Tech

A research team led by the University of Kent and Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, has solved an almost 40-year old mystery in leukaemia therapy and the drug nelarabine.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children. There are two types of ALL: B-ALL, which resembles B lymphocytes (B-cells); and T-ALL, which resembles T lymphocytes (T-cells). Since the 1980s, it has been known that the drug nelarabine is effective against T-ALL but not against B-ALL, for reasons unknown.

The new research study now reveals the reason why, and how this can change leukaemia treatments; thanks to the enzyme called SAMHD1.

The research shows that SAMHD1 is present only at low levels in T-ALL, compared to its greater-level of presence in B-ALL cells. Hence, SAMHD1 protects B-ALL cells, but not T-ALL cells, from the anti-cancer effects of nelarabine.

The findings have crucial practical implications. There are rare cases of B-ALL in which leukaemia cells display low SAMHD1 levels and thus may benefit from nelarabine treatment.

Additionally, there are also T-ALL cases in which leukaemia cells have high SAMHD1 levels, which are unlikely to react to nelarabine. Hence, the enzyme SAMHD1 is a biomarker with the potential to tailor nelarabine treatment better to the needs of individual ALL patients.

Dr Mark Wass, an author of the study from the University of Kent, said: 'This work solves an almost 40-year old mystery in leukaemia treatment. The results could immensely impact the effectiveness of particular nelarabine therapy and open other doors of understanding in the effort again this disease.'

Commercialized thin-film solar panels on the market consist of rare-earth elements like indium and gallium, or highly toxic metals like cadmium. Both of these thin-film solar panel types have their own problems, such as high-cost and problems in use in living places.

A team of scientists from DGIST, led by Dr Jin-Kyu Kang and Dr Dae-Hwan Kim, has been experimenting with solar panels made from cheaper and more abundant elements. Now, they have published the findings of their latest study in Advanced Energy Materials. Dr Kang elaborates on the reasons based on which they chose their materials for the study: "Thin-film solar cells using bronze (Cu-Sn) and brass (Cu-Zn) as base materials are composed of non-toxic earth-abundant materials, and have been studied worldwide because of their low cost, high durability, and sustainability."

However, using these alloys in thin film technology has its own drawbacks. While the theoretical efficiency of these panels matches the efficiencies of top market products, in practice, they tend to underperform drastically. This is because of the formation of various defects in the materials, such as "point" defect, "surface" defect, and "volume" defect, during "annealing" (or the process of heating and cooling to make a CZTSSe film). These defects undermine the current flow, resulting in loss of electricity generated.

Therefore, the scientists wanted to find a way to synthesize the best quality CZTSSe (copper, zinc, tin, sulfur, and selenium) thin films. They played around with the annealing profile, which has a strong effect on the grain size of CZTSSe thin film: the longer the annealing time and higher annealing temperature, the larger the grains, and the lesser the electricity loss.

However, as the annealing temperature and time increase, there is a change in the properties of the CZTSSe thin film due to decomposition. To bypass this issue, the team used a special "liquid-assisted method," which allowed the grains of CZTSSe to grow at a faster rate. This meant that the grains could grow large even at low temperatures, preventing the change in the properties of the CZTSSe thin film.

With this new observation, a significant hurdle has been overcome in the search for low-cost environment-friendly solar energy. Dr Kim concludes, "Our technology has diverse applications, including in electronic devices, household goods, buildings, and vehicles. The best part is that CZTS solar cells are free of the current drawbacks of toxic and rare metals. We can install everywhere we want!"

The idea that the immune system "monitors and prevents" the development of cancer, which is called "cancer immune vigilance", was initially proposed at the beginning of the last century. Since then, epidemiological studies have shown that the suppression of the immune system increases the risk of cancer, however, the molecular basis of this process is not well understood. Now, a study performed by an international consortium, led by the ProCURE program of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), and the OncoBell program of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), has identified the genetic variants that predispose to cancer and, which at the same time represent an alteration of the immune system. To do this, they have analyzed 17 types of cancer, and in 13 of them, they have found up to 57 genetic variants that predispose to developing cancer while affects the body's defenses. The article, published in the iScience journal of the Cell Press editorial, represents a step forward in understanding the biological bases that initiate cancer and open the door to future risk analysis. It also allows us to think of new strategies to prevent it.

"The results suggest that the risk of developing cancer can be explained, in part, by alterations in the number of immune cells," says Dr. Miquel Pujana, project leader and researcher of the ProCURE program at ICO and Oncobell at IDIBELL. "If we know the effect that these genetic variants have on the immune system, we can design new prevention strategies for patients with a high risk of developing cancer through the modulation of specific functions of the immune system cells", adds Pujana.

One of the specific connections identified in this study is the relationship between the alteration of SH2B3 gene function, a lymphocyte protein, and the risk of developing breast cancer, especially in women with a high risk of suffering this type of cancer due to mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Histochemical studies corroborate this fact since the alteration of the SH2B3 gene is related to a lower infiltration of immune cells in tumor tissue, a fundamental point to exercise its function.

On the other hand, in the presence of this variant, there are also fewer lymphocytes in the peripheral blood and, it is related to a diagnosis of cancer at younger ages. "These indications lead us to think that the correct function of the SH2B3 gene is decisive for the protection of cancer in women carrying BRCA1/2 mutations and, when it is affected, the pharmacological induction of the SH2B3 gene could reduce the risk of cancer ", explains Pujana.

The immune system in the development of cancer

The immune system, which recognizes foreign microorganisms as "not themselves" and provides a response to destroy these disease-causing agents, plays a similar role in protecting the body against malignancies. Damaged DNA from cancer cells eventually induces the production of abnormal proteins known as tumor antigens. These abnormal tumor proteins mark cancer cells as "not themselves." The immune system could find and kill cancer cells, but clearly, cancer cells have mechanisms that allow them to escape the immune responses that usually prevent the development of malignant tumors. When the immune system loses its surveillance function, tumor cells can form a tumor.

Researchers from Basel, Bochum and Copenhagen have gained new insights into the energy states of quantum dots. They are semiconductor nanostructures and promising building blocks for quantum communication. With their experiments, the scientists confirmed certain energy transitions in quantum dots that had previously only been predicted theoretically: the so-called radiative Auger process. For their investigations, the researchers in Basel and Copenhagen used special samples that the team from the Chair of Applied Solid State Physics at Ruhr-Universität Bochum had produced. The researchers report their results in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, published online on 15 June 2020.

Lock up charge carriers

In order to create a quantum dot, the Bochum researchers use self-organizing processes in crystal growth. In the process, they produce billions of nanometer-sized crystals of, for example, indium arsenide. In these they can trap charge carriers, such as a single electron. This construct is interesting for quantum communication because information can be encoded with the help of charge carrier spins. For this coding, it is necessary to be able to manipulate and read the spin from the outside. During readout, quantum information can be imprinted into the polarization of a photon, for example. This then carries the information further at the speed of light and can be used for quantum information transfer.

This is why scientists are interested, for example, in what exactly happens in the quantum dot when energy is irradiated from outside onto the artificial atom.

Special energy transitions demonstrated

Atoms consist of a positively charged core which is surrounded by one or more negatively charged electrons. When one electron in the atom has a high energy, it can reduce its energy by two well-known processes: in the first process the energy is released in the form of a single quantum of light (a photon) and the other electrons are unaffected. A second possibility is an Auger process, where the high energy electron gives all its energy to other electrons in the atom. This effect was discovered in 1922 by Lise Meitner and Pierre Victor Auger.

About a decade later, a third possibility has been theoretically described by the physicist Felix Bloch: in the so-called radiative Auger process, the excited electron reduces its energy by transferring it to both, a light quantum and another electron in the atom. A semiconductor quantum dot resembles an atom in many aspects. However, for quantum dots, the radiative Auger process had only been theoretically predicted so far. Now, the experimental observation has been achieved by researchers from Basel. Together with their colleagues from Bochum and Copenhagen, the Basel-based researchers Dr. Matthias Löbl and Professor Richard Warburton have observed the radiative Auger process in the limit of just a single photon and one Auger electron. For the first time, the researchers demonstrated the connection between the radiative Auger process and quantum optics. They show that quantum optics measurements with the radiative Auger emission can be used as a tool for investigating the dynamics of the single electron.

Applications of quantum dots

Using the radiative Auger effect, scientists can also precisely determine the structure of the quantum mechanical energy levels available to a single electron in the quantum dot. Until now, this was only possible indirectly via calculations in combination with optical methods. Now a direct proof has been achieved. This helps to better understand the quantum mechanical system.

In order to find ideal quantum dots for different applications, questions such as the following have to be answered: how much time does an electron remain in the energetically excited state? What energy levels form a quantum dot? And how can this be influenced by means of manufacturing processes?

Different quantum dots in stable environments

The group observed the effect not only in quantum dots in indium arsenide semiconductors. The Bochum team of Dr. Julian Ritzmann, Dr. Arne Ludwig and Professor Andreas Wieck also succeeded in producing a quantum dot from the semiconductor gallium arsenide. In both material systems, the team from Bochum has achieved very stable surroundings of the quantum dot, which has been decisive for the radiative Auger process. For many years now, the group at Ruhr-Universität Bochum has been working on the optimal conditions for stable quantum dots.

DNA replication is a process of critical importance to the cell, and must be coordinated precisely to ensure that genomic information is duplicated once and only once during each cell cycle. Using super-resolution technology a University of Technology Sydney led team has directly visualised the process of DNA replication in single human cells.

This is the first quantitative characterization to date of the spatio-temporal organisation, morphology, and in situ epigenetic signatures of individual replication foci (RFi) in single human cells at the nanoscale.

The results of the study, published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) give new insight into a poorly understood area of DNA replication namely how replication origin sites are chosen from thousands of possible sites.

Lead author of the study, biophysicist Dr Peter Su from UTS Institute of Biomedical Materials and Devices (IBMD), explains that it's known DNA replication is initiated at numerous sites along the chromosomes.

"These are known as replication origins, which are clustered into thousands of replication domains (RDs) across the genome, which in turn cluster within the cell nucleus as RFi " he says.

"Such organization is critically important for the cell but how replication origins are chosen within individual RDs remains poorly understood, and it is unclear whether the origins are activated randomly or preferentially near certain chromatin features," he says.
Chromatin helps package DNA material together so it can fit efficiently within the nucleus of a cell a, thus protecting the DNA from damage.

The collaboration with scientists from Peking University and National University of Singapore revealed a distinct pattern of replication propagation dynamics that reverses directionality across S-phase of the cell cycle, and is diminished upon knockdown of CTCF, a key regulator of 3D genome architecture.

The researchers say that together with simulation and bioinformatic analyses, these findings point to a model in which replication is preferentially activated on CTCF-organized looped chromatin structures, and suggest a non-random selection mechanism for replication activation at the sub-RD level.

Dr. Su said: "Our findings shed critical insights into the role local epigenetic environment plays in coordinating DNA replication across the genome, and could have wide-ranging implications for our understanding of how multi-scale chromatin architecture controls the organization and dynamics of diverse intranuclear processes in space and time."

For the first time, researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and their colleagues have succeeded in using RNA sequencing as an alternative to immunohistochemistry for cancer diagnostics. Their study was published in Biomedicines.

The conventionally used method for cancer diagnostics relies on immunohistochemical dyeing of tumor tissue sections. It allows to detect the presence and measure the concentration of marker proteins characterizing malignant growths. The procedure involves immersing a tumor sample in hot paraffin. Once cooled, a block of paraffinized tissue is cut into thin sections, which are then dyed and studied with a microscope. The resulting images indicate whether the tumor is malignant and what its molecular type is. This information is crucial for selecting the right therapy.

Another method, RNA sequencing involves determining the sequence and the number of molecules for each RNA present in the cell. The resulting data, referred to as the transcriptome, reflects the activity of all genes in the cell. To analyze such vast arrays of data, bioinformaticians employ specialized algorithms and compile transcriptome databases for different human cells and tissues.

The authors of the recent paper in Biomedicines have proposed that RNA sequencing be used as an alternative and complementary technique to the conventional immunohistochemical dyeing. Under this approach, the same paraffinized tumor fragments can be used in the analysis. This means no additional biopsy is required, and the two techniques will be fairly easy to combine.

"We have shown for the first time that the findings of both methods are in perfect agreement for the selected set of biomarkers. It's just that immunohistochemistry requires a much greater number of experiments -- one for every biomarker considered -- meaning that much more biomaterial is needed. In turn, RNA sequencing enables us to quantitatively characterize the work of all protein-encoding genes, and there are about 20,000 of them!" said principal investigator Anton Buzdin, who heads the Laboratory for Translational Genomic Bioinformatics at MIPT and leads the Research Department at Oncobox.

In their study, the researchers showed a clear correlation between the expression levels of four tumor marker genes measured via RNA sequencing, and the results of immunohistochemical dyeing.

"We are convinced that RNA sequencing has a great future in medical diagnostics. Hopefully, our latest study has brought that future a little closer," Buzdin added.

Laser welding is a process suitable for joining metals and thermoplastics. It has become particularly well established in highly automated production, for example in the automotive industry, because a laser operates with virtually no wear, is very fast and offers high precision. But until now, the quality of a weld seam could only be documented retrospectively, either by means of X-rays, magnetic analysis methods or by dissecting individual samples from production. Real-time monitoring of the weld quality would be a major advantage.

Stable or instable

While in conduction welding only the surface of the material is molten, in deep penetration welding the laser beam penetrates quickly and deeply into the material and produces a thin hole filled with metal and gas vapors, which is called "keyhole". If the keyhole becomes too deep, the vapour pressure of the metal vapour decreases while the surface tension of the molten metal increases. The keyhole becomes unstable and can eventually collapse, leaving a pore in the weld seam - an unwanted fault in the material. It is therefore important for the quality of laser welding seams to detect the moment when the keyhole becomes unstable. This has not been possible to a sufficient degree until now. It was only possible to look into the keyhole from the top using optical methods.

A group of Empa researchers led by Kilian Wasmer has now succeeded in precisely detecting and documenting the moment of instability in laser deep penetration welding. To do this, they are using an inexpensive acoustic sensor on the one hand, and measuring the reflection of the laser beam on the metal surface on the other. The combined data are analyzed within only 70 milliseconds with the help of artificial intelligence (convolutional neural network). This allows the quality of the laser welding process to be monitored in real-time.

Proof at the ESRF synchrotron X-ray source

The Empa researchers recently demonstrated the accuracy of their monitoring method at the European Synchrotron ESRF in Grenoble. Using their laser, they melted a keyhole into a small aluminium plate, which was simultaneously scanned by hard X-ray radiation. The entire process, which takes less than a hundredth of a second, was recorded with a high-speed X-ray camera. The result: the individual phases of the welding process could be correctly identified with more than 90 percent certainty.

Once the laser beam hits the metal, the first phase of the heat conduction welding process begins - only the surface is being molten. Subsequently, a stable keyhole is formed, which "wobbles" (in-stable keyhole) with longer exposure times. Sometimes the keyhole spits out liquid metal, similar to a volcanic eruption (blowout). If it collapses in an uncontrolled manner, a pore is formed. All these phases can be detected in real-time with the help of Empa technology.

In some experiments, the researchers succeeded in creating pores in the weld seam and then closed them again with a second laser pulse. The formation of the pore could be detected with 87 percent certainty, successful removal with as much as 73 percent. This method of error correction is extremely promising for laser welding. Until now, the pores in a weld seam could only be detected after completion of the work. With the help of Empa technology, the location of a pore is already known during the process. Post-processing with the laser can be started immediately.

Quality control in additive manufacturing

The monitoring process developed at Empa can be used not only for laser welding, but also for quality control of 3D-printed metal parts. In the powder bed process - one of the most common methods used in 3D metal printing - a laser beam passes through a layer of metal beads and welds them together. If pores appear, the laser could be directed towards the defective area a second time to remove each pore subsequently. However, this can only be done with the help of real-time monitoring, because any pores that have been created must be eliminated immediately before they are covered by further layers of metal.

"One advantage of our monitoring method is that the acoustic and optical sensors we use are in-expensive and robust and can be easily retrofitted in existing industrial plants," says Kilian Wasmer, who coordinated the work. His colleague Sergey Shevchik, who developed the artificial intelligence for signal processing, is pleased with the high computing speed at moderate hardware costs. "We use graphics processors that can calculate several tasks in parallel. Such processors are also used in modern game consoles and are available at a reasonable price. Thus, the rapid technical progress in Playstation and Co. has helped our work a lot."

Scientists from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (IKBFU) and National University of Science and Technology "MISiS" have studied how magnet nanoparticles affect cancer cells in the human liver. In the authors' opinion, this research will help to treat oncology. The research results were published in the "Nano Convergence" Scientific Journal.

Because of their unique properties, magnetic nanoparticles can be used for therapeutic diagnostics and personalized treatment of cancer diseases, as well as be an effective contrast agent for MRI examination and imaging of tumors.

It is known that human cancer cells can absorb magnetic nanoparticles. This property can be used in cancer therapy in at least three ways: local heating of a tumor when exposed to a variable magnetic field (magnetic hyperthermia), targeted drug delivery, or selective cytotoxic effects of nanoparticles on cancer cells.

Scientists from the IKBFU Laboratory of Novel Magnet Materials studied the peculiarities of nanoparticles' influence on cell organelles and got acquainted with the peculiarities of intracellular processes in detail by using different lines of liver cancer cells. Small objects such as nanoparticles can be easily "eaten" by cells, but this does not always happen - in some cases, nanoparticles can damage the structure of a cell, penetrate it and kill it. By adding iron oxide nanoparticles of various shapes to the nutrient medium of cells, scientists were able to check the degree and nature of the changes in cell culture.

According to the authors of the study, the behavior of cancer cells depends on the concentration of nanoparticles in the solution and, most importantly, the type of cancer. The fact is that different cells respond differently to the same particles. This makes it possible to create an instrument based on nanoparticles, selectively suppressing cancer cells while keeping healthy cells intact.

Scientists have carried out experiments on how cancer cells in the human liver react to various types of magnet nanoparticles. They found that iron oxide nanocubes and nanoclusters are capable of activating certain genes that give a "self-destruct command" to liver cancer cells. This discovery sheds light on the mechanisms that regulate cell death caused by the cytotoxicity of nanoparticles.

Maxim Abakumov, co-author of the research, head of NUST "MISiS" Biomedical materials Laboratory said:

"The mechanism of toxic effect is associated with the progressive permeability of lysosomal membranes in hepatocytes, which provokes the processes of apoptosis and autophagy, basically, "cell death".

According to Valeria Rodionova, the Head of the IKBFU Novel Magnet Materials Laboratory, the results of the research may be used for cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Valeria Rodionova told to RIA Novosti:

"This interdisciplinary project brought together scientists from different fields: physics, chemists, and biologists. Our joint work allowed us not only to synthesize unique types of nanoparticles but also to analyze the mechanisms of specific cellular signaling pathways that they activate in the cell".

Cooperation in the scientific world often proves to be decisive in research. Thus, microscopic studies were carried out in the laboratory of biophysics, under the supervision of Dr. Oleg Lunov, head of the laboratory (Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences). Scientists of the Mendeleev Russian University of Chemistry and Technology also took part in the study.

Until now, 2003 was considered as the driest and hottest year since the beginning of instrumental climate recording. This record can now be considered obsolete: "The past five years were among the warmest in Central Europe since record, and 2018 was the most extreme one," says Professor Bernhard Schuldt from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany.

The average temperature from April to October 2018 was on average 3.3 degrees Celsius above the long-term average and 1.2 degrees higher than in 2003, Schuldt and a research team report in the journal Basic and Applied Ecology. This had dramatic consequences for the forests in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Water transport through the wood collapses

"At such temperatures, our Central European vegetation reaches its limits," says the JMU professor. Together with other researchers from Germany and Switzerland, the plant ecologist was able to confirm with physiological measurements: When it is too hot, the tree simply loses too much water via its surface. As a result, the negative tension in the wood's conducting tissue becomes too steep, which ultimately leads to hydraulic failure interrupting the water transport.

Already during the course of the summer, severe drought-related stress symptoms were observed in most ecologically and economically important tree species, including widespread leaf discoloration and premature lead shedding.

Spruce and beech trees most affected

Moreover, unexpectedly strong drought-legacy effects were detected in 2019: many broad-leaved trees did not unfold their leaves - they had died. Others that survived the 2018 event where not able to withstand the following drought in 2019, or became increasingly susceptible to infestation with bark beetles or fungi.

"Spruce was most severely affected, mainly because this mountainous species has been planted outside its natural habitat in Central Europe," explains Schuldt. "Unexpected was, however, the extent to which beech trees were affected. Here in Northern Bavaria, I have seen several stands with complete dieback, especially on sites with shallow soil". Until this event, beech has been considered as "future tree species", even though its drought tolerance has been controversially discussed since the hot drought in 2003.

This year's climatic condition in spring again started too warm and too dry. "Now in June 2020 we have fortunately received high amounts of rainfall," the Würzburg professor is pleased to report. This has mitigated the situation, but the water deficit in the deeper soil layers has certainly not been recharged. Therefore, he assumes that affected trees will continue to die-off in the coming years due to legacy effects.

Mixed forests with drought-stress resistant tree species are needed

So what should one do? "I think that extreme drought and heat events will become more frequent in near future due to climate change," says the JMU scientist. At least locally, forests will therefore have to be restructured. Mixed forests with tree species that are as drought-resistant as possible are needed. "However, we still have to identify what species combination is best suited, also from an ecological and economic perspective. This is going to take some time."

Monitoring forests with Earth observation data

More data are needed to manage this forest conversion as good as possible. "Although damages to our forests are obvious, it is difficult to quantify them at high temporal and spatial resolution."

Therefore, remote monitoring systems are needed to support ground-based measures. Remotely sensed airborne or satellite earth observation data with high temporal and spatial resolution will enable us to track individual tree dieback and provide these data to the scientific community. "In the US, such systems are operating in given regions, but they are currently lacking for Central Europe. We will not be able to monitor forest health from the ground at larger scales."

Dr. Hong Xue led the study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. “Our study is an important step in the fight against cancer,” explains Xue. “Now that we know the difference in perceived and actual diet quality among survivors, we can design tailored interventions to improve diets in this population. We know from earlier studies that this can reduce the risk of cancer relapse and improve long-term outcomes.”

Xue and colleagues analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005-2014 on 2,361 cancer survivors and 23,114 participants who had not had cancer as a comparison group. They analyzed the nationally representative NHANES data combined with participants’ scores on the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2010, which measures adherence to dietary recommendations, as a measure of diet quality.

They found that cancer survivors’ diet quality has not improved over the past 10 years. Additionally, cancer survivors’ diets were generally poor as measured by the HEI, although healthier than the diets reported by the general population.

Older participants, those with higher incomes or levels of education, and Hispanic participants were more likely to overestimate their diet quality. Those who overrated their diet quality also had poorer diets overall than those who under-rated their diet quality.

This study was supported in part by research grants: P30 CA016059 “Massey Cancer Center Core Support” (NIH-NCI) and U54TR001366 “Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Treatment and Outcomes: A Transdisciplinary Approach” (NCATS/CTSA). The content is the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funder.

About George Mason University

George Mason University is Virginia's largest and most diverse public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 38,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility. For more information, visit https://www2.gmu.edu/.

About the College of Health and Human Services

George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services prepares students to become leaders and shape the public's health through academic excellence, research of consequence and interprofessional practice. The College enrolls 1,917 undergraduate students and 950 graduate students in its nationally recognized offerings, including: 5 undergraduate degrees, 12 graduate degrees, and 11 certificate programs. The College is transitioning to a college public health in the near future. For more information, visit https://chhs.gmu.edu/.

Journal

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

DOI

10.1038/s41430-020-0619-2

Confronting a white person who makes a racist or sexist statement can make them reflect on their words and avoid making biased statements about race or gender in the future, Rutgers researchers find.

The study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, suggests that when white men and women are confronted after expressing a bias about African Americans, Latinos, and women, they seek to identify and regulate their own biases about multiple groups of people.

"Many people are reluctant to confront instances of bias because they worry about backlash from others," said Kimberly Chaney, a doctoral graduate student in social psychology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick's School of Arts and Sciences. "But we found that confronting prejudice can be a powerful way to reduce not just one but multiple types of prejudice. We all have the ability to make a change and sometimes speaking out against small instances of bias may make a big change."

In the first part of the study, a group of 161 white college students was shown images of white and Black people accompanied with descriptive sentences, and then asked to draw inferences about the people pictured. Three photos of Black men included sentences intended to evoke a stereotypical response, such as "This man spends a lot of time behind bars." The task could draw the stereotypical response of "This man is a criminal" or a neutral response like "bartender," the researchers said.

Half of the participants were then randomly assigned to be verbally confronted for using a negative stereotype in their response. They then completed a similar task with different faces and sentences, including ones with women that could elicit stereotypical responses. For example, responses such as "This person works at a hospital" could elicit a stereotypical response of "nurse" instead of "doctor." Participants who were confronted for using a negative Black stereotype used significantly fewer stereotypes about women than participants who were not confronted for using a negative Black stereotype.

Another part of the study considered whether confrontation for using a stereotype about women reduces expressions of bias toward ethnic and racial minorities. Each white adult male participant believed he was interacting with another white adult male online to discuss moral dilemmas. One scenario involved a nurse who discovered an issue at a hospital and was asked to discuss with their partner what the nurse should do. Half of the participants who referred to the nurse as "she" during the online discussion were confronted by their online partner. Those participants were later asked to complete a task that could elicit negative stereotypes about Black and Latinx Americans. Participants who were confronted for using a negative stereotype about women used significantly fewer stereotypes about Black and Latinx Americans than participants who were not confronted for using a negative stereotype about women.

"There is still a lot more to understand about confronting prejudice, including how it should be done, what you should say and when it will be most effective," said study co-author Diana Sanchez, a professor of psychology. "Confronting someone is challenging, but we hope that knowing that it can be effective might make people more willing to step up."

Deny it you might, but even modest consumers brag about their purchases every once in a while. But can marketers leverage our tendency to brag about our buys to market products or services more successfully?

A new study from Michigan State University published in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science shows that leveraging consumer arrogance might be marketers' most effective strategy for promoting their brands and products.

"Arrogance is when you broadcast your superiority to others, whereas consumer arrogance is broadcasting your superiority to others via consumption," said Ayalla Ruvio, professor of marketing at MSU and the lead author of the study. "Whether it's, 'I got a better deal on a product than you,' or, 'Look at my new car,' it's all about showing others how great a consumer you are, better than them."

Companies spend millions of dollars advertising products, services and experiences, but Ruvio explained that word-of-mouth -- the information consumers share about products, deals, brands or anything that is consumption related -- is an invaluable promotion tactic that is driven by consumer arrogance.

"It is predicted that in 10 years, the conventional world of marketing will disappear and will rely only on word-of-mouth marketing -- especially for those of the younger generation who do not trust marketing messages from companies, and rely on influencers, recommendations and other forms of word-of-mouth communication," Ruvio said. "This is why the social phenomenon of consumer arrogance is critically important to understand."

In an era of oversharing one's consumption practices and triumphs, Ruvio and colleagues Tomas Hult and Richard Spreng from MSU and Richard Bagozzi from the University of Michigan wanted to find out what role consumer arrogance played in word-of-mouth sharing -- for better or worse.

In five studies, they showed how consumer arrogance drives word-of-mouth communication.

"We found that if you can trigger people's sense of consumer arrogance, they're more likely to engage in word-of-mouth communication," Ruvio said.

But, is that always good for marketers?

It depends.

The study found that such a tendency might be a double-edged sword for marketers.

"While most consumers prefer to engage in positive word-of-mouth communication and talk about their consumption triumphs, we found that consumer arrogance fuels both positive and negative word-of-mouth communication," Ruvio said.

Consumers brag about their consumption triumphs out of self-enhancement motives. Such triumphs portray them in a positive light as successful consumers to others. And, if their sense of consumer arrogance is triggered, they will brag significantly more; however, triggering this sense of arrogance will also lead consumers to share negative information if they regard their consumption experience as a failure. In such cases, negative word-of-mouth communication will help them reaffirm their sense of superiority, especially if the failure occurred in the presence of others.

The "bragging culture" in which we live rests upon consumer arrogance -- showing others what you have that they don't, how you got it or where you're doing it. This culture is shifting how companies reach their consumer bases.

"Our research emphasizes the uniqueness of consumer arrogance as a social phenomenon that drives word-of-mouth communication," Ruvio said. "The findings provide marketing managers with a strategic mechanism to add to their arsenal of managerial options for how to engage in the marketplace, particularly on social media."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The use of data science tools in research across campuses has exploded - from engineering and science to the humanities and social sciences. But there is no established data science discipline and no recognized way for various academic fields to develop and integrate accepted data science processes into research.

Victoria Stodden, an information sciences professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has proposed a framework for guiding researchers and curriculum development in data science and for aiding policy and funding decisions. She outlines the approach in the journal Communications of the ACM.

Stodden has studied issues of reproducibility of research findings for more than a decade. Now, the widespread use of computational tools for research has initiated discussions about transparency, bias, ethics and other topics. These ideas are broader than any particular field, and researchers from different fields need a common framework for how to approach and talk about them, she said.

Stodden said her approach will help define data science as a scientific discipline in its own right; provide a way to have a common conversation across various disciplines; encourage development of and train researchers and scientists on data-driven research methods; help them to agree on the most important issues in the emerging field of data science; and help consumers of computational research to understand how the results were produced.

"I'm hoping it's a way to unify the conversations going on now - to help them evolve and share knowledge in a way to leverage and learn from what other people are doing - and talk about what's going on across different disciplines," Stodden said.

The framework helps identify which issues can be generalized across disciplines and which are specific to a discipline, she said.

Stodden's proposal builds on the concept of the data life cycle used by information scientists to describe the various stages of a dataset. Her data science life cycle looks at not only datasets, but also the tools of computational research such as computer code and software, as well as the research findings.

The data science life cycle would allow researchers to look at the computational research process from data collection to analysis, validation, dissemination and ultimately how the research findings are used in public policy discussions, she said. It would bring into the conversation concepts of transparency, reproducibility of results, how results are interpreted, potential bias and ethics.

"It's a framework for how to bring all these different topics together and think about what it means to have a field of data science," Stodden said. "With more strategic thinking about what data science means, and what it means to leverage these tools, we will be doing better science."

The data science life cycle recognizes the need for preserving data, software and computational information and making them widely available after results are published, allowing for reproducibility.

Her approach also will help guide the development of a curriculum of data science, she said, providing a way to see where existing courses fit and where new courses may need to be developed.

"For a student seeking to do advanced coursework in data science, it can appear that statistics is not computational enough, computer science isn't data inference-focused enough, information science is too broad, and the domain sciences don't provide a broad enough pedagogical agenda in data science," she wrote.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- The discovery of carbon nanostructures like two-dimensional graphene and soccer ball-shaped buckyballs helped to launch a nanotechnology revolution. In recent years, researchers from Brown University and elsewhere have shown that boron, carbon's neighbor on the periodic table, can make interesting nanostructures too, including two-dimensional borophene and a buckyball-like hollow cage structure called borospherene.

Now, researchers from Brown and Tsinghua University have added another boron nanostructure to the list. In a paper published in Nature Communications, they show that clusters of 18 boron atoms and three atoms of lanthanide elements form a bizarre cage-like structure unlike anything they've ever seen.

"This is just not a type of structure you expect to see in chemistry," said Lai-Sheng Wang, a professor of chemistry at Brown and the study's senior author. "When we wrote the paper we really struggled to describe it. It's basically a spherical trihedron. Normally you can't have a closed three-dimensional structure with only three sides, but since it's spherical, it works."

The researchers are hopeful that the nanostructure may shed light on the bulk structure and chemical bonding behavior of boron lanthanides, an important class of materials widely used in electronics and other applications. The nanostructure by itself may have interesting properties as well, the researchers say.

"Lanthanide elements are important magnetic materials, each with very different magnetic moments," Wang said. "We think any of the lanthanides will make this structure, so they could have very interesting magnetic properties."

Wang and his students created the lanthanide-boron clusters by focusing a powerful laser onto a solid target made of a mixture of boron and a lanthanide element. The clusters are formed upon cooling of the vaporized atoms. Then they used a technique called photoelectron spectroscopy to study the electronic properties of the clusters. The technique involves zapping clusters of atoms with another high-powered laser. Each zap knocks an electron out of the cluster. By measuring the kinetic energies of those freed electrons, researchers can create a spectrum of binding energies for the electrons that bond the cluster together.

"When we see a simple, beautiful spectrum, we know there's a beautiful structure behind it," Wang said.

To figure out what that structure looks like, Wang compared the photoelectron spectra with theoretical calculations done by Professor Jun Li and his students from Tsinghua. Once they find a theoretical structure with a binding spectrum that matches the experiment, they know they've found the right structure.

"This structure was something we never would have predicted," Wang said. "That's the value of combining theoretical calculation with experimental data."

Wang and his colleagues have dubbed the new structures metallo-borospherenes, and they're hopeful that further research will reveal their properties.

A common food additive, recently banned in France but allowed in the U.S. and many other countries, was found to significantly alter gut microbiota in mice, causing inflammation in the colon and changes in protein expression in the liver, according to research led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientist.

"I think our results have a lot of implications in the food industry and on human health and nutrition," says lead author Hang Xiao, professor and Clydesdale Scholar of Food Science. "The study confirmed a strong linkage between foodborne titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) and adverse health effects."

Along with colleagues at UMass Amherst and in China, Xiao published the research in Small, a weekly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that covers nanotechnology.

Gut microbiota, which refers to the diverse and complex community of microorganisms in the gut, plays a vital role in human health. An imbalance of gut microbiota has been associated with a range of health issues, including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Human exposure to foodborne TiO2 NPs comes primarily from a food additive known as E171, which is made up of different-size particles of TiO2, including one-third or more that are nanoscale. E171, which makes products look whiter and more opaque, is found in such food as desserts, candy, beverages and gum. E171 exposure is two to four times higher in U.S. children than in adults, Xiao points out that one study found.

Smaller than 100 nanometers, foodborne nanoscale particles may have unique physiological properties that cause concern. "The bigger particles won't be absorbed easily, but the smaller ones could get into the tissues and accumulate somewhere," Xiao says.

In their study, Xiao and his team fed either E171 or TiO2 NPs to two populations of mice as part of their daily diet. One population was fed a high-fat diet similar to that of many Americans, two-thirds of whom are obese or overweight; the other group of mice was fed a low-fat diet. The mice fed a high-fat diet eventually became obese, while the mice on the low-fat diet did not.

"In both the non-obese mice and obese mice, the gut microbiota was disturbed by both E171 and TiO2 NPs," Xiao says. "The nanosized particles caused more negative changes in both groups of mice." Moreover, the obese mice were more susceptible to the adverse effects of TiO2 NPs, causing more damage in obese mice than in non-obese ones.

The researchers found TiO2 NPs decreased cecal levels of short-chain fatty acids, which are essential for colon health, and increased pro-inflammatory immune cells and cytokines in the colon, indicating an inflammatory state.

To evaluate the direct health impact of gut microbiota disrupted by TiO2 NP, Xiao and colleagues conducted a fecal transplant study. They gave mice antibiotics to clear out their original gut microbiota and then transplanted fecal bacteria from the TiO2 NP-treated mice to the antibiotic-treated mice. "The results support our hypothesis that including TiO2 NPs in the diet disrupts the homeostasis of the gut microbiota," Xiao says, "which in turn leads to colonic inflammation in the mice."

The study also measured levels of TiO2 in human stool samples, finding a wide range. Xiao says further research is needed to determine the health effects of long-term - such as life-long and multigenerational - exposure to TiO2 NPs.