Biochemistry

October: flf-award | News and features – University of Bristol

Four Bristol researchers have been awarded UK Research and Innovation's (UKRI) prestigious Future Leaders Fellowships. The awards, designed to establish the careers of world-class research and innovation leaders across the UK to help them tackle major global challenges, are announced today [15 October] by Science Minister Amanda Solloway.

The initiative will see 101 fellows based at UK universities and businesses supported through an investment of 109 million.

Announcing the successful fellows at todays Future Leaders Conference, Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: We are committed to building back better through research and innovation, and supporting our science superstars in every corner of the UK. By backing these inspirational Future Leaders Fellows, we will ensure that their brilliant ideas can be transferred straight from the lab into vital everyday products and services that will help to change all our lives for the better.

UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, said: Future Leaders Fellowships provide researchers and innovators with freedom and support to drive forward transformative new ideas and the opportunity to learn from peers right across the country.

"The fellows announced today illustrate how the UK continues to support and attract talented researchers and innovators across every discipline to our universities and businesses, with the potential to deliver change that can be felt across society and the economy."

Four Bristol researchers are among the recipients of UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships. These include:

Dr Hannah Griffiths from Bristols School of Biological Sciences who will explore how large above-ground mammals, such as deer, as well as tiny invertebrates and microbes under the soil, impact forest growth providing new knowledge that will inform efforts to increase biodiversity and combat climate change.

Soil communities are extremely complex and diverse, with millions of species and billions of individuals living within a single ecosystem. However, because life in soil is so small and numerous, studying below-ground food webs is extremely challenging and time consuming. Therefore, an important outcome of this work will be the use of cutting-edge genetic sequencing techniques to determine, for the first time, how the diversity of these difficult to study organisms influences carbon sequestration and therefore climate change mitigation strategies. The study will help us understand and mitigate the consequences of declines in global biodiversity for the ecosystem services that support humanity and generate data that will help manage the restoration of forests to reverse the decline in biodiversity and help mitigate global warming.

Dr Anya Skatova, a Turing Fellow and behavioural scientist at Bristol Medical School (Population Health Sciences) will work on realising the value of transaction data to improve population health. Her fellowship will question whether shopping history data, such as recorded through supermarket loyalty cards, can be used in a positive way to support health research and the development of new interventions. Dr Skatova, who is currently based in Bristols School of Psychological Science, will link retail loyalty card datasets with rich medical, genetic, early life environment and other records collected by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). This will allow to create a transaction data linkage framework for other longitudinal cohorts and population health more broadly. Further, the fellowship will establish the feasibility of novel ways of assessing both health outcomes and associated lifestyle choices through objective measures of real-world behaviours reflected in retail shopping history data,and apply new methods on reproductive health domain.

The ultimate goal of the study is to put large commercial datasets such as shopping history data at the service of the public healthcare through contributing to early detection of diseases, developing and testing targeted interventions, and contributing to the evidence-based healthcare and health research.

Dr Siddhartha Kar, a cancer epidemiologist at the Bristol Medical School will study how a wide range of everyday factors, such as exercise and diet, as well as the human bodys physiology and biochemistry relate to the molecular characteristics of tumours in cancer patients. Dr Kar will then map how these tumour molecular characteristics, in turn, affect survival after a diagnosis of cancer. Some of these everyday factors, particularly those associated with lifestyle, are modifiable through public health interventions. Other physiological and biochemical measures, such as the levels of specific proteins or cholesterol in the blood, and the tumour molecular characteristics themselves, may be amenable to medical treatment. By establishing the causal chain from these factors or measures to tumour molecular features to cancer progression, Dr Kars work will inform the development of novel approaches to cancer prevention and therapy.

Dr Joshua Silverstone, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and member of the Quantum Engineering Technology (QET) Labs in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering will develop the optical-electrical systems that are essential for realising the coming quantum revolution. The development of quantum technologies will change how we collect, compute, and communicate information in our everyday lives. Using long-wavelength single photons, particles of light, together with tightly integrated electronics, Dr Silverstone and his team hope to overcome the barriers to building big quantum technology, making it useful in the wider world.

UKRIs initiative aims to support the creation of a new cohort of research and innovation leaders who will have links across different sectors and disciplines. Awardees will each receive between 400,000 and 1.5 million over an initial four years. The grant supports challenging and novel projects, and the development of the fellows career. The funding can also used to support team members, their development, and pay for equipment and other needs.

The Future Leaders Fellowships scheme, which is run by UK Research and Innovation, will recognise up to 550 individuals with a total investment of 900 million committed over 3 years. The scheme helps universities and businesses in the UK recruit, develop and retain the worlds best researchers and innovators, regardless of their background. They can apply for up to 1.5 million to support the research and innovation leaders of the future, keeping the UK at the cutting edge of innovation. Each fellowship will last four to seven years.

Round six of the Future Leaders Fellowships is currently open to applications. See: http://www.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/future-leaders-fellowships/how-to-apply/

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October: flf-award | News and features - University of Bristol

Biochemistry

Automated Biochemistry Analyzers Market Analysis And Demand With Forecast Overview To 2025 – PRnews Leader

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Automated Biochemistry Analyzers Market Analysis And Demand With Forecast Overview To 2025 - PRnews Leader

Biochemistry

Behind the scenes of Butler’s science complex construction – The Butler Collegian

The first phase of construction will be complete by fall 2021. Photo by Meghan Stratton.

MEGHAN STRATTON | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | mrstratt@butler.edu

Since breaking ground over a year ago, the massive, cordoned construction zone between Gallahue Hall and the Holcomb Building has given way to a brand-new connector building and the beginnings of a glittering glass atrium. The 96,000-square-foot project is the result of over ten years of planning, and as the metal framework grows every day, Butlers vision for a cutting-edge new science complex is coming to life.

There were several different groups involved in the initial project proposal, but it wasnt until June 2019 that the Board of Trustees officially approved the plans. LuAnne McNulty, associate dean and chemistry department chair, said she and Jay Howard, dean of the college of liberal arts and sciences, were on pins and needles awaiting the results of the Boards decision.

And I think, for days, both of us just walked around on a cloud of air because it was so exciting, McNulty, also a chemistry professor, said. And it was also, I think, for a lot of people, kind of an emotional moment, because so many of us came here and have been working in these facilities that we were told would be eventually upgraded. And so when it finally happened, it was just like, Oh my gosh.

After the announcement, Butler worked to solidify its plans and divided the construction process into three phases. Phase I will be completed in fall 2021, and the construction of the remaining two phases is on track to be completed by 2023. The project will add 11 classrooms of different sizes, the largest of which will be able to seat 75 students. Additionally, the complex will provide dedicated spaces for biology, chemistry, psychology, physics and engineering dual degree program majors.

Butler is hoping to raise $42 million of the $100 million renovation budget from donors. Meagan Burton-Krieger, development officer for university advancement, said donors have already contributed around $30 million in gifts and commitments.

The beauty of that is that we have so many passionate alumni and friends who are into what this building will mean, both to our students and our faculty but also to the city and to the industry around town, Burton-Krieger said.

Phase I

Phase I of the science complex construction project focuses on connecting Gallahue Hall and the Holcomb Building through the creation of a new connector building. This building will house classrooms, private study areas, a completely renovated science library, research labs and common spaces.

The buildings central focus is a large glass atrium, which is currently in the final stages of installation and completion. The atrium will serve as a common collaboration space, designed for students to casually socialize or to gather for larger assemblies like poster sessions and guest speakers.

Burton-Krieger said this space is designed intentionally; the science departments have traditionally struggled to figure out where to hold these types of events, as there is currently no large gathering space located near the science buildings.

The new science complex will feature an atrium with glass windows. Photo by Xan Korman.

Furniture for the atrium, which is currently being finalized, will include several small tables and chairs for gathering, as well as larger couches and individual chairs by the windows. Toward the west end, the atrium will also feature risers for students to gather on, as part of the Fenneman Gateway donor space.

Construction has begun on the risers that students will be able to gather on. Photo by Xan Korman.

Once completed, the risers will look similar to depiction in the renderings. Rendering courtesy of Butler University Office of Advancement.

The second floor of the connector building will hold the newly-renovated science library, which is now one floor instead of two. The library will feature a back wall made entirely of glass windows, collaborative group study spaces and individual study hubs. The science library is scheduled to open in March 2021, but the details of how students will enter amid construction is still being determined.

There are a couple of ways in, so were just trying to figure it out at that point with where we are construction wise, Burton-Krieger said.

The complex will feature a renovated science library. Photo by Xan Korman.

The renovated science library will feature study spaces for groups and individuals. Rendering courtesy of Butler University Office of Advancement.

Next to the science library, there will be a classroom computer lab. There will also be a study space walled off by glass, similar to the Lacy School of Business Innovation Commons. Additionally, on the second floor there will be a classroom with a retractable glass wall meant to accommodate both open and closed environments, depending on the need. Burton-Krieger said this points back to the idea of collaboration within the sciences.

In the complex, there will be a classroom with a retractable glass wall for open and closed environments. Rendering courtesy of Butler University Office of Advancement.

NcNulty said the research and teaching labs were designed with the future of science in mind. Even if science changes drastically in the next 20 years, McNulty said the facilities were designed to be changeable which translates to the implementation of pod seating and moveable coursework.

Construction has begun on chemistry and biochemistry resources and classrooms within the complex. Photo by Xan Korman.

New biochemistry research labs will be included in the new complex. Rendering courtesy of Butler University Office of Advancement.

The

The science complex will also feature new organic chemistry labs. Rendering courtesy of Butler University Office of Advancement.

Phase I of the construction process has not come without outside influences: first, the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March and sent students home from campus. However, Eric Zeronik, senior superintendent at Pepper Construction of Indiana, said the pandemic has not had a big impact on the construction.

We were back here on our own and able to work, not outside of the limits or anything, but we were able to take advantage of a quiet campus, Zeronik said.

Despite the pandemic, the project is still on schedule for the original 2023 completion date, although the company did see a few minor delays for materials like glass. The construction project is essentially following the same health policy as Butler: workers are required to do a health check with temperature monitoring each day. Zeronik said they have only had about five workers self-quarantine, but that there havent been any positive COVID-19 cases on the project.

Pepper Construction is also currently priming to conduct construction in the cold winter months. To prepare, they are currently completely renovating the Holcomb Building roof and adding drywall to the connector building at a rate of 170 drywall sheets per day. Zeronik said the construction company is in the process of getting air handler units, what he calls the heart and lungs of the building, so the project will have hot air for the winter.

We have it to the point now where the main structure is up, were really getting the envelope buttoned up for the winter, Zeronik said. So when the colder weather comes in, well be dry.

Phase II

After the connector building is completed for fall 2021, the construction will shift focus to renovating and repurposing the Holcomb Building. The first floor of Holcomb will house the psychology major and neuroscience minor departments, while the physics department will be on the second floor. Finally, Butlers IT department and the dual-engineering program will be located on the third floor.

The Holcomb renovation will add classrooms and research labs in addition to common work spaces. Holcomb was the previous home of the Lacy School of Business until fall 2019, and thus the entire construction project needed to wait until the business school moved into their new building.

Phase III

After Holcomb is completely renovated, Gallahue Hall will be the next construction focal point. The biology and microbiology departments will be housed in the basement and ground floor of Gallahue, and the chemistry and biochemistry departments will occupy the second and third floors.

There will be several added classrooms and research labs in Gallahue as well. Specifically, one lab on the second floor will be dedicated to biochemical research.

It really is an interdisciplinary space Burton-Krieger said. Theres going to be a research space in there that really puts faculty who work together on the same topic together, versus by discipline.

Additionally, the current auditorium in Gallahue will receive considerable renovations and refreshments to the space. It will continue to serve as a classroom for large lectures.

Looking toward future phases

As Butler has seen a 50% enrollment increase in the past decade, Burton-Krieger said the science departments will be at capacity upon completion of the science complex expansion and renovation. The college of liberal arts and sciences is the largest college on campus, with over 35 programs.

Burton-Krieger said Butler has done two things intentionally in the construction process: allocated potential expansion room on the roof for a fourth floor, and left room at the back of the current expansion.

The complex will have a campus-wide impact, since all Butler students are required to take a Natural World class with a lab element as part of the core curriculum.

Not only does it impact our science majors and our COPHS majors, but also with the core requirement, every student will benefit from this building, which is one of the very few places on campus that actually happens, Burton-Krieger said. So this is a project that is for all Butler students.

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Behind the scenes of Butler's science complex construction - The Butler Collegian

Human Behavior

Behavioral Psychology and its Practical Implications – The Great Courses Daily News

By Steven Gimbel, Ph.D., Gettysburg CollegeThe implications of behavioral psychology led to the manipulation of masses in advertising and politics. (Image: Lightspring/Shutterstock)Frederic Skinners Ideas about the Human Mind

Burrhus Frederic Skinner, a Harvard psychologist, who was influenced by logical positivists, adopted Watsons work. He, too, was interested in studying human behavior in response to certain stimuli. He found a mathematical relationship between environmental factors and human responses as well as the influence of positive and negative reinforcement on such responses. For example, he studied how room temperature influenced how long it would take a subject to drink a glass of water. Even further, he observed how reward and punishment would make the subjects behave in specific ways that he wanted.

These findings had both theoretical and practical implications. They helped gain knowledge about the structure of reality and also to manipulate people.

Skinner wrote a book titled Beyond Freedom and Dignity, which was reminiscent of Friedrich Nietzsches book Beyond Good and Evil. According to Nietzsche, good and evil are not inherent properties of the world. They are human-made features manufactured by the weak to restrict the strong, which has helped the weak prosper and keep the strong behind. Thats why human progress has been restrained. Similarly, Skinner held that moral concepts of freedom and dignity are not features of the world. They are created to glorify the individual and have retarded human development.

Rather than autonomous agents capable of rational thinking, human beings are regarded as creatures of habit. If these habits are shaped randomly, they will have no consequences for us. If they are correctly shaped, they can lead to our advancement. They can also be formed in a way that they limit human progress. The only way to achieve human growth is to identify the best culture that contributes to such growth and prepare the conditions for humans to thrive. Freewill is a mere myth that deters human flourishing.

This is a transcript from the video series Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

Learn more about solving psychological mysteries.

John Watson was fired from John Hopkins University, where he held an academic position. He pivoted his career to advertising to use his expertise in enriching business owners instead of advancing humans. By manipulating the masses, he used his knowledge of the human mind to create gold, like the alchemists philosopher stone.

Psychology gave him the power to shape individual minds and culture as a whole. He found out fear, rage, love, habits, or needs were crucial for making humans take the action we want. Testimonials from ordinary people and celebrities were two powerful marketing strategies proposed by Watson.

The same ideas were adopted in the fashion industry by Sigmund Freuds nephew, Edward Bernays. He found out that he could use the results of his psychological studies in the world of fashion and advertising.

The term public relations was his idea to replace propaganda. He rightly thought that propaganda had negative connotations because it was associated with the military and the Nazis. So, he used a propagandistic term as a euphemism for the word propaganda.

In one of his books, Propaganda, he outlines the instructions to engineer public opinion, which formed the basis of modern public relations. Due to the collapse of monarchies replaced by democracies around the world, he believed that Power had been taken from the king and given to the people. So, the power of masses had to be harnessed by controlling the peoples behavior to achieve profit and authority. Now, rather than a tool for searching the nature of the human mind, psychology was used to manufacture false realities in the mind of people to make business owners wealthier and help certain politicians get elected.

Learn more about how human nature evolved.

In the realm of arts, the same notion was adopted, too. In the 1910s, Marcel Duchamp started a series of works called Readymades. He treated mass-produced goods as works of art by putting them in galleries. He made people rethink the way they looked at these everyday objects by putting them in not-so-familiar places.

The same approach was taken by Andy Warhol with his paintings of soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles. In the same vein, he took objects out of their standardized contexts and made his audience see them from another angle. He meant to show us that we were conditioned and manipulated by advertising, and, as Skinner had in mind, we could finally behave like autonomous beings with freedom and dignity.

John Watson is the founder of behavioral psychology. He was the first person to introduce the doctrine of cognitive significance to oppose the idea that psychology was the study of consciousness.

Fredric Skinner was an American psychologist. He found a mathematical relationship between environmental factors and human responses as well as the influence of positive and negative reinforcement on such responses.

Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freuds nephew. He coined the term public relations to replace propaganda. He believed in controlling human minds to gain profit and authority.

Readymades are mass-manufactured products displayed in galleries as art. The concept was first introduced by Marcel Duchamp to make people see everyday objects in a different way.

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Behavioral Psychology and its Practical Implications - The Great Courses Daily News

Human Behavior

Review: Liam Neeson has heart and more homemade explosives in ‘Honest Thief’ – The Spokesman-Review

In Honest Thief, in theaters Friday if youre good with that, Liam Neeson portrays a softer, PG-13-rated side of the morally righteous lone wolves running through his 21st century movie career.

His character this time is a retired bank robber, renewed by the love of a good woman (Kate Walsh, as a storage locker facility manager studying for a graduate degree in psychology) but inconveniently framed for murder by a couple of bad apples in the FBI.

The key moment arrives when Tom Carter, the Neeson character, has just had it with the weaselly feds trying to steal the $9 million he stole. This leaves a Neeson character hellbent on revenge only one option: To the hardware store! Time for some affordable but deadly materials for homemade explosives.

Im doing it the only way I know how, he says, sounding both resigned and determined, like a man who hasnt just seen all three Taken movies but starred in them.

Thats the movie all over: resigned to its script contrivances, yet determined to see them through. Directed and co-written (with Steve Allrich) by Mark Williams, set in and around Boston, Honest Thief deals with the challenges of a morally righteous crook going straight.

For years, this particular honest thief has been known to the public and law enforcement as the in-and-out bandit, which makes him sound like a serial Hamburglar but is meant to indicate his stealthy acumen.

Before we continue, Id like to point out I like watching Neeson in just about anything. I like him especially in some of the nonfranchise, off-center action vehicles hes made in the last dozen years, from The Grey to Unknown. This ones a middling addition to the list.

OK, continuing: It wasnt about the money, Tom explains about the 12 banks he robbed in seven states to the tune of $9 million. It just felt good. (Theres a backstory there, involving a hard-working father robbed of his pension by a greedy corporate CEO.)

Now the time has come for Tom to return every penny, do a couple of years time and move on with his new life with bubbly Annie, as shes described in the promotional materials.

Jai Courtney seethes like an Olympic seether as the agent who figures stealing from an honest thief isnt so bad, even if it leads to corpses. Anthony Ramos is his conflicted FBI partner in crime. The varying levels of shady help complicate a rickety script.

The good FBI guys are played by Robert Patrick and, sharing nearly every scene with a dog his character inherited from a recent divorce, Jeffrey Donovan.

The gunplay favors claustrophobic, modestly budgeted confinement. One shootout takes place with Neeson inside a stolen bakery truck. Another occurs inside a smallish apartment, with Neeson crouched behind a sofa. The scene introducing Tom to Annie at the beginning of Honest Thief suggests a different, more comically tinged film entirely. She discovers him poking around behind the front desk at the storage facility and finds that super-beguiling and not indicative of anything suspicious. Whatever on the believability: Walsh and Neeson perform a small magic trick here, establishing a rapport and getting by on charm.

Theres something else I need to tell you, Tom tells Annie after he asks her to move in with him. Hes on the verge of revealing his secret former bank-robber identity, but she cuts him off, since thered be no movie if she let him finish, and says: Oh, no. Not tonight. This girl has had enough surprises for one night.

As written, this character might be the least perceptive future psychologist in film history. Then again, nobody partakes of an Honest Thief for plausible human behavior. Its a movie about a movie star taking out the trash, leaving behind a lower body count than usual, but executing his duties faithfully and with a predictable dash the right kind of predictable of world-weary charisma.

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Review: Liam Neeson has heart and more homemade explosives in 'Honest Thief' - The Spokesman-Review

Human Behavior

Nevada will be the new hotbed of western wildfires – you will pay the price – The Sierra Nevada Ally

Opinion

Editors note: The Sierra Nevada Ally is inviting local writers to pen approved opinion columns for the publication. We invited Kyle Roerink to write columns on natural resource issues throughout Nevada.

This years fire season in Nevada anyways is not an anomaly. When history looks back 100 years from now, however, it will likely be considered below average in terms of damage done (fewer than 300,000 acres burned so far).

Compared to other states, we can currently count our blessings this year. But experts warn that fire seasons here will only get worse as temperatures warm, droughts persist, and human behavior disrupts ecosystems. A new study suggests that Nevada may soon be an epicenter of fire activity in the west. And recent fires and 40 years of data substantiate much of what the report implies.

ProPublica and the New York Times Magazine recently reviewed research from the Rhodium Group on the effects of high-emissions scenarios in the future i.e. what happens if we dont reduce greenhouse gases from our atmosphere.

What they discovered was unsettling for me especially as I was breathing in smoke:

By midcentury, the northern Great Basin, though not a densely forested region, will become the epicenter of large wildfires. These large, remote counties in Nevada and Oregon see cycles of wet and dry weather that turn the grassland into the fuel for fires that can easily rip through 10,000 acres a day with strong winds, wrote John Abatzoglou, one of the authors of the study.

This analysis reminded me of the largest fire in Nevadas history, the 2018 Martin Fire, which burned 439,000 acres of land in rural areas north of Winnemucca. When scientists forecast the future of fires in Nevada the Martin Fire exemplifies what it will look like. The fire moved quickly about 11 miles per hour at some stages through sagebrush ecosystems. It was 57 miles long and 31 miles wide. It destroyed prime sage grouse habitat and agricultural operations. It took 600 people to extinguish.

A fire like the Martin Fire is a result of warming temperatures, drought, and invasive flora species like cheatgrass. As California and the wetter states of Washington and Oregon proved this year, we know that across the west fires burn bigger, longer, and hotter. They kill more people, wildlife, and plant life. Air quality diminishes and suffocates. Local, state, and federal resources go poof.

Without the Martin Fire, the 2018 fire season would have likely looked more like this years season. According to Nevada wildfire data from the Bureau of Land Management, over 215,000 acres have burned in the state this year with about a month remaining in the fire season the biggest fire was around 60,000 acres.

Data from the last 40 years of fire in Nevada show that things are changing quickly. From 1980 to 1999, 4.2 million acres burned in the state, according to data compiled by the Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau. From 2000 to 2018, more than 9 million acres burned. That increase should give us all pause. The forecasting of more fires like the Martin Fire should also compel us into action.

We need more proactive management techniques like prescribed burns and other fuel reduction programs. But we must first and foremost recognize that humans are a driving factor of this crisis across the west. The new research implies the best thing we can do is reduce greenhouse gases.

More fires will mean more families, businesses and ecosystems will face existential threats. More smoke will move us indoors. More resources will be spent on suppression. More of our friends and family will put their lives at risk fighting flames in more dangerous conditions.

Across many regions of the state, where real estate developers see public lands as future subdivisions, insurance companies may one day give pause before underwriting (happening in California).

The federal government wont help provide greater relief (happened after Martin Fire). Blackouts will be more common (happened this year in Nevada). Utility infrastructure will need to be replaced (See California). Ratepayers and taxpayers will be on the hook (duh). And those of us unwilling to leave the places we love will be left with the bill.

This year Nevada wasnt the epicenter of fire season. But that may not always be the case. And if those days of inferno do come, we will be inclined to ask: did we do everything possible to stop it?

Kyle Roerink is the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network. He and his wife live in Reno Nevada.Support his writing.

The opinions expressed above are not necessarily those of the Sierra Nevada Ally. Our newsroom remains entirely independent of our opinion page. Published opinions further public conversation to fulfill our civic responsibility to challenge authority, act independently of corporate or political influence, and invite dissent.

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Nevada will be the new hotbed of western wildfires - you will pay the price - The Sierra Nevada Ally

Human Behavior

The World’s Biggest Digital Twin: The World Itself – RTInsights

The Digital Twin Earth model will monitor the health of the planet, perform simulations of interconnected systems with human behavior, and support sustainable development.

Digital twin is a concept being explored and pursued at many companies, especially manufacturers with many complex, moving parts. Building a digital twin that accurately captures all the systems and data inputs and outputs across a complex organization is a daunting task. Imagine, then, being tasked with building a digital twin for the entire planet.

See also: Digital Twin Market to See Tenfold Growth in Next 5 Years

Thats the goal of the European Space Agency (ESA), which recently provided details on its Digital Twin Earth initiative a digital replica of the planet which accurately mimics Earths behavior.

Constantly fed with Earth observation data, combined with in situ measurements and artificial intelligence, the Digital Twin Earth is intended to provide an accurate representation of the past, present and future changes of our world, according to ESA.

The Digital Twin Earth project began in September with the launch of an observation satellite that includes an artificial intelligence system, capable of streaming vast quantities of data back to Earth stations. The system includes an AI-powered automatic cloud detection algorithm which builds cloud imagery. The system is capable of autonomous processing.

Digital Twin Earth will help visualize, monitor, and forecast natural and human activity on the planet, according to ESA. The model will be able to monitor the health of the planet, perform simulations of Earths interconnected system with human behavior, and support the field of sustainable development.

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The World's Biggest Digital Twin: The World Itself - RTInsights

Human Behavior

Scientists Find Neurochemicals Dopamine and Serotonin Have Unexpectedly Profound Roles in the Human Brain – SciTechDaily

Dopamine, serotonin involved in sub-second perception, cognition.

In first-of-their-kind observations in the human brain, an international team of researchers has revealed two well-known neurochemicals dopamine and serotonin are at work at sub-second speeds to shape how people perceive the world and take action based on their perception.

The discovery shows researchers can continually and simultaneously measure the activity of both dopamine and serotonin whose receptor and uptake sites are therapeutic targets for disorders ranging from depression to Parkinsons disease in the human brain.

Furthermore, the neurochemicals appear to integrate peoples perceptions of the world with their actions, indicating dopamine and serotonin have far more expansive roles in the human nervous system than previously known.

Virginia Tech researchers with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Human Neuroscience Research construct carbon fiber microelectrodes for real-time detection of dopamine and serotonin activity in human patients. Credit: Virginia Tech

Known as neuromodulators, dopamine and serotonin have traditionally been linked to reward processing how good or how bad people perceive an outcome to be after taking an action.

The study published in the journal Neuron on October 12, 2020, opens the door to a deeper understanding of an expanded role for these systems and their roles in human health.

An enormous number of people throughout the world are taking pharmaceutical compounds to perturb the dopamine and serotonin transmitter systems to change their behavior and mental health, said P. Read Montague, senior author of the study and a professor and director of the Center for Human Neuroscience Research and the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion. For the first time, moment-to-moment activity in these systems has been measured and determined to be involved in perception and cognitive capacities. These neurotransmitters are simultaneously acting and integrating activity across vastly different time and space scales than anyone expected.

Better understanding of the underlying actions of dopamine and serotonin during perception and decision-making could deliver important insight into psychiatric and neurological disorders, the researchers said.

The relative size of a microelectrode used to make recordings of dopamine and serotonin activity during deep brain stimulation procedures. Credit: Virginia Tech

Every choice that someone executes involves taking in information, interpreting that information, and making decisions about what they perceived, said Kenneth Kishida, a corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology, and neurosurgery, at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Theres a whole host of psychiatric conditions and neurological disorders where that process is altered in the patients, and dopamine and serotonin are prime suspects.

Lack of chemically specific methods to study neuromodulation in humans at fast time scales has impeded understanding of these systems, according to Montague, who is an honorary professor at the Wellcome Center for Human Neuroimaging at University College London and a professor of physics at the Virginia Tech College of Science.

But now, in first-ever measurements, scientists used an electrochemical method called fast scan cyclic voltammetry, which employs a small carbon fiber microelectrode that has low voltages ramped across it for real-time detection of dopamine and serotonin activity.

In the study, researchers recorded fluctuations in dopamine and serotonin using specially designed electrodes in five patients undergoing deep brain stimulation electrode implantation surgery to treat essential tremor or Parkinsons disease. Patients were awake during surgery, playing a computer game designed to quantify aspects of thought and behavior while the measurements were taken.

Read Montague, a computational neuroscientist at the Center for Human Neuroscience Research at Virginia Techs Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, said dopamine and serotonin are at work at sub-second speeds to shape how people perceive the world and take action based on their perception. Credit: Virginia Tech

On each round of the game, patients briefly viewed a cloud of dots and were asked to judge the direction they were moving. The method, designed by corresponding author Dan Bang, a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow, and Steve Fleming, a Sir Henry Dale/Royal Society Fellow, both at the Wellcome Center for Human Neuroimaging at University College London, helped indicate that dopamine and serotonin were involved in simple perceptual decisions, outside of the traditional context of rewards and losses.

These neuromodulators play a much broader role in supporting human behavior and thought, and in particular they are involved in how we process the outside world, Bang said. For example, if you move through a room and the lights are off, you move differently because youre uncertain about where objects are. Our work suggests these neuromodulators serotonin in particular are playing a role in signaling how uncertain we are about the outside environment.

Montague and Kishida, along with Terry Lohrenz, a research assistant professor, and Jason White, a senior research associate, now both at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, started working on a new statistical approach to identify dopamine and serotonin signals while still at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Ken rose to the challenge of doing fast neurochemistry in human beings during active cognition, Montague said. A lot of other good groups of scientists were not able to do it. Aside from the computation of enormous amounts of data, there are complicated issues to solve, including great, fundamental algorithmic tasks.

Until recently, only slow methodologies such as PET scanning could measure the impact of neurotransmitters, but they were nowhere near the frequency or volume of the second-to-second measurements of fast scan cyclic voltammetry.

The measurements in the new study were taken at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and involved neurosurgical teams led by Adrian W. Laxton and Stephen B. Tatter.

The enthusiasm the neurosurgeons have for this research is derived from the same reasons that drove them to be doctors first and foremost, they want to do the best for their patients, and they have a real passion for understanding how the brain works to improve patient outcomes, said Kishida, who oversaw the data collection in the operating room during the surgeries. Both are collaborative scientists along with Charles Branch, the chair of the neurosurgery department at Wake Forest, who has been an amazing advocate for this work.

Likewise, Montague said, You cant do it without the surgeons being real, shoulder-to-shoulder partners, and certainly not without the people who let you make recordings from their brains while they are having electrodes implanted to alleviate the symptoms of a neurological disorder.

Montague had read a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that prompted him to approach colleagues Bang and Fleming at University College London to tailor a task for patients to perform during surgery that would reveal sub-second dopamine and serotonin signaling in real-time inference about the external world separate from their often-reported roles in reward-related processes.

I said I have this new method to measure dopamine and serotonin, but I need you to help with the task, Montague said. They ended up in the study. The research really took a lot of hard work and an integrated a constellation of people to obtain these results.

Reference: Sub-second Dopamine and Serotonin Signaling in Human Striatum during Perceptual Decision-Making by Dan Bang, Kenneth T. Kishida, Terry Lohrenz, Jason P. White, Adrian W. Laxton, Stephen B. Tatter, Stephen M. Fleming and P. Read Montague, 12 October 2020, Neuron.DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.09.015

The research was funded by grants to various researchers from the Wellcome Trust, the National Institutes of Health including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

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Scientists Find Neurochemicals Dopamine and Serotonin Have Unexpectedly Profound Roles in the Human Brain - SciTechDaily

Human Behavior

Combination therapy is more effective at preventing recurrence of bipolar disorder – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020

A review of 39 randomized clinical trials by scientists from UCLA and their colleagues from other institutions has found that combining the use medication with psychoeducational therapy is more effective at preventing a recurrence of illness in people with bipolar disorder than medication alone.

For the paper, published in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers analyzed studies that included adult and adolescent patients currently receiving medication for bipolar disorder who were randomly assigned to either an active family, individual or group therapy, or "usual care," meaning medication with routine monitoring and support from a psychiatrist.

David Miklowitz, PhD, the study's lead author, and a distinguished professor of psychiatry at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, said the studies reviewed followed patients for at least a year, measured rates of recurrence of bipolar disorder, depression and mania symptoms, and included study attrition or dropout rates.

The findings were:

Of the findings, Miklowitz said they point to the importance of having a support system.

Not everyone may agree with me, but I think the family environment is very important in terms of whether somebody stays well. There's nothing like having a person who knows how to recognize when you're getting ill and can say,

'you're starting to look depressed or you're starting to get ramped up.' That person can remind their loved one to take their medications or stay on a regular sleep-wake cycle or contact the psychiatrist for a medication evaluation."

David Miklowitz, PhD, Study' Led Author and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA

Miklowitz said the same is true for a patient who may not have close relatives but does have support through group therapy.

"If you're in group therapy, other members of that group may be able to help you recognize that you're experiencing symptoms," he said. "People tend to pair off. It's a little bit like the AA model of having a sponsor."

Source:

Journal reference:

Miklowitz, D. J., et al. (2020) Adjunctive Psychotherapy for Bipolar Disorder: A Systematic Review and Component Network Meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.2993.

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Combination therapy is more effective at preventing recurrence of bipolar disorder - News-Medical.Net

Human Behavior

An open letter to the young people of the United States – Resilience

New scientific understanding shows we can drastically reduce the time it takes for our environment to stabilize if we elect a leader who will get us back on track with IPCC carbon emission guidelines

Hi my name is Sierra, I am 23 years old and this is beyond an opinion piece; for me, this is a piece of my heart and a plea to everyone, young, old, black, white, brown, purple, democrat or republican to vote to save our collective future.

Starting now and until November 3rd we must vote-in someone with the best interest of this planet and its people in mind.

In Environmental Studies at UCSB, a lot of us would joke (but more like inwardly cry) we have ESD (Environmental Studies Depression) because almost every day we went to class after class learning about how modern human behavior mixed with greed has and is causing irreversible devastation on planetary health.

I graduated from UCSB simultaneously feeling fired up to make change and completely burnt out and hopeless.

As the Trump administration continued to endanger the wild/natural world I loved and continued to ignore and beat down historically oppressed communities(ex: low income/underserved and indigenous communities) I found myself asking, where is my passion-my energy to fight?

As I struggled to find jobs (LOL and myself) and the global pandemic took off, my energy fizzled and reignited at the same time. I found myself, and still find myself, riding a roller coaster of depression and elation, feeling immense love and within seconds intense hatred and anger, feeling like I know my place in the world and then like Im floating in an endless dark paralyzing abyss.

People often say thats just how this stage in life feels and thats just how it goes in your early twenties but WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL THIS IS NOT JUST HOW IT GOES!

We live in truly unprecedented times (I would say un-president-ed times because we clearly lack a presidential leader) and it is really hard to be a young person right now because the future often looks really shitty with all the news spewing doom and devastation.

But it is not all doom and gloom.

Last Sunday on 60 minutes professor, Michael Mann, from Penn State University, dropped a good news BOMB on our world in relation to climate change. Mann revealed new scientific understanding that our planet still has a chance to avoid climate breakdown and recover faster than previously predicted if, and only if, we stick to IPCC guidelines to reduce our emissions by 5 percent every year and halve emissions by 2030. If we elect a leader who will get us back on track to hit these marks global warming lag time (The time between halting CO2 emissions and halting temperature rise) could be more like three to five years instead of the previously thought to be 50.

We can turn things around but we gotta V-O-T-E.

I speak to you the recently graduated the what-the-hell-do-I-do-now-ers.

Let me say I feel you.

But as crazy as the outside and inner world is right now and as much as it feels debilitating, there is something you can do right now and that thing is vote.

We must vote president Voldemort *excuse me* President Donald Trump out of his little White(supremacist)House to give our planet, our people, our plants, and our animals, micro and macro, a chance at life. Another 4 years with Trump as our president (who refuses to fight emissions and instead rolls back climate regulations) would kill our chances of preventing a catastrophic rise in global temperature.

All the issues we face today are interrelated, from racism to global CO2 concentrations. If we start to tackle one part of the beast we will start to weaken the whole beast! Yes, we have a fucked-up system that is all tangled up and our problems are complexly interrelated but this also means solving one issue helps resolve others simultaneously. Injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected and one in the same @Intersectional environmentalism!

We still have time to reverse the previously thought to be irreversible damage and hit IPCC guidelines for emission reductions and reduce the warming time to more like three to five years. instead of 50. But we have to

VOTE

We have to give the USA the chance to do its part in protecting our planet and our people.

If you dont know who to vote for, vote for your future, and not for Donald Trump.

Yes, Biden may not be the best, you may not like him in the slightest, but voting for Donald Trump ensures 4 more years of climate inaction and solidifies the devastating fate of our environment and front-line communities (communities at the front line of climate changes negative effects).

Im writing this because I love you and I love the fricken world so much and I know there are so many of us out there and if we choose to not label ourselves by our political affiliation, color, who we choose to love, what diet we eat, or god we pray to, and we have to focus on our common ground, literally, our common ground (our earth below our feetour air that which we breatheand water that we drink )and come together and vote for it and vote for us, then we will have a chance to turn things around and bring into reality an America and world we are proud of.

I hope my writing challenges you to think differently and empowers your own self-exploration and love journey. I truly believe a more fulfilling and environmentally/socially just way of living exist if we come together on our common ground and see each other for what we really are one of the same.Sierra Emrick

Link:
An open letter to the young people of the United States - Resilience