Tech

The Chan group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology has recently developed a probe named CoxFluor, which is able to distinguish between Cyclooxygenase-2, an enzyme that plays a major role in driving the progression of cancer, and Cyclooxygenase-1, which is expressed in all cells.

Led by Jefferson Chan, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the paper, “An Activity-Based Sensing Approach for the Detection of Cyclooxygenase-2 in Live Cells,” was published in Angewandte Chemie, the journal of the German Chemical Society.

“One of the biggest challenges in developing probes is being able to selectively look at the enzyme in question,” Chan said. “The commercial assays that are used now work with both enzymes, which can cause significant interference.”

“To develop CoxFluor, we looked at the enzyme structure and found that COX-2 has a larger active site pocket and distinct interactions,” said Anuj Yadav, a visiting scholar in the Department of Chemistry at Illinois, who works in the Chan lab. “We attached arachidonic acid, to a bulky dye which gave us good selectivity for COX-2 compared to COX-1.”

The researcher’s stringent tests demonstrate that CoxFluor only works with COX-2 and not COX-1. “Yadav looked at a panel of enzymes that could have interfered with CoxFluor and showed through very careful characterization that there's no cross-reactivity,” Chan said.

“We also made a control compound that looks almost identical to CoxFluor,” Chan said. “The only difference was a small change in the arachidonic acid group. As a result, the molecule has all the physical properties of CoxFluor but it still didn’t show the same activity as the probe, further confirming the selectivity of CoxFluor.”.

Another advantage of using CoxFluor is that unlike the other probes it does not inhibit the activity of COX-2. CoxFluor mimics the natural target of COX-2 and gets processed by the enzyme to release a dye, which can be detected.

The probe has been tested in cell lines and the researchers are interested in testing it in other systems. “We are currently working on how to incorporate a much brighter dye, which can be used for deep tissues,” Yadav said.

The researchers also are interested in using the probe as a mechanism for killing cancer cells. “The concentration we are now using does not harm the enzyme. However, if we increase the concentration above a certain threshold, it could be a new mechanism for killing cancer cells,” Chan said. “This could be a very unique way to target cancer cells since we know that every cell in the body has COX-1 but COX-2 is only elevated in tumor cells.”

The Chan group collaborated with Illinois faculty Emad Tajkhorshid, a professor of biochemistry and the leader of the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at Beckman, who helped with simulating how CoxFluor interacts with COX-2. They also collaborated with Aditi Das, an assistant professor of comparative biosciences and a member of Beckman’s 3D Micro- and Nanosystems Group, who provided different enzymes to show the selectivity of CoxFluor for COX-2.

Editor's note:

The paper “An Activity-Based Sensing Approach for the Detection of Cyclooxygenase-2 in Live Cells” is available from the Beckman Institute or can be found at https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.201914845.

For more information, contact Jefferson Chan, 217-244-8272, jeffchan@illinois.edu.

Journal

Angewandte Chemie

DOI

10.1002/ange.201914845

There are two tropical cyclones affecting American Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean on Feb. 21. Tropical Storm Vicky has triggered warnings, while Tropical Cyclone 18P continues to develop. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM satellite provided a look at the rainfall rates occurring in both storms.

Vicky is located to the southeast of American Samoa and 18P is located to the northwest. American Samoa is a U.S. territory covering seven islands and atolls. The capital city of Pago Pago is located on Tutuila, the largest island.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Pago Pago issued a Tropical Storm Warning on Feb. 21 for American Samoa, and coastal waters out to 40 nautical miles including National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa.

In addition, a High Surf Warning remains in effect that states, "Hazardous surfs of at least 20 feet, with locally higher sets, will impact coastal waters, especially west through south facing shores of all islands due to the intensification of Tropical Storm Vicky south of the islands." A Flash Flood Watch is also in effect for all of American Samoa.

The GPM's core satellite passed over the South Pacific Ocean on Feb. 20 at 10:20 p.m. EDT (0220 UTC, Feb. 21). GPM found heaviest rainfall occurring in both Tropical Cyclone 18P and Tropical Storm Vicky, falling at rates of 1 inch (25 mm) per hour. Light rain appeared around those areas and throughout the rest of the tropical cyclones, falling at less than 0.2 inches (less than 5 millimeters) per hour.

On Feb. 21 at 4 a.m. EST (0900 UTC), Vicky was located near latitude 15.7 degrees south and longitude 170.7 degrees west, about 84 nautical miles south of Pago Pago, American Samoa. Vicky was moving to the south and had maximum sustained winds 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph).

Vicky is gradually weakening and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects it to weaken below tropical cyclone strength before passing near Niue within 24 hours.

Tropical cyclones/hurricanes are the most powerful weather events on Earth. NASA's expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as hurricane weather forecasting.

GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA.

For updated forecasts from the NWS in Pago Pago, visit: https://www.weather.gov/ppg/?lang=english

Advanced leaf-out, or early sprouting and opening leaves, is a direct response to climate change. In northern hemisphere, leaf-out has advanced at a rate of 4-5 days per decade on average since 1980s, according to synthesis of over 40 satellite-derived phenology studies across decades and regions. Scientists are curious to know if, in turn, this advancement would affect climate by modulating seasonal cycles of surface energy, water, and carbon budgets.

A new study, published in Nature Climate Change on Feb 17, 2020 showed that advanced leaf-out enhances annual surface warming in the Northern Hemisphere. The study was carried out by researchers at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics with collaborators from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology.

"There are many studies of how vegetation is affected by climate change. However, impact of vegetation change on climate is underemphasized." said Dr. Xiyan Xu, the first author of the study.

According to the study, advanced leaf-out intensifies water vapor release. "Enhanced water vapor is transported poleward and leads to snow and cloud cover anomalies in northern high latitudes." said Xu,"That explains why there are unusual temperature hotspots in the north, which is beyond the regions of advanced leaf-out."

The warming due to earlier leaf-out is amplified in the cold regions, such as Canadian Arctic Archipelago, east and west edges of Siberia, and southeastern Tibetan Plateau, because warming causes snow cover decline.

"Snow reflects solar radiation." Explained Xu, "When there is less snow on the ground, the reflectivity of Earth's surface decreases. Then, more incoming solar radiation is absorbed by the surface, and the surface warms, consequently."

Dr. Gensuo Jia, the corresponding author of the study noted that if the warming continues, leaf-out date will shift further earlier.

"The positive feedbacks loop between climate and spring leaf phenology is likely to amplify warming in the northern high-latitudes." said Jia, "The impact of vegetation change on climate is profound in spring when snow is melting, with incoming East Asian summer monsoon, and strengthening southerly North American low-level jet."

Taking these factors into consideration, the study concludes that in early spring, if bare ground is replaced with dense canopy, it would make a great difference to seasonal transition of the climate system.

The early-stage research in rats, by a group of scientists led by Imperial College London, revealed two existing medications can boost the body's own repair machinery, by triggering the release of stem cells from the bone marrow.

The scientists published their research in the journal npj Regenerative Medicine.

The team say the two drugs (currently used for bone marrow transplants and bladder control) could be used for different types of bone fractures, including to the spine, hip and leg, to aid healing after surgery or fractures.

When a person has a disease or an injury, the bone marrow (the spongy tissue within bone) mobilises different types of stem cells to help repair and regenerate tissue.

The new research, involving scientists from Beaumont Health in the U.S, suggests it may be possible to boost the body's ability to repair itself and speed repair, by using new drug combinations to put the bone marrow into a state of 'red alert' and send specific kinds of stem cells into action.

In the new study, funded by Wellcome, the researchers used drugs to trigger the bone marrow of healthy rats to release mesenchymal stem cells, a type of adult stem cell that can turn into bone, and help repair bone fractures.

Professor Sara Rankin, corresponding author of the study from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, said: "The body repairs itself all the time. We know that when bones break they will heal, and this requires the activation of stem cells in the bone. However, when the damage is severe, there are limits to what the body can do of its own accord. We hope that by using these existing medications to mobilise stem cells, as we were able to do in rats in our new study, we could potentially call up extra numbers of these stem cells, in order to boost our bodies own ability to mend itself and accelerate the repair process. Further down the line, our work could lead to new treatments to repair all types of bone fracture."

The two treatments used in the research were a CXCR4 antagonist, used for bone marrow transplants, and a beta-3 adrenergic agonist, that is used for bladder control.

The rats were given a single treatment with the two drugs, which triggered enhanced binding of calcium to the site of bone injury, speeding bone formation and healing.

The researchers stress they did not analyse restoration of movement in the bone, or repair to additional tissue such as nerves.

One of the drugs used in the study was found to trigger fat cells in the bone marrow to release endocannabinoids, which suggests they may have a role in mobilising the stem cells and thereby promoting healing. However, the researchers add that phytocannabinoids (such as cannabis) would not have the same effect, as they act on the brain rather than the bone marrow.

The researchers say the drug combinations now need to be tested in humans.

Dr Tariq Fellous, first author of the research from Imperial's National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) said: "We first need to see if these medications release the stem cells in healthy volunteers, before we can then test them in patients with fractures. We have the drugs and know they are safe to use in humans - we just need the funding for the human trials."

Dr Andia Redpath, co-first author from the NHLI, added that repurposing existing medications that help the body heal itself - so called Regenerative Pharmacology - could have great potential as an efficient and cost-effective approach for a range of diseases. "Rather than devising new stem cell treatments from scratch that involve lengthy and expensive trials, our approach harnesses the power of the body's own stem cells, using existing drugs. We already know the treatments in our study are safe, it's now just a matter of exploring further if they help our bodies heal."

HOUSTON - Comprehensive profiling of tumor samples taken from patients with osteosarcoma shows that multiple factors contribute to the traditionally poor responses observed from treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The study, published today in Nature Communications, found that poor infiltration of the tumor by immune cells, low activity from available T cells, a lack of immune-stimulating neoantigens, and multiple immune-suppressing pathways all combine to dampen responses to immunotherapy.

"This study is important not only because it focuses on a rare cancer, but it sets the groundwork for understanding the multifaceted reasons this cancer doesn't respond to immunotherapy, despite having certain hallmarks that suggest it would," said corresponding author Andy Futreal, Ph.D., chair of Genomic Medicine. "Understanding those reasons and beginning to pick them apart does begin to give us lines of sight on how to get around the tumor's methods of subverting the immune system."

Osteosarcoma is the most common solid tumor arising from the bone, though there are just 900 cases diagnosed each year in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. The cancer most commonly affects teens and adolescents. When diagnosed at early stages, treatment with combination chemotherapy and surgery achieves survival rates of approximately 70%, but metastatic osteosarcoma is associated with survival rates below 30%.

These cancers are marked by a large number of genomic alterations and mutations, which often provide greater potential for immunotherapy to be effective, explained Futreal. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors have so far not proven effective in osteosarcoma clinical trials.

This study sought to characterize the immune profile of osteosarcoma tumor samples, which is research only possible at an institution like MD Anderson that treats a significant number of these patients.

The researchers performed whole-genome, RNA, and T-cell receptor sequencing, immunohistochemistry, and reverse phase protein array profiling on 48 tumor samples from pediatric and adult patients with primary, relapsed and metastatic osteosarcoma. The majority of the samples were from relapse (23%) and metastatic (51%) cancers.

Genomic changes in these samples were similar to those reported previously by the field, and there were few differences between the sample types. In contrast to other cancer types, the genomic changes in these osteosarcomas did not correspond to an increase in the expression of mutated proteins, or neoantigens, which are thought to stimulate an immune response against the tumor.

The researchers also showed the degree of immune cell infiltration into the tumor was generally lower than that of other tumor types, such as lung cancer and melanoma, where immune checkpoint inhibitors are more effective. Further, T cells in the tumor displayed a low level of activity, shown by low clonality scores.

Gene expression analysis revealed three distinct classes within the samples studied, corresponding with levels of immune infiltration. "Hot" tumors had the highest degree of immune infiltration, but also had high activity in a number of signaling pathways that suppressed immune activity.

Conversely, "cold" tumors had the lowest levels of immune infiltration, decreased expression of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) - an important molecule for communicating with immune cells - and a higher number of genes with copy number loss, signaling higher genomic instability.

Interestingly, increased expression of the gene PARP2, which could be targeted by available PARP inhibitors, were associated with low immune infiltration in "cold" osteosarcomas, supporting the rationale for studies exploring a combination of PARP inhibitors and checkpoint blockade, explained co-author Andrew Livingston, M.D., assistant professor of Sarcoma Medical Oncology and Pediatrics.

"By understanding the interplay between tumor genomics and the immune response, we are better equipped to identify osteosarcoma patients who are more likely to benefit from immunotherapy," said Livingston. "These findings lay the groundwork for novel clinical trials combining immunotherapy agents with targeted or cell-based therapies to improve outcomes for our patients."

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern' on the 30th of January (GMT). The world is trembled by the international spread of the novel coronavirus infections. Rapid distribution of medicines including anti-virus are demanded, however, it is very challenging to mass produce them in a short period of time due to complicated process of drug manufacturing. In the midst of this, a research team from POSTECH successfully developed catalytic nanoreactors that could simplify the manufacturing process of fine chemicals such as drugs and medicines.

The research team consisted of Dr. Soumen Dutta and Prof. In Su Lee from POSTECH Department of Chemistry successfully incorporated three different functionalities of catalysts into a single metal organic framework (MOF) nanoplatform. They also demonstrated multistep cascade reactions, which produce final products in excellent yields and high optical activity, through synergistic effects of catalytic substances located within nano distance.

Pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing goes through series of synthesis and separation multistep process and requires expensive costs and long time for processing. Especially, catalysts used in each synthetic step most often time deactivate reactivity and selectivity of each other. So, it is very challenging and essential task to simplify the process by developing integration of different catalysts while maintaining their reactivity and stability.

The research team synthesized a mesoporous metal-organic framework (MOF) with nano size pores (20~40nm) through the self-assembly of metal ions and organic ligands. Then, they created multimodal catalytic nanoreactors (MCNRs) by introducing metal nanoparticle catalysts and enzymes to the mesopores in phases. They verified that metal ions, nanoparticles, and enzymes allocated in the mesopores near MCNRs do not impede catalytic functionalities of each other but perform multistep cascade chemical reactions efficiently.

The first author of the paper, Dr. Soumen Dutta said, "We were able to demonstrate the chemical manufacturing process, which requires multistep procedures, in a simplified procedure with a single catalyst. This can lead to simplifying manufacturing process of fine chemical products such as drugs which need high optical selectivity."

Prof. In Su Lee also showed his anticipation and said, "This can change the chemical process to eco-friendly that can use less solvents and energy used in separating intermediates. Especially, by reducing the number of chemical reaction steps, we can shorten the time needed for developing vaccines that can respond to a virus. It will also lower the production cost of drugs and prices."

Dr. Hun-Gi Jung and his research team at the Center for Energy Storage Research of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Lee Byung Gwon) have announced the development of silicon anode materials that can increase battery capacity four-fold in comparison to graphite anode materials and enable rapid charging to more than 80% capacity in only five minutes. When applied to batteries for electric vehicles, the new materials are expected to more than double their driving range.

The batteries currently installed in mass-produced electric vehicles use graphite anode materials, but their low capacity contributes to electric vehicles' having a shorter driving range than vehicles with internal combustion engines. Consequently, silicon, with an energy storage capacity 10-times greater than graphite, has drawn attention as a next-generation anode material for the development of long-range electric vehicles. However, silicon materials have not yet been commercialized because their volume expands rapidly and storage capacity decreases significantly during charge and discharge cycles, which limits commercialization. A number of methods have been suggested for enhancing the stability of silicon as an anode material, but the cost and complexity of these methods have prevented silicon from replacing graphite.

To enhance the stability of silicon, Dr. Jung and his team focused on using materials that are common in our everyday lives, such as water, oil, and starch. They dissolved starch and silicon in water and oil, respectively, and then mixed and heated them in order to produce carbon-silicon composites. A simple thermal process used for frying food was employed to firmly fix the carbon and silicon, preventing the silicon anode materials from expanding during charge and discharge cycles.

The composite materials developed by the research team demonstrated a capacity four-times greater than that of graphite anode materials (360mAh/g ? 1,530mAh/g) and stable capacity retention over 500 cycles. It was also found that the materials enable batteries to charge to more than 80% capacity in only five minutes. Carbon spheres prevent the usual volume expansion of silicon, thereby enhancing the stability of silicon materials. Also, the use of highly conductive carbon and the rearrangement of the silicon structure resulted in a high output.

"We were able to develop carbon-silicon composite materials using common, everyday materials and simple mixing and thermal processes with no reactors," said Dr. Jung, the lead researcher of the KIST team. He continued, "The simple processes we adopted and the composites with excellent properties that we developed are highly likely to be commercialized and mass-produced. The composites could be applied to lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems (ESSs)."

This major KIST research project was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Choi Kiyoung) and was also a climate change response development project. The research results were published in the most recent issue of Nano Letters (IF:12.279, JCR Rank: 5.743%).

A team of scientists from the Hybrid Photonics Laboratory at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and the University of Sheffield (UK) made a breakthrough in understanding nonlinear physics of the strong interaction of organic molecules with light. Principles of strong light matter interaction open new horizons of ultra-fast and low energy all-optical data processing. The findings were published in Communications Physics and featured in the February issue of Nature Physics. The study was partially supported by Russian Science Foundation (RSF).

Perhaps everybody knows organic matter as the essential building blocks for living nature. Indeed, the interactions between organic molecules and light is a pivotal process for photosynthesis, light-induced biochemical regulation and many other mechanisms in nature making our life on Earth feasible. Beyond that side, there are dozens of applications for a variety of light-matter interactions in organic systems. Nowadays organic materials represent a wide class of materials actively used in light-emitting devices (LED) industry, in flexible electronics and solar cells fabrication, as photosensitive sensors and bio labels of cancer etc.. The rapidly growing organic LED (OLED) market is a good example showing a great commercial potential of organic materials in real-life technologies.

Skoltech's Hybrid Photonics Laboratory, led by Professor Pavlos Lagoudakis, focuses on developing a new paradigm of optoelectronics based on strong interaction between organic materials and light. The key difference from conventional approaches is that light (photons) in such systems get strongly correlated with collective electronic excitations on a molecule (excitons), which gives rise for new particles, namely polaritons. These light-matter entangled particles inherit ultra-fast propagation of light and electronic properties of materials resulting in a very exotic hybrid form of light and matter called liquid light.

"Does this make a world of difference? Sure it does, as the strong light-matter coupling can slow down photodegradation of molecules extending their lifetime, change the course of photochemical reactions and provide photons with an ability to interact with each other, the latter feature allows us to develop efficient optical signal processing devices", says prof Pavlos Lagoudakis.

Currently, fiber optic networks handle huge amounts of data but if one wants to process optical signals then light has to be converted into electrical signals and back. In contrast, strong-coupling principles offer unique opportunities for all-optical data processing technologies with record speeds and better energy conversion efficiencies. The past decade has witnessed remarkable achievements in the field of polaritonics, running the gamut from the first organic polariton laser to room-temperature superfluidity and invention of the first organic polariton transistor . It is worth recalling that Skoltech ranks as a global leader of the field.

However, despite remarkable progress in this field, the mechanisms of polariton interactions in organic systems have remained poorly understood fueling debates in the scientific community. The mystery of polariton interactions has finally been resolved: Skoltech's research gives a decisive answer to this controversial question. The scientists carried out an in-depth experimental study which revealed a clear origin of nonlinear phenomena related to polariton condensates - the state consisting of hundreds and even thousands of polaritons sharing the same properties.

"Our experiments indicate an abrupt shift in spectral properties of polariton condensates when established, that always drives the frequency of polaritons towards higher values. We find it specific for nonlinear processes occurring in the system. As through change of metal colour upon heating one can access the temperature, similarly, we extract nonlinearity of organics by means of in-depth analysis of the frequency shifts", explains the first author of the paper, Junior Research Scientist at the Hybrid Photonics Labs, Dr Timur Yagafarov.

The comprehensive experimental study accompanied by a thorough data analysis favors unraveling important dependencies of the polariton nonlinear properties on the key parameters of the interaction between organic molecules and light.

The scientists were the first to discover a strong impact of the energy transfer between neighboring molecules on the nonlinear properties of organic polaritons and now understand underlying mechanisms driving polaritons in organics. With the proposed theory, one can find the experimental parameters required to coupling several polariton condensates into a single circuit and building a polariton all-optical signal processor.

From a fundamental point of view, the new knowledge may help to explain the phenomenon of polariton superfluidity in organic matter.

"These findings are of high interest to not only our research area but can be helpful in other fields as well. I believe the nonlinearity mechanisms discovered are quite general among the organic materials, therefore it might prove to be universal for strongly-coupled organic systems", comments Senior Research Scientist at the Hybrid Photonics Laboratory, Dr Anton Zasedatelev.

Researchers have reported a black phosphorus transistor that can be used as an alternative ultra-low power switch. A research team led by Professor Sungjae Cho in the KAIST Department of Physics developed a thickness-controlled black phosphorous tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) that shows 10-times lower switching power consumption as well as 10,000-times lower standby power consumption than conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistors.

The research team said they developed fast and low-power transistors that can replace conventional CMOS transistors. In particular, they solved problems that have degraded TFET operation speed and performance, paving the way to extend Moore's Law.

In the study featured in Nature Nanotechnology last month, Professor Cho's team reported a natural heterojunction TFET with spatially varying layer thickness in black phosphorous without interface problems. They achieved record-low average subthreshold swing values over 4-5 dec of current and record-high, on-state current, which allows the TFETs to operate as fast as conventional CMOS transistors with as much lower power consumption.

"We successfully developed the first transistor that achieved the essential criteria for fast, low-power switching. Our newly developed TFETs can replace CMOS transistors by solving a major issue regarding the performance degradation of TFETs,"Professor Cho said.

The continuous down-scaling of transistors has been the key to the successful development of current information technology. However, with Moore's Law reaching its limits due to the increased power consumption, the development of new alternative transistor designs has emerged as an urgent need.

Reducing both switching and standby power consumption while further scaling transistors requires overcoming the thermionic limit of subthreshold swing, which is defined as the required voltage per ten-fold current increase in the subthreshold region. In order to reduce both the switching and standby power of CMOS circuits, it is critical to reduce the subthreshold swing of the transistors.

However, there is fundamental subthreshold swing limit of 60 mV/dec in CMOS transistors, which originates from thermal carrier injection. The International Roadmap for Devices and Systems has already predicted that new device geometries with new materials beyond CMOS will be required to address transistor scaling challenges in the near future. In particular, TFETs have been suggested as a major alternative to CMOS transistors, since the subthreshold swing in TFETs can be substantially reduced below the thermionic limit of 60 mV/dec. TFETs operate via quantum tunneling, which does not limit subthreshold swing as in thermal injection of CMOS transistors.

In particular, heterojunction TFETs hold significant promise for delivering both low subthreshold swing and high on-state current. High on-current is essential for the fast operation of transistors since charging a device to on state takes a longer time with lower currents. Unlike theoretical expectations, previously developed heterojunction TFETs show 100-100,000x lower on-state current (100-100,000x slower operation speeds) than CMOS transistors due to interface problems in the heterojunction. This low operation speed impedes the replacement of CMOS transistors with low-power TFETs.

Professor Cho said, "We have demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, TFET optimization for both fast and ultra-low-power operations, which is essential to replace CMOS transistors for low-power applications." He said he is very delighted to extend Moore's Law, which may eventually affect almost every aspect of life and society. This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea.

Researchers said the wavelengths at sunrise and sunset have the biggest impact to brain centers that regulate our circadian clock and our mood and alertness.

Their study, "A color vision circuit for non-image-forming vision in the primate retina," published in Current Biology Feb. 20, identifies a cell in the retina, which plays an important role in signaling our brain centers that regulate circadian rhythms, boost alertness, help memory and cognitive function, and elevate mood.

These effects have been attributed to a pigment in the eye called melanopsin, which is sensitive to blue light, but researchers say cone photoreceptors are a thousand times more sensitive to light than melanopsin. The cone photoreceptor inputs to the circadian circuity respond to short wavelength blue light, but they also respond strongly to long wavelength oranges and yellows and contrasting light - the colors at sunrise and sunset. What makes good lighting, researchers discovered, is lighting capable of stimulating the cone photoreceptor inputs to specific neurons in the eye that regulate circadian rhythms.

Lead author Sara Patterson, a graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said how we set our internal clocks to the external light-dark cycle has been studied a lot. But how the changes in the color of light affect our brain has not.

"Color vision used for something other than color perception was the most exciting part for me," she said.

In the study, Patterson and colleagues identified a cell known as an inhibitory interneuron or amacrine cell in the retina, which signals to photosensitive ganglion cells that affect our circadian brain centers. The researchers said these amacrine cells provide "the missing component of an evolutionary ancient color vision circuit capable of setting the circadian clock by encoding the spectral content of light."

Patterson said so little is known about rare retinal circuitry that it was possible to find a new blue cone cell. She said there is a lot more to be discovered about how blue cone cells are projecting to other areas of the brain.

While sunrise lights, blue lights and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) lights have all tried to capture benefits of natural light, they haven't been that effective because they are missing key science data, said corresponding author Jay Neitz, professor of ophthalmology at the UW School of Medicine, a scientist at the UW Medicine Eye Institute, and a well-known color vision researcher. He said the science behind SAD lights, for example, is to make lights hundreds of times brighter than normal lights to stimulate melanopsin.

"This research all started because of our interest in the health benefits of having natural light that occurs at the right time of day that helps regulate our circadian clock and our mood and alertness," Neitz said.

The University of Washington has licensed technology based on this discovery to TUO, a lighting technology company that will be selling white LED lightbulbs that will incorporate undetectable sunrise and sunset wavelengths for commercial use.

Tokyo, Japan - Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, a part of The University of Tokyo, have developed a new procedure for recycling concrete with the addition of discarded wood. They found that the correct proportion of inputs can yield a new building material with a bending strength superior to that of the original concrete. This research may help drastically reduce construction costs, as well as slash carbon emissions.

Concrete has long been the material of choice for construction our modern world, used in structures such as skyscrapers, bridges, and houses--to name just a few. However, as countries work to constrain their greenhouse emissions, concrete production has fallen under increased scrutiny. Concrete consists of two parts, aggregate--which is usually made of gravel and crushed stone--and cement. It's the production of cement that is blamed for a large amount of the carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere.

"Just reusing the aggregate from old concrete is unsustainable, because it is the production of new cement that is driving climate change emissions," explains first author Li Liang. Therefore, a new, environmentally friendly approach is needed to help promote the circular economy of concrete. The researchers optimized their new method by adjusting the mixture proportion, pressure, temperature, pressing duration, and water content. Finding the right proportion of concrete and recycled wood was critical to obtaining concrete with the most strength. Wood gets its rigidity from lignin, which are highly crosslinked organic polymers. In this case, lignin fills the gaps in the concrete and functions as an adhesive when mixed with waste concrete powder and heated. The strength was also improved by higher temperatures and pressures during pressing.

"Most of the recycled products we made exhibited better bending strength than that of ordinary concrete," says senior author Lecturer Yuya Sakai. "These findings can promote a move toward a greener, more economical construction industry that not only reduces the stores of waste concrete and wood, but also helps address the issue of climate change."

The recycled concrete is even likely to be biodegradable, because the concrete waste is attached to the wood component. The method could also be extended to recycle other types of discarded plant matter, instead of wood, or even brand-new concrete made from plants, sand, and gravel.

A positive example set by both the mother and the father promotes the consumption of vegetables, fruit and berries among 3-5-year-old children, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. The study explored the association of the home food environment and parental influence with the consumption of vegetables among kindergarten-aged children. The findings were published in Food Quality and Preference.

Children eat inadequate amounts of vegetables, fruit and berries across Europe and elsewhere, too. As the health and nutrition benefits of these foods are well-known, increasing their consumption among children is a challenge many countries are struggling with. Dietary habits also track from childhood to adulthood, and the period of early childhood is critical for adapting to a diet rich in greens.

The researchers studied the consumption of vegetables, fruit and berries, and the family's home food environment, through a survey taken by parents. The study looked at 114 kindergarten-aged children and their parents (100) in Finland. Raw and cooked vegetables and fruit and berries were analysed separately.

The researchers found that to a certain degree, the consumption of vegetables is affected by different factors than the consumption of fruit and berries. Maternal example was associated with the consumption of raw and cooked vegetables as well as with the consumption of fruit and berries. Paternal example, on the other hand, was the strongest for cooked vegetables.

"This shows that teaching children to eat their greens is not something mothers should be doing alone. A positive example set by both parents is important, as is their encouragement of the child," Researcher and Nutritionist Kaisa Kähkönen from the University of Eastern Finland says.

The study also showed that dinner is the most important meal at home when it comes to teaching children to eat vegetables. The families participating in the study often ate dinner together, highlighting the role of parental influence on the development of children's dietary choices and preferences.

Dinner constitutes a daily opportunity to serve vegetables in a variety of different forms: as the main course, as a side dish, and as salad.

"Variation can be created by serving raw vegetables, such as the ever-popular cucumber and tomato, accompanied by cooked ones. In fact, many root vegetables, cabbages and squashes are best served cooked," Kähkönen says.

When it comes to eating fruit, evening snacks were the most important meal.

The study shows that many families still eat less vegetables, fruit and berries on average than would be beneficial in view of health promotion. Cooked vegetables and berries were the least eaten food items among the study population.

The Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at the University of Eastern Finland studies how food education in early childhood can support good nutrition among children and promote the establishment of healthy dietary habits.

The newly published study was carried out in collaboration between researchers from the Universities of Eastern Finland, Jyväskylä and Turku. The study was funded by the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Fund.

A "quiet" revolution in unregulated areas of the internet has led to the emergence of a new private security industry, according to latest research from the University of Portsmouth.

Often described as the "new wild west", criminals see new opportunities online, with this latest study showing how individuals and organisations are now taking the law into their own hands in order to protect themselves.

The study, published in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice investigated the impact of changing technologies and found these private companies operated where government had failed to regulate, often leading to other forms of private policing - largely rooted in volunteerism and vigilantism.

Professor Mark Button, Director and founder of the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, describes this phenomena as a, "second quiet revolution" that has caused the emergence of a new security industry and urges policy makers to respond quickly to regulate it.

He warns "It is time for researchers to start better understanding these new forms of private policing. And where the evidence supports it, develop new policy ideas for the better regulation of theses growing increasingly important activities. Technology is moving quickly and policing needs to keep up with it."

The way most people shop, play, bank and date is very different to 20 years ago - as is the way many organisations offer services. This shift has also meant a change in crime patterns. The Crime Survey for England and Wales showed that fraud and computer misuse related offenses doubled from 5.8 million in June 2017 to 10.7 million in September 2018.

The growth in internet crime is perhaps unsurprising, especially when the rapid rise in internet usage is taken into account. In 2006, the number of adults using the internet Great Britain was 36 per cent. By 2018 the number had risen to 86 per cent.

Many organisations have sought to protect themselves from the growing problem of cybercrime by purchasing services and creating new roles in their structures.

Professor Button explains, "the needs of organisations and individuals to deal with the growing cybersecurity problems has spawned a wide range of new companies to offer such services as well as some traditional security companies moving into this area."

This is a new and expanding sector is very dynamic, responding as technology evolves and threats change. The size of this sector is growing fast globally. In 2017, "Markets and Markets" estimated the global cyber security market was worth US$137.85 billion. It is predicted to grow to US$231.94 billion in 2022.

Technological changes have also fuelled new opportunities for people to voluntarily participate in policing. The internet creates a space for individuals who have the time and skill to carry out their own desk based investigations.

There are some positive examples where criminals have been brought to justice by members of the public. However, more controversially this has facilitated a new form of vigilantism, perhaps the most contentious form of internet vigilantism that has emerged is the so-called "paedophile hunters", which can lead to instant justice and harmful outcomes.

Professor Button makes several suggestions for researchers and policy makers to help fill the gap:

- To map the activities and extent of the new private security and private policing

- To identify areas of concern which regulatory and other governance responses, with particular reference to new roles that may require licensing

- To explore the adequacy of existing regulatory and governance structures to undertake such functions where necessary

- To identify new models of regulation and governance where existing structures are not deemed appropriate

The study concluded that a priority for policy-makers must be more depth and focused consideration of these new activities to assess if current regulatory and governance mechanisms work and whether new structures should be created to deal with them.

ne of the most promising alternative energy sources is hydrogen, which can be extracted from water and air. A catalyst is needed for a chemical process that releases hydrogen from an H2O molecule. It can be made, for example, from platinum, or from molybdenum. But these are quite expensive materials. Therefore, the output energy is expensive too.

The group of Russian scientists have invented a new approach to solving this problem and published the thesis on this topic in the Nanomaterials Journal.

Director of the IKBFU "Functional nanomaterials" Science and Education Center, Alexander Goykhman said:

"We propose molybdenum sulfide as a material for the catalysts which is, firstly, more effective than molybdenum, and, secondly, much cheaper since the total amount of expensive metal in catalysts is reduced, and the sulfur is not scarce and very cheap"

According to Alexander Goykhman, the material was created in the Moscow National Nuclear Research University, and the IKBFU scientists were to study the sulfur and find out whether it has all necessary parameters or not.

Prof. Goykhman said:

"Usually we grow the nanostructures and our colleagues in Moscow study them. But in this case, our roles are reversed. Nevertheless, the structures are fine and fully meet the expectations. We have managed to get the best suitable for catalyst process molybdenum sulfur"

The scientists that have found the more effective material for catalysts production also offered the most efficient way of using it.

Alexander Goykhman continues:

"To make an effective hydrogen engine one must pay attention not only to the constitution of the catalyst but also to the shape of it. We suggest using thin films of molybdenum sulfide deposited on the surface of glassy carbon. In this case, the material consumption will be minimal, and the surface area of the catalyst will be the same as if it was completely made from molybdenum sulfide. In the published work, a method for the deposition of such functional molybdenum sulfide films is proposed. It is also shown under what conditions of formation it is possible to achieve maximum catalyst efficiency"

According to Alexander Goykhman, this research may give an impetus to the hydrogen-based energy sector.

Winter associations predict social and extra-pair mating patterns in blue tits. Researchers of the Max Planck Institutes for Ornithology in Seewiesen and for Animal Behavior in Radolfzell show in their new study that blue tits that often foraged together during winter were more likely to end up as breeding pairs or as extra-pair partners, whereby bonds between future breeding partners seem to establish earlier in winter than those between future extra-pair partners.

Many socially monogamous bird species engage in sexual behaviour outside their pair bond, often resulting in extra-pair young. However, despite decades of research, the ability to explain who will have extra-pair young with whom is limited. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior now examined whether social associations prior to the breeding season influenced patterns of social and extra-pair mating. They studied blue tits that typically form socially monogamous pairs, but frequently engage in extra-pair mating. About half of all nests contain at least one young with a genetic father other than the social one, and up to 15 percent of all offspring are sired by extra-pair males. During winter, blue tits forage in large mixed-species flocks where they potentially already meet future mating partners.

The researchers quantified the birds' social associations during foraging events at local bird feeders and while visiting nest-boxes during winter. To obtain these data, they installed a self-designed, custom-built automated monitoring system including 20 feeders and 277 nest-boxes in their forest study site in Southern Germany. Blue tits in the study area carried a tiny "Passive Integrated Transponder" (PIT-tag) with an individual code activated externally by the scanning device in the feeder or nest-box. With this setup, the researchers could record the date, time, and identity of every PIT-tagged blue tit visiting. Using these data the researchers created a social network that visualizes who hangs out with whom and how often. They found that 39 percent of the birds present in the study site in winter bred in the subsequent spring. Nearly all social breeding pairs were formed by the individuals present during winter and those that foraged more often together were also more likely to end up as breeding pairs.

Most extra-pair sires are close neighbours

The social network analysis further shows that individuals that are more strongly associated during winter tend to nest closer together. "As most extra-pair sires are close neighbours, one could think that extra-pair paternity in blue tits might simply be the result of coincidental meetings between neighbours, and not a social preference for specific mating partners," says Kristina Beck, first-author of the study. However, the analysis shows that mating patterns can be explained by the strong social association itself: males and females foraging together and those that co-inspected nest-boxes were more likely to have extra-pair young together in the subsequent breeding season.

The researchers also found temporal changes in the social network: social bonds between future breeding partners seem to be established earlier in winter than those between future extra-pair partners. Bart Kempenaers, leading the study, adds: "When and how individuals make mating decisions is still largely unknown. However, our research provides new insights into the dynamics of different types of social relationships. Our work shows that extra-pair mating often happens between individuals that already know each other."