4.Star Factories in Sagittarius

The golden age of star formation in the Milky Way is long past, but there’s still plenty of activity in dusty spiral arms of the Milky Way. In this astonishing wide-field composite image by astrophotographer +Terry Hancock of Downunder Observatory, for example, you see a half dozen emission nebulae in the Sagittarius Arm of our galaxy in which new stars ignite and set aglow the clouds of gas and dust from which they form.

In this image you see some of the jewels of the Sagittarius Arm. The Eagle Nebula, Messier 16, also known as the “Star Queen” nebula is at the upper right. The open star cluster Messier 25 is at upper left. Between the two is the mottled glow of Messier 17, the Swan Nebula. Each of these nebula lies some 5,000 to 7,000 light years away. At bottom, just left of center, you see the Little Sagittarius Star Cloud, Messier 24, a shimmering patch of stars about 1ºx2º in apparent size and some 9,000 light years away, about 1/3 the way to the center of the galaxy. The annotated image below helps you see which object is which… -

The image above covers about 7º x 4.2º in a region above the “Teapot” of Sagittarius, so it’s roughly what you see in a pair of binoculars (see image below). Of course you see more detail here because light was collected for many hours for each of the four images that make up this composite. Each image was taken with an H-alpha filter, so it favors the reddish-pink light emitted by hydrogen atoms when their electrons recombine after ionization from bright blue-white stars.

Like all emission nebulae, these glowing regions are short-lived blisters of light that only last a few million years. The brightest stars within these regions will eventually push away the remaining gas and dust and leave behind loose clusters of newly minted stars.

3.Bioengineers close to brewing opioid painkillers without using opium from poppies

Date:

August 24, 2014

Source:

Stanford School of Engineering

Summary:

A process that uses genetically engineering yeast cells to replicate the entire opioid production process, eliminating the need to grow poppies, is close to conclusion, one researcher reports. Her ultimate goal is to produce opioid medicines, from start to finish, in fermentation vats.

Stanford Bioengineer Christina Smolke has been on a decade-long quest to genetically alter yeast so they can "brew" opioid medicines in stainless steel vats, eliminating the need to raise poppies and then industrially refine derivatives of opium into pain pills.

For centuries poppy plants have been grown to provide opium, the compound from which morphine and other important medicines such as oxycodone are derived.

Now ioengineers at Stanford have hacked the DNA of yeast, reprograming these simple cells to make opioid-based medicines via a sophisticated extension of the basic brewing process that makes beer.

Led by Associate Professor of Bioengineering Christina Smolke, the Stanford team has already spent a decade genetically engineering yeast cells to reproduce the biochemistry of poppies with the ultimate goal of producing opium-based medicines, from start to finish, in fermentation vats.

"We are now very close to replicating the entire opioid production process in a way that eliminates the need to grow poppies, allowing us to reliably manufacture essential medicines while mitigating the potential for diversion to illegal use," said Smolke, who outlines her work in the August 24th edition of Nature Chemical Biology.

In the new report Smolke and her collaborators, Kate Thodey, a post-doctoral scholar in bioengineering, and Stephanie Galanie, a doctoral student in chemistry, detail how they added five genes from two different organisms to yeast cells. Three of these genes came from the poppy itself, and the others from a bacterium that lives on poppy plant stalks.

This multi-species gene mashup was required to turn yeast into cellular factories that replicate two, now-separate processes: how nature produces opium in poppies, and then how pharmacologists use chemical processes to further refine opium derivatives into modern opioid drugs such as hydrocodone.

From Plants to Pills Today

Plant-derived opium has been used and abused for centuries, but a good place to begin the modern story is with the use of morphine during World War II.

Morphine is one of three principal pain killers derived from opium. As a class they are called opiates. The other two important opiates are codeine, which has been used as a cough remedy, and thebaine, which is further refined by chemical processes to create higher-value therapeutics such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, better known by brand names such as OxyContin and Vicodin, respectively.

Today legal poppy farming is restricted to a few countries--including Australia, France, Hungary, India, Spain and Turkey--supervised by the International Narcotics Control Board, which seeks to prevent opiates like morphine, for instance, from being refined into illegal heroin.

The biggest market for legal opiates, and their opioid derivatives, is the United States, where pharmaceutical factories use chemical processes to create the refined products that are used as pain-killing pills. However poppies are not grown in significant quantities in the U.S., creating various international dependencies and vulnerabilities in the supply of these important medicines.

Turning Yeast Into a Pharmaceutical Factory

The thrust of Smolke's work for a decade has been to pack the entire production chain, from the fields of poppies, through all the subsequent steps of chemical refining, into yeast cells using the tools of bioengineering.

What Smolke's team has now done is to carefully reprogram the yeast genome -- the master instruction set that tells every organism how to live -- to behave like a poppy when it comes to making opiates.

The process involved more than simply adding new genes into yeast. Opioid molecules are complex three-dimensional objects. In nature they are made in specific regions inside the poppy. Since yeast cells do not have these complex structures and tissues, the Stanford team had to recreate the equivalent of poppy-like "chemical neighborhoods" inside their bioengineered yeast cells.

It takes about 17 separate chemical steps to make the opioid compounds used in pills. Some of these steps occur naturally in poppies and the remaining via synthetic chemical processes in factories. Smolke's team wanted all the steps to happen inside yeast cells within a single vat, including using yeast to carry out chemical processes that poppies never evolved to perform -- such as refining opiates like thebaine into more valuable semi-synthetic opioids like oxycodone.

So Smolke programmed her bioengineered yeast to perform these final industrial steps as well. To do this she endowed the yeast with genes from a bacterium that feeds on dead poppy stalks. Since they wanted to produce several different opioids, the team hacked the yeast genome in slightly different ways to produce each of the slightly different opioid formulations, such as oxycodone or hydrocodone.

The Missing Link

All of this was demonstrated in the new paper. But Smolke's team must still clear one more hurdle in order to achieve the goal of pouring sugar into a stainless steel vat of bioengineered yeast and skimming off specific opioids at the end of the process. They must perform another set of bioengineering hacks to connect the two major advances they have made over the past decade.

Remember that it takes about 17 chemical steps to go from poppy to pill. When she began the work in 2004, Smolke started early in the process and went about halfway through these chemical steps. In a 2008 paper she reported success in that first phase of the project when her bioengineered yeast produced a precursor to thebaine--one of the three principal opiates.

In her new paper, Smolke started with thebaine obtained from poppies, put this into her bioengineered yeast and got refined opioids at the end of the process.

Now her team must extend the 2008 process from sugar to thebaine. Once she forges this missing link in the chain of biochemical synthesis, she will have produced a bioengineered yeast that can perform all 17 steps from sugar to specific opioid drugs in a single vat.

"We are already working on this," she said.

Smolke said it could take several more years to perfect these last steps in the lab and scale up the process to produce large sized batches of bioengineered opioids that are pharmacologically identical to today's drugs that start in a field and are refined in factories.

"This will allow us to create a reliable supply of these essential medicines in a way that doesn't depend on years leading up to good or bad crop yields," Smolke said. "We'll have more sustainable, cost-effective, and secure production methods for these important drugs."

2.Are you as old as what you eat? Researchers learn how to rejuvenate aging immune cells

Date:

August 24, 2014

Source:

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Summary:

Researchers have demonstrated how an interplay between nutrition, metabolism and immunity is involved in the process of aging. It has been suspected for a long time that these are linked, and this paper provides a prototype mechanism of how nutrient and senescence signals converge to regulate the function of T lymphocytes.

Researchers from UCL (University College London) have demonstrated how an interplay between nutrition, metabolism and immunity is involved in the process of aging.

The two new studies, supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), could help to enhance our immunity to disease through dietary intervention and help make existing immune system therapies more effective.

As we age our immune systems decline. Older people suffer from increased incidence and severity of both infections and cancer. In addition, vaccination becomes less efficient with age.

In previous BBSRC funded work, Professor Arne Akbar's group at UCL showed that aging in immune system cells known as 'T lymphocytes' was controlled by a molecule called 'p38 MAPK' that acts as a brake to prevent certain cellular functions.

They found that this braking action could be reversed by using a p38 MAPK inhibitor, suggesting the possibility of rejuvenating old T cells using drug treatment.

In a new study published in Nature Immunology the group shows that p38 MAPK is activated by low nutrient levels, coupled with signals associated with age, or senescence, within the cell.

It has been suspected for a long time that nutrition, metabolism and immunity are linked and this paper provides a prototype mechanism of how nutrient and senescence signals converge to regulate the function of T lymphocytes.

The study also suggests that the function of old T lymphocytes could be reconstituted by blocking one of several molecules involved in the process. The research was conducted at UCL alongside colleagues from Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.

The second paper, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, showed that blocking p38 MAPK boosted the fitness of cells that had shown signs of aging; improving the function of mitochondria (the cellular batteries) and enhancing their ability to divide.

Extra energy for the cell to divide was generated by the recycling of intracellular molecules, a process known as autophagy. This highlights the existence of a common signaling pathway in old/senescent T lymphocytes that controls their immune function as well as metabolism, further underscoring the intimate association between aging and metabolism of T lymphocytes.

This study was conducted by researchers from UCL, Cancer Research UK, University of Oxford and University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.

Professor Arne Akbar said: "Our life expectancy at birth is now twice as long as it was 150 years ago and our lifespans are on the increase. Healthcare costs associated with aging are immense and there will be an increasing number of older people in our population who will have a lower quality of life due in part to immune decline. It is therefore essential to understand reasons why immunity decreases and whether it is possible to counteract some of these changes.

"An important question is whether this knowledge can be used to enhance immunity during aging. Many drug companies have already developed p38 inhibitors in attempts to treat inflammatory diseases. One new possibility for their use is that these compounds could be used to enhance immunity in older subjects. Another possibility is that dietary instead of drug intervention could be used to enhance immunity since metabolism and senescence are two sides of the same coin."

1 Haven't my neurons seen this before? What happens in the brain with familiar pictures

Date:

August 24, 2014

Source:

Carnegie Mellon University

Summary:

The world grows increasingly more chaotic year after year, and our brains are constantly bombarded with images. A new study reveals how neurons in the part of the brain responsible for recognizing objects respond to being shown a barrage of images. Researchers found that when subjects were exposed to familiar and unfamiliar images in a rapid succession, their neurons -- especially the inhibitory neurons -- fired much more strongly and selectively to images the subject had seen many times before.

The world grows increasingly more chaotic year after year, and our brains are constantly bombarded with images. A new study from Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), a joint project between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, reveals how neurons in the part of the brain responsible for recognizing objects respond to being shown a barrage of images. The study is published online by Nature Neuroscience.

The CNBC researchers showed animal subjects a rapid succession of images, some that were new, and some that the subjects had seen more than 100 times. The researchers measured the electrical response of individual neurons in the inferotemporal cortex, an essential part of the visual system and the part of the brain responsible for object recognition.

In previous studies, researchers found that when subjects were shown a single, familiar image, their neurons responded less strongly than when they were shown an unfamiliar image. However, in the current study, the CNBC researchers found that when subjects were exposed to familiar and unfamiliar images in a rapid succession, their neurons -- especially the inhibitory neurons -- fired much more strongly and selectively to images the subject had seen many times before.

"It was such a dramatic effect, it leapt out at us," said Carl Olson, a professor at Carnegie Mellon. "You wouldn't expect there to be such deep changes in the brain from simply making things familiar. We think this may be a mechanism the brain uses to track a rapidly changing visual environment."

The researchers then ran a similar experiment in which they used themselves as subjects, recording their brain activity using EEG. They found that the humans' brains responded similarly to the animal subjects' brains when presented with familiar or unfamiliar images in rapid succession. In future studies, they hope to link these changes in the brain to improvements in perception and cognition.

Neuroscience and big data: How to find simplicity in the brain

Date:

August 24, 2014

Source:

Carnegie Mellon University

Summary:

Scientists can now monitor and record the activity of hundreds of neurons concurrently in the brain, and ongoing technology developments promise to increase this number. However, simply recording the neural activity does not automatically lead to a clearer understanding of how the brain works. In a new article, researchers describe the scientific motivations for studying the activity of many neurons together, along with a class of machine learning algorithms for interpreting the activity.

Scientists can now monitor and record the activity of hundreds of neurons concurrently in the brain, and ongoing technology developments promise to increase this number manyfold. However, simply recording the neural activity does not automatically lead to a clearer understanding of how the brain works.

In a new review paper published in Nature Neuroscience, Carnegie Mellon University's Byron M. Yu and Columbia University's John P. Cunningham describe the scientific motivations for studying the activity of many neurons together, along with a class of machine learning algorithms -- dimensionality reduction -- for interpreting the activity.

In recent years, dimensionality reduction has provided insight into how the brain distinguishes between different odors, makes decisions in the face of uncertainty and is able to think about moving a limb without actually moving. Yu and Cunningham contend that using dimensionality reduction as a standard analytical method will make it easier to compare activity patterns in healthy and abnormal brains, ultimately leading to improved treatments and interventions for brain injuries and disorders.

"One of the central tenets of neuroscience is that large numbers of neurons work together to give rise to brain function. However, most standard analytical methods are appropriate for analyzing only one or two neurons at a time. To understand how large numbers of neurons interact, advanced statistical methods, such as dimensionality reduction, are needed to interpret these large-scale neural recordings," said Yu, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at CMU and a faculty member in the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC).

The idea behind dimensionality reduction is to summarize the activity of a large number of neurons using a smaller number of latent (or hidden) variables. Dimensionality reduction methods are particularly useful to uncover inner workings of the brain, such as when we ruminate or solve a mental math problem, where all the action is going on inside the brain and not in the outside world. These latent variables can be used to trace out the path of ones thoughts.

"One of the major goals of science is to explain complex phenomena in simple terms. Traditionally, neuroscientists have sought to find simplicity with individual neurons. However, it is becoming increasingly recognized that neurons show varied features in their activity patterns that are difficult to explain by examining one neuron at a time. Dimensionality reduction provides us with a way to embrace single-neuron heterogeneity and seek simple explanations in terms of how neurons interact with each other," said Cunningham, assistant professor of statistics at Columbia.

Although dimensionality reduction is relatively new to neuroscience compared to existing analytical methods, it has already shown great promise. With Big Data getting ever bigger thanks to the continued development of neural recording technologies and the federal BRAIN Initiative, the use of dimensionality reduction and related methods will likely become increasingly essential.

Train your heart to protect your mind

Date:

August 25, 2014

Source:

University of Montreal

Summary:

Exercising to improve our cardiovascular strength may protect us from cognitive impairment as we age, according to a new study. "Our body's arteries stiffen with age, and the vessel hardening is believed to begin in the aorta, the main vessel coming out of the heart, before reaching the brain. Indeed, the hardening may contribute to cognitive changes that occur during a similar time frame," explained the first author of the study.

Exercising to improve our cardiovascular strength may protect us from cognitive impairment as we age, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated Institut universitaire de gératrie de Montréal Research Centre. "Our body's arteries stiffen with age, and the vessel hardening is believed to begin in the aorta, the main vessel coming out of the heart, before reaching the brain. Indeed, the hardening may contribute to cognitive changes that occur during a similar time frame," explained Claudine Gauthier, first author of the study. "We found that older adults whose aortas were in a better condition and who had greater aerobic fitness performed better on a cognitive test. We therefore think that the preservation of vessel elasticity may be one of the mechanisms that enables exercise to slow cognitive aging."

The researchers worked with 31 young people between the ages of 18 and 30 and 54 older participants aged between 55 and 75. This enabled the team to compare the older participants within their peer group and against the younger group who obviously have not begun the aging processes in question. None of the participants had physical or mental health issues that might influence the study outcome. Their fitness was tested by exhausting the participants on a workout machine and determining their maximum oxygen intake over a 30 second period. Their cognitive abilities were assessed with the Stroop task. The Stroop task is a scientifically validated test that involves asking someone to identify the ink colour of a colour word that is printed in a different colour (e.g. the word red could be printed in blue ink and the correct answer would be blue). A person who is able to correctly name the colour of the word without being distracted by the reflex to read it has greater cognitive agility.

The participants undertook three MRI scans: one to evaluate the blood flow to the brain, one to measure their brain activity as they performed the Stroop task, and one to actually look at the physical state of their aorta. The researchers were interested in the brain's blood flow, as poorer cardiovascular health is associated with a faster pulse wave,at each heartbeat which in turn could cause damage to the brain's smaller blood vessels. "This is first study to use MRI to examine participants in this way," Gauthier said. "It enabled us to find even subtle effects in this healthy population, which suggests that other researchers could adapt our test to study vascular-cognitive associations within less healthy and clinical populations."

The results demonstrated age-related declines in executive function, aortic elasticity and cardiorespiratory fitness, a link between vascular health and brain function, and a positive association between aerobic fitness and brain function. "The link between fitness and brain function may be mediated through preserved cerebrovascular reactivity in periventricular watershed areas that are also associated with cardiorespiratory fitness," Gauthier said. "Although the impact of fitness on cerebral vasculature may however involve other, more complex mechanisms, overall these results support the hypothesis that lifestyle helps maintain the elasticity of arteries, thereby preventing downstream cerebrovascular damage and resulting in preserved cognitive abilities in later life."

Changes in eye can predict changes in brain

Date:

August 25, 2014

Source:

Gladstone Institutes

Summary:

A loss of cells in the retina is one of the earliest signs of frontotemporal dementia in people with a genetic risk for the disorder -- even before any changes appear in their behavior -- scientists have found. Although it is located in the eye, the retina is made up of neurons with direct connections to the brain. This means that studying the retina is one of the easiest and most accessible ways to examine and track changes in neurons.

This is a retina cross-section from a healthy mouse showing TDP-43 staining (green), Ran staining (red), and nuclei (blue).

Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes and University of California, San Francisco have shown that a loss of cells in the retina is one of the earliest signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in people with a genetic risk for the disorder -- even before any changes appear in their behavior

Published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the researchers, led by Gladstone investigator Li Gan, PhD and UCSF associate professor of neurology Ari Green, MD, studied a group of individuals who had a certain genetic mutation that is known to result in FTD. They discovered that before any cognitive signs of dementia were present, these individuals showed a significant thinning of the retina compared with people who did not have the gene mutation.

"This finding suggests that the retina acts as a type of 'window to the brain,'" said Dr. Gan. "Retinal degeneration was detectable in mutation carriers prior to the onset of cognitive symptoms, establishing retinal thinning as one of the earliest observable signs of familial FTD. This means that retinal thinning could be an easily measured outcome for clinical trials."

Although it is located in the eye, the retina is made up of neurons with direct connections to the brain. This means that studying the retina is one of the easiest and most accessible ways to examine and track changes in neurons.

Lead author Michael Ward, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Gladstone Institutes and assistant professor of neurology at UCSF, explained, "The retina may be used as a model to study the development of FTD in neurons. If we follow these patients over time, we may be able to correlate a decline in retinal thickness with disease progression. In addition, we may be able to track the effectiveness of a treatment through a simple eye examination."

The researchers also discovered new mechanisms by which cell death occurs in FTD. As with most complex neurological disorders, there are several changes in the brain that contribute to the development of FTD. In the inherited form researched in the current study, this includes a deficiency of the protein progranulin, which is tied to the mislocalization of another crucial protein, TDP-43, from the nucleus of the cell out to the cytoplasm.

However, the relationship between neurodegeneration, progranulin, and TDP-43 was previously unclear. In follow-up studies using a genetic mouse model of FTD, the scientists were able to investigate this connection for the first time in neurons from the retina. They identified a depletion of TDP-43 from the cell nuclei before any signs of neurodegeneration occurred, signifying that this loss may be a direct cause of the cell death associated with FTD.

TDP-43 levels were shown to be regulated by a third cellular protein called Ran. By increasing expression of Ran, the researchers were able to elevate TDP-43 levels in the nucleus of progranulin-deficient neurons and prevent their death.

"With these findings," said Dr. Gan, "we now not only know that retinal thinning can act as a pre-symptomatic marker of dementia, but we've also gained an understanding into the underlying mechanisms of frontotemporal dementia that could potentially lead to novel therapeutic targets."

Navigation system used by cancer, nerve cells, uncovered by scientists

Date:

August 25, 2014

Source:

Duke University

Summary:

A study in C. elegans worms identifies a 'roving detection system' on the surface of worm cells that may point to new ways of treating diseases like cancer, Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The study sheds light on the molecular mechanisms that enable both normal and cancerous cells to break through normal tissue boundaries and burrow into other tissues and organs.

Duke University researchers have found a "roving detection system" on the surface of cells that may point to new ways of treating diseases like cancer, Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The cells, which were studied in nematode worms, are able to break through normal tissue boundaries and burrow into other tissues and organs -- a crucial step in many normal developmental processes, ranging from embryonic development and wound-healing to the formation of new blood vessels.

But sometimes the process goes awry. Such is the case with metastatic cancer, in which cancer cells spread unchecked from where they originated and form tumors in other parts of the body.

"Cell invasion is one of the mo st clinically relevant yet least understood aspects of cancer progression," said David Sherwood, an associate professor of biology at Duke.

Sherwood is leading a team that is investigating the molecular mechanisms that control cell invasion in both normal development and cancer, using a one-millimeter worm known as C. elegans.

At one point in C. elegans development, a specialized cell called the anchor cell breaches the dense, sheet-like membrane that separate the worm's uterus from its vulva, opening up the worm's reproductive tract.

Anchor cells can't see, so they need some kind of signal to tell them where to break through. In a 2009 study, Sherwood and colleagues discovered that an extracellular cue called netrin orients the anchor cell so that it invades in the right direction.

In a new study appearing Aug. 25 in the Journal of Cell Biology, the team shows how receptors on the invasive cells essentially rove around the cell membrane "hunting" for the missing netrin signal that will guide the cell to the correct location.

The researchers used a video camera attached to a powerful microscope to take time-lapse movies of the slow movement of the C. elegans anchor cell during its invasion.

Their time-lapse analyses reveal that when netrin production is blocked, netrin receptors on the surface of the anchor cell periodically cluster, disperse and reassemble in a different region of the cell membrane. The receptors cluster alongside patches of actin filaments -- thin flexible fibers that help cells change shape and form invasive protrusions -- that pop up in each new spot.

"It's kind of like a missile detection system," Sherwood said.

Rather than the whole cell having to move around, its receptors move around on the outside of the cell until they get a signal. Once the receptors locate the netrin signal, they stabilize in the region of the cell membrane that is closest to the source of the signal.

The findings redefine decades-old ideas about how the cell's navigation system works. "Cells don't just passively respond to the netrin signal -- they're actively searching for it," Sherwood said.

Given that netrin has been found to promote cell invasion in some of the most lethal cancers, the findings could lead to new treatment strategies. Disrupting the cell's netrin detection system, for example, could prevent cancer cells from finding their way to the bloodstream or the lymphatic system and stop them from metastasizing, or becoming invasive and spreading throughout the body.

"One of the things we're gearing up to do next are drug screens with our collaborators to see if we can block this detection system during invasion," Sherwood said.

Scientists have also known for years that netrin plays a key role in wiring the brain and nervous system by guiding developing nerve cells as they grow and form connections.

This means the results could also point to new ways of treating neurological disorders like Parkinson's and ALS and recovering from spinal cord injuries.

Tinkering with the cell's netrin detection machinery, for example, may make it possible to encourage damaged cells in the central nervous system -- which normally have limited ability to regenerate -- to regrow.

Expectant parents' play with doll predicts later parenting behavior

Date:

August 25, 2014

Source:

Ohio State University

Summary:

Having expectant parents role-play interacting with an infant using a doll can help predict which couples may be headed for co-parenting conflicts when their baby arrives. Results showed that couples acted similarly toward each other with the real baby as they did with the doll -- in both positive and negative ways.

Hving expectant parents role-play interacting with an infant using a doll can help predict which couples may be headed for co-parenting conflicts when their baby arrives.

Researchers videotaped 182 couples in the third trimester of pregnancy while they played with a doll that they were told represented the baby they were about to have. Researchers analyzed how the couple interacted with each other around the doll.

The couples were videotaped again nine months after the birth of their baby to see how they actually played together.

Results showed that couples acted similarly toward each other with the real baby as they did with the doll -- in both positive and negative ways.

"The extent to which couples support or undermine each other's interactions with the doll predicts their co-parenting behavior a year later," said Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, co-author of the study and professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University.

"We saw the same kinds of behaviors between parents when they were interacting with their baby that we saw a year earlier with the doll."

Co-parenting refers to how parents work together as they raise a child.

The study appears in the August 2014 issue of the Journal of Family Psychology.

Schoppe-Sullivan said this particular procedure using dolls with expectant parents has rarely if ever been used in the United States (it was developed by researchers in Switzerland).

"When people first hear about it, many think it is strange. They think it is silly to have adults play with dolls," she said.

"But couples in our study responded positively to the activity. They were able to take it seriously and it really does predict how they will co-parent."

Lead author Lauren Altenburger, a doctoral student in human sciences at Ohio State, said the results have important implications.

"Co-parenting has consistently been linked to child outcomes. When parents fight and undermine each other's parenting, the child suffers," she said.

"If we can identify couples who may have problems with their co-parenting before their baby is even born, we may be able to intervene."

The couples in the study were participating in the New Parents Project, a long-term study co-led by Schoppe-Sullivan that is investigating how dual-earner couples adjust to becoming parents for the first time.

Researchers visited the couples' homes during the third trimester of the woman's pregnancy. The doll they used was custom-made and consisted of a footed infant sleeper sewn shut with 7-8 pounds of rice inside to make its weight similar to a newborn. A doll's head made of green fabric was sewn onto the footed sleeper.

In the videotaped procedure, an assistant playing the role of a nurse presented the "baby" to each couple. The 5-minute session was separated into four parts: Each parent-to-be played with the doll alone, then they played with it together, then they discussed their experience.

Trained researchers then viewed the videotape to look for how much the couple cooperated, their levels of playfulness, levels of family warmth, the structure of the play and how much each parent-to-be showed intuitive parenting behaviors.

Nine months after the birth of the baby, a different team of research assistants watched videotapes of the parents playing with their infant and rated the quality of the couples' co-parenting behavior.

It was striking how similarly the parents acted toward the doll and their baby, Schoppe-Sullivan said.

"Some of the couples were very positive, saying nice things to each other about their parenting. With the doll they might say 'You're going to be such a great dad.' After the birth of the baby, their talk would be very similar: 'You're such a natural.'"

But others were not so kind to their partner, whether they were playing with the doll or the baby. They might say things like "You're not going to hold the real baby like that, are you?" They were critical of each other, she said.

The researchers emphasized that the co-parenting relationship examined in this study is not the same as the couple's romantic relationship with each other.

As part of the study, each couple also completed measures of their couple relationship, which asked each person, among other items, to rate their overall happiness in their relationship. Research assistants also observed each couple during the prenatal at-home visit and rated the quality of their interactions with each other but without the doll.

Results showed that how the couples "co-parented" the doll contributed unique information to understanding how well they would co-parent their real infant.

"The co-parenting and couple relationships are not the same," Schoppe-Sullivan said.

Learning by watching, toddlers show intuitive understanding of probability

Date:

August 25, 2014

Source:

University of Washington

Summary:

Most people know children learn many skills simply by watching people around them. Without explicit instructions youngsters know to do things like press a button to operate the television and twist a knob to open a door. Now researchers have taken this further, finding that children as young as age 2 intuitively use mathematical concepts such as probability to help make sense of the world around them.

Most people know children learn many skills simply by watching people around them. Without explicit instructions youngsters know to do things like press a button to operate the television and twist a knob to open a door. Now researchers have taken this further, finding that children as young as age 2 intuitively use mathematical concepts such as probability to help make sense of the world around them.

In a study led by researchers at the University of Washington, toddlers could tell the difference between two different ways an experimenter played a game, with one strategy being more successful than the other. When it was their turn to play, the children could use the more successful strategy that they observed to increase their odds of winning. The study will be published in an upcoming issue ofDevelopmental Science.

"In the real world, there are multitudes of possible ways to solve a problem, but how do we learn how to find the best solution?" said lead author Anna Waismeyer, a post-doctoral researcher at UW's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. "In our study, we wanted to see if young children could detect the difference between two imperfect ways of winning a game, and then use the better strategy to their own advantage."

Waismeyer and co-authors Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, and Alison Gopnik, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, designed a cause-and-effect game.

First, the child watched as the researcher played. Placing a wooden block onto a lunchbox-sized box activated -- much to the child's delight -- a nearby marble-dispensing machine. One block activated the machine two thirds of the time, and a differently colored and shaped block triggered the machine only one third of the time.

In about 20 minutes, the children watched 12 run-throughs using the different blocks. Then, given the chance to play the game themselves, 23 out of the 32, or 72 percent, of the children eagerly picked the block with the greater success rate as shown in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8v7xvTsZj4&list=UU5jRtUGZMmKD5-1J0emBnTA

It wasn't clear, though, whether the toddlers were making their choice based on probability -- the better two out of three rate -- or frequency. That is, the more successful block led to a marble four out of six times compared with the less successful two-out-of-six frequency.

So the researchers ran the experiment again on a separate group of toddlers, keeping the frequency the same for both blocks -- all the children saw the marble machine activate four times for each block. But the probability varied, with one block activating the marble four out of six times (two-thirds probability) and the block with the less probable chance activating the marble machine four out of 12 times (one-third probability).

When it was their turn to play the game most of the children (22 out of the 32) picked the more successful block, demonstrating that they were able to use the difference in probability to their advantage.

"Our findings help explain how young children learn so quickly, even in an uncertain and imperfect world," said Meltzoff, a UW professor who holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair. "Remarkably, they learn about causality even if the people they are watching make mistakes and are right some but not all of the time."

This intuitive grasp of statistics and weighing likelihoods of a cause-and-effect scenario show that toddlers don't need to have to go through trial and error to learn -- they can just watch what other people do.

The researchers hope that educators can use the findings to develop science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum that take advantage of young children's ability to learn through observation using less-than-perfect causal relationships.

"The current way of teaching probabilities relies on fractions and decimals, and many children struggle to understand these concepts when they are introduced in grade school," Waismeyer said. "Maybe it would be easier if we introduced these mathematical principles earlier and had our teaching mesh with or build on the intuitive ways that children think."

Increased risk of stroke in people with cognitive impairment

Date:

August 25, 2014

Source:

Canadian Medical Association Journal

Summary:

People with cognitive impairment are significantly more likely to have a stroke, with a 39 percent increased risk, than people with normal cognitive function, according to a new study. Cognitive impairment and stroke are major contributors to disability, and stroke is the second leading cause of death world-wide. Although stroke is linked to the development and worsening of cognitive impairment, it is not known whether the reverse is true.

People with cognitive impairment are significantly more likely to have a stroke, with a 39% increased risk, than people with normal cognitive function, according to a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

"Given the projected substantial rise in the number of older people around the world, prevalence rates of cognitive impairment and stroke are expected to soar over the next several decades, especially in high-income countries," writes Dr. Bruce Ovbiagele, Chair of the Department of Neurology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, with coauthors.

Cognitive impairment and stroke are major contributors to disability, and stroke is the second leading cause of death world-wide. Although stroke is linked to the development and worsening of cognitive impairment, it is not known whether the reverse is true. Previous studies that have looked at the link between cognitive impairment and subsequent stroke have been inconsistent in their findings.

The study in CMAJ, by researchers in the United States, Taiwan and South Korea, analyzed data from 18 studies of 121 879 people with cognitive impairment, of whom 7799 later had strokes. Most of the included studies were conducted in North America or Europe.

The researchers observed a significantly higher rate of stroke in people with cognitive impairment than in people with normal cognitive function.

"We found that the risk of future stroke was 39% higher among patients with cognitive impairment at baseline than among those with normal cognitive function at baseline," write the authors. "This risk increased to 64% when a broadly adopted definition of cognitive impairment was used."

Blockage of blood vessels in the brain (brain infarcts), atherosclerosis, inflammation and other vascular conditions are associated with a higher risk of stroke and cognitive impairment and may contribute to the increased risk.

"Cognitive impairment should be more broadly recognized as a possible early clinical manifestation of cerebral infarction, so that timely management of vascular risk factors can be instituted to potentially prevent future stroke events and to avoid further deterioration of cognitive health," conclude the authors.

The origin of our body axes

Date:

August 24, 2014

Source:

Heidelberg University

Summary:

One fundamental question in biology is what constitutes the basic type of the animal body plan and how did all the more complex forms, including that of humans, evolve from it. At the simplest level, this body plan can be described by the three axes. These three axes -- the familiar X, Y and Z axes from geometry -- are the anterior-posterior axis, which determines the position of the mouth in front and the anus at the rear, the dorsal-ventral axis, which in vertebrates separates the front of the body from the back, and the left-right axis, which creates a mirror-like symmetry of our extremities and left-right asymmetry of the organs

Experimental biology owes much to the discovery of the freshwater polyp Hydra over 300 years ago. Hydra was first described by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1702. In 1744 Abraham Trembley published a remarkable series of experiments on Hydra, the first to demonstrate regeneration, tissue transplantation and asexual reproduction in an animal. The photograph by Melanie Mikosch and Thomas Holstein shows a budding Hydra magnipapillata polyp.

The fresh-water polyp Hydra, a member of the over 600-million-year-old phylum Cnidaria, is famous for its virtually unlimited regenerative capability and hence a perfect model for molecular stem cell and regeneration research. This polyp, with its simple structure and radial symmetry, can help us understand how our body axes came to evolve. Scientists from Heidelberg and Vienna have brought this evidence to light through their research on the formation of new polyps in the Hydra through asexual reproduction.

Their findings have now been published in the journalNature.

Project participants include a working group under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Holstein and Asst. Prof. Dr. Suat Özbek at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University and Dr. Heiko Schmidt at the Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna (CIBIV) of the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL). The Hydra reproduces asexually by producing buds on the body wall of the adult, which then mature to form new polyps. The Heidelberg researchers delved into this process at the molecular level and discovered that a signal pathway is used that triggers the left-right asymmetry of organs in higher animals, including humans. The processes that play out at the molecular level are strikingly similar to those that trigger the formation of body axes in early embryos of vertebrates.

One fundamental question in biology is what constitutes the basic type of the animal body plan and how did all the more complex forms, including that of humans, evolve from it. At the simplest level, this body plan can be described by the three axes as defined in the Cartesian coordinate system. These three axes -- the familiar X, Y and Z axes from geometry -- are the anterior-posterior (AP) axis, which determines the position of the mouth in front and the anus at the rear, the dorsal-ventral (DV) axis, which in vertebrates separates the front of the body from the back, and the left-right (LR) axis, which creates a mirror-like symmetry of our extremities and left-right asymmetry of the organs.

These three body axes are defined early on in embryonic development. A fertilized egg cell begins to divide, initially producing a ball-shaped "heap" of undifferentiated cells. It is in this early stage of the embryo that the position of the first opening of the body is determined, which simultaneously defines the AP axis. "This process can be explained geometrically as a symmetry break, and other symmetry breaks follow that define the other two axes, the DV and LR axes," explains Prof. Holstein from the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS). The genetic basis for each of these body axes had already been identified in the embryonic development of humans, other vertebrates, and even in insects and worms. Evolutionarily highly-conserved molecular signal systems act as molecular vectors to define each of the body axes and control the formation of different cell types. Many of these so-called developmental genes also play a major role in the development of cancer.

In their molecular analyses of the stem cells and Wnt proteins of the freshwater polyp Hydra, which has only one clearly defined body axis with one opening, the researchers identified what is known as Nodal signalling in this primitive system. "Until now we knew of this signal path only in bilaterally symmetric animals, where it is involved in establishing a signal centre for early embryonic development and left-right asymmetry. Using various pharmacological and genetic experiments, our group was able to demonstrate that the Hydra also has a Nodal-type gene, which together with the main target genes of the activated Nodal signal path, is involved in the asymmetrical positioning of the Hydra buds," explains Dr. Hiroshi Watanabe, a member of Prof. Holstein's group. In the Hydra, the buds break away from the adult; in coral, another member of the Cnidaria family, the buds remain attached to the adult and form colonies with complex branches. The Nodal signal pathway is activated by components of the "primary" signal pathway that is responsible for the anterior-posterior axis (Wnt signal pathway). The Nodal pathway controls the development of the left-right body axis in bilaterally symmetric animals (e.g., vertebrates).

The Heidelberg study presents the first evidence of the existence and participation of the Nodal signal pathway in axis induction in a "radially" symmetric organism. "We assume that this was a starting point in the evolution of left-right axis formation in the bilaterally symmetric animals. Identifying just how this complex bilaterian body plan evolved opens up other exciting areas of research," explains Prof. Holstein. These findings, however, already point to how similar the core molecular-level embryonic processes are between the simple Cnidaria and the vertebrates, including human beings.

Scientists grow an organ in an animal from cells created in lab

Date:

August 25, 2014

Source:

University of Edinburgh

Summary:

Scientists have grown a fully functional organ from transplanted laboratory-created cells in a living animal for the first time. The researchers have created a thymus -- an organ next to the heart that produces immune cells known as T cells that are vital for guarding against disease.

Laboratory-grown replacement organs have moved a step closer with the completion of a new study. Scientists have grown a fully functional organ from transplanted laboratory-created cells in a living animal for the first ime.

The researchers have created a thymus -- an organ next to the heart that produces immune cells known as T cells that are vital for guarding against disease.

They hope that, with further research, the discovery could lead to new treatments for people with a weakened immune system.

The team from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh took cells called fibroblasts from a mouse embryo. They turned the fibroblasts into a completely different type of cell called thymus cells, using a technique called reprogramming.

The reprogrammed cells changed shape to look like thymus cells and were also capable of supporting development of T cells in the lab -- a specialised function that only thymus cells can perform.

When the researchers mixed reprogrammed cells with other key thymus cell types and transplanted them into a mouse, the cells formed a replacement organ. The new organ had the same structure, complexity and function as a healthy adult thymus.

It is the first time that scientists have made an entire living organ from cells that were created outside of the body by reprogramming.

Doctors have already shown that patients with thymus disorders can be treated with infusions of extra immune cells or transplantation of a thymus organ soon after birth. The problem is that both are limited by a lack of donors and problems matching tissue to the recipient.

With further refinement, the researchers hope that their lab-grown cells could form the basis of a thymus transplant treatment for people with a weakened immune system.

The technique may also offer a way of making patient-matched T cells in the laboratory that could be used in cell therapies.

Such treatments could benefit bone marrow transplant patients, by helping speed up the rate at which they rebuild their immune system after transplant.

The discovery offers hope to babies born with genetic conditions that prevent the thymus from developing properly. Older people could also be helped as the thymus is the first organ to deteriorate with age.

The study is published today in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Professor Clare Blackburn from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, who led the research, said: "Our research represents an important step towards the goal of generating a clinically useful artificial thymus in the lab."

Dr Rob Buckle, Head of Regenerative Medicine at the MRC, said: "This is an exciting study but much more work will be needed before this process can be reproduced in a safe and tightly controlled way suitable for use in humans."

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcc0eVoubEk

Natural methane seepage on U.S. Atlantic ocean margin widespread

Date:

August 25, 2014

Source:

U.S. Geological Survey

Summary:

Natural methane leakage from the seafloor is far more widespread on the U.S. Atlantic margin than previously thought, according to a study by researchers from Mississippi State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other institutions.

Map of the northern U.S. Atlantic margin showing the locations of newly-discovered methane seeps mapped by researchers from Mississippi State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other partners. None of the seeps shown here was known to researchers before 2012.

Natural methane leakage from the seafloor is far more widespread on the U.S. Atlantic margin than previously thought, according to a study by researchers from Mississippi State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other institutions.

Methane plumes identified in the water column between Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and Georges Bank, Massachusetts, are emanating from at least 570 seafloor cold seeps on the outer continental shelf and the continental slope. Taken together, these areas, which lie between the coastline and the deep ocean, constitute the continental margin. Prior to this study, only three seep areas had been identified beyond the edge of the continental shelf, which occurs at approximately 180 meters (590 feet) water depth between Florida and Maine on the U.S. Atlantic seafloor.

Cold seeps are areas where gases and fluids leak into the overlying water from the sediments. They are designated as cold to distinguish them from hydrothermal vents, which are sites where new oceanic crust is being formed and hot fluids are being emitted at the seafloor. Cold seeps can occur in a much broader range of environments than hydrothermal vents.

"Widespread seepage had not been expected on the Atlantic margin. It is not near a plate tectonic boundary like the U.S. Pacific coast, nor associated with a petroleum basin like the northern Gulf of Mexico," said Adam Skarke, the study's lead author and a professor at Mississippi State University.

The gas being emitted by the seeps has not yet been sampled, but researchers believe that most of the leaking methane is produced by microbial processes in shallow sediments. This interpretation is based primarily on the locations of the seeps and knowledge of the underlying geology. Microbial methane is not the type found in deep-seated reservoirs and often tapped as a natural gas resource.

Most of the newly discovered methane seeps lie at depths close to the shallowest conditions at which deepwater marine gas hydrate can exist on the continental slope. Gas hydrate is a naturally occurring, ice-like combination of methane and water, and forms at temperature and pressure conditions commonly found in waters deeper than approximately 500 meters (1640 feet).

"Warming of ocean temperatures on seasonal, decadal or much longer time scales can cause gas hydrate to release its methane, which may then be emitted at seep sites," said Carolyn Ruppel, study co-author and chief of the USGS Gas Hydrates Project. "Such continental slope seeps have previously been recognized in the Arctic, but not at mid-latitudes. So this is a first."

Most seeps described in the new study are too deep for the methane to directly reach the atmosphere, but the methane that remains in the water column can be oxidized to carbon dioxide. This in turn increases the acidity of ocean waters and reduces oxygen levels.

Shallow-water seeps that may be related to offshore groundwater discharge were detected at the edge of the shelf and in the upper part of Hudson Canyon, an undersea gorge that represents the offshore extension of the Hudson River. Methane from these seeps could directly reach the atmosphere, contributing to increased concentrations of this potent greenhouse gas. More extensive shallow-water surveys than described in this study will be required to document the extent of such seeps.

Some of the new methane seeps were discovered in 2012. In summer 2013 a Brown University undergraduate and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hollings Scholar Mali'o Kodis worked with Skarke to analyze about 94,000 square kilometers (about 36,000 square miles) of water column imaging data to map the methane plumes. The data had been collected by the vessel Okeanos Explorerbetween 2011 and 2013. The Okeanos Explorer and the Deep Discoverer remotely operated vehicle, which has photographed the seafloor at some of the methane seeps, are managed by NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.

"This study continues the tradition of advancing U.S. marine science research through partnerships between federal agencies and the involvement of academic researchers," said John Haines, coordinator of the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program "NOAA's Ocean Exploration program acquired state-of-the-art data at the scale of the entire margin, while academic and USGS scientists teamed to interpret these data in the context of a research problem of global significance."

The study, "Widespread methane leakage from the sea floor on the northern US Atlantic Margin," by A, Skarke, C. Ruppel, M, Kodis, D. Brothers and E. Lobecker inNature Geoscience is available on line.

USGS Gas Hydrates Project

The USGS has a globally recognized research effort studying natural gas hydrates in deepwater and permafrost settings worldwide. USGS researchers focus on the potential of gas hydrates as an energy resource, the impact of climate change on gas hydrates, and seafloor stability issues.

For more information about the U.S. Geological Survey's Gas Hydrates Project, visit the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey Gas Hydrates Project