obtain," said David Blaauw, the Kensall D. Wise Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. "And that's because we had a tiny computing system that was small enough to stick on a snail."

The Michigan Micro Mote (M3), considered the world's smallest complete computer, was announced in 2014 by a team Blaauw co-led. This was its first field application.

"The sensing computers are helping us understand how to protect endemic species on islands," said Cindy Bick, who received a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from U-M in 2018. "If we are able to map and protect these habitats through appropriate conservation measures, we can figure out ways to ensure the survival of the species."

P. hyalina is important culturally for Polynesians because of its unique color, making it attractive for use in shell leis and jewelry. Tree snails also play a vital role in island forest ecosystems, as the dominant group of native grazers.

How Society Island snails were wiped out

The giant African land snail was introduced to the Society Islands, including Tahiti, to cultivate as a food source, but it became a major pest. To control its population, agricultural scientists introduced the rosy wolf snail in 1974. But unfortunately, most of the 61 known species of native Society Islands tree snails were easy prey for the rosy wolf. P. hyalina is one of only five survivors in the wild. Called the "Darwin finches of the snail world" for their island-bound diversity, the loss of so many Partula species is a blow to biologists studying evolution.

"The endemic tree snails had never encountered a predator like the alien rosy wolf snail before it's deliberate introduction. It can climb trees and very quickly drove most of the valley populations to local extinction," said Diarmaid Ó Foighil, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator of the U-M Museum of Zoology.

In 2015, Ó Foighil and Bick hypothesized that P. hyalina's distinctive white shell might give it an important advantage in forest edge habitats, by reflecting rather than absorbing light radiation levels that would be deadly to its darker-shelled predator. To test their idea, they needed to be able to track the light exposure levels P. hyalina and rosy wolf snails experienced in a typical day.

Field work in Tahiti shows P. hyalina can take 10x more light

Bick and Ó Foighil wanted to attach light sensors to the snails, but a system made using commercially available chips would have been too big. Bick found news of a smart sensor system that was just 2x5x2 mm, and the developers were at her own institution. But could it be altered to sense light?

"It was important to understand what the biologists were thinking and what they needed," said Inhee Lee, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Pittsburgh who received a Ph.D. from U-M electrical and computer engineering in 2014. Lee adapted the M3 for the study.

The first step was to figure out how to measure the light intensity of the snails' habitats. At the time, the team had just added an energy harvester to the M3 system to recharge the battery using tiny solar cells. Lee realized he could measure the light level continuously by measuring the speed at which the battery was charging.

After testing enabled by local Michigan snails, 50 M3s made it to Tahiti in 2017. Bick and Lee joined forces with Trevor Coote, a well-known conservation field biologist and specialist on the French Polynesian snails.

The team glued the sensors directly to the rosy wolf snails, but P. hyalina is a protected species and required an indirect approach. They are nocturnal, typically sleeping during the day while attached underneath leaves. Using magnets, the team placed M3s both on the tops and undersides of leaves harboring the resting P. hyalina. At the end of each day, Lee wirelessly downloaded the data from each of the M3s.

During the noon hour, the P. hyalina habitat received on average 10 times more sunlight than the rosy wolf snails. The researchers suspect that the rosy wolf doesn't venture far enough into the forest edge to catch P. hyalina, even under cover of darkness, because they wouldn't be able to escape to shade before the sun became too hot.

"The M3 really opens up the window of what we can do with invertebrate behavioral ecology and we're just at the foothills of those possibilities," Ó Foighil said.

Pharmaceutical pollution is found in streams and rivers globally, but little is known about its effects on animals and ecosystems. A new study, published in the journal Ecosphere, investigated the effects of antidepressant pollution on crayfish. Just two weeks of citalopram exposure caused changes in crayfish behavior, with the potential to disrupt stream ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling, oxygen levels, and algal growth.

Coauthor Emma Rosi, a freshwater ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, says, "Animals living in streams and rivers are exposed to a chronic mix of pharmaceutical pollution as a result of wastewater contamination. Our study explored how antidepressant levels commonly found in streams impact crayfish, and how these changes reverberate through stream ecosystems."

Crayfish are a keystone species in streams, where they eat invertebrates, break down leaf litter, and cycle nutrients. They are stress-tolerant and can become abundant in urban waterways. These freshwaters are prone to receiving pharmaceutical pollution from sewer overflows, leaky septic tanks, and treated wastewater effluent that contains pharmaceuticals.

Lead author Alexander Reisinger, an Assistant Professor at University of Florida, Gainesville, says, "Previous research via direct injection found that antidepressants alter serotonin and aggression in crustaceans. Our study found that exposure to low doses of citalopram - at levels currently found in urban streams as a result of pollution - is enough to alter crayfish behaviors like foraging, aggression, and shelter use."

Cary Institute's artificial stream facility was used to test effects of citalopram on crayfish and stream ecosystems. Twenty stream habitats were created with low-nutrient groundwater and quartz rocks and red maple leaf packs that had been colonized with microbes, invertebrates, and algae. Streams were randomly selected to receive one of four treatments: no citalopram + no crayfish, citalopram + no crayfish, crayfish + no citalopram, and citalopram + crayfish. Each treatment was applied to five streams. Three male crayfish were added to each of the 'crayfish' streams.

For two weeks, the team dosed the 10 streams receiving citalopram every other day to mimic low, persistent pharmaceutical pollution found in urban streams. Over the course of the experiment, they monitored indicators that would reveal changes in stream ecosystem functioning, such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, light penetration, and algae. At the end of the two weeks, the behavior of exposed and non-exposed crayfish was tested.

To do this, the team tapped into crayfish's keen sense of smell. They used a tank containing a shelter at one end and a divider down the middle. One side of the tank contained water that had passed by sardine gelatin; the other contained water that had passed by another male crayfish. One at a time, they placed the crayfish in the shelter, then recorded the amount of time it took for each to peek out of the shelter and emerge completely. They also recorded the amount of time spent in the sardine and crayfish signal sides of the tank.

Crayfish exposed to citalopram emerged from the shelter sooner, indicating increased 'boldness'. Exposed crayfish were also more interested in food, lingering in the food-scented area over 3x longer than the crayfish-scented area. Crayfish that were not exposed to citalopram took longer to emerge and divided their time equally between the food and crayfish areas, showing no preference.

Reisinger explains, "Citalopram-exposed crayfish are more attracted to food, and less interested in other crayfish. Less time spent hiding and more time foraging could make crayfish more vulnerable to predators, meaning more get eaten. We would expect increased crayfish foraging to lead to higher rates of leaf litter decomposition and biofilm turnover, altering in-steam nutrient flows. Either of these changes could have cascading effects."

In people, 'metabolism' refers to a collection of chemical processes that regulate bodily functions essential to health like breathing, digestion, and temperature regulation. Stream 'metabolism' includes a variety of indicators like oxygen levels, light penetration, and nutrient cycling, which together shape stream health.

The team used their two-week record of stream indicators to assess changes in the metabolism of each stream. They found that crayfish presence versus absence significantly affects stream metabolism. Effects of citalopram alone were not significant, but results suggest that changes in stream functioning would likely occur over time due to citalopram's effects on crayfish behavior.

Reisinger explains, "With just two weeks of citalopram exposure, we saw marked changes in crayfish behavior. Over months to years, we would expect these changes to magnify. Fewer crayfish could reduce populations of the fish that eat them like trout, bass, and catfish. Changes in algal growth or turnover would alter oxygen levels and nutrient dynamics - key aspects of stream functioning that could cause harmful imbalances in the system."

Rosi concludes, "Toxicity assessments of pharmaceuticals often focus on lethal effects, but it is clear that these drugs can affect non-target organisms without killing them and behavioral changes can have ecological consequences. More work is needed to understand how pharmaceutical pollution impacts stream life at chronic, sublethal levels, and what these changes mean for freshwater quality, ecosystem health, and foodwebs - in streams and beyond."

The development of new urban agriculture technologies, such as vertical and smart farms, has accelerated rapidly in recent years. These technologies are based on hydroponic cultivation in which plants are grown using nutrient-rich solutions rather than soil. Approximately 20-30% of the nutrient solutions used during hydroponic cultivation are discharged without being absorbed by the crops, and because most farmers in South Korea do not treat the discharged solutions, hydroponic farms contribute significantly to environmental pollution.

This problem can be reduced if hydroponic farms use a recirculating hydroponic cultivation method that reuses the nutrient solutions after sterilizing them with ultraviolet (UV) light, instead of discharging them. However, two main issues complicate the implantation of such recirculation systems. First, the potential for diseases and nutrient imbalances to develop owing to microbial growth in the recycled nutrient solutions must be eliminated. Second, the initial investment required to set up a recirculating hydroponic cultivation system is often prohibitive, costing hundreds of millions of Korean won per hectare.

However, a new study conducted by researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)proposes a method that can stably manage the microbial population in recirculating hydroponic cultivation systems. The research team, led by Drs. Ju Young Lee and Tae In Ahn of the Smart Farm Research Center, KIST Gangneung Institute of Natural Products, conducted an integrated analysis of the microbial growth characteristics by constructing a model that simulates the flow of water and nutrients, and the inflow, growth, and discharge of microorganisms in recirculating and non-circulating hydroponic cultivation systems. Their simulations revealed that the microbial population in recirculating hydroponic cultivation systems can be controlled by adjusting the UV output and the water supply. On the contrary, in non-circulating hydroponic cultivation, the microbial population fluctuates considerably depending on the amount of water used, increasingly sharply if there is too little water.

High cost has restricted the use of UV sterilization systems in hydroponic farming in Korea And prompted the research team to develop their own UV sterilization system, with further studies underway to commercialize this system as an economical alternative to imported systems.

The results of the study have already received strong interest: the rights to the operation and management software technology for recirculating hydroponic cultivation has been acquired by Dooinbiotech Co., Ltd. for an advance fee of 80 million won (8.5% of the operating revenue), while an agreement is in place with Shinhan A-Tec Co., Ltd. for the advanced recirculating hydroponic cultivation technology for an advance fee of 200 million won (1.5% of the operating revenue). Commercializing the recirculating hydroponic cultivation system is expected to reduce fertilizer costs by approximately 30~40%, which equates to 30 million won per year based on a 1-hectare farm.

Commenting on the envisaged impacts of the study, Dr. Ju Young Lee said, "The developed system makes the transition to eco-friendly recirculating hydroponic cultivation systems an affordable option for many more farmers." Dr. Tae In Ahn added, "We are also developing software and operation manuals to guide farmers in managing the nutrient balance in the solutions to increase the number of farms using the recirculating hydroponic cultivation system."

Niigata, Japan - The loss of muscle tissue - referred to as muscle atrophy in medical terms - can occur as a result of lack of physical activity for an extended period of time; aging; alcohol-associated myopathy - a pain and weakness in muscles due to excessive drinking over long periods of time; burns; injuries; malnutrition; spinal cord or peripheral nerve injuries; stroke; and long-term corticosteroid therapy. While muscle atrophy due to disuse is well known and studied, the underlying cellular mechanisms, particularly the status of mitochondrial degradation by mitophagy during disuse-induced muscle atrophy has been a subject of debate among cellular physiologists as mitochondria are abundant in skeletal muscles.

Mitophagy is a cellular quality control mechanism by which cells break down damaged or dysfunctional subcellular organelles called mitochondria. While mitochondria play a crucial role in cellular energy production among other cellular homeostatic functions, mitochondrial release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during disuse-induced muscle atrophy has previously been reported. It is thought that ROS oxidizes proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, leading to decreased protein production and eventually muscle atrophy.

A group of researchers from the Department of Cellular Physiology, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University in collaboration with Taisho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and the National Institute of Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology in Japan have developed a new fluorescent reporter mouse line to detect changes in mitophagy activity that could improve treatment strategies and possibly facilitate strategies to reverse muscle atrophy induced by disuse.

In a mouse model study, the authors devised the in vivo fluorescent approach utilizing a dual mCherry/EGFP (red/green) reporter to enable the visualization of mitochondrial changes in muscle tissue sections from mice whose hind limbs were immobilized (hindlimb IM) (pictured, above). They followed the existence of cytosolic mitochondria with co-expression of green EGFP and red mCherry proteins, however when mitochondria are delivered into lysosomes forming mitolysosomes under mitophagy conditions, the green EGFP protein is quenched and degraded allowing direct analysis of mitophagy activity in vivo.

While there are previous studies where other mitophagy analysis methods have been used, Dr. Keiichi Inoue and Professor Tomotake Kanki have elaborated on how their method is different, saying "Our new reporter mouse line enables to directly analyze the mitophagy activity in vivo. This is more advantageous than the previous indirect methods based on the expression of mitophagy markers as those genes are unspecific to the mitophagy induction." This dual fluorescent reporter system allowed the direct and specific monitoring of mitophagy activity in vivo.

The authors in their quest to spotlight changes in mitophagy in relation to disuse-induced atrophying muscle assessed the mitophagy activity using new reporter mice. They reported increased levels of mitophagy activity as well as ROS levels in atrophic soleus muscles following a 14-day hindlimb immobilization, revealing that muscle disuse increased mitophagy activity in skeletal muscle.

The study highlights mitophagy as a potential therapeutic target for disuse-induced muscle atrophy. Furthermore, as muscle atrophy is accompanied by physiological aging or some pathological states, such as myopathy or neuropathy, this new model will be helpful to understand and prevent muscle atrophy following those changes.

"We will further reveal the dynamics of mitophagy in other physiological and pathological consequences," they further added.

Researchers have discovered a new and more efficient computing method for pairing the reliability of a classical computer with the strength of a quantum system.

This new computing method opens the door to different algorithms and experiments that bring quantum researchers closer to near-term applications and discoveries of the technology.

"In the future, quantum computers could be used in a wide variety of applications including helping to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, developing artificial limbs and designing more efficient pharmaceuticals," said Christine Muschik, a principal investigator at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and a faculty member in physics and astronomy at the University of Waterloo.

The research team from IQC in partnership with the University of Innsbruck is the first to propose the measurement-based approach in a feedback loop with a regular computer, inventing a new way to tackle hard computing problems. Their method is resource-efficient and therefore can use small quantum states because they are custom-tailored to specific types of problems.

Hybrid computing, where a regular computer's processor and a quantum co-processor are paired into a feedback loop, gives researchers a more robust and flexible approach than trying to use a quantum computer alone.

While researchers are currently building hybrid, computers based on quantum gates, Muschik's research team was interested in the quantum computations that could be done without gates. They designed an algorithm in which a hybrid quantum-classical computation is carried out by performing a sequence of measurements on an entangled quantum state.

The team's theoretical research is good news for quantum software developers and experimentalists because it provides a new way of thinking about optimization algorithms. The algorithm offers high error tolerance, often an issue in quantum systems, and works for a wide range of quantum systems, including photonic quantum co-processors.

Hybrid computing is a novel frontier in near-term quantum applications. By removing the reliance on quantum gates, Muschik and her team have removed the struggle with finicky and delicate resources and instead, by using entangled quantum states, they believe they will be able to design feedback loops that can be tailored to the datasets that the computers are researching in a more efficient manner.

"Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that supercomputers can't, but they are still experimental and fragile," said Muschik.

State-of-the-art video microscopy has enabled researchers at WEHI, Australia, to see the molecular details of how malaria parasites invade red blood cells - a key step in the disease.

The researchers used a custom-built lattice light sheet microscope - the first in Australia - to capture high-resolution videos of individual parasites invading red blood cells, and visualise the molecular and cellular changes that occur throughout this process. The research has provided critical new information about malaria parasite biology that may have applications for the development of much-needed new antimalarial medicines.

The research, which was published today in Nature Communications, was led by Ms Cindy Evelyn, Dr Niall Geoghegan, Dr Lachlan Whitehead, Professor Alan Cowman and Dr Kelly Rogers.

At a glance

An advanced microscopy platform, called lattice light sheet microscopy, has been used to obtain detailed, real-time videos of the malaria parasite invading red blood cells.

The research has revealed key steps in the parasite invasion process, which is a critical point of the malaria life-cycle and underpins many symptoms of malaria.

The team's discoveries could advance the development of much-needed new antimalarial medicines.

Focusing on a deadly parasite

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that kills around 400,000 people globally each year. Many of the serious symptoms of malaria occur because of the invasion and growth of the Plasmodium parasite in an infected person's red blood cells, said Dr Rogers, who is the head of WEHI's Centre for Dynamic Imaging.

"Understanding in better detail exactly how the parasite invades red blood cells may reveal new ways to stop this stage of the parasite life cycle, potentially leading to much-needed new therapies," she said.

"We used microscopy - specifically a state-of-the-art approach, lattice light sheet microscopy (LLSM) - to follow the intricate cellular and molecular changes that occur when the malaria parasite invades red blood cells. We captured the first ever high-resolution, real time and dynamic views of the parasite in action."

Ms Evelyn, who began the research as an Honours student, said the research revealed many previously unrecognised aspects of parasite invasion.

"The videos we recorded showed the 'push and pull' interactions as the parasite landed on the red blood cell, and then entered the cell in an enclosed chamber - called a vacuole - where it grew and multiplied.There has long been contention in the field about whether the vacuole is derived from the parasite or the host cell. Our research resolved this question, revealing it was created from the red blood cell's membrane," she said.

Most antimalarial therapies and vaccines target the initial binding of malaria to red blood cells.

"By visualising these processes in more detail, our research may contribute in several ways to the development of new antimalarial therapies. For example, now that we know that the parasite vacuole relies on components of the red blood cell membrane, it might be possible to target these components with medicines to disrupt the parasite life cycle. This host-directed approach could be one way to bypass the malaria parasite's propensity to rapidly develop drug resistance," Dr Rogers said.

"LLSM may also have applications for observing the specific steps of parasite invasion that are blocked by potential new drugs - an area we are now very interested in pursuing."

New views of cells

LLSM is an advanced imaging technology that enables researchers to visualise cells and organs in unprecedented detail and in real time. Dr Geoghegan said LLSM had changed how cells could be studied.

"In the past, the choice of microscope for an experiment had to be a compromise between capturing a lower resolution video, which revealed dynamic processes like shape changes or movement, and capturing much higher-definition still images, which provided much more detail about how the cells and molecules are functioning," he said.

"LLSM allows us to obtain high-resolution videos of cells, which has been a game-changer for many fields of biological research.

We custom built a LLSM at WEHI - the first version of this technology in Australia. This groundbreaking microscopy has enabled us to progress multiple areas of research, including this malaria study. To achieve this, we brought together a multidisciplinary team with expertise in physics, engineering and biology - and the results of this current study have vindicated our approach."

The research was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, an EMBO Long Term Fellowship, a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship and the Victorian Government.

Women exposed to higher levels of air pollution during pregnancy have babies who grow unusually fast in the first months after birth, putting on excess fat that puts them at risk of obesity and related diseases later in life, new CU Boulder research shows.

The study of Hispanic mother-child pairs, published this week in the journal Environmental Health, is the latest to suggest that poor air quality may contribute at least in part to the nation's obesity epidemic, particularly among minority populations who tend to live in places with more exposure to toxic pollutants.

About one in four Hispanic youth in the United States are obese, compared to about 14% of white youth and 11% of Asian youth.

"Higher rates of obesity among certain groups in our society are not simply a byproduct of personal choices like exercise and calories in, calories out. It's more complicated than that," said senior author Tanya Alderete, an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology. "This study and others suggest it can also relate to how much of an environmental burden one carries."

Previous research has shown pregnant women who smoke or are chronically exposed to air pollution tend to have smaller birthweight babies. In the first year of life, those babies tend to race to catch up, gaining weight unusually fast. Accelerated weight gain in early life has been linked to diabetes, heart disease and weight problems in childhood and adolescence.

"This period, either during pregnancy or shortly after birth, is a critical window of development and adverse exposures can program the infant to have a host of problems later in life," said lead author William Patterson, a doctoral student.

To more closely examine how specific pollutants impact a baby's growth trajectory, the researchers followed 123 mother-infant pairs from the Mother's Milk Study, an ongoing trial in the Los Angeles region. About one-third were of normal weight pre-pregnancy, one-third overweight and one-third obese.

The researchers used data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality System, which records hourly air quality data from ambient monitoring stations, to quantify their prenatal exposure to four classes of pollutants: PM2.5 and PM10 (inhalable particles from factories, cars and construction sites), nitrogen dioxide (an odorless gas emitted from cars and power plants) and ozone (the main ingredient in smog).

Then they followed the babies, periodically measuring not only their weight and height, but also how much fat they carried and where.

"We found that greater exposure to prenatal ambient air pollution was associated with greater changes in weight and adiposity, or body fatness, in the first six months of life," said Patterson.

In some cases, pollutants seemed to impact males and females differently.

For instance, exposure to a combination of ozone and nitrogen dioxide in utero was associated with faster growth around the waist in females, while in males it was associated with slower growth in length and greater fat accumulation around the midsection.

In adults, excess fat around the midsection has been linked to heart disease and diabetes.

"It's not just how much fat you carry but where--that matters," said Patterson.

How can inhaling pollutants impact growth patterns of a mother's unborn child?

Researchers believe those pollutants can inflame the lungs and, in turn, cause systemic inflammation of organs, impacting metabolic processes, such as insulin sensitivity, that can influence fetal development. Pollutants have also been shown to impact gene expression in infants, potentially having life-long impacts that could transcend generations.

The authors note that the study includes a relatively small sample size. And because the study included only Hispanic mothers, a larger trial is necessary to confirm results apply to other populations.

But Alderete said that in an increasingly diverse country, where racial minorities have been shown repeatedly to shoulder a higher burden of pollutions, it's important to study how those toxins are influencing them.

In 2018, the EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment published a study showing that poor people and people of color are exposed to as much as 1.5 times more airborne pollutants than their white counterparts.

"Generally speaking, there have not been very many studies that really represent the diversity we have in the United States," she said. "We want to fill that gap."

Meantime, the researchers recommend pregnant women take extra precautions to minimize their exposure to air pollution by closing windows on high ozone days, not exercising outdoors at times of high air pollution and steering clear of activities alongside busy roadways.

A new study by Newcastle University shows that the risk of dolphins and porpoises being caught in small-scale (artisanal) fisheries is highest in low- and middle-income regions around the tropics and sub-tropics.

Marine scientists assessed the risk posed by small-scale fisheries to all 72 species of toothed whales found throughout the world's oceans. They found that this risk was highest in the Central Indo-Pacific, Temperate Northern Pacific, Temperate South America and the Western Indo-Pacific.

Publishing their findings in the journal Fish and Fisheries, the authors argue that addressing the bycatch risks posed by small-scale fisheries in the high-risk regions is especially challenging and must be considered a global priority for toothed whale conservation.

They warn that immediate management and conservation actions are required to reduce and ideally eliminate small-scale fisheries bycatch to prevent species extinctions.

Dr Andrew Temple, Research Associate at the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences and Senior Consultant at MRAG Ltd said: "Fisheries are the greatest threat to the survival of dolphins, porpoises and other toothed whales worldwide. This is the first study to take a global perspective on the threat to these species from small-scale fisheries."

Professor Per Berggren, of Newcastle University's School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, continued: "Small-scale fisheries are a particular threat to species found in coastal shallow waters where dolphin and porpoise distribution overlaps with gillnets use. Our results suggest that some of the most at-risk species are the four species of humpback dolphins, Irrawaddy dolphin, Australian snubfin dolphin, Franciscana dolphin, Guiana dolphin, Indo-Pacific finless porpoise, and the likely soon to be extinct vaquita."

Dr Andrew Temple added: "Our results highlight a "wicked problem" for toothed whale bycatch in small-scale fisheries. Small-scale fisheries are vital to the food, nutritional, and economic security of many communities in low- and middle-income nations. Managers of these fisheries therefore have to carefully balance the actions required to save these species against the risks that these actions might result in unintentional harm to fishing communities that rely on the oceans for their livelihoods. Solving this "wicked problem" is made even more challenging because funds available to fisheries managers are generally more limited in these high-risk regions, making effective fisheries management extremely difficult."

The study authors recognise that conservation actions need to be realistic and will certainly require international collaboration and cooperation. They call for mitigation actions that are tailored to the specific local economic and social contexts, and balance species and human needs.

Research led by the University of Kent and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has resulted in the discovery of a new rare topological superconductor, LaPt3P. This discovery may be of huge importance to the future operations of quantum computers.

Superconductors are vital materials able to conduct electricity without any resistance when cooled below a certain temperature, making them highly desirable in a society needing to reduce its energy consumption.

Superconductors manifest quantum properties on the scale of everyday objects, making them highly attractive candidates for building computers which use quantum physics to store data and perform computing operations, and can vastly outperform even the best supercomputers in certain tasks. As a result, there is an increasing demand from leading tech companies like Google, IBM and Microsoft to make quantum computers on an industrial scale using superconductors.

However, the elementary units of quantum computers (qubits) are extremely sensitive and lose their quantum properties due to electromagnetic fields, heat and collisions with air molecules. Protection from these can be achieved by making more resilient qubits using a special class of superconductors called topological superconductors which in addition to being superconductors also host protected metallic states on their boundaries or surfaces.

Topological superconductors, such as LaPt3P, newly discovered through muon spin relaxation experiments and extensive theoretical analysis, are exceptionally rare and are of tremendous value to the future industry of quantum computing.

To ensure its properties are sample and instrument independent, two different sets of samples were prepared in the University of Warwick and in ETH Zurich. Muon experiments were then performed in two different types of muon facilities: in the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source in the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and in PSI, Switzerland.

Dr Sudeep Kumar Ghosh, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Kent and Principle Investigator said: 'This discovery of the topological superconductor LaPt3P has tremendous potential in the field of quantum computing. Discovery of such a rare and desired component demonstrates the importance of muon research for the everyday world around us.'

A new antibody testing study examining samples originally collected through the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program found evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in five states earlier than had initially been reported. These findings were published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The results expand on findings from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that suggested SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was present in the U.S. as far back as December 2019.

In the All of Us study, researchers analyzed more than 24,000 stored blood samples contributed by program participants across all 50 states between Jan. 2 and March 18, 2020. Researchers detected antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 using two different serology tests in nine participants' samples. These participants were from outside the major urban hotspots of Seattle and New York City, believed to be key points of entry of the virus in the U.S. The positive samples came as early as Jan. 7 from participants in Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Most positive samples were collected prior to the first reported cases in those states, demonstrating the importance of expanding testing as quickly as possible in an epidemic setting.

"This study allows us to uncover more information about the beginning of the U.S. epidemic and highlights the real-world value of longitudinal research in understanding dynamics of emerging diseases like COVID-19," said Josh Denny, M.D., M.S., chief executive officer of All of Us and an author of the study. "Our participants come from diverse communities across the U.S. and give generously of themselves to drive a wide range of biomedical discoveries, which are vital for informing public health strategies and preparedness."

In studies like these, false positives are a concern, particularly when the prevalence of viral infections is low, as was the case in the early days of the U.S. epidemic. Researchers in this study followed CDC guidance to use sequential testing on two separate platforms to minimize false positive results.

All of Us worked with Quest Diagnostics to test samples on the Abbott Architect SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISA and the EUROIMMUN SARS-CoV-2 ELISA (IgG) platforms. For a sample to be considered "positive" by the research team, it had to have positive results on both platforms, which target antibodies that bind to different parts of the virus. Both tests have emergency use authorization from the FDA.

"Antibody testing of blood samples helps us better understand the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. in the early days of the U.S. epidemic, when testing was restricted and public health officials could not see that the virus had already spread outside of recognized initial points of entry," said Keri N. Althoff, Ph.D., lead author and associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. "This study also demonstrates the importance of using multiple serology platforms, as recommended by the CDC."

Antibodies are proteins produced in the blood in response to an infection, such as a virus. They play a critical role in fighting infections and are helpful signs that a person may have been exposed to an infection in the past, even if they didn't show symptoms. In the All of Us study, researchers looked in participant samples for a type of antibodies called IgG. These antibodies do not appear until about two weeks after a person has been infected, indicating that participants with these antibodies were exposed to the virus at least several weeks before their sample was taken. In this study, the first positive samples came from participants in Illinois and Massachusetts on Jan. 7 and 8, 2020, respectively, suggesting that the virus was present in those states in late December.

The study authors noted several limitations to their study. While the study included samples from across the U.S., the number of samples from many states was low. In addition, the authors do not know whether the participants with positive samples became infected during travel or while in their own communities. Ideally, this study could be replicated in other populations with samples collected in the initial months of the U.S. epidemic and with multiple testing platforms to compare results.

All of Us expects to release more information following further analysis, and will offer participants whose samples were included in the study an opportunity to receive their individual results. The presence of antibodies in one's blood sample does not guarantee that a person is protected from the infection (has immunity), or that any such protection will last.

Ethiopia, Nigeria, Colombia, Myanmar and Syria are just a handful of the places around the world currently engaged in ongoing civil wars. Even when peace agreements can be negotiated to end civil wars, maintaining stability is incredibly challenging. In these fragile post-conflict areas, a small communal dispute can easily escalate and unravel peace deals.

Peacekeepers can help contain the spread of violence and promote peaceful interactions between groups, but how? And in what situations can peacekeepers be most effective? New research from Washington University in St. Louis answers these important questions.

The research, conducted by William Nomikos, assistant professor of political science in Arts & Sciences, demonstrates that peacekeeping patrols make individuals more optimistic in their perceptions of the risks of engagement and about the likelihood that members of outgroups will reciprocate attempts at cooperation. That confidence makes individuals more willing to cooperate with members of other groups.

And that's important because intergroup cooperation limits communal violence, promotes economic development and bolsters social trust, Nomikos said.

"Peacekeepers do what domestic security institutions are unable or unwilling to do -- draw a clear line between violence used in intergroup interactions and the punishment of such violence," Nomikos said.

"Peacekeepers interact with civilians, learn about ongoing disputes in a locality and attempt to stop such disputes from escalating," he added. "Even when disputes are far from violent, the presence of peacekeepers discourages aggression that may lead to bloodshed. They lay the foundation for intergroup cooperation at the local level."

But not all peacekeeping arrangements work. Nomikos' research, in the Journal of Politics, explains why and offers valuable insight for the international community on how to reduce the fragility of post-conflict settings, including between Israel and Gaza.

Conducting research in the field

To test the effectiveness of peacekeepers, Nomikos conducted a "lab-in-the-field" experiment in Mali, a West African country with an active conflict managed by troops from France and the United Nations, between February and March 2016. At this time, the ethnic conflict between minority Tuareg separatists and the Malian government had receded as a threat to the stability of Mali, replaced instead by pockets of communal violence driven by breakdowns in cooperation.

Nomikos recruited participants to play a trust game. Each participant was given 1,000 West African francs (FCFA) and tasked to donate a portion of the endowment to a fictitious Tuareg partner. They were told that study organizers would double the donation, up to 2,000, and the Tuareg partner would choose how much to send back. In this game, the non-Tuareg's optimal strategy is to cooperate with their Tuareg partners.

Participants were randomly assigned to either a control group or one of two treatment groups, in which they were told that two patrolling officers from either the UN or France would punish any low partner contributions with a fine. For the safety of the research participants, real peacekeepers and Tuareg Malians did not participate in the game.

Some, not all, peacekeeping efforts work

Participants assigned to the control group sent an average of 601 FCFA or about 60% of their initial endowments to their Tuareg partners. Participants assigned to the French peacekeeping group sent an average of 631 FCFA, approximately 5% more than the control group. The difference was statistically insignificant.

Those assigned to UN peacekeeping test group were far more generous, though. On average, they sent 797 FCFA to their Tuareg partners -- an increase of 32.6% compared with the control group.

Follow-up interviews and surveys with study participants show UN peacekeepers were more effective than French peacekeepers at encouraging cooperation because they were viewed as unbiased. Additionally, participants believed UN peacekeepers were more likely to intervene in everyday interactions than French counterparts.

"Individuals trust that unbiased peacekeepers will punish any potential party that transgresses in a social interaction," Nomikos said. "By contrast, biased peacekeepers fail to reassure individuals that they will protect them from being taking advantage of by favored parties."

Research provides blueprint for future success

According to Nomikos, the results imply that residents of post-conflict settings may reject the presence of some international actors more than others, which can impact peacekeeping outcomes.

"Former colonial powers account for the vast majority of unilateral military intervention in existing conflicts in Africa," Nomikos said. "Even if an intervention is conducted by a non-colonial major power such as the United States or a historically neutral power such as Sweden, locals are likely to perceive troops as biased. Countries typically launch military operations in alliance with local ethnic groups. This is especially true in the context of communal disputes at the local level."

Additionally, peacekeeping at the local level is at its most effective when baseline levels of intergroup and social trust are low.

"It is under these conditions that enforcement is needed the most since members of two different social groups will have little reason to trust each other enough to cooperate," Nomikos said.

Peacekeepers deployed with the explicit mandate to enforce peaceful interactions within civilian communities can promote intergroup cooperation, even in weakly institutionalized settings. However, intergroup cooperation will dissipate when peacekeepers withdraw unless there is substantial development of domestic institutional capacity, Nomikos said.

"It is for this reason that most modern UN peace operations have become long, drawn-out affairs, even after nominal peace treaties have been signed," he said.

While this may be a challenging electoral proposition for many countries, Nomikos hopes his research will provide rationale for contributing countries to make further investments in local-level peacekeeping efforts.

"The conditional aspects of the results -- that the UN is more effective in low trust settings and with increased contact -- could also help us understand failures of UN peacekeeping," he said.

The research also offers a potential way forward for Israel and Gaza, where the most recent conflict left more than 200 people dead and ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. According to Nomikos, the first ever UN peacekeeping operation was deployed to Israel-Palestine in 1948 as part of the UN's mediation efforts with the founding of the state of Israel.

"That mission is still in place, but it is small and non-military -- around 400 civilian staff. It is unlikely that a substantial peacekeeping operation would be deployed to the area to mediate the conflict for political reasons," Nomikos said.

"However, my research suggests that there are gains to be made if the international community is willing to get creative and focus on local-level peace rather than bargaining between elites. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for example, is met with the relevant leadership, but it's unclear how much control these leaders have over their own communities.

"The new frontier of the Israel-Palestine conflict has been so-called intercommunal violence or communal conflict, meaning that there have been outbursts of violence between civilians in mixed ethnicity communities. My research shows that international actors can be effective in small numbers in these areas," he added.

Do you like the thick brush strokes and soft color palettes of an impressionist painting such as those by Claude Monet? Or do you prefer the bold colors and abstract shapes of a Rothko? Individual art tastes have a certain mystique to them, but now a new Caltech study shows that a simple computer program can accurately predict which paintings a person will like.

The new study, appearing in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, utilized Amazon's crowdsourcing platform Mechanical Turk to enlist more than 1,500 volunteers to rate paintings in the genres of impressionism, cubism, abstract, and color field. The volunteers' answers were fed into a computer program and then, after this training period, the computer could predict the volunteers' art preferences much better than would happen by chance.

"I used to think the evaluation of art was personal and subjective, so I was surprised by this result," says lead author Kiyohito Iigaya, a postdoctoral scholar who works in the laboratory of Caltech professor of psychology John O'Doherty.

The findings not only demonstrated that computers can make these predictions but also led to a new understanding about how people judge art.

"The main point is that we are gaining an insight into the mechanism that people use to make aesthetic judgments," says O'Doherty. "That is, that people appear to use elementary image features and combine over them. That's a first step to understanding how the process works."

In the study, the team programmed the computer to break a painting's visual attributes down into what they called low-level features--traits like contrast, saturation, and hue--as well as high-level features, which require human judgment and include traits such as whether the painting is dynamic or still.

"The computer program then estimates how much a specific feature is taken into account when making a decision about how much to like a particular piece of art," explains Iigaya. "Both the low- and high-level features are combined together when making these decisions. Once the computer has estimated that, then it can successfully predict a person's liking for another previously unseen piece of art."

The researchers also discovered that the volunteers tended to cluster into three general categories: those who like paintings with real-life objects, such as an impressionist painting; those who like colorful abstract paintings, such as a Rothko; and those who like complex paintings, such as Picasso's cubist portraits. The majority of people fell into the first "real-life object" category. "Many people liked the impressionism paintings," says Iigaya.

What is more, the researchers found that they could also train a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to learn to predict the volunteer's art preferences with a similar level of accuracy. A DCNN is a type of machine-learning program, in which a computer is fed a series of training images so that it can learn to classify objects, such as cats versus dogs. These neural networks have units that are connected to each other like neurons in a brain. By changing the strength of the connection of one unit to another, the network can "learn."

In this case, the deep-learning approach did not include any of the selected low- or high-level visual features used in the first part of the study, so the computer had to "decide" what features to analyze on its own.

"In deep-neural-network models, we do not actually know exactly how the network is solving a particular task because the models learn by themselves much like real brains do," explains Iigaya. "It can be very mysterious, but when we looked inside the neural network, we were able to tell that it was constructing the same feature categories we selected ourselves." These results hint at the possibility that features used for determining aesthetic preference might emerge naturally in a brain-like architecture.

"We are now actively looking at whether this is indeed the case by looking at people's brains while they make these same types of decisions," says O'Doherty.

In another part of the study, the researchers also demonstrated that their simple computer program, which had already been trained on art preferences, could accurately predict which photos volunteers would like. They showed the volunteers photographs of swimming pools, food, and other scenes, and saw similar results to those involving paintings. Additionally, the researchers showed that reversing the order also worked: after first training volunteers on photos, they could use the program to accurately predict the subjects' art preferences.

While the computer program was successful at predicting the volunteers' art preferences, the researchers say there is still more to learn about the nuances that go into any one individual's taste.

"There are aspects of preferences unique for a given individual that we have not succeeded in explaining using this method," says O'Doherty. "This more idiosyncratic component may relate to semantic features, or the meaning of a painting, past experiences, and other individual personal traits that might influence valuation. It still may be possible to identify and learn about those features in a computer model, but to do so will involve a more detailed study of each individual's preferences in a way that may not generalize across individuals as we found here."

Chatbots hold promise for dementia patient or caregiver support, but are still in their infancy, finds a paper published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. None of the interactive digital apps tested by medical researchers and a computer scientist performed well on all testing criteria, and all the apps contained linguistic biases and usability challenges. The authors conclude that until developers produce evidence-based chatbots that have undergone end user evaluation it will be hard to evaluate their potential to adequately educate and support dementia patients and their caregivers.

"Dementia care is complex and no two cases of dementia are alike. Chatbots have the potential of providing caregivers with instant support that is evidence-based and personalized. While it was promising to find some advancements in this area, it was disappointing to learn that more hasn't been done," said first author Nicole Ruggiano, a professor of social work at the University of Alabama.

Chatbots have become a familiar presence in online customer service settings, and millions of people use personal digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri to perform tasks and retrieve information every day. Chatbots combine text or voice recognition, machine learning, and pre-programmed responses to afford users relatively seamless conversation with a human-like machine.

Healthcare chatbots can interpret symptoms, suggest resources, or offer emotional support.

"Artificial intelligence chatbots have great potential to improve the communication between patients and the healthcare system, given the shortage of healthcare staff and the complexity of the patient needs. This is especially important for dementia patients and caregivers, who keep increasing as the population ages, and face care challenges daily," said corresponding author Vagelis Hristidis, a professor of computer science in UC Riverside's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, and founder of SmartBot360, a healthcare chatbot company.

Chatbots can provide memory training or stimulate fond recollections for dementia patients. Dementia patient caregivers, who often feel isolated and insufficient, can receive advice and emotional support from chatbots. The effectiveness of chatbot interventions, however, is only as good as the medical knowledge used in their programming and the quality of the user's interactions with the bot.

"In regards to the use of a chatbot by dementia caregivers, there are many content areas family caregivers may find helpful. Caregivers are confronted by increasing care coordination challenges, and a decline in function and overall well-being of the person living with dementia," said co-first author Ellen Brown, Erica Wertheim Zohar Endowed Chair in Community Mental Health at Florida International University. "Additionally, a new caregiver may look for very different resources and information than a more experienced caregiver."

To assess the potential for chatbots to assist with dementia care, a team of researchers from the University of Alabama, Florida International University, and UC Riverside identified 501 chatbot apps available for download on several popular platforms. After eliminating apps that had no chat feature, offered a chat with live humans, were not actually focused on dementia, were unavailable, or were a game, they ended up with 27 apps, only six of which fit all evaluation criteria. The apps that made the cut were: CogniCare mobile app; CogniCare (Alexa Skills version); My Life Story; Dementia Types; Build Your Brain Power; and Everything Memory.

The authors assessed the productivity, effectiveness, functionality and humanity, and overall satisfaction, including affect, ethics and behavior.

The apps were generally focused on the epidemiology and symptoms of dementia and less on caregiving skills and activities. It was difficult to start using all the apps, which would present a big hurdle for people without experience using computers or for people with dementia. The voice chatbot apps only responded to very specific pronunciations and vocabulary terms, limiting their use to certain speech styles and dialects. All six of the apps were only available in English, further limiting their usefulness.

However, once the researchers were able to get the programs started, they worked fairly well. Of the five chatbots designed to educate about dementia, three had a breadth of knowledge and flexibility in interpreting information. Users were able to interact with the apps in a human-like way, though only one, My Life Story, passed the Turing test, in which a person interacting with a computer cannot tell if it is a computer or real person. Some of the apps had features that increased the user's enjoyment, such as soft background music, and one app elicited interaction with comments such as, "Tell me more."

On ethics and privacy, only the two CogniCare apps, both produced by the same organization, fared well. All the other apps had various limitations that the researchers recommended should be improved to increase user confidence.

In general, the apps' limited program content made it hard to have extended or varied conversations between users and chatbots. Because dementia is complex and the symptoms varied, this could limit the education and support the apps provide. It also was not clear if information programmed into the apps came from evidence-based medical literature or professional practice, or more questionable Internet sources.

The authors conclude that although all the chatbots tested had attractive and useful features, none of them were likely to be effective providers of reliable, evidence-based information and advice or emotional support. Because chatbots have the potential to ease the burden for caregivers as well as to help dementia patients manage their own care, the authors recommend continued development and further research into chatbot apps for dementia.

Financial toxicity, the financial strain experienced by patients accessing health care, impacts a large population of cancer patients according to prior research. A new study, published in JACC: CardioOncology, finds financial toxicity is often greater among heart disease patients compared to cancer patients, and those with both conditions suffer the highest burden.

"Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death in the United States, yet most research on financial toxicity has focused on cancer patients. It is important to consider that cancer patients may have short bursts of high expenditures for treatments, while heart disease patients are often incurring a more chronic economic burden due to drug costs, procedures, clinician visits and hospital stays," said Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, MSc, chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Prevention and Wellness at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center and senior author of the paper. "Also, as the rate of cancer survival grows, the population of patients with both heart disease and cancer is growing. The financial burden created by these diseases manifests as another form of affliction. Without the ability to pay, our patients can suffer from financial, health and non-health related difficulties that the health care field must be prepared to address. It does very little good if we can treat the cancer or the heart disease, but the patient can't afford to eat or pay their mortgage."

Financial toxicity is defined as having any of the following: difficulty paying medical bills, inability to pay them at all, high financial distress, cost-related medication non-adherence, food insecurity, and/or delayed/foregone care due to cost.

Using data from the National Health Interview Survey from 2013-2018, researchers included 141,826 non-elderly (18 to

The National Health Interview Survey is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is a weighted survey, which means that it's a nationally representative survey. It contains four components: Household Composition, Family Core, Sample Child Core and Sample Adult Core. The Household Composition collects basic information and relationship information about all persons in a household. The Family Core component collects sociodemographic characteristics, basic indicators of health status, activity limitations, injuries, health insurance coverage, and access to and utilization of health care services. For the Sample Child and Sample Adult Core, one child and one adult are randomly selected to gather more detailed information. The study utilized the Sample Adult Core information with relevant information from the Household and Family Core components, which researchers supplemented with demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health status, health care services and health-related behaviors in the U.S. adult population.

Most individuals with cancer and/or ASCVD in the study population were 40-64 years old, insured and white. Female participants were more likely to report having cancer, with a majority coming from middle-/high-income households and with a higher education level. Those reporting ASCVD, with or without cancer, were evenly distributed by sex, education and income levels but had a more unfavorable cardiovascular risk profile. The most reported cancers included non-melanoma skin, breast, cervix, prostate and "other," which was also seen among those reporting both ASCVD and cancer.

Any financial toxicity was more likely to be present in patients with both ASCVD and cancer, those with ASCVD, those with cancer and those with neither cancer nor ASCVD. Difficulty paying bills was significantly higher for ASCVD patients with and without cancer compared to patients with only cancer. Overall, the same pattern (ASCVD and cancer > ASCVD > cancer > neither) was observed for high financial distress, cost-related medication non-adherence, food insecurity and delayed/foregone medical care due to cost, when compare those reporting ASCVD with or without cancer versus cancer. Patients with both cancer and ASCVD had increased odds of experiencing any financial toxicity measured in the study. In a sub-analysis of elderly patients, the same pattern was observed for all financial toxicity measures at significantly lower rates.

"There is an urgent need for effective methods to alleviate financial toxicity for heart disease and cancer patients. In the current health system, there are already small- and large-scale strategies to identify and combat financial toxicity. This has already been observed among oncologists when prompted to talk to their patients about financial burden in the office," Nasir said. "It is especially important for clinicians who care for patients with heart disease and/or cancer, given the high economic burden facing these patients."

"The current manuscript gives us an overall picture of the economic burden suffered by patients with heart disease and/or cancer on a national level, and to tackle the two top causes of mortality in the U.S., we have to more aggressively consider the financial toxicity associated with both these diseases, and their treatment," said Javier Valero-Elizondo, MD, MPH, from the Division of Cardiovascular Prevention and Wellness at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center and lead author of the paper. "While this study is amongst the first of its kind, we hope it helps not only to build on current literature, but also serve as an idea generating paper to fight financial toxicity."

Study limitations include the self-reported nature of ASCVD and/or cancer; the limited number of financial toxicity features evaluated; and that the National Health Interview Survey assessed whether anyone in the household had financial hardship and precludes assessment of the proportion of medical bills directly related to ASCVD and/or cancer and their contribution to financial hardship. The researchers also noted it is possible strategies to mitigate financial toxicity in cancer patients have started to yield positive results, which may be reflected in the analysis.

A junk food diet may increase the risk of dangerous driving among truck/lorry drivers by boosting fatigue, which is often a key factor in vehicle collisions, suggests research published online in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

Some 1.35 million people die in road traffic collisions every year, with professional drivers at greater risk because of the time they spend behind the wheel.

There are several known contributory factors, among which gender, age, experience, driving skills and attitudes seem to be important, note the researchers. But lifestyle may also be a factor, particularly as long distance driving often involves sleep deprivation, unhealthy dietary habits, and limited physical activity, they add.

Few studies have looked at the potential impact of dietary patterns on driving behaviours among professional truck/lorry drivers.

To try and plug this knowledge gap, the researchers assessed whether dietary patterns, fatigue, and driving behaviour might be linked in a sample of 389 male truck drivers from one transport company in Suzhou, China.

Most of the drivers were aged between 31 and 60, with 6 to 10 years of experience under their belts, and an annual tally of between 50,000 and 100,000 km on the road.

Each driver was asked to specify how much and how often they ate any of 25 food items over the previous 12 months in a Food Frequency Questionnaire.

They also completed the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, which assesses physical and mental fatigue on a 5-point scale, as well as two validated questionnaires on driving behaviours and attitudes towards other drivers on the road.

Dietary patterns were categorised as: vegetable-rich; staple foods (high intake of carbohydrates, unrefined grains, dairy products and eggs; animal proteins (fish and poultry); and snacks (fried foods, desserts, and sugary drinks).

The vegetable-rich and staple food diets were strongly associated with safe driving behaviours.

The animal protein diet was strongly associated with higher rates of errors, concentration lapses, and minor traffic violations, while the snack diet was strongly associated with unsafe driving behaviour.

Fatigue likely mediated the impact of dietary patterns on driving behaviours, the findings indicated: vegetable-rich and staple food diets were associated with less fatigue, while animal protein and snack diets were associated with greater fatigue.

This is an observational study, and as such can't establish cause, only correlation. The study relied heavily on recall and self report. And the researchers didn't glean any information on potentially important factors, such as smoking, physical activity, shift patterns and work stress.

But they point out that eating a lot of unhealthy snacks is often associated with erratic meal-times and disturbed metabolism, which might affect many tasks that require vigilance, alertness, and concentration.

And they conclude: "The results of this study support a relationship between dietary patterns and driving behaviour in a sample of professional truck drivers.

"Moreover, through the pathway analysis reported, it is possible to conclude that positive driving behaviour can be predicted by prudent dietary patterns such as vegetable-rich diets, while some dangerous driving behaviours (errors, lapses and violations), can be predicted by unhealthy dietary patterns characterised by high intake of fats and [sugars]."