Using spiders as environmentally-friendly pest control

 Large web from group-living spider Cyrtophora citricola
Photo Credit: Dr Lena Grinsted

Groups of spiders could be used as an environmentally-friendly way to protect crops against agricultural pests.

That's according to new research, led by the University of Portsmouth, which suggests that web-building groups of spiders can eat a devastating pest moth of commercially important crops like tomato and potato worldwide.

The tomato leaf miner moth, Tuta absoluta, has developed resistance to chemical insecticides, which cause human and environmental damage, so different approaches, like using natural predators such as spiders, are needed to combat infestations. 

The researchers explored the use of tropical tent web spiders, Cyrtophora citricola, as pest control, as these spiders form groups and are not cannibalistic, and they create large webs to capture prey.

In lab settings, different types of prey - the small tomato leaf miner, flightless fruit flies (Drosophila hydei) and larger black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) - were introduced to colonies of spiders of varying body sizes. Researchers found that larger spiders built larger webs and generally caught more prey, and they easily caught and ate the tomato leaf miner and fruit flies, while the larger black soldier flies were rarely caught. 

Canine distemper now threatens big cats in Nepal

 A Bengal tiger in the jungle. Although researchers have suspected distemper was infecting tigers and leopards, a new study is the first definitive proof of infection in Nepal’s big cats.
Photo Credit: R. Gilbert

Researchers with the College of Veterinary Medicine have confirmed the first cases of canine distemper virus (CDV), which can cause fatal neurological disease, in tigers and leopards in Nepal.

“Canine distemper virus has been repeatedly identified as a threat to wild carnivores and their conservation,” said Martin Gilbert, Cornell Wildlife Health Center wild carnivore health specialist and associate professor of practice in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences. “This study is a first step to understanding the potential impact for Nepalese tiger and leopard populations.”

Although researchers have suspected distemper was infecting these species, the study, published Jan 28 in the journal Pathogens, is the first definitive proof of infection in Nepal’s big cats. The survey found 11% of tigers (three out of 28) and 30% of the leopards (six out of 20) had antibodies to CDV, indicating prior infection with the virus.

Relatively little is known about the status of Nepal’s leopards, but scientists believe the population is in decline due to a combination of poaching, habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict. Leopards also face increasing competition for space due to the expansion of the country’s tiger population. Could CDV push them even further into decline?

Feathered ‘fingerprints’ reveal potential motivation for migratory patterns of endangered seabirds

The Wandering Albatross has a wingspan of up to 3.5 meters.
Photo Credit: Paul Carroll

With the largest wingspan of any living bird, the Wandering Albatross is a giant of the sea. But like several other tube-nosed bird species, it is under threat of extinction.

Now, world first research from CSIRO and the University of South Australia shows that the feathers of seabirds such as the Wandering Albatross can provide clues about their long-distance foraging, which could help protect these species from further decline.

Comparing 15 element concentrations in the feathers of 253 tube-nosed seabirds of the Southern Hemisphere (representing 15 species), researchers found that the feathers of large seabirds (400g+) such as the Wandering Albatross (and other highly mobile seabirds) contained nutrients that did not solely match the availability of nutrients in the seawater at the collection site.

Conversely, smaller bird species that foraged more locally had feathers with trace element concentrations that were ten-to-hundred-fold higher than those of larger bird species, clearly representing the ocean basins in which they were feeding.

AI could improve mental health care

Photo Credit: SHVETS production

Patients are often asked to rate their feelings using a rating scale, when talking to psychologists or doctors about their mental health. This is currently how depression and anxiety are diagnosed. However, a new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that allowing patients to describe their experience using their own words - is potentially viewed as more precise and preferred by the patients. The Lund researchers have developed an AI-tool that could help doctors analyze their patients’ answers.

The study, published in PLOS ONE, shows that clinicians and patients differ somewhat, as clinics often prefer rating scales when diagnosing a patient (e.g., little interest in doing things: not at all, sometimes, often, daily) whereas patients prefer free language (e.g., Describe your mental health).

The researchers surveyed a group of 150 patients with self-diagnosed depression or anxiety, posing the same questions to a control group of 150 other participants.

New study identifies key success factors for large carnivore rewilding efforts

A puma known as Anhanguera is released into Serra do Japi, Jundiaí, state of São Paulo, Brazil, as part of the Vida Livre da Mata Ciliar program.
Photo Credit: Associação Mata Ciliar.

New research led by the University of Oxford has identified the top factors that determine whether efforts to relocate large carnivores to different areas are successful or not. The findings, published today in Biology Conservation, could support global rewilding efforts, from lynx reintroductions in the UK to efforts to restore logged tropical forests.

As apex predators, large carnivores play crucial roles in ecosystems, however their numbers have plummeted over recent decades. Relocating large carnivores can support their conservation, for instance to reintroduce a species to an area where it has been exterminated, or to reinforce an existing population to increase its viability. But to date, there has been little information about what factors determine whether these (often costly) efforts are successful or not.

To investigate this, an international team led by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), and School of Geography and the Environment analyzed data from almost 300 animal relocations which took place between 2007 and 2021. These spanned 22 countries in five continents, and involved 18 different carnivore species, including bears, hyaenas, big cats, and wild dogs.

Moms’ and babies’ medical data predicts prematurity complications, Stanford Medicine-led study shows

Researchers used an algorithm of medical record data to predict how at-risk newborns will fare in their first two months of life.
Photo Credit: Alexander Grey

Stanford Medicine scientists and their colleagues have shown they can tap mothers’ and babies’ medical records to better predict newborn health risks.

By sifting through electronic health records of moms and babies using a machine-learning algorithm, scientists can predict how at-risk newborns will fare in their first two months of life. The new method allows physicians to classify, at or before birth, which infants are likely to develop complications of prematurity.

A study describing the method, developed at the Stanford School of Medicine, was published online Feb. 15 in Science Translational Medicine.

“This is a new way of thinking about preterm birth, placing the focus on individual health factors of the newborns rather than looking only at how early they are born,” said senior study author Nima Aghaeepour, PhD, an associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine and of pediatrics. The study’s lead authors are postdoctoral scholar Davide De Francesco, PhD, and Jonathan Reiss, MD, an instructor in pediatrics.

Tsunami in a water glass

Fabio Novelli, Martina Havenith and Claudius Hoberg (from left) were able to observe the birth of an electron dissolved in water in RESOLV.
Photo Credit: © RUB, Marquard

With a new experiment, the effects of an electron in solution on the surrounding liquid have been observed.

So-called hydrated electrons play a major role in many physical, chemical and biological processes. They are not bound to an atom or molecule and are freely in the solution. Since they are only ever produced as an intermediate product, they are extremely short-lived. The team of the Ruhr Explores Solvation Cluster of Excellence RESOLV at the Ruhr University Bochum, a new experiment was the first time to observe how the hydrated electron acts on the solution over its life. The researchers around Prof. Dr. Martina Havenith-Newen report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science PNAS from 15. February 2023.

The simplest anion

"A single electron in water is the simplest conceivable anion, which, however, plays a major role in a large number of chemical processes," Martina Havenith describes the importance of the object of investigation. “For example, it plays an important role in energy transmission during photochemical and electrochemical phenomena, in atmospheric chemistry, in the radiation damage to biological substances and in medical therapy." For several decades, this has given the hydrated electron the constant attention of experimental and theoretical groups.

New Horizons for Organoboron and Organosilicon Chemistry with Triple Elementalization

A technique for easily modifying quinolines with carbon, boron, and silicon groups simultaneously has been unveiled by scientists at Tokyo Tech. With organoboron and organosilicon compounds becoming more and more important in pharmaceuticals, the novel technique could facilitate the development of new drugs. Moreover, modified quinolines can be readily used as convenient scaffolds for synthesizing organic chemicals.

In recent years, organic chemicals containing boron (B) and silicon (Si) have found applications in various fields, including optoelectronics and pharmaceuticals. Moreover, they can also serve as building blocks for complex organic chemicals. As a result, scientists are actively looking for new ways to leverage these versatile chemical tools as well as produce more kinds of organosilicon and organoboron compounds.

One limitation of the synthesis methods currently available for these chemicals is that we cannot introduce multiple B- and Si-containing groups in aromatic nitrogen heterocycles, i.e., carbon rings in which one of the carbon atoms is replaced by a nitrogen atom. If we could produce and freely transform such molecules, it would unlock the synthesis of several compounds relevant in medicinal chemistry.

New technology revolutionizes the analysis of old ice

The oldest ice in the world is being drilled for here as part of the European “Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice” project: the camp at Little Dome C in Antarctica.
Photo Credit: © PNRA/IPEV

Ice cores are a unique climate archive. Thanks to a new method developed by researchers at the University of Bern and Empa, greenhouse gas concentrations in 1.5-million-year-old ice can be measured even more accurately. The EU project “Beyond EPICA” with the participation of the University of Bern aims to recover such old ice in Antarctica.

The search for the oldest ice on earth has taken an important step forward. The Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice project, a European consortium that includes the University of Bern, completed its second field season at the end of January. The drilling reached a depth of 808 meters. The project objective is to look back 1.5 million years into the past and obtain data on the development of temperature, the composition of the atmosphere and the carbon cycle. A depth of around 2700 meters must be reached in the Antarctic ice sheet and an ice core recovered. If everything goes as planned, this should be the case in 2025. Only then will the complex analysis of the oldest ice in this core follow, which new methods are currently being developed for.

Genetic study: Unexpectedly high variation in T-cell receptor genes between persons

Using blood samples, the researchers examined TCR genes in 45 people from different parts of the world.
Photo Credit: Ahmad Ardity

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have discovered that the genes encoding our T cell receptors vary greatly between persons and populations, which may explain why we respond differently to for example infections. The findings, presented in the journal Immunity, also demonstrate that some gene variants are inherited from Neanderthals.

T-cells that are part of our immune system are central in the protection against infections and cancer. With the help of TCRs, the cells recognize foreign invaders and tumor cells.

“It was previously unknown how variable human TCR genes are”, says Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, professor at the department of microbiology, tumor and cell biology at Karolinska Institutet and the study's lead author.

Persons from different parts of the world were included

Using deep sequencing of blood samples, the researchers examined TCR genes in 45 people originating from sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Europe. The researchers showed that these genes vary greatly between different persons and population groups. The results were confirmed by analyses of several thousand additional cases from the 1000 Genomes project.