Physiology

Why do some people with COVID-19 get really sick but not others? Wearable sensors might answer that. – WTSP.com

Researchers at the University of South Florida are monitoring skin temperature and other physiological patterns of 150 COVID-19 patients.

TAMPA, Fla. As the number of new coronavirus cases increases in Florida and other states, theres still a lot that researchers are trying to figure out about the novel virus.

One thing they do know is that while the rate of infection is climbing, the percentage of people who get COVID-19 and experience the most severe symptoms remains relatively low.

What they dont know yet is why some otherwise healthy people get really sick from infection but not others.

We definitely have awareness that certain populations have underlying conditions and they are at higher risk of having an adverse reaction to this virus, said Dr. Matthew Mullarkey, the lead investigator on the project.

What were interested in studying, though, is why it sometimes happens to otherwise healthy individuals who suddenly develop blood clots, lungs filled with fluid, a respiratory issue.

Using tiny sensors that can be worn around a persons wrist and chest, University of South Florida researchers hope to figure out how to predict when a patient might be most at-risk for severe symptoms to ultimately be able to prevent it.

The technology will monitor the physiological conditionslike skin temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen levelsof more than 100 people with COVID-19.

Mullarkey says 15 specific biometrics will be monitored non-stop in the patients for between 14 to 21 days.

Its a massive amount of data that, Mullarkey says, could reveal patterns of how different people react to being infected with the virus. Those patterns could help identify early indicatorsan early warning systemsignaling if an otherwise healthy person could be at risk of developing more severe symptoms.

The purpose would be to help physicians diagnose earlier that a particular patient has this certain set of three, four, five variables that are going to go sideways, he said.

So we could get two, to four, to six days in front of the person ending up in an ICU and begin a treatment plan targeted at that particular physiology.

The study is a partnership between the USF MUMA College of Business, Tampa General Hospital-USF Health COVID Clinic and USF College of Nursing.

The wearable monitoring technology is similar to sensors USF MUMA College of Business researchers used in February in a first-of-its-kind experiment to measure how viewers biometrically responded to watching a presidential primary debate. The sensors are manufactured by the same company called Shimmer.

"The vast majority of us are relatively healthy individuals and are still at risk of contracting this virus," Mullarkey said. "All of us could benefit potentially from the information we can learn."

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Why do some people with COVID-19 get really sick but not others? Wearable sensors might answer that. - WTSP.com

Physiology

NSF grant to fund digitization of mammal collections at UNM’s Museum of Southwestern Biology – UNM Newsroom

A new National Science Foundation (NSF) grant will fund digitization of museum mammal collections at the Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico (UNM) and University of Michigan through a collaboration with scientists at three other universities and Sandia National Laboratories.

The three-year, $180,000 grant is titled Digitization PEN: Functional Quantitative Characters for Ecology and Evolution (FuncQEE) and the digital data produced will be integral to research in the fields of medicine, physiology, ecology, evolution and biomechanics, among others. This NSF award is part of the Open Vertebrate Thematic Collection Network as a Partner to an Existing Network (PEN).

The project will generate computed tomography (CT) scans as a basis for 3D modeling of structural diversity for some 1,000 specimens of rodents. These data will be made publicly available on the MorphoSource website to the life science community, educators and science-interested public and serve as the basis for many research projects, including the doctoral work of John Korbin, a Sandia scientist,in the Biology Department at UNM.

UNM holds the worlds largest collection of mammalian tissues and is among the three largest mammal collections overall (with the Smithsonian and British Museum) said Joseph Cook, professor and Curator of Mammals at the Museum of Southwestern Biology and has become critical infrastructure for diverse sets of investigations. Applied and theoretical studies of museum specimens range from identifying and characterizing zoonotic pathogens (e.g., hantaviruses in New Mexico and globally) to this new set of investigations aimed at characterizing the anatomical shape of wild mammals to allow us to understand how animals have adapted to diverse environmental conditions.

The resulting 3D modeling will allow researchers to examine and quantify the characters found in the vast diversity throughout the rodent Tree of Life. Many species of rodents are susceptible to extinction in the face of anthropogenic climate and habitat changes, according to Noe de la Sancha of Chicago State University (and originally from southern New Mexico).

This project is an excellent demonstration of the evolution of use and sustained impact of these types of collections. As new technology is developed and new questions arise, we continue to build novel layers of knowledge based on specimens archived for very different reasons in the past, said Jon Dunnum, collection manager for Mammals, Museum of Southwestern Biology.

CT data provide an excellent opportunity to leverage museum collections in a way that was never envisioned 100 years ago, said 'University of Michigan's Cody Thompson.

The physical shapes of todays living organisms are a result of millions of years of countless evolutionary and ecological filters, de la Sancha said. For the vast majority of species, especially in tropical regions, we dont know much at all about where or how they live, eat, or find mates. This project will allow us an initial glimpse into more pieces of this huge puzzle that evolutionary biologists and ecologists have been trying to build. There is a great deal of information we can capture in the small bones and body parts of rodents that we had not been able to access before CT scanning. And this opens up a whole new world of knowledge.

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NSF grant to fund digitization of mammal collections at UNM's Museum of Southwestern Biology - UNM Newsroom

Physiology

Peaks and valleys lead to gold medal win for UBCO student – UBC Faculty of Medicine

UBC Okanagans Governor General gold medal winner Mike Tymko stands at a landmark called Kala Patthar with Mount Everest in the background.

Although he climbed numerous mountains to conduct high-altitude research, UBC Okanagans Mike Tymko admits the peak of his academic career might have arrived in his inbox a few weeks ago.

Tymko is UBC Okanagans winner of this year's Governor General Gold Medal. The award is presented to the universitys most accomplished doctoral graduate each spring. Tymko, who has published more than 60 research papers, is beyond talented says his supervisor Professor Phil Ainslie. The pair have worked together since 2012, when Tymko, an undergraduate at Mount Royal University, was invited to join one of Ainslies research expeditions to Nepal.

At the time UBC Okanagan was much smaller and Professor Ainslie was relatively new into his appointment, but you could tell the research team he was building was extremely unique even at that time, says Tymko. That was such an amazing trip to me from both a life and scientific perspective.

Within months, he was a student in UBCOs School of Health and Exercise Sciences, working on his masters degree with another colleague from the Nepal project, Associate Professor Glen Foster, also fairly new to the Okanagan. The pair got along during the 2012 Nepal expedition and created a dynamic and busy research team when reunited at the Kelowna campus.

I knew that as Professor Foster's first student I would be privy to more one-on-one training. I appreciate everything that he has taught me over the years and I wouldn't be the scientist I am today without his mentorship.

Fosters laboratory studies how the respiratory, cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems interact to control blood flow and ventilation in health and disease. And Ainslie, a Canada Research Chair in Cerebrovascular Physiology in Health and Disease, studies cerebral blood flow regulation, how that can be influenced by environmental stressheat, altitude, pressureand how exercise can also affect cerebrovascular function. The research teams would work together for a number of years studying basic aspects of helping people under extreme conditionswhether that be where they live, or an illness they havebe able to breathe better.

Tymko explains there are many peoplesuch as those living in Nepal, the Andean mountains and Ethiopiawho live in high-altitude regions. And more than 200 million tourists travel to high-altitude destinations each year. However, his research also impacts millions of people who never get the chance to travel.

From a more clinical standpoint there are many pathologies that are characterized by low oxygen, such as people living with heart failure, obstructive sleep apnea and lung disease, he says. Studying healthy human adaptation to low oxygen in both the laboratory and in the field has implications to better understand the physiological consequences that occur in these clinical states. The findings from these studies are applicable not only to Canadians, but people worldwide.

There were several highlights for Tymko while working on his doctorate, but Ainslie notes he is a natural leader. During his studies, he has trekked to Nepal in 2012 and 2016, as well as White Mountain, California in 2015 and Peru in 2018where Tymko co-led more than 40 scientists at a research station at Cerro de Pasco.

This was undoubtedly Michaels most impressive feat during his doctorate, says Ainslie. So far more than 10 research manuscripts have been published based on data collected during this expedition and many others will come in due course.

Tymko is humbled by the gold medal win, and says, like the expeditions, this is not something you accomplish alone.

These research projects are never led by one person, they are a product of dozens of people working together towards one goal, says Tymko, crediting Ainslie, Foster and dozens of colleagues for years of support. The best part of these trips are the people you meetresearchers from all over the world. But its also a fantastic feeling knowing that your research is meaningful and impactful within the academic community."

Ainslie credits Tymkos diverse interests, skills, leadership and dedication that made him an outstanding doctoral student.

Not only can he operate as a high-level academic but he can also design, implement, build and lead high-level scientific initiatives, he says. His research interests expand those from normal laboratory-based experiments to the translation of the work into Indigenous populations at high altitude. He is a true allrounder and, importantly, also values the importance of scientific teaching and education. As an exceptional young scientist, he is fully worthy of this recognition.

UBC Okanagans Governor General gold medal winner Mike Tymko takes ultrasound measurements of the internal carotid artery and vertebral artery while conducting research on the neural control of blood flow to the brain.

UBCs Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBCranked among the worlds top 20 public universitiesthe Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbias stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit:ok.ubc.ca

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Physiology

7 benefits of walking and how it can improve your health – Insider – INSIDER

Walking is a form of exercise that can significantly improve your physical and mental health. Not only can it extend your life and prevent disease, but it can also boost your energy and mood.

In addition, studies show that if you walk regularly and quickly enough, it could be the only aerobic exercise you need to keep your heart and lungs healthy.

It's also accessible, easy, and free. So if you're one of the 47% of adults in the US who don't meet the CDC's Physical Activity Guidelines for aerobic activity, then walking is a habit worth pursuing and keeping.

Here's seven research-backed health benefits of walking, as well as how fast, long, and regularly you should walk to reap them.

Walking increases your heart rate, causing you to expend energy and burn calories just like other forms of physical activity such as running, swimming, or cycling. How many calories you burn depends on how fast you walk, for how long, the terrain, and your weight.

A 2020 study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research found that participants burned an average of 89 calories walking 1,600 meters (about 1 mile). That was only around 20% less than the 113 calories other participants burned running the same distance.

And across the results of nine different walking studies in this 2008 review published in the Annals of Family Medicine, participants lost an average of 0.05 kilograms (0.1 pounds) per week as a result of increasing their step count by between 1,827 and 4,556 steps per day. Overall, that translated to a weight loss of about 5 pounds a year on average across all studies.

The American College of Sports Medicine offers recommendations for how much time people who are overweight or obese should dedicate to physical activity each week to prevent and promote weight loss. It goes as follows:

It's important to note that, if you consume more calories than you burn every day, no amount of walking or any other physical activity will help you lose weight.

Walking increases blood flow around the body so that more blood containing oxygen and nutrients for fuel can reach the large muscles in the legs as well as the brain. This is what makes you feel energized, according to Pete McCall CSCS, exercise physiologist, personal trainer, and author.

In addition, walking and other types of physical exercise have been shown to increase the amount of a type of protein found in the brain, called brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF may be responsible for how well you can think, learn, and memorize amongst other functions in the brain.

"There is a correlation between a brisk walk and elevated levels of BDNF, which can help improve overall cognition, or thought processing," says McCall.

A 2008 study published in the Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic journal found that previously sedentary adults reported feeling more energetic and less fatigued after just 20 minutes of low to moderate aerobic exercise including walking for three days a week over a six week period.

And this 2017 study conducted on sleep deprived women aged 18 to 23, published in the journal of Physiology & Behavior, found that walking up and down the stairs for just 10 minutes at a low to moderate intensity was more energizing than consuming 50mg of caffeine, or about half a cup of coffee.

Walking briskly and regularly can also help protect you from getting a cold, the flu, or other immune-related illnesses.

That's because physical exercise like walking increases the amount of white blood cells circulating in your blood. These cells fight infection and other diseases as part of the body's immune system.

A 2013 study of 800 young adults over six years published in the World Journal of Experimental Medicine showed that white blood cell count increased significantly after just five minutes of exercise.

And this 2005 study published the American College of Sports Medicine's flagship journal measured the white blood cell count of 15 adults immediately after a 30 minute walk as well as after sitting down for the same amount of time. It also found a significant increase in white blood cells.

Walking has also been linked to a lower number of sick days taken. A 2011 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine tracked 1000 adults during flu season. Those who walked at a moderate pace for 30 to 45 minutes a day had 43% fewer sick days and fewer upper respiratory tract infections overall.

Their symptoms were also less severe if they did get sick. That was compared to adults in the study who were sedentary.

Walking can also help relieve pain from stiffness in your body by warming up your muscles, making it easier to move, according to McCall.

"The motion can elevate tissue temperature making it easier for muscles to lengthen and shorten as temperature increases, muscles move more easily," says McCall.

In addition, walking can increase levels of certain types of chemicals in your brain known scientifically as neurotransmitters which help your nervous system work effectively. This can include a type of neurotransmitter that reduces pain.

"The first few minutes of walking might be uncomfortable but after five to seven minutes the body warms up, blood is flowing, and neurotransmitter production increases helping reduce pain," says McCall.

For this reason, walking is often recommended to alleviate pain and reduce disability in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions that is, pain that affects the bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and nerves such as lower back pain.

There is also evidence of patients who are hospitalized with chronic musculoskeletal pain in the spine or limbs reporting less pain the more they walked.

Walking has been found to reduce your risk of cardiovascular events that's any incident which causes damage to your heart, such as a heart attack by 31%.

This was evident even at a moderate pace of about 2 miles per hour and at distances of just over one mile a day for five days a week, or 5.5 miles per week.

But the longer and faster you walk, the greater the benefits and protection of your heart. A 2017 study of more than 50,000 adults in the UK, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that people who walked at an average or quick pace between five and 10 hours a week were about 24% less likely to die from heart disease compared to slow walkers.

Aerobic exercise including walking can help you feel more relaxed, reduce stress, and fight depression.

The reason aerobic workouts lift our spirits seems related to their ability to reduce levels of natural stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, according to this 2015 study in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science.

Just a 30-minute walk is enough to lift the mood of someone suffering from major depressive disorder, according to a 2005 study published in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

And a 2019 study published in the official journal of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) found that three hours of exercise a week, no matter the type of activity, decreased the risk of depression in people who had already experienced feeling depressed.

Walking has also been linked to a decreased risk of mortality, or a longer life expectancy. And the longer and faster you walk, the more it increases your life expectancy.

This 2011 study published by the British Medical Association followed 27,738 participants aged 40 to 79years for a 13 year period and found that participants who walked for more than one hour a day had a longer life expectancy than participants who walked for less than one hour a day.

Following 50,225 walkers over 14 years, another 2018 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine looked at the association of walking at a faster pace with factors like overall causes of death, cardiovascular disease, and death from cancer.

The researchers found that the quicker you walk, the lower your risk of overall death. For example, walking at an average pace resulted in a 20% reduced risk of overall death when compared to walking at a slow pace. And walking at a brisk or fast pace at least 4 miles per hour reduced the risk by 24% compared to walking at a slow pace.

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Physiology

Why it could be dangerous to exercise with a face mask on – Metro Newspaper UK

Lindsay Bottoms, reader in exercise and health physiology, University of Hertfordshire

THE coronavirus began to affect sporting events as early as January 30, when the Chinese Football Association announced it was delaying the start of the football season. Two months later it was revealed that the Tokyo Olympic Games would be postponed until the summer of 2021 the first postponement in modern Olympic history.

Sporting administrators are only now exploring ways to enable a return to training and competition at both professional and amateur levels. In the absence of a vaccine, though, there are several challenges. One of them is around breathing.

When playing sport, breathing is faster and harder than at rest, which increases the risk of passing the disease on. As a result, premier league football is considering introducing face masks. Others may follow suit.

Yet a mask makes it harder to inhale the quantity of air needed to perform at the highest levels. We know that wearing a surgical mask can increase the resistance to airflow. Exercise invariably leads to faster and harder breaths, so wearing a mask during exercise places a further strain on airflow.

At low to moderate-intensity exercise, effort will feel slightly harder than normal with a mask, but you can still walk comfortably. The challenge appears to be more during heavy exercise (say, rugby or football) taking in air at rates of about 40-100 litres per minute.

When we do heavy exercise, our muscles produce lactic acid, which causes that burning sensation. It is then converted to carbon dioxide and exhaled. But what happens if the carbon dioxide is trapped by the mask? As you move from moderate to heavy exercise, you may be re-breathing carbon dioxide, which can reduce cognitive function and increase breathing rate.

There may also be less oxygen in the recycled air, which could imitate exercising at higher altitudes. So it is important we gain a better understanding of the limitations of heavy exercise with a face mask.

The need for this understanding is growing, given the story reported on an Australian News Channel of two teenage boys in China dying within a week of each other during compulsory physical education examinations while wearing face masks. Autopsies have not been performed, so its impossible to know whether the masks played a role in the boys deaths. But it raises the question, is it safe to exercise with a face mask on during Covid-19?

A supplier of fencing equipment approached the University of Hertfordshire with just this question.

To gain a rough understanding of the problem, I experimented on myself. I ran on a treadmill at 10kph for three minutes to reflect the intensity and duration of fencing. I did this with full fencing kit, with and without a cloth face mask under my fencing mask. I used a portable gas analyser and adapted it to measure the concentration of gases being breathed in and out.

The concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere is around 21 per cent at sea level. When running on the treadmill with only the fencing mask, the concentration of oxygen was around 19.5 per cent. This would be equivalent to exercising at 600m above sea level.

But wearing a face mask under the fencing mask reduced my oxygen level to around 17 per cent the equivalent of exercising at 1,500m. Any further decreases in oxygen concentration by exercising longer or harder would have a large effect on the physiological responses to exercise, causing altitude-sickness symptoms such as dizziness or headache.

There are negligible levels of carbon dioxide in atmospheric air, and when exercising with only the fencing mask this remains below one per cent. With the face mask on, it trebled to three per cent. Bear in mind that the UK Health and Safety Executive the government agency responsible for regulation and enforcement of workplace safety advises that employees should not be exposed to 1.5 per cent carbon dioxide for more than 15 minutes.

Fencing has been part of the Olympics since 1896 and is unique in that we already have a mask on when exercising. So, before any recommendations are made for wearing a face mask for fencing, it is important that further research is undertaken on more than one person to explore the high carbon dioxide levels and low oxygen levels. There could be similar issues of wearing a face mask with other high-intensity sports.

With gyms looking to reopen and sports clubs wanting to resume, before anyone recommends wearing a face mask, research urgently needs to be undertaken to ensure the safety of the sporting community, regardless of any underlying conditions.

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Why it could be dangerous to exercise with a face mask on - Metro Newspaper UK

Biochemistry

Biochemistry – Biology LibreTexts

Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. Biochemical processes give rise to the complexity of life. Biochemistry can be divided in three fields; molecular genetics, protein science and metabolism. Over the last decades of the 20th century, biochemistry has through these three disciplines become successful at explaining living processes. Almost all areas of the life sciences, like botany, medicine and genetics are being uncovered and developed by biochemical methodology and research. Biochemistry focuses on understanding how biological molecules give rise to the processes that occur within living cells and between cells, which in turn relates greatly to the study and understanding of tissues, organs, and organism structure and function.

Thumbnail: An enzyme binding site that would normally bind substrate can alternatively bind a competitive inhibitor, preventing substrate access. Dihydrofolate reductase is inhibited by methotrexate which prevents binding of its substrate, folic acid. Binding site in blue, inhibitor in green, and substrate in black(PDB: 4QI9). Image used with permission (CC BY 4.0;Thomas Shafee).

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Biochemistry - Biology LibreTexts

Biochemistry

Vanderbilt researcher Houra Merrikh named a finalist of the 2020 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, inducted to New York Academy of…

Houra Merrikh, principal investigator in the department of biochemistry, has been named a finalist in the 2020 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, in the Life Sciences category. Merrikh was selected as one of the nations 31 rising stars in science from 305 nominations from 161 academic and research centers across 41 U.S. states for her work in reversing antimicrobial resistance. As a finalist, Merrikh will become a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Bacterias consistent ability to develop resistance to antibiotics ultimately renders the time and effort of novel drug development futile. Merrikh both discovered a specific protein that helps bacteria develop antimicrobial resistance and a drug that inhibits this protein from completing this task. Her work has further demonstrated that a bacterias existing resistance can be reversed, making the antibiotic drug more efficacious and last longer. Merrikhs entirely new approach to addressing the problem of antimicrobial resistance could help put an end to the longstanding difficulties of treating infectious diseases.

I am honored to be named a finalist for this award and to be in such good company, said Merrikh. Our lab is working to solve one of the worlds pressing health issues. We believe that we can fundamentally solve the problem of antimicrobial resistance. Thank you to the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences for this recognition.

Antimicrobial resistance is a global health crisis and Dr. Houra Merrikh is tackling this issue head-on, said Brooke Grindlinger, chief scientific officer, Scientific Programs and Awards for the New York Academy of Sciences. Her discovery of how bacteria can rapidly evolve antimicrobial resistance by destabilizing their own genomes impressed the jury tremendously. Her research is leading to novel treatments for antibiotic-resistant diseases such as tuberculosis.

In a release, Len Blavatnik, founder and chairman of Access Industries, head of the Blavatnik Family Foundation and member of the Presidents Council of the New York Academy of Sciences said, The world has never needed scientists more than right now. Their research will lead to solutionsnew inventions, discoveries, and ideasthat will endow society with the tools needed to surmount the difficult challenges our world currently is faced with. We are very proud to honor them.

In the same release, incoming President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences Nicholas Dirks said, As I get to know the scientists in the Academys network, Ive discovered that past and present Blavatnik Scholars are some of the top young scientists in the United States. We are excited to induct these 2020 Blavatnik National Awards Finalists into the New York Academy of Sciences and we are proud to celebrate them and their achievements, and to showcase their work to the world.

By the close of 2020 the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, established by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in the United States in 2007 and independently administered by the New York Academy of Sciences, will have conferred prizes totaling over $10.2 million to 321 outstanding young scientists and engineers from more than 46 countries, representing 36 scientific and engineering disciplines. Award winners receive the worlds largest unrestricted prize for early-career scientists.

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Human Behavior

Gut bacteria may modify behavior in worms, influencing eating habits – National Institutes of Health

News Release

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

NIH-funded study suggests microbiome may influence neural circuit activity.

Gut bacteria are tiny but may play an outsized role not only in the host animals digestive health, but in their overall well-being. According to a new study in Nature, specific gut bacteria in the worm may modify the animals behavior, directing its eating decisions. The research was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

We keep finding surprising roles for gut bacteria that go beyond the stomach, said Robert Riddle, Ph.D., program director at the NIHs National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which supported the study. Here, the gut bacteria are influencing how the animal senses its environment and causing it to move toward an external source of the same bacteria. The gut bacteria are literally making their species tastier to the animal.

Researchers at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, led by Michael ODonnell, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow and first author of the paper, and Piali Sengupta, Ph.D., professor of biology and senior author of the study, were interested in seeing whether it was possible for gut bacteria to control a host animals behavior. The group investigated the effects of gut bacteria on how worms, called C. elegans, sniff out and choose their next meal.

Bacteria are the worms primary food. In this study, the researchers measured how worms fed different strains of bacteria reacted to octanol, a large alcohol molecule secreted by some bacteria, which worms normally avoid when it is present at high concentrations.

Dr. ODonnell and his colleagues discovered that worms grown on Providencia alcalifaciens (JUb39) were less likely to avoid octanol compared to animals grown on other bacteria. Curiously, they found that live JUb39 bacteria were present in the gut of the worms that moved toward octanol, suggesting that the behavior may be determined in part by a substance produced by these bacteria.

Next, the researchers wanted to know how the bacteria exerted control over the worms.

We were able to connect the dots, all the way from microbe to behavior, and determine the entire pathway that could be involved in this process, said Dr. ODonnell.

The brain chemical tyramine may play an important role in this response. In the worms, tyramine is transformed into the chemical octopamine, which targets a receptor on sensory neurons that controls avoidance behavior. The results of this study suggested that tyramine produced by bacteria increased levels of octopamine, which made the worms more tolerant of octanol by suppressing the avoidance of octanol that is driven by these neurons.

Using other behavioral tests, the researchers found that genetically engineering worms so that they did not produce tyramine did not affect suppression of octanol avoidance when the worms were grown on JUb39. This suggests that tyramine made by the bacteria may be able to compensate for the endogenous tyramine missing in those animals.

Additional experiments indicated that worms grown on JUb39 preferred eating that type of bacteria over other bacterial food sources. Tyramine produced by the bacteria was also found to be required for this decision.

In this way, the bacteria can take control over the host animals sensory decision-making process, which affects their responses to odors and may influence food choices said Dr. Sengupta.

Future studies will identify additional brain chemicals produced by bacteria that may be involved in changing other worm behaviors. In addition, it is unknown whether specific combinations of bacterial strains present in the gut will result in different responses to environmental cues. Although worms and mammals share many of the same genes and biochemical processes, it is not known whether similar pathways and outcomes exist in higher order animals.

This study was supported by NINDS (NS007292 and NS101702); the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC013711); the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM088290, GM131877, and GM122463); and the National Science Foundation (IOS 1655118).

For more information, please visit:ninds.nih.gov

This press release describes a basic research finding. Basic research increases our understanding of human behavior and biology, which is foundational to advancing new and better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Science is an unpredictable and incremental process each research advance builds on past discoveries, often in unexpected ways. Most clinical advances would not be possible without the knowledge of fundamental basic research.

The NINDS (http://www.ninds.nih.gov) is the nations leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system.The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

MP ODonnell et al. Modulation of olfactory behavior by a gut bacteria-produced neurotransmitter. Nature, 2020.

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Gut bacteria may modify behavior in worms, influencing eating habits - National Institutes of Health

Human Behavior

Ask the Expert: Avoiding ticks and preventing tick-borne diseases – MSUToday

June 17, 2020

Jean Tsao is an associate professor in theDepartment of Fisheries and Wildlifein theCollege of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She and her colleagues developed a mobile health app,The Tick App, that informs users how human behavior affects tick bites. Tsao answers questions on ticks and tick-borne disease prevention.

Q:How can people avoid tick bites while enjoying the outdoors? Is there any proper attire or bug spray to use?

A: There are generallythree principleswith various options to carry out: avoid tick habitat; use an EPA-approved repellant following the manufacturers instructions (most of the ones approved for mosquitoes are approved for ticks; just check the label; it will say); conduct thorough tick checks.

I would do it when youre recreating/working in tick habitat,before you get back in your car check yourselves as well as yourpets and then do another through check when you take a shower/bath within two hours of coming back from recreating/working in tick habitat.

There is one more thing you can do to reduce any loose blacklegged ticks from later finding you/others/your pets: Put your clothes that you wore directly into the dryer for ten minutes on high heat to kill ticks.

Q:What should we do if we find a tick on us? Whats the proper removal process?

Dont panic!Carefully grab it with tweezers at the point closest to your skin to remove it. Then, take a clear photo and submit it to The Tick App so the team can identify the species.

Afterwards, put the tick in a plastic bag labeled with the date and geographic location where you think you may have contacted it; then, store it in your freezer.

If you start feeling ill, go to a doctor and show them your tick. The species and degree of swelling can help with diagnosis and treatment.

Q: What are telltale signs of Lyme disease or other tick-borne illnesses?

A:Not being a medical worker, Im not comfortable answering this question, so I suggest looking to the links on theCDC website. But, I would comment that my impression is that many people who have tick-borne illnesses experience general flu-like symptoms fever, malaise, achiness, which is why they might be difficult to diagnose as a particulartick-borne disease.

Q: Why/how do ticks and tick bites lead to Lyme disease?

A: People can become infected with the agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, if they are bitten by an infected tick.

There are three stages of ticks that look for a host so that they can get a blood meal: the larva (baby), nymph (teenager) and the adult female (adult). The larva needs a blood meal in order to become a nymph; the nymph needs a blood meal in order to become an adult; and an adult female needs a blood meal in order to lay eggs. The adult male doesnt feed so does not need a blood meal.

The larva hatches uninfected so its through the bloodmeal from an infected host, that it acquires Lyme disease bacteria. Then when it molts to become a nymph, the bacteria survive the developmental process and the new nymph that emerges carries the bacteria in its gut. When the flat, infected nymph finds a host and feeds, the bacteria in the gut multiply then they break out of the gut, swim through the hemocoel of the tick (where the ticks blood bathes its organs), invades the salivary glands, and then gets injected into the host.

This is why it is so important to try to find and remove ticks as soon as possible. Even if the tick has attached, if its < 36 hours of feeding, youre very unlikely to become infected. If the tick has fed > 72 hours, youre much more likely to become infected and experience signs of disease.

Q: What are the chances of getting Lyme disease from a tick, and what are the chances of being bitten at all?

A:Not all tick species transmit the Lyme disease pathogen.Your chances of getting Lyme disease from a tick depends geographically. More than95% of cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. are caused by the blacklegged ticks distributed among the states in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and North Central regions.

In these regions, ~20-30% of blacklegged nymphs are infected and ~40-60% of adult females are infected.But, as stated above, even if an infected tick bites you, if you can remove it before it has fed > 36 hours, your chances of becoming sick are very low.

Q:What time of day are they most active? Where do they often hide?

A:These ticks are active day and night if its warm enough, but if it becomes too dry, they become less active. Ticks are prone to dessication, and so if its dry, they hunker down below the leaf litter, where its more moist, and re-hydrate and conserve energy.

Research from the 80s suggests that adult and nymphal ticks were the most active during their study, which was from 6 a.m. 9 p.m., but most active from 6 a.m. - noon. But the fact that you can find blacklegged larvae and nymphs on wildlife that are nocturnal, diurnal and crepuscular tells you that the ticks are active all the time.

The American dog tick is a tick that is can be found in woods, but can survive and do well in grassy areas, too. Lone star ticks also are more associated with wooded areas, but they can be found in areas outside woods.

Q:How can people create a tick-free zone around a camping area or campsite? And subsequently how can people avoid bringing them back home?

A:Knowing that ticks are associated with leaf litter and vegetation, I would recommend people to place their campsite in a more open area within the designated campsite not right up against the vegetation.

It wont be tick free, but at least for blacklegged ticks, they do not tend to crawl out from the vegetation towards people.

And, just as one can treat clothes and shoes, one can also treat camping gear with permethrin, which will prevent you from bringing ticks home. Permethrin can stun and/or kill ticks on contact and so if they get on clothes/gear, they will fall off, and potentially die.

But, one should always inspect their gear before packing up everything regardless if you use permethrin.

For more information about ticks, visitCDC.gov.

Read more from the original source:
Ask the Expert: Avoiding ticks and preventing tick-borne diseases - MSUToday

Human Behavior

Consumer Expectations for Autonomous Vehicles Focus on Safety and Utility – Business Wire

LIVONIA, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics firm, today released proprietary research exploring the future of the relationship between drivers and their cars in the wake of broad autonomous vehicle (AV) adoption. Friend, Servant or Evil Twin: Forging a Positive Driver-Car Relationship with Self-Driving Vehicles offers AV technology developers a new look at consumer attitudes regarding the idealized autonomous experience, from comfort with various levels of AV-enabled experiences to expectations regarding the likely winners of the AV adoption race.

While the study confirms drivers wariness with ceding control to AV technology, nearly two in five respondents (43% in Europe, 37% in the United States) express comfort with low-speed self-driving cars in ideal conditions, such as Teslas Smart Summon. However, that willingness drops to 20%35% for autonomous driving at higher speeds and less-than-ideal-conditions. Like the development cycle for AV technologies, consumers are likely to exhibit incremental shifts in attitudes over time, with seeing self-driving cars on the road in daily situations playing a key role in increased trust and comfort.

Manufacturers biggest challenge is understanding the expectations drivers have for their daily use of AVs and aligning marketing of such vehicles to those needs. Over half of consumers (52%) envision a service-oriented relationship with AVs, categorizing future self-driving vehicles as personal assistants or servants. Consumers over the age of 60 share an even more skeptical and less humanized view of future interactions with an AV-enabled vehicle. By contrast, the highly tech savvy under-30 age group demonstrates a more optimistic and personalized view of its use of AVs, with responses reflecting much higher rates for friendship and guardianship.

AV manufacturers have not yet captured the imagination of consumers to envision a future with a self-driving car that enhances the driving experience beyond the traditional, functional role of a vehicle, said Paul Hartley, managing director of Escalents technology group. It is paramount for AV developers to engage a nuanced and iterative adoption process to build consumer trust, comfort and excitement for AV technology.

Furthermore, a significant percentage of consumers trust and look to big tech developers to win the race to develop fully autonomous vehicles. While a majority of respondents in the United States and Europe expect traditional and specialist automakers to make slow, steady strides in AV development, 27% of Americans predict hardware or software tech firms will be most successful. By comparison, 18% of Europeans surveyed see tech developers as the companies most likely to put AVs on their roads.

To learn more about the impact software will have on AV adoption and to read the full paper, visit: https://landing.escalent.co/download-friend-servant-or-evil-twin-forging-a-positive-driver-car-relationship-with-self-driving-vehicles

About the Study

This paper references data from two Escalent studies.

In one, Escalent interviewed a sample of 1,012 consumers from Germany, Spain and the UK aged 18 and up between June 25 and July 9, 2019. Respondents were recruited from the Full Circle opt-in online panel of European adults and interviewed online. The data were weighted by age, gender and census region to match the demographics of the European population.

In the other, Escalent interviewed a US-based sample of 1,000 consumers aged 18 and up in May 2019. Respondents were recruited from the Dynata and Ipsos panels of US adults and interviewed online. Quotas were put in place to achieve a sample of age, gender, income and ethnicity that matches the demographics of the US population.

Due to their opt-in nature, these online panels (like most others) do not yield a random probability sample of the target population. As such, it is not possible to compute a margin of error or to statistically quantify the accuracy of projections. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.

About Escalent

Escalent is a top human behavior and analytics firm specializing in industries facing disruption and business transformation. As catalysts of progress for more than 40 years, we tell stories that transform data and insight into a profound understanding of what drives human beings. And we help businesses turn those drivers into actions that build brands, enhance customer experiences and inspire product innovation. Visit escalent.co to see how we are helping shape the brands that are reshaping the world.

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Consumer Expectations for Autonomous Vehicles Focus on Safety and Utility - Business Wire