Reliably estimating proportion of vaccinated populations in wildlife

Japanese Wild Boar
Credit: KENPEI, CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons

Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary: Reliably Estimating Proportion of Vaccinated Populations in Wildlife

• Main Discovery: Researchers developed a mathematical model to accurately estimate the effectiveness of bait vaccinations in wild animals based on the proportion of immunized individuals and the number of vaccine applications.
• Methodology: Scientists constructed a model linking the changes over time in the proportion of immunized animals, the frequency of vaccine applications, and the overall effects of the vaccines, testing this framework using real-world data from a classical swine fever bait vaccination campaign targeting wild boars in Japan.
• Key Data: The model analyzed data stemming from a 2018 classical swine fever outbreak—the first in Japan in 26 years—and successfully tracked the cumulative increase of immunized wild boars over a 60-week period following four bait vaccination campaigns initiated in 2019.
• Significance: This study is the first to unequivocally quantify the increase in immunized wildlife due to bait vaccination without requiring extensive data on total animal population numbers, local movement tracking, or individual bait intake histories.
• Future Application: The computational model can be utilized to accurately measure the impact of oral vaccines for multiple diseases, compare distribution methods, and optimize vaccination strategies for wild animal populations where migration is negligible.
• Branch of Science: Biology, Conservation Biology, Veterinary Science

How evolution overshot the optimum bone structure in hopping rodents

A bipedal jerboa, one of the rodent species included in a study of unpredictability in animal movements.
 Image credit: Talia Moore and Kim Cooper

Bones that are separate in small jerboas are fully fused in large ones, but the bone structures that are best at dissipating the stresses of jumping are only partially fused

Foot bones that are separate in small hopping rodents are fused in their larger cousins, and a team of researchers at the University of Michigan and University of California, San Diego, wanted to know why.

It appears that once evolution set jerboa bones on the path toward fusing together, they overshot the optimum amount of fusing—the structure that best dissipated stresses from jumping and landing—to become fully bonded.

This finding could inform the design of future robotic legs capable of withstanding the higher forces associated with rapid bursts of agile locomotion.

Jerboas are desert rodents that hop erratically on two legs to avoid predators. Across the jerboa family tree, these two legs can look a lot different: there are species that weigh just three grams to those that weigh 400 grams, with heavier species sporting vastly different bones of the feet, or metatarsals. Lighter jerboas are like most other mammals, including humans: their metatarsal foot bones are separate from each other.

NUS study addresses the causes of eye color variation in primates

Some of the images measured and analyzed in the study, picturing the diversity in color and forms.
 Credit: Juan Olvido Perea-García

Scientists discover that this diversity is partly due to lighting differences in their habitats

Have you ever wondered why some people have lighter eyes than others? Differences in iris coloration have traditionally been explained as a result of sexual selection, but a recent study led by researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Science revealed that this is partly due to differences in lighting in the habitats of primate species.

For over 20 years, studies focused on explaining variation in primate eye coloration have exclusively focused on eyes as visual signals for inter and intra-specific communication. This idea, however, has received little support from experimental studies in species other than humans. Other suggestions, like eye pigmentation patterns being used in camouflage against predators, have also received limited support.

Even though eyes help us navigate the world thanks to light entering that organ, the idea that eye color diversity may have evolved due to different qualities of light being present in different habitats was never seriously considered.

A Machine Learning-Based Solution Could Help Firefighters Circumvent Deadly Backdrafts

NIST researchers conducted hundreds of fire experiments to find out what conditions make a room ripe for backdraft and fed the data to a machine learning algorithm. The result was a backdraft-predicting computer model. The NIST's team plans to incorporate the model into handheld devices that firefighters could use to take simple measurements through small openings in a room.

A lack of oxygen can reduce even the most furious flame to smoldering ash. But when fresh air rushes in, say after a firefighter opens a window or door to a room, the blaze may be suddenly and violently resurrected. This explosive phenomenon, called backdraft, can be lethal and has been challenging for firefighters to anticipate.

Now, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have hatched a plan for informing firefighters of what dangers lie behind closed doors. The team obtained data from hundreds of backdrafts in the lab to use as a basis for a model that can predict backdrafts. The results of a new study, described at the 2022 Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Conference, suggest that the model offers a viable solution to make predictions based on particular measurements. In the future, the team seeks to implement the technology into small-scale devices that firefighters could deploy in the field to avoid or adapt to dangerous conditions.

Currently, firefighters are looking for visual indicators of a potential backdraft, including soot-stained windows, smoke puffing through small openings and the absence of flames. If the cues are present, they may vent the room by creating holes in its ceiling to reduce their risk. If not, they may charge right in. Ultimately, first responders must rely on their eyes in a hazy environment to guess the correct action. And guessing wrong could come at a steep cost.

Kidney health in adult life begins in the womb, Monash researchers discover

A representative image for double immunofluorescence for DACH1 (podocyte nuclei, magenta) and synaptopodin (podocyte cytoplasm, green). The Image was obtained using a laser confocal microscope.
Image source: Monash University

Maternal health may play an important role in helping prevent kidney disease after a Monash University study found the risk of developing the disease in adult life is partially determined at birth.

The study shows for the first time that some people are born with a double protection against future kidney disease, while others have double the risk of poor kidney health.

About 800 million people worldwide suffer from chronic kidney disease. While diabetes is the most common cause, the research shows some people have a greater protection against predisposition to future kidney disease than others.

The study, undertaken in collaboration with Tokyo’s Jikei University School of Medicine and published in the journal Kidney International, analyzed 50 kidneys from adult donors. First author and Jikei University Adjunct Associate Professor (Research), Dr Kotaro Haruhara, examined the kidney’s key filtering mechanism with fellow researchers – homing in on the organ’s blood filters, known as glomeruli, and analyzed their individual cells, called podocytes.

New Approach Would Improve User Access to Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Photo credit: Rick Govic.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a dynamic computational tool to help improve user access to electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, with the goal of making EVs more attractive for drivers.

“We already know that there is a need for EV charging networks that are flexible, in order to support the adoption of EVs,” says Leila Hajibabai, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor in NC State’s Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “That’s because there is tremendous variability in when and where people want to charge their vehicles, how much time they can spend at a charging station, how long it takes to charge their vehicles, and so on.

“The fundamental question we wanted to address with this work is: What is the best way to manage existing charging station infrastructure in order to best meet the demands of electric vehicle users?”

To answer that question, the researchers wanted to take the user’s perspective, so they focused on questions that are important to EV drivers. How long will it take me to reach a charging station? What is the cost of using the charging station? How long might I have to wait to access a charging station? And what sort of fines are there if I stay at a charging station beyond the time limit?

The researchers developed a technique that accounts for all of these factors in a complex computational model that makes use of a game theory framework.

Burping bacteria: Identifying Arctic microbes that produce greenhouse gases

Sandia National Laboratories technologist Jenna Schambach working with a sample of Alaska lakebed soil. By studying the microbes in the soil, and the gases they emit, Schambach and project lead Chuck Smallwood hope to improve our understanding of the rapidly melting Arctic permafrost and improve computer models of climate change.
Photo credit: Craig Fritz

As greenhouse gases bubble up across the rapidly thawing Arctic, Sandia National Laboratories researchers are trying to identify other trace gases from soil microbes that could shed some light on what is occurring biologically in melting permafrost in the Arctic.

Sandia bioengineer Chuck Smallwood and his team recently spent five days collecting lakebed soil and gas samples. They were joined by international collaborators led by professor Katey Walter Anthony from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, including researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Quebec in Rimouski and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

“The Arctic is rapidly changing, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases; we just don’t know how much greenhouse gases are released every year,” Smallwood said. “Our work at Sandia seeks to improve our understanding of how much greenhouse gases soil microbes are producing, without going out and destructively sampling permafrost soils. The goal is to use sensitive gas detection devices to sample microbial volatile compounds coming out with the methane and CO2 gases instead.”

Both methane and CO2 are greenhouse gases, and methane actually traps more heat in the atmosphere than the commonly discussed CO2. In fact, it is 30 times more potent than CO2, Smallwood said.

Lack of biomarker profiles typical of Alzheimer's disease

Image credit: Gerd Altmann

A new study from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that only a small proportion of patients who were examined for cognitive illness at the specialized memory reception at Karolinska Hospital in Solna had biomarker profiles typical of Alzheimer's disease and could be considered as potential candidates for new disease-modifying treatments. against amyloid.

This study was done in collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV (part of Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson), and was published online in the journal Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Biomarkers that reflect typical changes in brain pathology in Alzheimer's disease are an important support in the diagnosis, as well as finding which patient group is suitable for which new disease-modifying treatment, when such drugs become available in the market. At present, however, there is only limited data on the proportion of patients in regular clinics and memory clinics (ie who are not participants in research studies) who have Alzheimer's-type biomarkers and who could thus be the right patient group for these new drugs.

Large patient base at the Solna memorial reception

In this study, the research team led by Professor Miia Kivipelto, MD PhD, has examined biomarker profiles in a well-characterized patient group at the memorial reception at Karolinska University Hospital in Solna. The clinical investigation process at the newly started clinic (which opened in 2018) has given rise to a large amount of well-documented information. The memory reception receives patients with memory problems from primary care in the reception area as well as younger patients under 70 years from the entire Stockholm region. The investigation process follows a "fast track model" where a majority of all investigations are done within a week. Most patients undergo lumbar puncture for spinal cord fluid collection, magnetic camera examination of the brain, and most neuropsychological tests. These survey results are then compiled into a diagnosis. All patients are also asked for permission to participate in the hospital's research database and biobank (GEDOC).

Developing Self-Complementary Macrocycles with Ingenious Molecules

Virus capsids can be formed through the self-complementary assembly of a single class of protein molecules. However, mimicking nature by making higher-ordered structures from artificial molecules has proven difficult to achieve. A new assembly method developed by Tokyo Tech researchers can produce stable and controllable supramolecular structures, from hexamers to cuboctahedrons that include 6 and 108 monomer units, respectively, opening doors to metal-free supramolecular assemblies.

Some biological molecules with efficient noncovalent bonding sites can use their bonding properties to create well-defined assemblies from a single class of molecules–i.e., they assemble with each other. These molecules, which are frequently seen in nature, are referred to as "self-complementary assemblies." For instance, the p24 protein hexamer, which is part of the capsid of the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), is composed of six protein subunits which complementarily self -assemble using many hydrogen bonds. This phenomenon provides well-designed molecules can form higher-ordered assemblies without the metal ions which are commonly used as "joints" between monomer molecules. Indeed, many self-complementary assemblies have been reported on the basis of intrinsic hydrogen bonds, π-interactions, and coordination bonds.

Virologists close gap on unknown viruses affecting amphibians and reptiles

It took three years to identify the virus that all but wiped out the Bellinger River turtle in 2015. It is hoped that amassing new viral data affecting herptiles will allow quicker conservation responses.
Credit: Pelagic, CC BY-SA 4.0

New knowledge about amphibian and reptile viruses will help us act faster to conserve threatened species.

A study of viruses that affect amphibians and reptiles has closed the gap on the knowledge of viruses affecting animals which until now has largely focused on humans and other mammals.

Third year PhD student Emma Harding, who led the study published today in ISME Communications, used the UNSW supercomputer Katana to comb through petabytes (millions of gigabytes) of publicly available amphibian and reptile RNA data in search of new viruses affecting these classes of animals.

“We know a lot about viruses that infect us and livestock, however not many people have investigated viruses that infect amphibians and reptiles, even though there are over 18,000 species globally,” Ms. Harding, lead author on the paper, says.

“We looked through more than 200 RNA datasets from amphibians and reptiles for evidence of new viruses that could lead to disease. We found 26 new viruses from a range of different families and now have a better understanding of what viruses can infect these animals.”

Ural Scientists Developed a Drug to Combat Post-Covidal Complications

According to the scientists, the university and the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are developing world-class materials.
Photo credit: TASS-Ural Press Center, Vladislav Burnashev

Scientists from the Ural Federal University and the Postovsky Institute of Organic Synthesis have developed a drug to combat post-covidal complications, namely, the formation of blood clots. The drug blocks the release of clot-forming compounds caused by coronavirus infection. As the scientists point out, this is a world-class achievement, as new classes of compounds capable of combating the effects of coronavirus have been discovered. Representatives of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences talked about this, as well as about other developments aimed at ensuring the scientific and technological sovereignty of Russia, at a press conference at TASS.

"We develop unique things. This is important to note, because now the concept of import substitution is pushed to the background, and we are talking about the scientific and technological sovereignty of the country. The fact is that import substitution implies reproduction, copying of foreign technologies. We are catching up beforehand. Scientific and technological sovereignty implies independence from external conditions and supremacy in the development of industrial samples and new materials which are superior to foreign analogues in their characteristics. Therefore, it is certain that the Ural scientists successfully solve the task of ensuring scientific and technological progress," emphasizes Victor Rudenko, Academician and Chairman of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Too much motivation affects our decision-making

Sami El-Boustani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Basic Neurosciences at the Faculty of Medicine of the UNIGE
Credit: Sami El-Boustani

In a good or a bad mood, focused or distracted, in dire or no need: our internal states directly influence our perceptions and decision- making. While the role of motivation on the performance of behavioral tasks has been known for more than a century - thanks to the work of psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dilligham Dodson - its precise effect on the brain remains unclear. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the EPFL, has revealed how motivation alters the neural circuits responsible for sensory perception preceding decision-making in mice. This study reveals why a level of motivation that is too high or too low can affect our perception and therefore our choices. These results, featured in the journal Neuron, open up new perspectives in learning methods. 

Going to work early in the morning, choosing a restaurant at lunchtime: many of our decisions are motivated by needs, such as earning a living or satisfying our hunger. However, decision-making is a complex process, which can also be influenced by external factors, such as the environment or other individuals, and by our internal states, such as our mood, our level of attention or our degree of motivation. 

Heaviest element yet detected in an exoplanet atmosphere

This artist’s impression shows an ultra-hot exoplanet, a planet beyond our Solar System, as it is about to transit in front of its host star. When the light from the star passes through the planet’s atmosphere, it is filtered by the chemical elements and molecules in the gaseous layer. With sensitive instruments, the signatures of those elements and molecules can be observed from Earth. Using the ESPRESSO instrument of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have found the heaviest element yet in an exoplanet's atmosphere, barium, in the two ultra-hot Jupiters WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b. 
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have discovered the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet atmosphere — barium. They were surprised to discover barium at high altitudes in the atmospheres of the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b — two exoplanets, planets which orbit stars outside our Solar System. This unexpected discovery raises questions about what these exotic atmospheres may be like.

“The puzzling and counterintuitive part is: why is there such a heavy element in the upper layers of the atmosphere of these planets?” says Tomás Azevedo Silva, a PhD student at the University of Porto and the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) in Portugal who led the study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b are not ordinary exoplanets. Both are known as ultra-hot Jupiters as they are comparable in size to Jupiter whilst having extremely high surface temperatures soaring above 1000°C. This is due to their close proximity to their host stars, which also means an orbit around each star takes only one to two days. This gives these planets rather exotic features; in WASP-76 b, for example, astronomers suspect it rains iron.

Sustainable kerosene: accelerate production on an industrial scale

In the international project CARE-O-SENE, researchers are developing tailor-made Fischer-Tropsch catalysts for the production of sustainable kerosene.
Photo credit: Tiziana Carambia

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the international research project CARE-O-SENE (Catalyst Research for Sustainable Kerosene) with 30 million euros. It is intended to improve the production of sustainable kerosene on an industrial scale. For this purpose, the network partners, including the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), are developing tailor-made catalysts to further develop the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) established in fuel production for the use of renewable energy sources.

With a share of more than 80 percent, fossil fuels are still by far the most important raw material for fuels, heating and the chemical industry (source: International Energy Agency, IEA). Sustainable fuels are based on green hydrogen and carbon dioxide - and should make a significant contribution to decarbonizing sectors such as aviation, in which fossil fuels are particularly difficult to replace. In the CARE-O-SENE project, seven South African and German project partners are therefore researching next-generation Fischer-Tropsch catalysts.

Endangered fruit-eating animals play an outsized role in a tropical forest

A view of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state.
Credit: Adriano Gambarini/The Nature Conservancy

A new study by researchers at the University of Washington shows that losing a particular group of endangered animals — those that eat fruit and help disperse the seeds of trees and other plants — could severely disrupt seed-dispersal networks in the Atlantic Forest, a shrinking stretch of tropical forest and critical biodiversity hotspot on the coast of Brazil.

The findings, published Oct. 12 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, indicate that a high number of plant species in today’s Atlantic Forest rely on endangered frugivores — the scientific term for animals that eat primarily fruit — to help disperse their seeds throughout the forest. As a result, losing those endangered frugivores would leave a high proportion of plants without an effective means to disperse and regenerate — endangering these plants, reducing diversity in the Atlantic Forest and crippling critical portions of this ecosystem.

“Tropical forests contain this incredible diversity of trees,” said lead author Therese Lamperty, a UW postdoctoral researcher in biology. “One of the main processes forests use to maintain this diversity is dispersal. If you’re not dispersed, you’re in a crowd of trees that are just like you – all competing for resources. And there are a lot of plant enemies already in the area or that can be easily recruited, like harmful animals or plant diseases. Your chance of survival is higher when you get transported away from your mother tree to an area without trees like you.”