Tech

Neuroscientists at Western University's Brain and Mind Institute, have confirmed and detailed a rare case of a blind woman able to see objects - but only if in motion.

A team led by neuropsychologist Jody Culham has conducted the most extensive analysis and brain mapping to date of a blind patient, to help understand the remarkable vision of a 48-year-old Scottish woman, Milena Canning.

Canning lost her sight 18 years ago after a respiratory infection and series of strokes. Months after emerging blind from an eight-week coma, she was surprised to see the glint of a sparkly gift bag, like a flash of green lightning.

Then she began to perceive, sporadically, other moving things: her daughter's ponytail bobbing when she walked, but not her daughter's face; rain dripping down a window, but nothing beyond the glass; and water swirling down a drain, but not a tub already full with water.

Glaswegian ophthalmologist Gordon Dutton referred Canning to the Brain and Mind Institute in London, Canada, where tests by Culham's team included functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to examine the real-time structure and workings of her brain.

They determined Canning has a rare phenomenon called Riddoch syndrome - in which a blind person can consciously see an object if moving but not if stationary.

"She is missing a piece of brain tissue about the size of an apple at the back of her brain - almost her entire occipital lobes, which process vision," says Culham, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Graduate Program in Neuroscience.

"In Milena's case, we think the 'super-highway' for the visual system reached a dead end. But rather than shutting down her whole visual system, she developed some 'back roads' that could bypass the superhighway to bring some vision - especially motion - to other parts of the brain."

In essence, Canning's brain is taking unexpected, unconventional detours around damaged pathways.

During the study, Canning was able to recognize the motion, direction, size and speed of balls rolled towards her; and to command her hand to open, intercept and grab them at exactly the right time. She could navigate around chairs.

Yet she inconsistently identified an object's colour, and was able only half the time to detect whether someone's hand in front of her showed thumb-up or thumb-down.

"This work may be the richest characterization ever conducted of a single patient's visual system," says Culham. "She has shown this very profound recovery of vision, based on her perception of motion."

The research shows the remarkable plasticity of the human brain in finding work-arounds after catastrophic injuries. And it suggests conventional definitions of 'sight' and 'blindness' are fuzzier than previously believed.

"Patients like Milena give us a sense of what is possible and, even more importantly, they give us a sense of what visual and cognitive functions go together," Culham says.

For Canning, the research at BMI helps explain more about what she perceives and how her brain is continuing to change. She is able to navigate around chairs, can see a bright-shirted soccer goalie and can see steam rising from her morning cup of coffee, for example.

"I can't see like normal people see or like I used to see. The things I'm seeing are really strange. There is something happening and my brain is trying to rewire itself or trying different pathways," Canning says.

The research is newly published in the journal Neuropsychologia.

Usually when a tropical cyclone weakens it expands and that's how Tropical Storm Maliksi has appeared in recent NASA satellite imagery as its strength wanes.

On June 10, the MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible light image of the storm. The eastern quadrant of the storm appeared stretched out a couple of hundred miles as a result of strong vertical wind shear. In the image, Japan was located to the west of the storm's center.

On June 11 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) Maliksi's center was located near 26.7 degrees north latitude and 145.8 degrees east longitude. That's about 237 nautical miles east of Yokosuka, Japan. Maliksi has been moving northeastward at 38 mph (33 knots/61 kph). Maximum sustained winds were near 52 mph (45 knots/83 kph).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted "Animated enhanced infrared satellite imagery shows that the cloud field around the low level circulation center continues to expand. At 6:59 a.m. EDT 1159 UTC) a satellite image showed that the low-level center was displaced from the upper level circulation due to strong vertical wind shear."

Environmental analysis showed that Maliksi was experiencing strong (40 to 50 knot) vertical wind shear. In addition to the strong wind shear, the storm is now moving over waters that are not warm enough to maintain strength (below 80 degrees Fahrenheit/26.6 degrees Celsius).

Maliksi is becoming extratropical and will complete extratropical transition the end of the day on June 11 as it continues to track to the northeast. JTWC issued their final warning on this system.

The study, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), is the first systematically to examine the extent to which projected changes such as increases in temperature and reduced water availability could affect the production and nutritional quality of common crops such as tomatoes, leafy vegetables and pulses.

If no action is taken to reduce the negative impacts on agricultural yields, the researchers estimate that the environmental changes predicted to occur by mid- to end-century in water availability and ozone concentrations would reduce average yields of vegetables and legumes by 35% and 9% respectively. In hot settings such as Southern Europe and large parts of Africa and South Asia, increased air temperatures would reduce average vegetable yields by an estimated 31%.

Environmental changes, including climate change, water scarcity and biodiversity loss, are predicted to become more profound in the 21st century - posing significant challenges to global agriculture, food security and nutrition. While there is growing evidence that predicted future changes in temperature and rainfall will lead to significant reductions in the yields of many staple crops such as rice and wheat, the impacts on vegetables and legumes - important constituents of healthy diets -are largely unknown.

To address this evidence gap the researchers conducted a systematic review of all the available evidence from experimental studies published since 1975 on the impacts of changes in environmental exposures on the yield and nutritional quality of vegetables and legumes. Experiments included in the review were conducted in 40 countries.

The team then estimated the effects on the yields and nutritional quality of crops of changes in key environmental exposures, including increases in greenhouse gases (tropospheric carbon dioxide and ozone), reduced water availability for irrigation and rising ambient temperatures.

Previous research has shown that raised levels of carbon dioxide would increase crop yields, but this study identified for the first time that these potential yield benefits are likely to be cancelled out in the presence of simultaneous changes in other environmental exposures.

The researchers warn that in the absence of substantial efforts to respond to predicted future environmental changes, reductions in the yields of vegetables and legumes will substantially alter their availability globally. Such changes may affect the affordability and consumption of vegetables and legumes in the mid- to long-term and this could have significant impacts on population health all around the world.

Dr Pauline Scheelbeek, lead author at LSHTM, said: "Our study shows that environmental changes such as increased temperature and water scarcity may pose a real threat to global agricultural production, with likely further impacts on food security and population health.

"Vegetables and legumes are vital components of a healthy, balanced and sustainable diet and nutritional guidelines consistently advise people to incorporate more vegetables and legumes into their diet. Our new analysis suggests, however, that this advice conflicts with the potential impacts of environmental changes that will decrease the availability of these important crops unless action is taken."

To mitigate the risks that future environmental changes pose to these crops, researchers say that innovations to improve agricultural production must be a priority, including the development of new crop varieties as well as enhanced agricultural management and mechanisation.

Professor Alan Dangour, senior author at LSHTM, said: "We have brought together all the available evidence on the impact of environmental change on yields and quality of vegetables and legumes for the first time.

"Our analysis suggests that if we take a 'business as usual' approach, environmental changes will substantially reduce the global availability of these important foods. Urgent action needs to be taken, including working to support the agriculture sector to increase its resilience to environmental changes and this must be a priority for governments across the world.

"But our study also identifies the broader policy relevance of environmental change. Vegetables and legumes are essential constituents of healthy diets and so efforts to ensure that their global availability is not threatened by predicted environmental changes must also be high on the global public health agenda."

The authors acknowledge limitations of the study, including the fact that collated evidence on the impact of environmental changes on the nutritional quality of vegetables and legumes was limited and the research team identified this as an area requiring more evidence generation.

The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of its Our Planet, Our Health programme.

Dr Howie Frumkin, Head of Our Planet, Our Health at Wellcome, said: "Improvements in agricultural technology have dramatically boosted the world's food production over the last 80 or so years. But we mustn't be complacent. Environmental changes, including more chaotic weather patterns and a warming climate, threaten our ability to feed the world's people.

"This excellent review highlights that some of the most important foods, and some of the world's most vulnerable people, are at highest risk. This research is a wake-up call, underlining the urgency of tackling climate change and of improving agricultural practices."

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Global climate change, fueled by skyrocketing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, is siphoning oxygen from today's oceans at an alarming pace -- so fast that scientists aren't entirely sure how the planet will respond.

Their only hint? Look to the past.

In a study to be published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Florida State University did just that -- and what they found brings into stark relief the disastrous effects a deoxygenated ocean could have on marine life.

Millions of years ago, scientists discovered, powerful volcanoes pumped Earth's atmosphere full of carbon dioxide, draining the oceans of oxygen and driving a mass extinction of marine organisms.

"We want to understand how volcanism, which can be related to modern anthropogenic carbon dioxide release, manifests itself in ocean chemistry and extinction events," said study co-author Jeremy Owens, an assistant professor in FSU's Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science. "Could this be a precursor to what we're seeing today with oxygen loss in our oceans? Will we experience something as catastrophic as this mass extinction event?"

For this study, an international team of scientists set out to better understand today's oxygen-deprived oceans by investigating the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE), an interval of global oceanic deoxygenation characterized by a mass extinction of marine organisms that occurred in the Early Jurassic Period.

"We wanted to reconstruct Early Jurassic ocean oxygen levels to better understand the mass extinction and the T-OAE," said Theodore Them, a postdoctoral researcher at FSU who led the study. "We used to think of ocean temperature and acidification as a one-two punch, but more recently we've learned this third variable, oxygen change, is equally important."

By analyzing the thallium isotope composition of ancient rocks from North America and Europe, the team found that ocean oxygen began to deplete well before the defined time interval traditionally ascribed to the T-OAE.

That initial deoxygenation, researchers say, was precipitated by massive episodes of volcanic activity -- a process not altogether unlike the industrial emission of carbon dioxide we're familiar with today.

"Over the past 50 years, we've seen that a significant amount of oxygen has been lost from our modern oceans," Them said. "While the timescales are different, past volcanism and carbon dioxide increases could very well be an analog for present events."

When the atmosphere is suffused with carbon dioxide, global temperatures climb, triggering a cascade of hydrological, biological and chemical events that conspire to sap the oceans of oxygen.

Scientists have found evidence that several hundred thousand years before the T-OAE, volcanoes flooded Earth's atmosphere with carbon dioxide, helping to set in motion the sequence of events that would ultimately result in oceanic deoxygenation and widespread marine life extinction.

While researchers have long surmised a link between volcanism, loss of oxygen and mass extinction, this study provides the first conclusive data.

"As a community, we've suggested that sediments deposited during the T-OAE were indicative of widespread oxygen loss in the oceans, but we've never had the data until now," Them said.

Prehistorical examples of carbon dioxide deluges and suffocating oceanic deoxygenation provide a lesson in how Earth systems respond to a variable climate.

This analysis of the T-OAE, and the onset of deoxygenation that preceded it, is another in a lineage of reports that presage a bleak future for oceans with diminishing levels of oxygen.

"It's extremely important to study these past events," Them said. "It seems that no matter what event we observe in Earth's history, when we see carbon dioxide concentrations increasing rapidly, the result tends to be very similar: a major or mass extinction event. This is another situation where we can unequivocally link widespread oceanic deoxygenation to a mass extinction."

Steps can still be taken to curb oxygen loss in the modern oceans. For example, conserving important wetlands and estuaries -- along with other environments that absorb and store large amounts of carbon dioxide -- could help to blunt the effects of harmful industrial emissions.

But should our oceans' oxygen contents continue to decline at their current rates, future marine organisms could be doomed to the same fate that befell their Jurassic ancestors.

"If you're an oxygen-consuming organism, you don't want to see major changes in marine oxygen levels," Them said. "You either adapt or go extinct."

In 1965, a renowned Princeton University physicist theorized that ferroelectric metals could conduct electricity despite not existing in nature.

For decades, scientists thought it would be impossible to prove the theory by Philip W. Anderson, who shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in physics. It was like trying to blend fire and water, but a Rutgers-led international team of scientists has verified the theory and their findings are published online in Nature Communications.

"It's exciting," said Jak Chakhalian, a team leader of the study and Professor Claud Lovelace Endowed Chair in Experimental Physics at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "We created a new class of two-dimensional artificial materials with ferroelectric-like properties at room temperature that don't exist in nature yet can conduct electricity. It's an important link between a theory and an experiment."

A cornerstone of technology, ferroelectric materials are used in electronics such as cell phone and other antennas, computer storage, medical equipment, high precision motors, ultra-sensitive sensors and sonar equipment. None of their materials conducts electricity and the Rutgers-led findings potentially could spawn a new generation of devices and applications, Chakhalian said.

"Ferroelectrics are a very important class of materials technologically," he said. "They move, shrink and expand when electricity is applied and that allows you to move things with exquisite precision. Moreover, every modern cell phone has tens of components with properties similar to ferroelectric material."

Like many physicists, Chakhalian relishes a challenge and he could not find a law of physics that says ferroelectric metals could not be created. So his team, including study lead author Yanwei Cao, a former doctoral student who is now a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, tapped Chakhalian's state-of-the-art tools to create sheets of materials only a few atoms thick. It's like making sandwiches, Chakhalian said.

"When a material becomes ferroelectric, its atoms shift permanently and we wanted to add metallic properties to an artificial crystal that conducts electricity," he said. "So we took two very thin layers to create a two-dimensional metal at the interface and added a third layer with special properties to shift the atoms in that metallic layer, creating a ferroelectric-like metal. The new structure has several functionalities built-in, and this is a big win-win."

Which food type is more environmentally costly to produce -- livestock, farmed seafood, or wild-caught fish?

The answer is, it depends. But in general, industrial beef production and farmed catfish are the most taxing on the environment, while small, wild-caught fish and farmed mollusks like oysters, mussels and scallops have the lowest environmental impact, according to a new analysis.

The study will appear online June 11 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, and its authors believe it is the most comprehensive look at the environmental impacts of different types of animal protein production.

"From the consumer's standpoint, choice matters," said lead author Ray Hilborn, a University of Washington professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. "If you're an environmentalist, what you eat makes a difference. We found there are obvious good choices, and really obvious bad choices."

The study is based on nearly a decade of analysis, in which the co-authors reviewed hundreds of published life-cycle assessments for various types of animal protein production. Also called a "cradle-to-grave" analysis, these assessments look at environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product's life.

Of the more than 300 such assessments that exist for animal food production, the authors selected 148 that were comprehensive and not considered too "boutique," or specialized, to inform their new study.

As decisions are made about how food production expands through agricultural policies, trade agreements and environmental regulations, the authors note a "pressing need" for systematic comparisons of environmental costs across animal food types.

"I think this is one of the most important things I've ever done," Hilborn said. "Policymakers need to be able to say, 'There are certain food production types we need to encourage, and others we should discourage.'"

Broadly, the study uses four metrics as a way to compare environmental impacts across the many different types of animal food production, including farm-raised seafood (called aquaculture), livestock farming and seafood caught in the wild. The four measures are: energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, potential to contribute excess nutrients -- such as fertilizer -- to the environment, and the potential to emit substances that contribute to acid rain.

The researchers compared environmental impacts across food types by using a standard amount of 40 grams of protein -- roughly the size of an average hamburger patty, and the daily recommended protein serving. For example, they calculated how much greenhouse gas was produced per 40 grams of protein across all food types, where data were available.

"This method gives us a really consistent measurement people can relate to," Hilborn said.

The analysis showed clear winners that had low environmental impacts across all measures, including farmed shellfish and mollusks, and capture fisheries such as sardines, mackerel and herring. Other capture fish choices with relatively low impact are whitefish like pollock, hake and the cod family. Farmed salmon also performed well. But the study also illuminated striking differences across animal proteins, and the researchers advise that consumers must decide what environmental impacts are most important to them when selecting their food choices.

Some of the additional findings include:

Overall, livestock production used less energy than most forms of seafood aquaculture. Farmed catfish, shrimp and tilapia used the most energy, mainly because constant water circulation must be powered by electricity.

Catfish aquaculture and beef produce about 20 times more greenhouse gases than farmed mollusks, small capture fisheries, farmed salmon and chicken.

Mollusk aquaculture -- such as oysters, mussels and scallops -- actually absorb excess nutrients that are harmful to ecosystems. In contrast, livestock beef production rated poorly in this measure, and capture fisheries consistently scored better than aquaculture and livestock because no fertilizer is used.

Because livestock emit methane in their manure, they performed poorly in the acid rain category. Farmed mollusks again performed the best, with small capture fisheries and salmon aquaculture close behind.

For capture fisheries, fuel to power fishing boats is the biggest factor, and differences in fuel use created a large range of performance in the greenhouse gas category. Using a purse sein net to catch small schooling fish like herring and anchovy uses the least fuel and, perhaps surprisingly, pot fisheries for lobster use a great deal of fuel and thus have a high impact per unit of protein produced. Dragging nets through water, known as trawling, is quite variable and the impact appears to be related to the abundance of the fish. Healthy stocks take less fuel to capture.

When compared to other studies of vegetarian and vegan diets, a selective diet of aquaculture and wild capture fisheries has a lower environmental impact than either of the plant-based diets.

In the future, the researchers plan to look at biodiversity impacts as another way to measure environmental costs. The analysis also mentions a range of other environmental impacts such as water demand, pesticide use, antibiotic use and soil erosion that were addressed in some of the studies they reviewed, but not consistently enough to summarize in the study.

Eating a vegetarian or primarily plant-based diet is associated with a variety of health benefits. But simply being vegetarian is not enough to reap those benefits--the quality of the food matters, too. The Nutrition 2018 meeting will feature new research into the health impacts of eating a plant-based diet and how dietary quality influences those impacts.

Nutrition 2018 is the inaugural flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition held June 9-12, 2018 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Contact the media team for abstracts, images and interviews, or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting.

Mounting evidence suggests a plant-based diet lowers heart disease risk

Eating more plant protein, less animal-derived protein associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease
In a study of nearly 6,000 people based in the Netherlands, those who ate more plant protein at the expense of animal-derived protein showed a lower risk of developing coronary heart disease during a median follow-up period of more than 13 years. Kim V.E. Braun, Erasmus University Medical Center, will present this research on Sunday, June 10, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. in the Hynes Convention Center Auditorium (poster 35) (abstract).

Eating more plant protein, less animal-derived protein associated with less plaque in the arteries
A study of 4,500 Brazilian adults finds that people who regularly consumed more plant-based protein were nearly 60 percent less likely than those consuming more animal-based protein to show evidence of plaque in the heart's arteries based on coronary artery calcium scoring, a measure of plaque buildup commonly used to assess heart disease risk. Dirce Maria Marchioni, Faculdade de Saúde Pública da USP, will present this research on Sunday, June 10, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. in the Hynes Convention Center Auditorium (poster 89) (abstract).

Vegetarian diet associated with reduced risk factors for heart disease and diabetes
Among South Asians living in the US, people following a vegetarian diet were found to have a lower number of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, including a lower body mass index, smaller waist circumference and lower amounts of abdominal fat, lower cholesterol and lower blood sugar compared to people in the same demographic group who ate meat. Sameera A. Talegawkar, George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, will present this research on Sunday, June 10, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. in the Hynes Convention Center Auditorium (poster 114) (abstract).

Don't forget: The quality of plant-based food impacts health, too

Eating healthful plant-based foods associated with less weight gain
An analysis of changes in body weight among more than 125,000 adults over 4-year periods shows plant-based diets rich in high-quality plant-based foods (such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and nuts) were associated with less weight gain, while a higher intake of unhealthful plant-based foods (such as sweets, refined grains and fries) was associated with significantly greater weight gain. Ambika Satija, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, will present this research on Sunday, June 10, from 4:45-5 p.m. in the Hynes Convention Center, Room 309 (abstract).

Eating higher quality plant-based foods associated with lower risk of death
A study of nearly 30,000 US adults bolsters evidence that a higher quality diet helps you live longer and suggests that the quality of plant-based foods in the diet is more important than the quality of animal-based foods. Better choices in the plant-based components of the diet lowered mortality by 30 percent while higher quality animal-based components had little effect on mortality. The beneficial effect of high-quality plant-based foods was even more pronounced among people with chronic health conditions. Fang Fang Zhang, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, will present this research on Monday, June 11, from 8-8:15 a.m. in the Hynes Convention Center, Room 311 (abstract).

Please note that abstracts presented at Nutrition 2018 were evaluated and selected by a committee of experts but have not generally undergone the same peer review process required for publication in a scientific journal. As such, the findings presented should be considered preliminary until a peer-reviewed publication is available.

Almost a third of the natural gas fuelling UK homes and businesses could be replaced by hydrogen, a carbon free fuel, without requiring any changes to the nation's boilers and ovens, a pioneering study by Swansea University researchers has shown.

Over time the move could cut UK carbon dioxide emissions by up to 18%.

Natural gas is used for cooking, heating and generating electricity. Domestic gas usage accounts for 9% of UK emissions. In an effort to reduce annual carbon emissions, there is presently a concerted effort from researchers worldwide to offset our usage of natural gas.

Enriching natural gas with hydrogen is one way forward. Experiments have shown that modern-day gas appliances work safely and reliably with hydrogen-enriched natural gas as the fuel. It is already used in parts of Germany and the Netherlands, with a £600m government-backed trial in the UK taking place this year.

Natural gas naturally contains a small quantity of hydrogen, although current UK legislation restricts the allowed proportion to 0.1%.

The question the Swansea team investigated was how far they could increase the percentage of hydrogen in natural gas, before it became unsuitable as a fuel, for example because the flames became unstable.

The team, Dr Charles Dunnill and Dr Daniel Jones at the University's Energy Safety Research Institute (ESRI), found:

An enrichment of around 30% is possible, when various instability phenomena are taken into account

Higher percentages make the fuel incompatible with domestic appliances, due to hydrogen's relatively low energy content, its low density, and a high burning velocity.

30% enrichment by hydrogen nevertheless equates to a potential reduction of up to 18% in domestic carbon dioxide emissions;

The research was published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dr Charles Dunnill of the Energy Safety Research Institute at Swansea University said:

"Up to 30% of the UK's gas supply can be replaced with hydrogen, without needing to modify people's appliances.

As a low carbon domestic fuel, hydrogen-enriched natural gas can cut our greenhouse gas emissions, helping the UK meet its obligations under the 2016 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Hydrogen-enrichment can make a difference now. But it could also prove a valuable stepping-stone towards a future, pure hydrogen, zero carbon gas network."

June 9, 2018 - Atlanta, GA - A new study has found that the majority of residents in a rural village of Vietnam harbored multi-drug-resistant (MDR), colistin-resistant E. coli bacteria. Colistin is typically used as a last-resort treatment when there are no other therapy options available. The research is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, held from June 7th to June 11th in Atlanta, GA.

"These results revealed the dissemination of MDR colistin-resistant E. coli, harboring the colistin-resistant mobile gene mcr among commensal bacteria of residents, in a rural community in Vietnam," said Yoshimasa Yamamoto, Ph.D., Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, presenting author on the study.

The colistin-resistant bacteria were detected in 71.4% of the residents in Nguyen Xa village in Vietnam. All the colistin-resistant isolates were identified as E. coli.

The proportion of households that had members possessing colistin-resistant E. coli was also quite high (80.6%). Sixty-nine of the 70 colistin-resistant E. coli isolates possessed either mcr-1 and/or mcr-3. Only one colistin-resistant isolate did not contain any mcr-1 to mcr-5 genes. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of mcr (+) isolates to colistin were ?8 μg/ml. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis indicated no clonal expansion of any specific strain. The majority of mcr (+) isolates showed that the rate of multidrug resistance (MDR) of colistin-resistant E. coli isolates was 91.4%, which means that they show resistance to at least one antibiotic drug in three or more antibiotic classes.

"It is a remarkable finding from a public health viewpoint that most households that participated in the study had colistin-resistant E. coli carriers," said Dr. Yamamoto, "Thus, this requires urgent public health attention."

The researchers conducted the study in Nguyen Xa village, Thai Binh province, Vietnam, from November 2017 to February 2018. The village, a representative rural community in Vietnam, had 7,730 residents in 2,008 households in 2015. A total of 98 healthy participants from 36 households were enrolled (an increase from what was recorded in the abstract). The researchers obtained one stool specimen from each participant to test for the presence of colistin-resistant E. coli, using a selective medium.

Current reports show an increase in colistin-resistant bacteria worldwide due to the abuse of colistin in the livestock sector. Furthermore, the discovery of mobile antibiotic resistance genes, such as mcr-1, in 2015 indicates the possibility of further spread of colistin-resistance to other bacteria. Extensive studies on colistin-resistant bacteria possessing mcr are being carried out on infectious disease specimens and livestock. The colistin-resistance with mcr represents an emerging global health threat.

"The susceptibility and exposure of local residents living in the areas of frequent usage of colistin in livestock to the colistin-resistant bacteria remains to be studied," said Dr. Yamamoto. The carriage of colistin-resistant bacteria with mobile resistance genes by human residents may increase the risk of acquiring intractable infections.

Supplementing breastfed infants with activated Bifidobacterium infantis (B. infantis) bacteria had a positive impact on babies' gut microbes for up to a year, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Davis and Evolve BioSystems Inc. The work will be presented June 9 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Boston by Bethany Henrick, director of immunology and diagnostics at Evolve BioSystems, on behalf of the study co-investigator, Jennifer Smilowitz, associate director of human studies research at UC Davis' Foods For Health Institute.

The presence of B. infantis in the intestines of infants is associated with health benefits and these bacteria are nourished by breast milk. However, these beneficial bacteria are present at significantly lower levels in breastfed infants in developed countries than in developing countries.

Mothers and infants in the study received either a B. infantis preparation and lactation support, or lactation support alone, from seven to 21 days after birth. The bacteria quickly established themselves in the babies, crowding out other gut bacteria that are associated with intestinal problems and immune-related diseases such as asthma, allergy and autoimmune disease. Furthermore, supplementation with B. infantis also changed the biochemical composition of infant feces. These beneficial changes lasted for up to a year in babies that were primarily breastfed.

These results suggest a possible method to improve gut microbiome health and prevent immune-related diseases in breastfed infants in developed countries.

Dublin, Ireland - 9 June 2018: Using a healthy lifestyle smartphone application (app) helps to slow artery ageing, according to results from the EVIDENT II trial presented today at EuroHeartCare 2018, the European Society of Cardiology's annual nursing congress.1

Arteries harden with age, increasing the risk of atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular disease. Good eating habits, smoking cessation and physical exercise are known to prevent atherosclerosis. The current study aimed to assess the impact of using modern technology to promote healthy living habits, compared to traditional modification strategies. The EVIDENT II trial tested whether using a smartphone app could slow artery ageing by improving compliance with a Mediterranean diet and physical activity equivalent to at least 10,000 steps a day.

Dr Jose Ignacio Recio-Rodriguez, study author and assistant professor, University of Salamanca, Spain, said: "We found that a healthy lifestyle smartphone app, added to brief advice on diet and exercise, improved a marker of arterial hardness, indicating delayed arterial ageing and a lower risk for atherosclerosis."

Specifically, after using the app for three months, users had a significant improvement in the peripheral augmentation index which was maintained at one year. This index got worse in participants who received diet and exercise advice only.

At three months, although neither group had improved their physical activity level using an objective method (accelerometer),2 the app group improved their physical activity level using a self-report method (seven-day physical activity recall questionnaire). Both groups improved their adherence to a Mediterranean diet.2 However, better results were achieved by the app group in modifying the usual diet composition, with a higher percentage of carbohydrates, and lower percentages of total fat and saturated fat. Intake of trans fats and processed meats were also reduced.

The design of the trial has been previously published.3 Briefly, the trial included 833 adults without heart disease aged 70 years or under who were recruited from six primary care centres in Spain. Participants were randomised to the app plus counselling, or counselling alone, for three months. Follow up visits were conducted at three months and one year.

In both groups, counselling consisted of two 15 minute sessions - one on physical activity and one on the Mediterranean diet - each explaining the benefits and providing specific advice. Attendees received an information leaflet after each session.

Each day, app users entered their food intake, the app's accelerometer recorded the number of steps, and users entered activities performed without the smartphone such as swimming. At the end of each day, the app reported a summary of food intake and physical activity, the number of calories consumed and expended, and a recommended plan to improve eating habits and increase physical activity.

For the current study, artery ageing/hardening was assessed in 597 participants using three indices: the peripheral augmentation index, evaluated by tonometry, and the cardio-ankle vascular index and pulse wave velocity measured by oscillometry. There were no differences between the app and counselling only groups in any of the indices at the start of the study.

Dr Recio concluded: "Healthy lifestyle apps could be a powerful weapon against arterial ageing. But studies are still needed to demonstrate their ability to reduce heart attacks and death from cardiovascular disease."

A study out of Florida International University evaluates the use of scent-discriminating canines for the detection of laurel wilt-affected wood from avocado trees. Julian Mendel, Kenneth G. Furton, and DeEtta Mills have ferreted out a possible solution to a serious issue in one corner of the horticultural industry, and then ascertained the extent to which this solution is effective.

The results of this study are presented in their article "An Evaluation of Scent-discriminating Canines for Rapid Response to Agricultural Diseases" published in the latest issue of HortTechnology.

Laurel wilt disease has resulted in the death of more than 300 million laurel trees in the United States alone. One affected plant is the commercially important avocado tree, the second-largest tree crop in Florida behind citrus. This disease has had a devastating effect on the industry in South Florida in past harvest seasons, and two larger avocado industries in Mexico and California are naturally worried that this disease, if it hits their crops, could spread fast enough to destroy their seasons.

Once affected by laurel wilt disease, trees succumb soon after infection. Once external symptoms are evident, this disease is very difficult to control and contain as the pathogen can spread to adjacent trees via root grafting. Until now, there has been no viable, cost-effective method of early diagnosis and treatment.

Laurel wilt is the consequence of an invasive species--the redbay ambrosia beetle--originally from Asia, which was inadvertently introduced into the United States in untreated wooden packing material.

But as with so many ailments, early detection can be instrumental in deterring a widespread infection. The use of scent-discriminating dogs has shown to offer the avocado industry legitimate signs of hope in their fight against the spread of such a profit-crusher throughout their groves.

Three dogs were trained and studied for their ability to detect the early presence of laurel wilt by scent. At present, canines are extensively used in law enforcement and forensics in the location of missing persons, explosives, drugs, weapons, and ammunition. More directly applicable, dogs have demonstrated the ability to detect invasive species of spotted knapweed, brown tree snakes, desert tortoises, and various cancers.

The highly sensitive canine olfactory system is capable of detecting odor concentrations at exceedingly minute 1 to 2 parts per trillion. The authors believe it likely, with properly directed training, that these dogs could use their natural talents to service the protective needs of the potentially ailing avocado industry.

During the course of the study, 229 trials were performed, and only 12 of those yielded false alerts. It was observed that dogs are indeed capable of high levels of relevant performance, even in harsh weather conditions such as high heat and humidity. The study provided proof that dogs can detect agricultural diseases such as laurel wilt and can be a powerful management tool if the disease is caught in its earliest stages.

About the valuable service provided by these dogs, Mills adds, "It is the best 'technology' so far that can detect a diseased tree before external symptoms are visible. The old saying that 'dogs are man's best friend' reaches far beyond a personal bond with their handler and trainer. It is depicted in their excitement every day as they deploy to the groves. Man's best friend may even help save an industry."

What drives cells to live and engines to move? It all comes down to a quantity that scientists call "free energy," essentially the energy that can be extracted from any system to perform useful work. Without this available energy, a living organism would eventually die and a machine would lie idle.

In work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland in College Park, researchers have devised and demonstrated a new way to measure free energy. By using microscopy to track and analyze the fluctuating motion or configuration of single molecules or other small objects, the new method can be applied to a greater variety of microscopic and nanoscopic systems than previous techniques.

"Scientists have relied on free energy to understand complex systems since the development of steam engines. This concept will continue to be just as fundamental as we engineer and design proteins and other single-molecule systems," noted NIST's David Ross, first author of a new paper (link is external) on this work in Nature Physics. "But the measurements are much harder for those small systems--so approaches like the new one we describe will be of fundamental importance," he added.

By measuring changes in free energy as a system moves or alters its internal structure, scientists can predict certain aspects of how a living system will behave or how a machine will operate--without the impossible task of keeping track of the comings and goings of all the atoms and molecules that make up the system.

An everyday example of free energy is in the internal combustion engine of an automobile, with a total energy equal to the energy of its motion plus the heat it generates. Subtracting the heat energy, which dissipates from the system, leaves the free energy.

In one method, scientists use a microscopic force sensor to pull on a protein or DNA molecule, which can behave as a miniature spring when stretched or compressed, to measure changes in force and position as a system relaxes and releases energy. However, the attachment of the force sensor can disturb the microscopic system and cannot be used to measure changes in free energy that do not involve a straightforward change in position.

The new method, which can use optical microscopy to track the motion or configuration of small systems, determines free energies without the attachment to a force sensor. The new analysis could prove a powerful way to peer into the inner workings of a broad variety of microscopic systems, including living systems such as viruses or cells to better understand the processes, such as energy intake, chemical reactions and the movement of molecules that keep living systems functioning.

"We are surrounded by natural systems that take advantage of microscopic fluctuations in free energy, and now we have a way to better measure, understand, and, ultimately, manipulate these fluctuations ourselves," said co-author Elizabeth Strychalski of NIST.

The analysis lends itself to studying microscopic systems that start in a highly excited state with high energy, far from equilibrium with their surroundings, and then relax back toward equilibrium. The properties of microscopic systems can fluctuate significantly as they relax due to the random motion from continuous jostling by surrounding molecules. The new method, which the team refers to as Relaxation Fluctuation Spectroscopy (ReFlucS), uses measurements of those fluctuations during relaxation to determine the free energy.

"Our approach shows that useful information can be gleaned from observing the random motions of a system as it settles down from a highly excited, far-from-equilibrium state," said co-author Christopher Jarzynski of the University of Maryland.

As an exemplary system, the scientists studied the motion of DNA molecules confined to a nanometer-scale space shaped like a staircase. To squeeze into the top steps, which are the shallowest, the DNA molecules must be compressed more tightly than molecules that occupy the bottom steps. This results in a higher free energy for the molecules at the top. By applying an electric field, the team drove the DNA molecules into the top of the staircase. The researchers then turned off the electric field and observed the movement of the molecules with an optical microscope.

The DNA molecules mostly descended the staircase as they relaxed toward equilibrium, decreasing their free energy. However, due to microscopic fluctuations, the DNA molecules occasionally moved back up the staircase, increasing their free energy. The researchers analyzed the fluctuating motion of the DNA molecules, allowing them to map out the free-energy profile--how much free energy there is at different locations, and where the energy is high and low.

"ReFlucS provides access to information about free energy that was previously inaccessible," said co-author Samuel Stavis of NIST.

Coupling bikeshare with public transit could be an important component when trying to increase light rail transit (LRT) ridership, according to a new study out of the University of Waterloo.

In their study, researchers from Waterloo explored the most efficient size of a bike pool that would ensure enough bikes would be available to commuters who sign up for a share program.

While the study isn't specific to any particular region, co-author Srinivasan Keshav, who is a professor in Waterloo's Cheriton School of Computer Science, believes bikeshare programs could be a component that municipalities, which are unveiling or revitalizing light rail transit systems, want to consider.

"A solution based on personal mobility makes a lot of sense," says Keshav.

Using mathematics and computer modelling, the researchers worked out the most efficient way to couple bikeshare programs with public transit systems. The study involved taking big data from a Montreal bikeshare program and then using that data to model commuter schedules, and the number of people obtaining or returning bikes at different times and stops.

The model considered commuters who ride rental bikes home from the train station in the evening, then ride back the next morning and drop the bike off. The model anticipates that commuters ride the train to a stop near their work, and pick up a different bike to complete the journey to work.

There are many bikeshare programs in the world, but Keshav said that to his knowledge, this study is the first time anyone has tried to calculate the needs of a bikeshare program coupled with public transit. He believes this model could be used on any multi-modal private and public transportation system.

"That's the nice thing about math, once you have solved a problem it can be used in any number of ways," says Keshav, who hopes a municipality or bikeshare organization might one day launch a pilot project to test out the recent bike-and-ride research. "It takes somebody to do it and carry it into practice, and we would like to believe, and would hope, that our study could motivate people to use public transit."

Marine organisms have evolved to thrive in various ocean environments, resulting in unique adaptations that make them the object of commercial interest. Researchers from the Stockholm Resilience Centre and University of British Columbia have identified 862 marine species, with a total of 12,998 genetic sequences associated with a patent. They found that a single transnational corporation (BASF, the world's largest chemical manufacturer) has registered 47% of these sequences.

Public and private universities accounted for another 12%, while entities such as governmental bodies, individuals, hospitals, and nonprofit research institutes registered the remaining 4%. Overall, entities located in only 10 countries accounted for 98% the study published in Science Advances stated.

"Within national jurisdiction, the Nagoya Protocol protects countries from exploitative bioprospecting, and is meant to foster greater equity. But there's a huge missing piece, because two-thirds of the ocean exists beyond national jurisdiction. That's roughly half the Earth's surface with no regulations on accessing or using genetic resources," said Robert Blasiak, fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and first author on the study. A considerable portion of all patent sequences (11%) are derived from species associated with deep sea and hydrothermal vent ecosystems (91 species, 1650 sequences), many of which are found in these unregulated areas beyond national jurisdiction.

"Establishing a legal framework for marine genetic resources will be a core issue when international negotiations on a new UN treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) begin in earnest in September 2018," Blasiak noted.

Countries that are signatories to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) have committed to promoting the development and transfer of marine technology "for the benefit of all parties concerned on an equitable basis"; a commitment which may have implications in the upcoming negotiations. Of the 30 countries involved in patenting these resources, 27 are parties to UNCLOS.

"Equity is deeply embedded within UNCLOS and the language of the Sustainable Development Goals," said Colette Wabnitz, Research Associate in the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and co-author on the study. "Ensuring that the process moves forward in an inclusive manner means that states should increase their commitments to disclose the geographic origin of marine genetic resources, and promote greater international participation in discovering and using the benefits of marine biodiversity."

The authors note that the existence of a handful of corporations with a disproportionate influence also suggests an opening for more direct engagement with them. They believe such engagement could help companies distinguish themselves through their proactive behaviour and contribute to providing new norms and standards associated with transparency, capacity building, and benefit sharing. "By 2025, the global market for marine biotechnology is expected to reach $6.4 billion and span a broad range of commercial purposes for pharmaceutical, biofuel, and chemical industries," Wabnitz noted. "It is clear that these industry leaders must be involved in the upcoming BBNJ treaty negotiations, if only by virtue of their ownership of such a large share of the marine genetic sequence patents."