Tech

When it comes to the "smell test," the nose isn't always the best judge of food quality. Now in a study appearing in ACS' journal Nano Letters, scientists report that they have developed a wireless tagging device that can send signals to smartphones warning consumers and food distributors when meat and other perishables have spoiled. They say this new sensor could improve the detection of rotten food so it is tossed before consumers eat it.

Every year, 48 million people in the U.S. get sick from foodborne illnesses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of these, about 125,000 people are hospitalized and 3,000 die. Traditionally, many consumers just smell a food to detect spoilage, but this technique is only as reliable as the sniffer's nose. At the other end of the spectrum, food inspectors often use bulky, expensive equipment to detect harmful microbes. Scientists are investigating other approaches, including near field communication (NFC) labeling, that are both portable and dependable. NFC devices wirelessly transmit information over short distances -- usually less than 4 inches. They are similar to the radio frequency identification products retailers use to track inventory and shipments. Building on this idea, Lijia Pan, Yi Shi, Guihua Yu and colleagues sought to incorporate a sensitive switch into NFC labeling tags to detect food spoilage using a smartphone.

The scientists created a nanostructured, conductive, polymer-based gas sensor that can detect substances called biogenic amines (BAs), which give decomposing meat its bad odor. They embedded these sensors into NFCs placed next to meats. After the meats had been stored for 24 hours at 86 degrees Fahrenheit, the researchers found that the sensors successfully detected significant amounts of BAs. The sensors then switched on the NFCs so they could transmit this information to a nearby smartphone.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.

The paper's abstract will be available on June 27 at 8 a.m. Eastern Time here:
http://pubs.acs/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01825

The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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Hunters don camouflage clothing to blend in with their surroundings. But thermal camouflage - or the appearance of being the same temperature as one's environment - is much more difficult. Now researchers, reporting in ACS' journal Nano Letters, have developed a system that can reconfigure its thermal appearance to blend in with varying temperatures in a matter of seconds.

Most state-of-the-art night-vision devices are based on thermal imaging. Thermal cameras detect infrared radiation emitted by an object, which increases with the object's temperature. When viewed through a night-vision device, humans and other warm-blooded animals stand out against the cooler background. Previously, scientists have tried to develop thermal camouflage for various applications, but they have encountered problems such as slow response speed, lack of adaptability to different temperatures and the requirement for rigid materials. Coskun Kocabas and coworkers wanted to develop a fast, rapidly adaptable and flexible material.

The researchers' new camouflage system contains a top electrode with layers of graphene and a bottom electrode made of a gold coating on heat-resistant nylon. Sandwiched between the electrodes is a membrane soaked with an ionic liquid, which contains positively and negatively charged ions. When a small voltage is applied, the ions travel into the graphene, reducing the emission of infrared radiation from the camo's surface. The system is thin, light and easy to bend around objects. The team showed that they could thermally camouflage a person's hand. They also could make the device thermally indistinguishable from its surroundings, in both warmer and cooler environments. The system could lead to new technologies for thermal camouflage and adaptive heat shields for satellites, the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from the European Research Council and the Science Academy, Turkey.

The paper's abstract will be available on June 27 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01746.

Movies of the thermal camouflage will be available on June 27 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01746.

The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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Analysis of outpatient records of large number of British patients reveals that those believed to be allergic to penicillin have significantly increased risks of contracting the dangerous infections MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and Clostridium difficile (C. difficile). The study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators finds that much of that increased risk can be attributed to the use of broad-spectrum alternative antibiotics, which are known on contribute to the growth of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

"We know that more than 95 percent of patients with an indication of a penicillin allergy in their medical record are found not to be truly allergic, if tested by an allergist," says Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc, of the MGH Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology and the Medical Practice Evaluation Center, lead and corresponding author of the report in the June 30 issue of The BMJ. "Our study identifies appropriate penicillin allergy evaluations - which is still done in less than 1 percent of patients with recorded penicillin allergy - as an essential contributor to the globally important outcomes of antibiotic stewardship, reducing antibiotic resistance and health-care-associated infections.

To examine the relationship between a newly recorded penicillin allergy and the risk of subsequent MRSA or C. difficile, the researchers analyzed data from The Health Improvement Network (THIN), a database of outpatient primary care medical records from 11.1 million patients in the U.K. From deidentified data covering the years between 1995 and 2015, the investigators first identified patients with a newly documented penicillin allergy. They then developed a comparison group comprised of up to five individuals for each patient in the penicillin allergy group - matched for age, sex and time of study entry - who also received a penicillin prescription during the study period. They then searched the medical records of both groups for any initial documented diagnoses of MRSA or C. difficile.

The results revealed that patients whose medical records indicated they had a penicillin allergy had a 69 percent greater risk of contracting MRSA than did patients in the comparison group and a 26 percent greater risk of a C. difficile diagnosis during the study period. Both of those risks persisted after controlling for other known risk factors for either infection. More than half the increased MRSA risk and 35 percent of the increased C. difficile risk could be attributed to the antibiotic alternatives to beta-lactams - the antibiotic class that includes penicillin - prescribed to patients believed to be allergic. It is well known that these broad-spectrum antibiotics, which act against many families of bacteria, can both increase the incidence of antibiotic resistance and raise the risk of more virulent infections like C. difficile by killing off beneficial bacteria that populate the gastrointestinal tract.

"Both MRSA and C. difficile infections are increasing public health burdens, are challenging to treat and cause the deaths of thousands of patients every year," says Blumenthal, an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "We now can see a causal path from patients being labeled as having a penicillin allergy, to their being prescribed beta-lactam alternative antibiotics, to greater incidence of these dangerous and costly infections. MRSA and C. difficile each cost our health care system more than $1 billion in direct costs annually, so the modest cost of penicillin allergy evaluation - around $220 per patient - seems greatly worthwhile."

To aid in the discovery and understanding of lncRNA biology, newly published work from Richard and Eichhorn in SLAS Technology features the technological platforms and methodology presently used to identify the roles of lncRNA in biology. This work highlights the databases and tools used to study lncRNA and techniques used to study their function.

Prior to sequencing of the human genome, it was presumed that most of the DNA coded for proteins with the rest of the human genome classified as "junk DNA." However, recently these vast stretches of junk DNA have been annotated and discovered to contain thousands of non-coding RNA (ncRNA), including a family of transcripts referred to as long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs).

Although still in its infancy, research into the biology of lncRNAs is demonstrating the importance of lncRNAs in development and disease. LncRNAs are implicated in many biological processes ranging from housekeeping functions such as transcription to more specialized functions such as dosage compensation or genomic imprinting. Furthermore, lncRNAs can regulate varied activities such as messenger RNA degradation, translation and effect protein kinetics or function by acting as RNA decoys or scaffolds. With its vast assortment of biological activity, identifying the mechanistic action of lncRNA may seem overwhelming.

Synthetical chemicals are ever-present in modern life--in our medications, cosmetics and clothing--but what happens to them when they enter our municipal water supplies?

Because these chemicals are out-of-sight, out-of-mind, we assume they cannot harm us after we flush them down the sink. However, most water treatment infrastructures were not designed to remove synthetic organic chemicals like those found in opioids, personal care products and pharmaceuticals.

Consequently, trace concentrations of those chemicals are present in effluent: the water discharged from treatment plants into lakes, rivers and streams. Although found in extremely small concentrations, just nanograms or micrograms, the toxicity is not well understood in human bodies and ecosystems.

Worse, we know even less about the effects on human and ecosystem health of byproducts created during advanced oxidation water treatment processes; thousands of chemical byproducts can be created in just minutes.

Therefore, it's crucial that scientists and treatment plant managers understand the mechanisms by which chemical byproducts are created during the treatment process. Daisuke Minakata, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Technological University, with coauthors Divya Kamath and Stephen Mezyk, sought to understand those mechanisms using acetone as a test case.

The authors built upon a 1999 experimental study of acetone reaction pathways during treatment, using quantum mechanical calculations to predict the chemical byproducts that occur as acetone degrades during the advanced oxidation process.

Their results are published in the article, "Elucidating the Elementary Reaction Pathways and Kinetics of Hydroxyl Radical-Induced Acetone Degradation in Aqueous Phase Advanced Oxidation Process" (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b00582), in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, published by the American Chemical Society.

Modeling Degradation

By chemical standards, acetone has a straightforward structure. This makes it ideal for modeling reaction pathways--the myriad ways a chemical can degrade into free radicals and byproducts--to predict which byproducts and radicals form.

"When we do water treatment using advanced chemical oxidation, those oxidants destroy target organic compounds but create byproducts," Minakata says. "Some byproducts may be more toxic than their parent compound. We need to understand the fundamental mechanisms of how the byproducts are produced and then we can predict what to be produced from many other chemicals. We found more than 200 reactions involved in acetone degradations based on computational work."

Minakata's team compared the model's predictive results to the 10 byproducts observed in the 1999 experimental study, and the model's results track accurately with the observed reaction pathways.

Advanced oxidation is a very effective and an important way to treat water and effluent, so its use should not be discontinued. Many communities in arid regions are running out of water and must reuse treated wastewater--a process called direct potable reuse. If synthetic organic chemicals and their oxidized byproducts are not removed from the water, people and animals consume them.

In the Great Lakes region, upstream communities discharge treated wastewater into lake and rivers. People living downstream use that water; and existing, conventional treatment processes do not remove all organic chemicals effectively. Advanced oxidation can effectively target specific organic chemicals to remove them from water. Modeling reaction pathways is critical to help water treatment managers understand how best to wield the knife, as it were.

A limitation of the work is that the model applies solely to structurally simple organic contaminant like acetone, rather than broadly multiple chemical degradation processes. Organic chemicals have extraordinarily complex structures, and we lack the computational capacity to calculate the reaction pathways. Minakata's team used the Superior supercomputer at Michigan Tech. Superior puzzled away on the acetone pathways with hundreds of calculations--some of which can take more than weeks.

Chemical Reactions All Around

Understanding the mechanisms of chemical byproduct formation isn't just important for water treatment; it's also advancing what we know about chemical reactions in the atmosphere and inside our bodies.

"Inside a water droplet in a cloud, the same radical reaction is going on," Minakata says. "In our bodies, reactive oxygen species damage human cells. If you drink a lot of alcohol, or if you have too much sunshine, you create free radicals. Those free radicals damage your cells and can create cancer cells. Free radical-involved chemistry is common in different disciplines. We use the chemistry of free radicals for destroying toxic chemicals "

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have designed a way to sense dangerous chemicals using, in part, a simple rig consisting of a smartphone and a box made from Lego bricks, which could help first responders and scientists in the field identify deadly and difficult-to-detect nerve agents such as VX and sarin. The new methodology described in a paper published Wednesday in the open-access journal ACS Central Science combines a chemical sensor with photography to detect and identify different nerve agents -- odorless, tasteless chemical weapons that can cause severe illness and death, sometimes within minutes.

Eric Anslyn, a chemistry professor at UT Austin, has been studying nerve agents for nearly 20 years, using safe chemical compounds that behave in the same way as nerve agents and can mimic them in testing. He previously developed chemical compounds that neutralize nerve agents and at the same time create a glow bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.

"Chemical weapons are dangerous threats to humanity," Anslyn said. "Detection and neutralization are key to saving lives."

The new device uses affordable, accessible materials to make Anslyn's earlier compound more useful in real-world scenarios. The chemical sensors, developed by Xiaolong Sun in Anslyn's lab, generate fluorescence, which is key to the analysis. Different colors and brightness can signal to first responders which of several nerve agents are present and how much. Because different categories of nerve agents require different decontamination procedures and different treatments for victims -- and because the weapons act swiftly, making time of the essence -- these variations are key.

"Unfortunately, it can be difficult to see differences in the level of florescence with the naked eye in the field. And instruments used in the lab to measure florescence are not portable and cost $30,000," said Sun. "This device essentially takes photographs of the glowing."

The camera on a smartphone is sensitive enough to detect the differences in color and brightness in the glowing reaction. The team used an iPhone in the lab. Software, developed by graduate student Alexander Boulgakov and available for free on GitHub, analyzes the color and brightness to identify the type and concentration of the nerve agent. The software can be adapted for multiple smartphone systems.

But researchers also needed a light-tight space to get a good reading on the camera. They considered 3D-printing a box, but realized that 3D printers and the materials used in them can be inaccessible, uneven or cost-prohibitive in some parts of the world. That's when Pedro Metola, a clinical assistant professor at UT, thought of using Legos.

"Legos are the same everywhere you go," Metola said.

The only other pieces of equipment needed are an ultraviolet light and standard 96-well test plate. The solution is inexpensive, portable and adjustable on the fly.

SOLOMONS, MD (June 27, 2018)--A new study shows that dead zones in the lower Chesapeake Bay are beginning to break up earlier in the fall, which may be an indication that efforts to reduce nutrient pollution to the Bay are beginning to make an impact. Scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science examined 30 years of data on dead zones and nutrient levels in the Chesapeake Bay. They found that dead zones in the lower part of the Chesapeake Bay, the saltier part from the Potomac River south, are getting smaller in the late summer thanks to a late-season replenishment of oxygen, a natural response to decreasing nutrient pollution.

"This study shows that water quality monitoring programs that have been in place for decades are beginning to reveal fundamental information on the nature of change associated with the Chesapeake Bay's dead zones," said Peter Goodwin, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "These areas are beginning to undergo recovery from eutrophication, and even more exciting, natural responses to cleaning the water are kicking in."

Dead zones, areas of low to no oxygen that choke off life in the Bay, typically start growing in late May and dissipate in the fall. Studies in the past decade have shown that the size of the dead zone changes throughout the summer, growing larger in June and smaller in August. Jeremy Testa and his team, including UMCES Professors Emeriti Walter Boynton and Michael Kemp, set out to understand what was happening late in the season. They found that a complex chemical process was kicking in, allowing the Bay to begin cleaning itself.

"The size of low-oxygen water in the dead zone has been getting smaller at end of summer. Reoxygenation has allowed for a conversion of nitrogen in late summer to a form that is more amenable to being removed by natural processes," said Jeremy Testa, assistant professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. "We envision that this is how the Bay would've typically functioned before dead zones were such a severe problem."

In the spring and early summer, algae in the Chesapeake Bay feed on the nitrogen-rich runoff that comes off the land and typically reach high densities. Eventually these algae die and sink to the Bay's deep waters. As they decompose, a form of bioavailable nitrogen called ammonium is created. This ammonium accumulates in the bottom waters throughout the summer where there is little to no oxygen, in the so-called dead zones. When there is no oxygen around, ammonium persists and could feed more algae. However, if some oxygen begins to be added to the system, ammonium can undergo a process that eventually turns it into a form that can be converted to nitrogen gas and permanently removed from the Bay . While this process typically happens in the fall as storms and winds churn up the waters, this new analysis indicates that the process is happening earlier and at higher rates.

The research of Testa and his team supports previous studies that have shown late-summer dead zones to be getting smaller and breaking up earlier in the year. "This decline in the late summer hypoxic volumes corresponds to a long-term and modest nitrogen loading decline." said Testa. "The improved oxygen conditions appear to allow additional production of nitrogen forms that can be readily removed from the Bay, which we call a negative feedback. It's an important element of recovery."

Scientists at Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina have found that human lung cancer cells resist dying by controlling parts of the aging process, in results published online May 10th in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The discovery could help us better understand aging and eventually could lead to new treatments for cancer.

Cancer becomes more common as people get older, but scientists are still searching for answers about why this happens. At Hollings Cancer Center, research into the connections between aging and cancer is led by Besim Ogretmen, Ph.D., SmartState Endowed Chair in Lipidomics and Drug Discovery. Ogretmen's team found that cancer cells have specific ways to resist dying the way normal cells do. They do so by protecting the tips of their chromosomes, which hold our DNA, from age-related damage.

Ogretmen studies how cancer cells are different than normal cells to understand how cancer grows and spreads in the body. His work is part of an $8.9 million program project grant to research how alterations of lipid metabolism affect cancer therapy. The grant is helping fund a clinical trial of an anticancer medicine to inhibit cellular signaling that helps cancer survive. The drug was found to be useful against cancer in the research reported in the group's new paper.

As normal cells get older, the tips of their chromosomes, called telomeres, can start to break down, which is a signal for the cell to die. This seems to be part of the aging process in normal cells. However, cancer cells have developed a way to prevent their telomeres from falling apart, which helps them to live much longer than normal cells. The long life of cancer cells is part of what allows them to grow and spread throughout the body.

In their new paper, Ogretmen's research group discovered a specific way that cancer cells escape death in response to telomere damage. Scientists have known that various types of cancer cells have low levels of a protein called p16. Ogretmen's group found that, when telomeres become damaged by age or in response to chemotherapy, p16 is a type of cellular decision-maker, where it helps cells decide to grow older or to simply die.

"Telomeres are like a biological clock for our cells," said Ogretmen. "In cancer, this biological clock is broken."

The researchers found that p16 became most important to cells when their telomeres began to break down. When that happened, p16 rushed into action and pushed cells toward further aging by inhibiting cell death.

To determine the clinical impact of these data, the researchers used a chemical enzyme inhibitor to cause telomere damage in several types of cancer cells, including lung cancer cells. The inhibitor, ABC294640, acts in a way that prevents cancer cells from protecting their telomeres, by inhibiting an enzyme called sphingosine kinase 2. This inhibition was shown to force telomeres to break down.

As a result of this enzyme inhibition, telomeres were damaged, resulting in cancer cell death when p16 levels were low or absent. However, cancer cells with high levels of p16 were able to escape death, and stayed biologically inactive, which was a sign of aging.

"We're excited that there is at least one mechanism that can help us understand how aging is associated with a higher risk of cancer," said Ogretmen. "And then, can we prevent or better treat the aging-related cancers by controlling protective effects of p16 for cancer cell death?"

Ogretmen's group is enthusiastic that the inhibitor in their study might help combat cancer at many levels. The team has already identified the safest dose for use in patients and is planning a phase 2 clinical trial using their inhibitor in patients with a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma. The multisite trial will include Hollings Cancer Center, Penn State, the University of Maryland, Mayo Clinic and others.

It is especially important to do this work now, given the predicted forecast by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) who foresee a 'silver tsunami' of cancer survivors. NCI studies show that by 2040 the number of cancer survivors in the United States will increase by nearly 11 million: from 15.5 million in 2016 to 26.1 million in 2040. A large part of the makeup of the cancer survivor population will shift to older populations. It's estimated that by 2040 only 18 per-cent of cancer survivors will be between ages 50 and 64, and only 8 percent will be younger than 50.

"We hope that maybe we can do both: delay aging and prevent the growth of cancer," said Ogretmen. "That's the ultimate outcome of this."

For some years now larger wild animals - such as lynxes, wolves, and bears - have been spreading out across Europe as existing populations grow and animals are resettled. Yet some populations are still endangered. A research team headed by the Freiburg conservation biologist PD Dr. Marco Heurich and the landscape ecologist PD Dr. Stephanie Kramer-Schadt of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Berlin concludes that the illegal hunting of lynxes reintroduced into the border areas of Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria is having a major effect on their numbers. Their study, commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund Germany, has been published in the journal Biological Conservation.

In the 1980s Czech authorities reintroduced 18 lynxes into the area now covered by the Šumava national park. At first the population grew, but for several years numbers have been falling. In the first phase following their reintroduction, the lynxes spread along the border to the north as far as the Fichtelgebirge and south as far as the Waldviertel in Austria. But in a second phase from 1998 to 2014 numbers fell and have remained low. A number of research projects have indicated in that time that illegal hunting played a big role.

In order to test this, the biologists fed data on reproduction, mortality rates, mobility ecology and the area the animals transversed into a computer model; the data were collected via satellite telemetry, cameras and chance observation. The team also came up with a habitat model reflecting how suitable the area is as a place for lynxes to live. On the basis of the data the model simulated virtual lynxes which moved around a realistic simulation of the forest in which the animals live and which have the same characteristics as the wild animals. The model also took into consideration the real road network so that the virtual lynxes were able to fall victim to traffic accidents. The model therefore includes natural causes of death and the risk of being hit by a vehicle. In this way the researchers simulated various scenarios for the development of the lynx population and compare them with development observed in real life.

The team found that in the first phase from 1982 to 1996 only three to four percent of the animals' mortality rate could not be explained, and the probability of the population dying out was less than five percent. In the second phase from 1998 to 2014 the unexplained mortality was much higher - 15 to 20 percent - and is likely due to illegal hunting. "Sadly this is right in the international trend when it comes to the level of mortality caused by humans," says Stephanie Kramer-Schadt. Because experts have observed other causes such as diseases to a limited extent in the area, the researchers assume on the basis of simulations that illegal killings are the primary reason for the animals' high mortality. While these deaths in the first phase had only a small effect on the population, they rose significantly in the second phase.

As the researchers showed, the probability of the population becoming extinct has reached a critical point - at which a small increase in deaths could lead to the entire population dying out. "The probability that the population may die out again is up to 74 percent in an unfortunate case," says Marco Heurich. By the requirements set out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for a viable population, this risk is too high. Simulations excluding illegal activities in the Bayerischer Wald and Šumava national parks indicate that these protected areas have contributed significantly to maintaining the lynx population. In order to maintain the population permanently, stopping the hunting and illegal killing of lynxes is the most important step to be taken alongside the preservation of habitats not crossed with roads.

A new study from the University of Waterloo highlights a low level of awareness among youth around the proper precautions they need to take when it comes to handling food.

The study measured 32 different food-handling behaviours among Ontario high school students in grades 10 to 12. It found that fewer than 50 per cent of the recommended practices were followed by students, including basic hand hygiene and procedures to prevent cross-contamination.

"High school students represent the next generation of food handlers, but they are not well studied," said Ken Diplock, who led the research while at Waterloo. "They are just starting to prepare food on their own and for others, and they're also beginning to work in the food industry.

"It's important to get to students before they develop bad habits."

The researchers observed the students in high school food and nutrition classes three times, once before the students took an Ontario standard food-handling training program, then two weeks and three months later. The program helped them improve their skills significantly, but many students continued to engage in risky behaviours known to lead to food-borne diseases.

The most significant improvement after the training course occurred on thermometer use, which is the only way to determine doneness - how thoroughly cooked a cut of meat is. Student use went from five per cent at the first observation to 36 and 33 per cent in two weeks and three months respectively.

"Even though training programs have important benefits, there are obviously still gaps between knowledge and how food handlers behave," said Diplock. "Food safety education improves knowledge and behaviour, but unless the values are reinforced in other areas such as home life and society, the behaviours will not always stick."

In this study, the behaviours remained consistent between the second and third observations, likely because the students were handling food regularly in the presence of teachers, who reinforced what they had learned, said co-author and Public Health Professor Shannon Majowicz.

"We put a lot of emphasis on general food safety education as a way to protect people from getting sick; it could also make a difference if we educate students about safe food handling in high school before they're young adults living and cooking on their own and for others," Majowicz said.

Every year, a total of 4 million Canadians (one in eight) are affected by a food-borne illness, according to the Government of Canada.

BINGHAMTON, NY - As part of ongoing acoustic research at Binghamton University, State University at New York Distinguished Professor Ron Miles has created a workable sensor with the least possible resistance to motion. The thin and flexible sensor is ideal for sensing sounds because it can move with the airflow made by even the softest noises and addresses issues with accelerometers, microphones and many other similar sensors.

"The goal was to create a sensor that only resists gravity," said Miles. "The sensor needed to stay connected to the device but other than that, I wanted it to move with even the slightest sounds or movement of the air."

Being able to move with the air is how sensors are able to tell when a sound is present and which direction it is coming from.

Miles made headway with acoustic sensors in 2017 by using spider silk dipped in gold as a thin, flexible sensor to make a microphone with remarkably flat frequency response. This sensor incorporated a magnet in order to convert the silk motion into an electronic signal.

As an alternative to using a magnet, Miles set out to create a capacitive sensor. Instead of needing a magnet, a capacitive sensor requires a voltage added to it via electrodes.

Two billion capacitive microphones are produced every year but making them both small and effective comes with some challenges.

His new platform provides a way to detect the motion of extremely thin fibers or films by sensing changes in an electric field without the use of a magnet.

It hasn't previously been feasible to use capacitive sensing on extremely flexible, thin materials because they've needed to resist electrostatic forces that can either damage them or impede their movement.

"Researchers want the sensor to move with small forces from sound, without being affected by the electrostatic forces," Miles said.

In this most recent work, Miles has found a design that allows the thin, flexible sensor - which could be spider silk or any other material just as thin - to swing above two fixed electrodes.

"Because the sensor is at a 90-degree angle from the electrodes, the electrostatic forces don't affect its movement," said Miles.

This is a critical part of the design because the sensors need to have a high bias voltage - the voltage required for a device to operate - to be effective since the sensitivity of the sensor increases with a high bias voltage.

This design means that capacitive sensors, like the ones used in smartphones, can be both smaller and more efficient.

Miles said the unique design also provides a few other benefits important in various applications.

"The way the sensor is designed now means that it has a nearly constant potential energy but can also return to its equilibrium after large motions."

PHILADELPHIA - In the battle against metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer, studies have demonstrated a high response rate to radionuclide therapy targeting prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) with the radionuclide lutetium-177 (177Lu). At the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), researchers reported on a phase II prospective trial. Using gallium-68 (68Ga)-PSMA11 positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, men who had exhausted conventional therapies were screened. Those with high PSMA-expression proceeded to 177Lu-PSMA617 (LuPSMA) therapy and experienced high response rates, which is clearly demonstrated in the PSMA PET imaging figure selected as the 2018 SNMMI Image of the Year.

Each year, SNMMI chooses an image that exemplifies the most promising advances in the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. The state-of-the-art technologies captured in these images demonstrate the capacity to improve patient care by detecting disease, aiding diagnosis, improving clinical confidence and providing a means of selecting appropriate treatments. This year, the SNMMI Henry N. Wagner, Jr., Image of the Year was chosen from more than 2,200 abstracts submitted to the meeting and voted on by reviewers and the society leadership.

The 2018 Image of the Year goes to a team of researchers at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. The image demonstrates exceptional responses in a series of patients who received LuPSMA therapy after other treatments stopped working. In each patient, the extent of tumor spread before and after treatment is visualized with clarity using PSMA PET. These patients experienced improved quality of life, including reduction of pain, and correlated with marked reduction of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a blood tumor marker.

"This work reflects an appreciation for all the basic science and translation work that has been performed by many groups over a long period of time to develop prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) theranostics as a paradigm-changing practice for improving patient outcomes," explained Professor Michael Hofman of the Peter MacCallum Cancer in Melbourne, Australia. "These images tell a story about exceptional responses observed in patients who had progressed after standard therapies. They match striking improvements in patient quality of life. With further research, we look forward to seeing nuclear medicine evolve as a key specialty and standard-of-care in cancer management." He added, "I would also like to extend thanks to ANSTO, Australia's producer of no-carrier-added Lutetium-177, and Endocyte, which produces PSMA; they helped make this study possible."

Umar Mahmood, MD, PhD, chair of the SNMMI Scientific Program Committee, noted, "The last decade has seen a blossoming of theranostics to treat tumors with molecularly-guided radiotherapy. The expansion of patients benefiting from this approach is remarkable, and it is wonderful to know that this effort is being led by nuclear medicine physicians and scientists."

Mahmood stated, "Prostate cancer, which affects millions of men around the world, can be painful and deadly in the metastatic setting. This phase II prospective study by Michael Hofman and colleagues clearly shows the benefit to men with castrate-resistant prostate cancer treated with a beta emitter targeting PSMA when their tumors expressed PSMA. It is gratifying to see the benefit of the approach both rigorously and objectively demonstrated in this trial, in terms of improvement in disease burden and improvement in the pain severity the men suffered."

A tobacco replacement to help grownups quit smoking has landed in the hands of children sucking on nicotine vapors to potentially harmful outcomes, new USC research shows.

The discreet little gadget called JUUL is little bigger than a pack of gum. Jon-Patrick Allem, research scientist at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, explores the intersection of social media and public health. His study of 80,000 tweets shows the JUUL vaporizer is widely used among high school, middle school and even elementary school students in the United States.

"We found young people talking about using JUUL on school grounds, in classrooms, in bathrooms, in the library, at recess and during gym," Allem said. "JUUL vapors dissipate quickly, unlike the telltale cloud of previous e-cigarette 'vaping' devices, so it's a way for kids to use nicotine undetected."

Allem is lead author of the paper, which is a collaboration among scientists in USC's Department of Preventive Medicine and Department of Computer Science. It was published in the June 26 issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

JUUL is a brand name for a new type of e-cigarette developed by San Francisco-based PAX Labs, Inc. The device consists of a USB flash drive-powered vaporizer that is easily concealed. Users insert cartridges called JUULpods containing nicotine salts found in tobacco leaves. The device converts nicotine into steam that delivers a nicotine wallop; one JUULpod delivers about as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.

Pax Labs markets the device as a "smoking alternative" for adults trying to quit, but posts to Twitter show that minors use it to "vape" at school without being caught.

JUUL sales have been estimated at more than half of the U.S. e-cigarette market. PAX Labs, responding to early criticism from health advocacy groups, has positioned JUUL in its marketing campaigns and website (visitors must confirm they are 21 years or older) as a product to help adults quit smoking tobacco, which contributes to many diseases.

Nicotine use of any kind is known to be addictive and harmful to adolescent brain development. Allem said that in a sample of more than 80,000 posts to Twitter, about 1 in 25 mentioned using JUUL at school. Some of the tweets even link to videos of kids using JUUL.

"Despite JUUL's branding as a smoking alternative, very few Twitter users mentioned smoking cessation with JUUL," the study reports, observing that roughly 1 in 350 Twitter posts mentioned using JUUL to quit smoking, far less than posts about use at school.

Allem's research focuses on improving health surveillance using data from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Google web search. Other authors of the study include Likhit Dhampuri, a doctoral student in computer science at USC; Jennifer B. Unger, a professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine; and Tess Boley Cruz, assistant professor of clinical preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine.

The study was funded by a $40,000 grant (P50CA180905) from the National Cancer Institute and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products to determine the public's early experience with JUUL and the social and environmental context of its use. The findings offer a cautionary note for parents and school administrators and teachers. The study suggests educators might need to learn how to spot JUUL use while administrators may consider installing vaping detectors on campuses.

Managing woodlands to a greater extent could help stop the decline of Britain's dormice, new research suggests.

Dormouse numbers are falling in Britain - down by 72% in just over 20 years - and the scientists say this could reflect changes in climate and the composition and structure of woodland habitats.

The findings, from two new studies led by the University of Exeter, show dormice favour woodland with varied heights and areas of regrowth, including species such as hazel and yew that provide the flowers, fruits and nuts they enjoy.

The researchers call for a return to active woodland management, which can include coppicing, glade creation and small-scale tree felling, to create a "mosaic" of trees of different ages and sizes, especially areas of new growth and medium-height trees.

Dormouse numbers are higher in woodlands with more varied tree heights and scrubby areas, and they prefer to use areas of woodland edge, and dense trees and shrubs, when they move around at night.

"Habitats that we found to be good for dormice have been in decline," said lead author Dr Cecily Goodwin, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"Dormouse conservation would benefit from more broadleaf woodland in the landscape and more diverse woodland structure - ranging from new growth and scrub to mid-height woodland to old trees.

Professor Robbie McDonald, who directed the research, said ""There has been a decline of woodland management that creates diverse forests, and an increase in large stands of mature, single-age trees, which are not such good habitats for dormice or various other declining woodland species, such as some birds and butterflies."

Wildlife charity, People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), has been collecting population data on hazel dormice for over 20 years. These records are collated within the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme (NDMP).

Using NDMP data from 300 sites across England and Wales (there are no dormice in Scotland), the researchers investigated hazel dormouse numbers, breeding and population trends in relation to climate, landscape, habitat and woodland management.

Nida Al-Fulaij Grants Manager at PTES said, "PTES has been working hard to understand the ecology of hazel dormice and the conservation issues they face for over twenty years. With data collected by hundreds of dedicated volunteers, this research will enable us to work closely with woodland owners to ensure a brighter future for one of Britain's best loved animals."

Commenting on another finding that hibernating dormice benefit from consistently cold winters, the researchers said variable winters most likely cause the sleepy rodents to waste energy by waking up only to return to hibernation. Climatic changes in Britain are likely to have contributed to dormouse declines.

New research has identified the way nature creates its own plaster to try and prevent bacteria and other micro-organisms from penetrating open wounds.

Scientists have found that a protein film forms rapidly over a wound as part of the natural clotting process, and it provides protection for at least 12 hours.

They believe this bio-film gives the immune system time to marshal its defences to deal with any infection.

The researchers also observed that oil-based substances disrupted the process and warn that treating breaks in the skin with petroleum jelly, a technique used in some contact sports and following minor surgery, may increase the risk of infection.

The study, involving an international collaboration of scientists led by the University of Leeds and part-funded by the British Heart Foundation, changes scientific understanding of the mechanism of blood clotting.

The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Clotting is a vital process to prevent life-threatening blood loss following an injury. At the site of the wound, platelets and red blood cells clump together to try and plug any haemorrhage.

By using powerful imaging techniques, the Leeds researchers found that the fibrin fibres were nature's shape-shifters, reorganising their structure from a fibrous network into a sheet-like film at the point the clot comes into contact with air, at the site of the open wound.

Seen through an electron microscope, clots appear to be meshed together by spaghetti-like fibres of a protein called fibrin.

For decades scientists have been baffled about the precise structure of the fibrin fibres because they seemed to be never-ending, just coiling themselves around the platelets and red blood cells.

The research revealed that the fibrin fibres transformed into a protective film that had 'breathability' properties, allowing air to reach the wound through tiny pores which were too small to allow bacteria and some viruses to pass through.

The research involved both human and animal tissue.

Professor Robert Ariëns, from the Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine who supervised the study, said: "Our hypothesis is the film acts like a plaster, a protective barrier to try and prevent microbes from entering the body where the skin is broken.

"We did laboratory and animal studies which showed this film could be a barrier against microbial infection for at least 12 hours, and this gives the immune system time to get white blood cells to the wound to counteract any infection.

"The study is reshaping our understanding of blood clotting. Not only do clots stem blood loss, they also provide a frontline defence against infection.

"Understanding exactly what happens at the end of fibrin fibres has been a question medical scientists have been trying to answer for years now. This study is providing that long overdue explanation."

The paper reveals that scientists using electron microscopes had previously seen a thin film on top of clots but they believed it was the result of the way the sample was prepared for examination.

The researchers also noticed that if oil was applied to the clot it would perforate the protective film and they warn that the common practice of applying petroleum jelly to a wound would increase the risk of infection.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation which part-funded the research, said: "By looking at how blood clots form, with a view to designing better clot-busting drugs to treat heart attack patients, this team have now discovered a previously unknown protection mechanism used by our bodies to prevent infection after an injury.

"This discovery perfectly portrays the complex, and sometimes contradictory nature of our bodies, in that the very substance which can make blood clots inside our body so dangerous can also protect us from harm when we wound ourselves."