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The increase in diet-related illness has led to a high burden of costs for society. However, German policymakers, in comparison with their international counterparts, have so far been reluctant to make political interventions that support healthy eating habits among its citizens. The concern is that serious interventions, such as imposing taxes or even bans, will be unpopular. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have now shown, in fact, that there is clear support for nutritional policy action in Germany. The results have been published in the scientific journal Nutrients.

In an online survey, researchers from the Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products research group at the University of Göttingen asked more than 1,000 consumers about various measures currently under discussion, such as advertising bans on children's food with high sugar content, or sugar and soft drinks taxes. The respondents were selected to ensure that they matched averages within the German population in terms of age, gender, education and region. Overall, over 60 percent of those surveyed were in favour of nutritional policy action by the state. Depending on the policy, approval ratings ranged between 34 and 79 percent. A quarter of those surveyed were indifferent to the subject of nutrition policy. Only 11 percent were fundamentally opposed.

A key research finding is that people's opinion about food policies does not necessarily depend on how difficult it is for them to eat a healthy diet. The assumption that people with a sweet tooth, for instance, are more likely to oppose a sugar tax is not confirmed. Around 17 percent of those surveyed who admit to such difficulties clearly support wide-reaching state controls. Around 12 percent, however, reject them. For people who eat a healthy diet, 33 percent are in favour of nutritional measures. But here, too, 12 percent of those surveyed are against such regulation.

"Our research shows that nutrition policy has broad support among the population, but that this support is based on different motives," says Kristin Jürkenbeck, PhD student and first author of the study. "So far, politicians have often rejected the calls from medical organisations and health insurance companies for decisive action in the fight against unhealthy eating by pointing to a lack of social acceptance. This generalisation is too sweeping", says Dr Anke Zühlsdorf, Project Manager of the study, which was commissioned by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations.

Below please find links to new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. All coronavirus-related content published in Annals of Internal Medicine is free to the public. A compete collection is available at https://annals.org/aim/pages/coronavirus-content.

COVID-19: Protecting Hospitals from the Invisible

Michael Klompas, MD, MPH

Ideas and Opinions

FREE full text: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-0751

Media Contact: To reach the lead author, Michael Klompas, MD, MPH, please contact Haley Bridger at hbridger@bwh.harvard.edu.

How Should US Hospitals Prepare for Coronavirus Disease 2019 ?

Vineet Chopra, MD ; MSc, Eric Toner, MD; Richard Waldhorn, MD; Laraine Washer, MD

Ideas and Opinions

FREE full text: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M20-0907

Media Contact: To reach the lead author, Vineet Chopra, MD, MSc, please contact Kara Gavin at kegavin@med.umich.edu.

A German-American team of IT security researchers has investigated how users choose the PIN for their mobile phones and how they can be convinced to use a more secure number combination. They found that six-digit PINs actually provide little more security than four-digit ones. They also showed that the blacklist used by Apple to prevent particularly frequent PINs could be optimised and that it would make even greater sense to implement one on Android devices.

Philipp Markert, Daniel Bailey, and Professor Markus Dürmuth from the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security at Ruhr-Universität Bochum conducted the study jointly with Dr. Maximilian Golla from the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Bochum and Professor Adam Aviv from the George Washington University in the USA. The researchers will present the results at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in San Francisco in May 2020. A preprint of the paper can be found online: https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.04868.

Extensive user study

In the study, the researchers had users on Apple and Android devices set either four or six-digit PINs and later analysed how easy they were to guess. In the process, they assumed that the attacker did not know the victim and did not care whose mobile phone is unlocked. Accordingly, the best attack strategy would be to try the most likely PINs first.

Some of the study participants were free to choose their PIN at random. Others could only choose PINs that were not included in a blacklist. If they tried to use one of the blacklisted PINs, they received a warning that this combination of digits was easy to guess.

In the experiment, the IT security experts used various blacklists, including the real one from Apple, which they obtained by having a computer test all possible PIN combinations on an iPhone. Moreover, they also created their own more or less comprehensive blacklists.

Six-digit PINs not more secure than four-digit ones

It emerged that six-digit PINs do not provide more security than four-digit ones. "Mathematically speaking, there is a huge difference, of course," says Philipp Markert. A four-digit PIN can be used to create 10,000 different combinations, while a six-digit PIN can be used to create one million. "However, users prefer certain combinations; some PINs are used more frequently, for example, 123456 and 654321," explains Philipp Markert. This means users do not take advantage of the full potential of the six-digit codes. "It seems that users currently do not understand intuitively what it is that makes a six-digit PIN secure," supposes Markus Dürmuth.

A prudently chosen four-digit PIN is secure enough, mainly because manufacturers limit the number of attempts to enter a PIN. Apple locks the device completely after ten incorrect entries. On an Android smartphone, different codes cannot be entered one after the other in quick succession. "In eleven hours, 100 number combinations can be tested," points out Philipp Markert.

Blacklists can be useful

The researchers found 274 number combinations on Apple's blacklist for four-digit PINs. "Since users only have ten attempts to guess the PIN on the iPhone anyway, the blacklist does not make it any more secure," concludes Maximilian Golla. According to the researchers, the blacklist would make more sense on Android devices, as attackers can try out more PINs there.

The study has shown that the ideal blacklist for four-digit PINs would have to contain about 1,000 entries and differ slightly from the list currently used by Apple. The most common four-digit PINs, according to the study, are 1234, 0000, 2580 (the digits appear vertically below each other on the numeric keypad), 1111 and 5555.

On the iPhone, users have the option to ignore the warning that they have entered a frequently used PIN. The device, therefore, does not consistently prevent entries from being selected from the blacklist. For the purpose of their study, the IT security experts also examined this aspect more closely. Some of the test participants who had entered a PIN from the blacklist were allowed to choose whether or not to enter a new PIN after the warning. The others had to set a new PIN that was not on the list. On average, the PINs of both groups were equally difficult to guess.

More secure than pattern locks

Another result of the study was that four and six-digit PINs are less secure than passwords, but more secure than pattern locks.

The most popular PINs

According to the study, the ten most popular four-digit PINs are: 1234, 0000, 2580, 1111, 5555, 5683, 0852, 2222, 1212, 1998

The ten most popular six-digit PINs are: 123456, 654321, 111111, 000000, 123123, 666666, 121212, 112233, 789456, 159753

Birds alighting on driveways and baby bunnies munching on lawn grass should keep something in mind: Beware the house cat.

A new study shows that hunting by house cats can have big effects on local animal populations because they kill more prey, in a given area, than similar-sized wild predators. This effect is mostly concentrated relatively close to a pet cat's home, since most of their movement was a 100-meter radius of their homes, usually encompassing a few of their neighborhood's yards on either side.

Researchers from NC State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences collaborated with scientists and citizen scientists from six countries to collect GPS cat-tracking data and prey-capture reports from 925 pet cats, with most coming from the U.S., U.K, Australia and New Zealand.

"Since they are fed cat food, pets kill fewer prey per day then wild predators, but their home ranges were so small that this effect on local prey ends up getting really concentrated," said Roland Kays, the paper's lead author. "Add to this the unnaturally high density of pet cats in some areas, and the risk to bird and small mammal population gets even worse.

"We found that house cats have a two- to 10-time larger impact on wildlife than wild predators - a striking effect," he said.

The researchers focused on the ecological impact of house cats - as opposed to feral cats - and enlisted hundreds of pet owners to track their cats to see where they went and report on the number of dead critters they brought home. Inexpensive GPS tracking devices measured distances traveled by these house cats, which spent their days both indoors and outdoors.

"We knew cats were killing lots of animals - some estimates show that cats in North America kill from 10 to 30 billion wildlife animals per year - but we didn't know the area in which that was happening, or how this compared with what we see in nature," Kays said.

The researchers calculated the amount of prey killed per year by house cats and divided the number by the area in which the cats hunted. Some adjustments were made to the prey count as cats don't necessarily bring all their kills home.

The study showed that house cats killed an average of 14.2 to 38.9 prey per 100 acres, or hectare, per year.

The study also showed that cats do much of their damage to wildlife in disturbed habitats, like housing developments.

"Because the negative impact of cats is so local, we create a situation in which the positive aspects of wildlife, be they the songs of birds or the beneficial effects of lizards on pests, are least common where we would appreciate them most," said study co-author Rob Dunn, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Applied Ecology at NC State. "Humans find joy in biodiversity, but we have, by letting cats go outdoors, unwittingly engineered a world in which such joys are ever harder to experience."

NC State's Arielle W. Parsons and Brandon Mcdonald co-authored the paper. Other co-authors include Troi Perkins from Dartmouth College; Shelby Powers from East Carolina University; Leonora Shell from SciStarter; Jenni L. McDonald and Holly Cole from University of Exeter; Heidy Kikillus and Lisa Woods from Victoria University of Wellington; and Hayley Tindle and Philip Roetman from the University of South Australia.

A video presenting the findings of this study, for embedding in articles, is here: https://youtu.be/SYJATBgQlY0

(Boston, MA) -Research from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute finds a promising avenue for addressing vaccine hesitancy around HPV vaccine. The study, "Tailored Messages Addressing HPV Vaccination Concerns Improves Behavioral Intent Among Mothers: A Randomized Controlled Trial," appears in the xx issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The HPV vaccine is highly effective in preventing infection against certain types of HPV that can lead to cervical, oropharyngeal, and anal cancers. However, HPV vaccine coverage in pre-teens and young teens remains sub-optimal, with only 61% of 13-year-old girls and 64% of 13-year-old boys in the U.S. initiating the vaccine series, with wide variation across states. Parental hesitancy is one reason for low vaccination coverage. In fact, vaccine hesitancy in general has been identified as one of the top ten global health threats by the WHO, which suggests the strong need for work addressing this issue. When recommending HPV vaccine, the current guidelines suggest clinicians use a presumptive, bundled messaging approach, in which a provider presumes that the parent is ready to vaccinate and states that the child is "due" for all age-appropriate vaccines at the 11-12 year old well-visit appointment, including HPV vaccine. However, this approach, by itself, may not be the most effective strategy for parents with specific concerns about the HPV vaccine.

In a large web-based randomized controlled trial of mothers with concerns about the HPV vaccine, investigators compared the impact of implementing the current guideline alone and in combination with tailored messages on HPV vaccination intent. These mothers, all of whom did not intent to vaccinate their 11-14 year-old child within the next 12 months, were randomized to one of three groups: a) "control" which watched a bundled recommendation video; b) "top concern" which watched the control video plus a video tailored to their top HPV vaccine concern; or c) "all concerns" which watched the control video plus videos on the top 5 most common HPV vaccine concerns.

Study results found that tailored messages addressing all of the specific concerns of vaccine hesitant mothers improved HPV vaccination intent, and tailored messages addressing the top concern marginally improved intent; these improvements were not observed in the control group.

"We found that a presumptive, bundled messaging approach, by itself, may not be the most effective strategy for increasing HPV vaccine uptake in pre-teens and young teens who have parents with specific concerns about the vaccine," said co-lead author Catherine Panozzo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Population Medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School. Adds Dr. Panozzo,, "our findings contribute to the growing body of literature suggesting that tailored recommendations may be essential for improving HPV vaccination acceptance among hesitant parents".

Regarding future directions, co-lead author, Dr. Katharine Head, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Indiana University School of Liberal Arts, commented, "We suggest that future studies determine whether these improvements in HPV vaccination intent can translate to actual improvements in HPV vaccination in clinic settings. In fact, our team is working to integrate these messaging strategies into a clinical intervention to test this very hypothesis."

Chlorine (Cl?) is one of the most widely used industrial chemicals in the world today, with 75 million tons produced annually. A team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST has recently found a way to make the manufacture of chlorine more efficient and affordable. This is expected to be of great help to chlorine-related industries.

A joint research team, led by Professor Sang Hoon Joo and Professor Sang Kyu Kwak in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST has unveiled a novel catalyst (Pt1/CNT) for electrochemical chlorine generation.

The existing electrochemical catalysts for chlorine generation contain a large amount of precious metals, such as ruthenium (Ru) and iridium (Ir), thus are expensive and not very efficient in terms of production. Besides, in the condition of low chlorine concentration and a pH-neutral environment, not only chlorine but also oxygen are generated and this reduces the overall chlorine production efficiency. The research team developed a non-metal oxide based on a conclusion that the cause of such drawbacks are rooted in the intrinsic properties of "metal oxide-based catalysts."

The newly-developed catalyst (Pt?/CNT) is a monatomic dispersion catalyst, in which platinum (Pt) atoms that are surrounded by four nitrogen (N) atoms, are dispersed on carbon nanotubes (CNT). Since the catalyst is completely exposed on the surface of the metal atoms (Pt), even with the small amount, it can give a high efficiency and show a better performance than the existing commercial DSA catalysts under various electrolyte conditions. In addition, it contained high chlorine ions, such as seawater, or vice versa. It will be shown to be applied to electrochemical water treatment equipment in various environments in the future.

"It has been confirmed that only chlorine ions were selectively adsorbed on the active sites of Pt1/CNT, while other additional reactions were suppressed," says Taejung Lim in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UNIST, the first author of the study. "This will serve as a new catalyst, which overcomes the fundamental disadvantage of the existing metal oxide catalysts."

In the study, Professor Kwak and Dr. Gwan Yeong Jung applied their experimental data to the theoretical calculations to examine the structure of active sites and the principle of electrochemical reactions. They found that the improved structural integrity between the active sites and carbon nanotubes result in smoother electron transmission and a marked improvement in the catalytic performance.

"Through molecular modelling and density functional caluations, we have idenfitied the central structure of active sites in Pt1/CNT," says Professor Kwak. "This calculation principle is expected to contribute to the interpretation of the reactivity and reaction principles of various monoatomic catalysts in the future."

"The monoatomic catalyst developed this time is a new catalyst design concept that changes the paradigm of the noble metal oxide catalyst commercialized 50 years ago," says Professor Joo. "In particular, the new catalyst is not affected by the composition of the electrolyte, thus is expected to be used in a variety of applications, such as medium and small-scale water treatment, as well as ballast water treatment."

A new system combining artificial intelligence (AI) with human knowledge promises faster and more accurate cancer diagnosis.

The powerful technology, developed by a team led by engineering researchers at the University of Waterloo, uses digital images of tissue samples to match new cases of suspected cancer with previously diagnosed cases in a database.

In tests using the largest publicly available archive in the world - comprised of about 30,000 digitized slides from almost 11,000 patients - the technology achieved up to 100-per-cent accuracy for 32 forms of cancer in 25 organs and body parts.

"AI can help us tap into our medical wisdom, which at the moment is just sitting in archives," said Hamid Tizhoosh, director of the Laboratory for Knowledge Inference in Medical Image Analysis (KIMIA Lab) at Waterloo. "When you use AI like this, its performance is astounding."

The system utilizes AI to search digital images of biopsies from confirmed cancer cases for those most similar to a new digital image in an undiagnosed case.

Based on the known, verified findings of the majority of similar images, the system recommends a diagnosis for the new case.

Conducted over a four-month period using high-performance computers and data storage, the tests achieved accurate diagnoses for everything from melanoma to prostate cancer.

"We showed it is possible using this approach to get incredibly encouraging results if you have access to a large archive," said Tizhoosh. "It is like putting many, many pathologists in a virtual room together and having them reach consensus."

The archive used in the study, part of a five-year project backed by $3.2 million in funding from the Ontario government, was provided by the National Cancer Institute in the United States.

More work is needed to analyze the findings and refine the system, but Tizhoosh said the results so far demonstrate it has potential as a screening tool to both speed up and improve the accuracy of cancer diagnoses by pathologists.

And in the developing world, it could save lives by enabling remote access to inexpensive diagnosis.

"This technology could be a blessing in places where there simply aren't enough specialists," Tizhoosh said. "One could just send an image attached to an email and get a report back."

When it rains in San Diego, waterways such as the San Diego River and its Alvarado Creek tributary often experience bacterial pollution that is ultimately carried to the ocean. This is a public health threat for swimmers, surfers and aquatic life, and it can stem from sewer line breaks during storms, illegal discharging of wastewater into rivers, or leaky septic tanks.

Typically, coastal cities that experience frequent contamination will collect water samples and test the quality if they suspect bacterial contamination, before issuing warnings to the public and closing access to beaches. But this reactionary method involves wait times of to 18 to 24 hours, a potentially hazardous delay for the public.

Environmental engineers from San Diego State University have adapted existing sensor technology that can detect fluorescence and tweaked it to enable rapid detection of bacteria in the water. They plan to combine this technology with telemetry to transmit contamination alerts in real time, an advance with useful implications for water monitoring agencies and government authorities.

From the enamel on our teeth, to material in the clothes we wear, every object has fluorescence that is invisible to the naked eye, but can be detected by special sensors. Bacteria also have similar fluorescence these sensors can detect, which helped the researchers quickly identify contamination.

"We wanted to rapidly identify bacterial contamination, literally in seconds, and
be able to watch the intensity increase in real time, using it much like a hand-held instrument," said Natalie Mladenov, water quality researcher and associate professor. "One problem many water managers are aware of is the need to have real time data, and this could be the answer."

She has long been interested in evaluating sensors as early warning alert systems for unanticipated pollution events, both in surface water and at water treatment and reuse facilities. She has previously shown how fluorescence-based sensors can indicate the presence of pollutants in treatment facilities, and this time she set out to explore whether they could be adapted for sewage pollution incidents in surface water.

In addition, "source waters for drinking water treatment plants, like lakes or reservoirs, would also be an excellent place to deploy such a sensor to warn of sewage spills or other bacterial contamination," Mladenov said.

Most sampling devices being used for this purpose have an incubation period before results are available, but the fluorescence-based sensors she tested can distinguish between bacteria in the water and organic material and plant waste, and relay that data immediately. The study will be published March 11 in the Science of the Total Environment.

Mladenov and former undergraduate engineering student Lorelay Mendoza used a portable submersible fluorometer, which comes with a choice of sensors. For bacterial wastewater tracking, they chose a sensor for tryptophan--the same amino acid that makes you sleepy after a turkey dinner--and a humic sensor for background fluorescence tracking.

Mladenov's previous research indicated the tryptophan sensor would be the most useful. For proof her team tested it both in the lab and in Alvarado Creek where they had observed the presence of fecal bacteria concentrations during storms.

Mendoza would track weather events and the night before a storm was predicted, she would place the fluorometer in the creek, tracking bacterial contamination during the storm in real time.

"The findings suggest that wastewater was discharged into Alvarado Creek because of a sanitary sewer overflow or some kind of leakage in sewer infrastructure during a storm," Mladenov said. "Sewer lines are old and many are reaching the end of their useful life."

Mendoza said the high readings were supported by high E. coli counts, and human-derived pollution was confirmed by measuring caffeine concentrations.

"We hope this research propels the deployment of fluorescence sensors to water bodies for long-term monitoring, because having data is power," Mendoza said. "I would like to see cities and water managers deploy sensors along water streams to detect vulnerabilities in water quality and to reduce the impacts of pollution events when they happen. Without early warning signals, the time between initial contamination and awareness and reaction is longer and will have negative consequences for the environment and aquatic life."

Collecting samples during storms can be challenging. That's where grad student Federick Pinongcos and colleague Alicia Kinoshita came in, to ensure that samples were collected intact and quickly brought to the laboratory. Then each sample was analyzed for markers of wastewater contamination.

"This type of multiple lines of evidence-study had previously not been undertaken," Mladenov said. "It indicates that the optical, fluorescence based approach is an effective way for future detection of sewage leaks and other spills in surface waters."

To obtain supporting biological and chemical data, Mladenov collaborated with SDSU professors Matthew Verbyla and Rick Gersberg. Next, she and geography professor Trent Biggs, are teaming up to deploy the fluorescence-based sensor together with a telemetry system to ensure the alert can be received in real time, and will conduct studies in larger water bodies including the San Diego River.

Funding for the field deployments comes from the San Diego River Conservancy. The lab research and Mendoza's stipend were covered by grants from the National Institutes of Health and SDSU's Maximizing Access to Research Careers program.

People with an understanding of basic finances are likely to be aware of existing legal and social services for people with dementia, according to a study of Japan's aging population.

More than 8 million people -- about 6 percent of Japan's population -- have either dementia or mild cognitive impairment. Japan has felt economic impacts at the national level as people with dementia participate less in daily economic activities, such as going to the store or paying bills.

To better understand the needs and behaviors of aging populations, researchers from Hiroshima University and Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, led by Professor Yoshihiko Kadoya and Professor Jin Narumoto, analyzed data from the nation-wide survey on the Economic Status of the Japanese Elderly.

The two main systems they studied were adult guardianship and civil trust. Adult guardianship is the authority given to an adult guardian by the court to make decisions for a person who is incapable of making their own decisions. In the civil trust system, a person instructs financial institutions to take care of their assets.

"Our research shows that financial literacy not only makes people handle money issues better but also makes them aware of potential problems that could emerge in old age," Kadoya said of the research recently published in the Journal of Women and Aging. "Financial literacy is found to be the most influential factor affecting knowledge about these two systems irrespective of gender, age, education, and economic status."

Kadoya notes the stories of people with dementia who have died thinking they had little or no money, but people later discover they had millions of yen tucked away in their home. Social services like adult guardianship and civil trust are designed to prevent those types of situations and help an aging population continue to carry on their economic activities.

He adds that these types of systems can be challenging to navigate as courts often find it difficult to appoint guardians or institutions when family and friends do not agree to take on the responsibility. Therefore, these systems are not often used due to detailed legal procedures and a general lack of awareness.

Still, a person's awareness of these services can help them appoint a legal guardian in advance of their cognitive decline, which could help minimize the misuse of power and prevent unnecessary legal procedures. In addition to implications for aging populations and caregivers, the findings are also useful for those who develop policy related to adult guardianship and civic trust.

"Policymakers should emphasize financial literacy and conduct a targeted promotion effort to help people with dementia so they can continue to participate in and benefit from economic activities," Kadoya said.

People of different generations are equally lonely but for different reasons, a study suggests.

Living alone increases the risk of loneliness in older age whereas in midlife feeling isolated is more linked to personality traits, the research found.

The study found emotionally-resilient people - those more able to adapt in stressful situations - are less at risk of loneliness at any age, and outgoing middle-aged people are less likely to feel lonely.

For those over 70, living alone was associated with more loneliness, with the issue being more acute for men.

Psychologists at the University of Edinburgh examined data from more than 4000 people older than 45 for loneliness, personality traits, and living circumstances.

People were asked to rate how lonely they felt. Their personality traits were also tested using a framework called the Five-Factor Model.

Researchers used machine learning - which uses data to make predictions - to examine the data for relationships between personality traits such as emotional stability, and social variables such as living alone, as causes for loneliness.

Results were compared between people in midlife - from 45 to 69 years old - and those in their 70s. A major strength of the study is that two separate samples represented each age group, and the same effects were found across samples in each age group.

The researchers found similar levels of loneliness in both groups.

On average, people with a strong capacity to maintain emotional balance under stressful circumstances were 60 per cent less likely to be lonely, regardless of their age.

Middle-aged people who were more extroverted were, on average, 55 per cent less likely to be lonely. Social isolation was not significantly associated with loneliness in the 45 to 69 age group.

People over 70 who lived alone were more than four times more likely to feel lonely than those who did not live alone.

Researchers say the study helps understand the origins of loneliness in different generations.

Dr Drew Altschul, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, said: "The use of machine learning in this study allows us to identify and replicate differences in what risk factors are linked to loneliness in middle and older age people. Loneliness is a growing public health issue, identifying the things that precede loneliness is difficult, however, contemporary machine learning algorithms are positioned to help identify these predictors."

Monash University researchers in Australia have used a combination of atomic-scale imaging and simulations to improve the understanding of the theta-prime strengthening phase in the aluminium copper alloy system.

In a study published in Nature Communications, the authors showed that improvement of the phase was enabled by introducing a large influx of specific crystal defects, or 'vacancies'.

They investigated the theta-prime transformation in the binary alloy Al-1.7at.%Cu, an alloy that forms the basis of many commercial alloys used widely in the aerospace industry. They reported direct and rapid nucleation of the theta-prime phase, as well as of an unexpected precipitate phase.

Researchers describe this nucleation pathway as template-directed, as it involves a precursor phase that serves as a structural template for the nucleated phases.

Whereas nucleation is slow and sparse when the bulk alloy is subjected to a conventional heat treatment, the study showed that nucleation is rapid and abundant when the heat treatment is applied to a sample with one of its dimensions at the nanoscale. The study also revealed the critical role of vacancies in enabling template directed nucleation.

The findings have important implications for precipitation mechanisms in nanoscale or nanostructured materials, as well as in conditions associated with large numbers of lattice defects such as materials far-from-equilibrium or subjected to extreme levels of deformation or intense ion irradiation.

Lead author, Associate Professor Laure Bourgeois of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy, said: "we showed that transformation becomes much easier after the introduction of vacancies into the theta-prime phase in several situations: in nanomaterials, under irradiation by an electron beam in an electron microscope, and by deforming and heating bulk materials."

"By offering an improved understanding of how the strengthening phase can be promoted, we aim to contribute to the design of better high-strength lightweight alloys that offer superior performance."

Osaka, Japan — In an Internet-driven world, social media has become the go-to source of all kinds of information. This is especially relevant in crisis-like situations, when warnings and risk-related information are actively circulated on social media. But currently, there is no way of determining the accuracy of the information. This has occasionally resulted in the spread of misinformation, with some readers often bearing the brunt. In a study published in Japanese Psychological Research, scientists at Osaka University, including Prof Asako Miura, found a pattern through which information spreads on social media —which could help prevent the spread of fake news. Prof Miura says, "Dissemination of information through social media is often associated with false rumors. In order to prevent this, we wanted to unravel the underlying mechanisms by digging deeper into how these false rumors spread."

The scientists focused on Twitter, a popular site where users can disseminate or share information through the "retweet" feature. Conventional models of information diffusion fail to adequately explain the exact transmission route on social media, as they do not take into account individual user characteristics. Therefore, to study these characteristics, the scientists first selected 10 highly retweeted (more than 50 times) risk-related tweets. Based on Slovic's well-known definition of risk perception, a cognitive model used to assess how people perceive certain risks, they assessed whether users perceived these risks as "dreadful" (related to large-scale events with potentially dire consequences) or "unknown" (when the impact of the event is unknown). They then analyzed the personal networks of the users who tweeted/retweeted particular tweets —specifically the number of followers, followees, and mutual connections.

They found that users with fewer connections tend to spread information arbitrarily, possibly owing to a lack of experience or awareness. But, users with a high number of mutual connections were more emotionally driven —they were more likely to spread dreadful information, possibly intending to share their reactions with the public. Prof Miura explains, "Our study showed the existence of an information diffusion mechanism on social media that cannot be explained by conventional theoretical models. We showed that risk perception has a significant impact on the 'retweetability' of tweets."

By identifying the user network characteristics on Twitter, this study potentially offers a solution to prevent fake news dissemination. These characteristics can be leveraged to maximize the spread of accurate information, ensuring that appropriate measures are taken. Prof Miura concludes, "Our research provides an opportunity for people to rethink how false information is spread and to deliver accurate information via social media."

The short-chain fatty acid propionic acid influences the intestine-mediated immune regulation in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). This has been shown by a team from the Department of Neurology of Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) at St. Josef-Hospital in an international study headed by Professor Aiden Haghikia. The application of propionic acid in addition to MS medication reduced the relapse rate and the risk of disability progression in the long term. Moreover, initial Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies indicated that propionic acid may reduce brain atrophy as a sign of neuronal cell death. The results were published in the journal Cell from 10 March 2020.

Self-sufficient organ within the gut

The gut microbiome, i.e. the entire bacterial colonisation of the intestine, plays an important role not only for the healthy organism, but its association with chronic diseases, such as multiple sclerosis has been recently appreciated. Within the gut, the interaction between dietary components, microbiota, their metabolites, and the immune system takes place in the intestinal wall. "This is how intestinal bacteria can directly and indirectly affect anatomically distant structures such as the brain," explains Aiden Haghikia. "Accordingly, the gut microbiome acts like an self-sufficient endocrine organ that interacts with the environment."

Short chain fatty acids can suppress inflammatory reactions

In the current study, the researchers successfully transferred the results previously shown in the cell culture dish and the experimental model to their MS patients: short-chain fatty acids such as propionic acid or its salt propionate increased the differentiation and function of regulatory T cells in the gut. "These cells stop excessive inflammatory processes and reduce auto-immune cells in autoimmune diseases like MS," says Professor Ralf Gold, Director of the Department of Neurology at St. Josef Hospital.

In their study, the researchers showed that the microbiome composition is altered in MS patients. Moreover, they demonstrated a deficiency of propionic acid in the feces and serum of MS patients, which was most pronounced in the earliest phases of the disease. These data were obtained in collaboration with the Max Delbrück Center Berlin and the Institute of Nutritional Sciences at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

Intestinal bacteria and the power plants of the cells of paramount importance

In collaboration with researchers from the Bar-Ilan University in Israel, who had developed an intestinal model for the functional analysis of the microbiome, it emerged that propionate associated changes of the gut microbiome play a crucial role in the differentiation of regulatory cells. The increased function of these cells was due to their improved energy utilisation through an altered function of the mitochondria, as the research team demonstrated in collaboration with the Molecular Cell Biology research group at the RUB Faculty of Medicine.

The intestine as target for future therapeutic approaches

The short-chain fatty acids represent only a fraction of the metabolites of intestinal bacteria that are generated from the diet. "Further research into this largely unknown organ and the knowledge gained from it will enable us to develop innovative dietary measures to complement the known therapeutics in the future," says Aiden Haghikia.

Fuel, animal feed, other major carbon-rich products could have a sustainable replacement with the help of a new approach to processing a plant biomass material produced naturally by plants during photosynthesis. Called lignocellulose, it comprises half of dry plant matter.

Researchers published a review of the work and current status on Feb. 24 in Biotechnology Advances.

"Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant sustainable carbon source on the planet and has enormous potential to substitute fossil resources on the premise of cost-effective conversion," said LIU Yajun, paper author and researcher from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT). "Lignocellulosic residues, especially the agricultural lignocellulosic wastes, represent one of the best substitutes of fossil resources because of its low price, high availability and wide distribution."

The estimated annual world output of lignocellulosic biomass is more than 200 billion tons, providing an extensive, renewable resource - if it can be converted into a useful form.

"Lignocellulosic biomass is recalcitrant and difficult to deconstruct," LIU said.

The main component of lignocellulose is cellulose, the tough material responsible for the strong structure of plant cell walls. Lignocellulose bioconversion to biofuels and biochemicals is possible, but, according the LIU, the cost and efficiency of the enzymes used to initiate the conversion is a concern.

Previously proposed conversion methods involve separately producing enzymes, breaking down the lignocellulose, and then fermenting the resulting sugar or doing both simultaneously. The new method proposed by LIU and his team is called consolidated bio-saccharification, during which whole-cell biocatalysts are employed for lignocellulose deconstruction processing and the fermentation process is entirely separated.

Known as consolidated bio-saccharification, or CBS, this strategy aims for a final product of fermentable sugars, rather than end products such as biofuel. The produced sugars can then be used as the platform chemical in fermentation for later processes that produce biofuel or other biochemicals.

"CBS is considered promising to lead lignocellulose bioconversion into the real world because it shows tremendous advantages in reducing enzyme production costs and streamlining operational processes," LIU said. "However, as a newly developed technology, CBS still needs improvement and innovation of existing processes and instruments to make breakthroughs in the real world."

LIU and her team are currently piloting a demonstration of CBS, intending to provide further evidence of the method's industrial applications and scalability.

Ageing is an inevitable part of life, yet some species are ageing very differently than others, even than very similar ones. Naked mole rats for example, an east African rodent of a size comparable to moles or mice, show a strongly delayed process of ageing and live up to 30 years. Scientists from Russia, Germany and Switzerland now confirmed a mechanism in mouse, bat and naked mole rat cells - a "mild depolarization" of the inner mitochondrial membrane - that is linked to ageing: Mild depolarization regulates the creation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mROS) in cells and is therefore a mechanism of the anti-ageing program. In mice, this mechanism falls apart at the age of 1 year, while in naked mole rats this does not occur until ages of up to 20 years. This newly confirmed mechanism is described in detail in a paper published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA".

Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mROS) such as hydrogen peroxide are by-products of cell respiration and, in higher doses, associated with various diseases and ageing processes. There are different mechanisms at the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes that regulate the mROS production. Key function of cell respiration is energy production in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) through coupling of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes with ATP synthase. Different mitochondrial intermembrane space enzymes (hexokinases I + II and creatine kinase) have now been confirmed to slightly lower the membrane potential of the inner mitochondrial membrane ("mild depolarization"). This means that the differences in the electric load between the inner and the outer space of the mitochondria are lowered and the energy production through ATP synthesis is reduced to some extent. At the same time this leads to the cessation of mROS production. "The proof of this effect is implying that mild depolarization is a mechanism of the anti-ageing program, effectively slowing down ageing processes in the cell", says senior author Vladimir Skulachev (Lomonosov Moscow State University).

The research team was able to show that both biochemical mechanisms do not operate in the same intensity and efficiency in different species and tissues and at different ages: The researchers examined the hexokinases I + II and creatine kinase mechanisms in various tissues (lung, kidney, brain, skeletal muscles, heart, and others) in mice (Mus musculus), naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber), and Seba's short-tailed bats (Carollia perspicillata). They found interesting differences: Mild depolarization significantly starts decreasing after 1 year of age in mice with negligible levels after 24 months in skeletal muscles, diaphragm, heart, brain, and spleen. In lung and kidney tissue, mild depolarization decreases to a lesser extent with ageing. "The crumbling of the anti-ageing program in the cells starts after only a third of the average life span in mice, while the naked mole rats and Seba's short-tailed bats maintain mild depolarisation and hence the suppression of mROS production up to high ages", explain co-authors Thomas Hildebrandt and Susanne Holtze from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW). "This contributes to the extraordinary longevity of these species."

These biochemical mechanisms explain how the ageing and the anti-ageing programs within cells function and are regulated. However, it has not yet been determined where and how these processes are activated and controlled. "The master biological clock has not yet been identified", says lead author Mikhail Vyssokikh (Lomonosov Moscow State University). "We suspect it to be located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, which is responsible for the circadian and seasonal rhythms." This question and some other yet unknown components of the ageing and anti-ageing programs will be targets of high interest for future gerontological investigations.