Audio files are being used as digital drugs: Survey

MARCH 30, 2022, by RMIT University

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-audio-digital-drugs-survey.html

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A binaural beat is an illusionary tone created by the brain when presenting two tones separately to each ear that slightly differ in their frequency.

It's claimed binaural beats can have a psychoactive effect on the brain, although there's limited research on their efficacy and safety.

Now a new study published in Drug and Alcohol Review has captured how and why people use the tones.

Data comes from the Global Drug Survey 2021, which drew on responses from more than 30,000 people in 22 countries.

Respondents mainly used binaural beats to relax or fall asleep (72%) and to change their mood (35%), while 12% reported trying to get a similar effect to that of psychedelic drugs.

The study's lead author, Dr. Monica Barratt of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, said the latter motivation was more commonly reported among those who used classic psychedelics.

"Much like ingestible substances, some binaural beats users were chasing a high," she said.

"But that's far from their only use. Many people saw them as a source of help, such as for sleep therapy or pain relief."

The audio tracks are often named for their intended use—everything from mindfulness and meditation to tracks named after ingestible drugs like MDMA and cannabis.

The survey revealed binaural beat users were more likely to be younger and to report recent use of all prohibited drugs, compared to rest of the sample.

Most respondents sought to connect with themselves or something bigger than themselves through the experience.

The use of binaural beats to experience altered states was reported by 5% of the total sample.

In the United States 16% of respondents said they'd tried it, while in Mexico and Brazil countries reported use was also above average at 14% and 11.5% respectively.

Video streaming sites like YouTube and Vimeo were the most popular way to listen, followed by Spotify and other streaming apps.

Barratt said the illusionary tones had been accessible for more than a decade, but their popularity had only recently begun to grow.

"It's very new, we just don't know much about the use of binaural beats as digital drugs," she said.

"This survey shows this is going on in multiple countries.

"We had anecdotal information, but this was the first time we formally asked people how, why and when they're using them."

Barratt said the binaural beats phenomenon challenges the overall definition of a drug.

"We're starting to see digital experiences defined as drugs, but they could also be seen as complementary practices alongside drug use," she said.

"Maybe a drug doesn't have to be a substance you consume, it could be to do with how an activity affects your brain."

Despite binaural beat listeners being younger, Barratt said they're not necessarily a gateway to the use of ingestible drugs.

"In the survey, we found most people who listen were already using ingestible substances," she said.

"But that doesn't discount the need for more research, particularly to document and negate possible harms."

On the flipside, Barratt said perhaps binaural beats could be used as a therapy method, alongside traditional treatment.

"Evidence is mounting but it's still unclear, which is why more research is needed into any possible side effects," she said.

Although the Global Drug Survey is a non-representative sample, the self-reported use of binaural beats as digital drugs by respondents sets the course for more targeted research.

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The worrying arrival of the invasive Asian needle ant (Brachyponera chinensis) in Europe

MARCH 30, 2022, by Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-invasive-asian-needle-ant-brachyponera.html

The male ant B. chinensis found in Naples and genetically identified by the IBE research team. It is the first specimen to be detected living freely in Europe. The body of the ant is about 4 mm long. 

Credit: Roger Vila (IBE).

Invasive exotic species are considered one of the main causes of the current biodiversity crisis. In recent years, humans have introduced 200 species of ant from outside of their natural area of distribution and some of them have become invasive. Such is the case of the Asian needle ant, Brachyponera chinensis, which has seen its area of distribution greatly expand in the last 80 years.

Its natural distribution includes coastal regions of mainland China, Taiwan, the Korean peninsula and Japan, while in the 1930s it was introduced to the United States, where it has become established and is now present in 17 states. In North America, B. chinensis invades native forest habitats and has had a strong negative effect on most native ant species. In addition, due to its bite and the properties of the poison it injects, B. chinensis has been identified as an emerging threat to public health in the US, as it can cause serious allergic reactions.

Now a research team led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a joint center of the CSIC and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona, Spain, presents the first confirmed record of Brachyponera chinensis in Europe. One of the authors of the study and amateur entomologist, Vincenzo Gentile, collected an unidentified male of the genus Brachyponera that was attracted to the light of a streetlamp on 3 July 2020 in Torre Annunziata (Naples, Italy), in a residential area about 1 km from the city's port. The morphology of the specimen and subsequent genetic analysis confirmed that it was the first specimen of Brachyponera chinensis identified in European territory.

Initial morphological investigations revealed that the invasive ant did not belong to any of the most common invasive families—Formicinae, Dolichoderinae and Myrmicinae subfamilies—but belonged to the Ponerinae, subfamily that predominantly consists of predatory ants. However, the specimen identified—particularly of the genus Brachyponera—was different from any native Euro-Mediterranean ponerine.

Subsequent genetic analysis carried out by INPhINIT "la Caixa" predoctoral researcher Mattia Menchetti at the Butterfly Diversity and Evolution Laboratory at the IBE, led by principal investigator Roger Vila, confirmed that it was a male of the species Brachyponera chinensis. The study suggests that it may have originated from the US, or that the invasive species has been introduced to the two continents from the same place of origin.

"The genetic barcode, also known as DNA barcoding, is a very useful tool. It involves using a short DNA sequence like a barcode exclusive to each species. In this way, we can identify any sample, which is useful both in basic science and in the control of invasive species, pests, illegal trading, in forensic analysis, etc." Menchetti explains.

Like many other soil invertebrates, ants are often accidentally introduced into new environments due to globalization and in particular plant trade. Their frequent introduction to private gardens hinders detecting these species in the early stages, before they spread through a broad region, as is the case of B. chinensis in Torre Annunziata. Although the ants of the city of Naples had been studied between 2016 and 2021, no other individuals of this species had been found.

The fact that they have collected a flying male, in the process of swarming, indicates that at least one nest is already at an advanced stage following its introduction. "The source nest may be in difficult-to-access private areas and the colony—or colonies—may have time to propagate without being detected," Menchetti adds. "However, neither can it be ruled out that a colony without queens has been introduced and that the males have been produced by worker ants, which is exceptional but possible for B. chinensis."

The Mediterranean basin is home to a growing number of exotic species, but most have been limited to building interiors and greenhouses, or urban environments. However, the expansion of B. chinensis in North American forest habitats suggests that this species could invade European natural habitats, forests in particular, leading to possible negative effects on native ant communities and the health of the ecosystems.

"This is an invasive species that is causing significant ecological and health problems in the United States and could have effects in Europe comparable to those of the Asian hornet or the Argentine ant. Experience tells us that, once the exponential phase of expansion of an invasive species has been reached, we do not have the means to eradicate it and at most, we can control it by investing huge amounts of public resources. Therefore, it is necessary to take advantage of the window of opportunity posed by the so-called latency phase: the time during which the invasive species becomes established in the new place and is still very localized. We must rethink the strategy of controlling invasive species and redirect resources towards biomonitoring, which will allow early detection, and the deployment of a rapid response team as soon as the alarm of a new introduction sounds," Vila advises.

In addition, the establishment of B. chinensis in urban areas could pose a public health problem, in the light of the documented reaction caused by the poison injected by this ant. "We appeal for action at this early stage of the new biological invasion and propose a detailed survey of a large area around Torre Annunziata," Menchetti adds.

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Impact of China's National Sword policy on the US landfill and plastics recycling industry

MARCH 30, 2022, by Cory Nealon, University at Buffalo

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-03-impact-china-national-sword-policy.html

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

University at Buffalo researchers have published a study quantifying how a series of regulations limiting the import of plastic waste to China has affected recycling in the United States.

Described in Sustainability, "Impact of China's National Sword Policy on the U.S. Landfill and Plastics Recycling Industry" analyzes the impacts of China's Green Fence and National Sword programs. Both imposed strict contamination limits on recyclable materials, and, after National Sword, the landfilling of scrap plastic in the U.S. increased.

The study was led by Aditya Vedantam, assistant professor in operations management and strategy, Nallan C. Suresh, UB Distinguished Professor in operations management and strategy, and Khadija Ajmal, a doctoral student, all in the UB School of Management; and Michael Shelly, an environmental/ecological economist at UB's RENEW Institute.

In 2013, China introduced Green Fence, a program which involved intensive inspections of incoming loads of scrap material. In 2016, China announced restrictions for secondary material commodity imports from the U.S. The following year, China launched its National Sword program, which imposed strict contamination limits on recyclable materials. Finally, in 2018, China introduced a 0.5% contamination limit along with a ban on many recyclables, including plastics.

Before these restrictions, the U.S. shipped most of its plastic scrap overseas, particularly to China.

Controlling for oil prices, producer price index and amount of plastic scrap exported, the researchers found that Green Fence had no statistically significant impact on the amount of plastic landfilled in the U.S. However, the quantity of plastic landfilled in the U.S. increased by 23.2% following the implementation of National Sword.

"With waste generation consistently growing, coupled with fewer options to export plastic scrap, the domestic supply of lower value plastic scrap has drastically exceeded existing demand. This has resulted in a decline in prices, which reduced the profitability of recycling and increased the attractiveness of alternate disposal options, such as landfills," says Vedantam.

To gauge how National Sword affected plastics recycling in New York State, the researchers created a database of information obtained from annual reports submitted by registered material recovery facilities (MRF) to the state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Researchers also interviewed MRF operators in New York and other industry experts.

"Analysis of data showed that even though China's restrictions led to an increased amount of incoming material at MRFs in New York, the amount of plastics recovered still went down, consistent with national trends," says Vedantam.

"The study shows that following China's National Sword policy, the amount of plastic recycled in the U.S. has significantly declined. Meanwhile, the amount of plastic that is landfilled in the U.S has increased. This underlines the importance of improving domestic plastic recyclability, recycling rates and reducing contamination," says project director Amit Goyal, SUNY Distinguished Professor and SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UB.

The study is part of a multidisciplinary project directed by Goyal and sponsored by New York's Environmental Protection Fund and the DEC.

"Another part of this multidisciplinary project focuses on using human behavioral science and outreach/education to help develop initiatives to understand and address consumer confusion about recycling. This work is important to determine how to understand decision making, improve messaging and reduce contamination at the recycling bin," says Goyal.

While interviewing MRF operators and industry experts, the researchers discovered that most MRFs' costs increased as they improved the quality of materials sorted and met contamination standards.

"For example, one MRF we spoke with had to increase the number of sorters and slow down its sorting line by 40% to improve the quality of their sorted plastics and paper, leading to a doubling of operating cost," says Vedantam.

Ultimately, the previous model of relying on exports to solve the problem of recycling plastic scrap is no longer viable in the U.S., he says.

"China's restrictions have highlighted the need to invest in and improve recycling in the U.S. Sophisticated machinery and a sufficient supply of materials are available. Still, due to low market prices of plastics—particularly, the mixed Nos. 3–7 plastics—there is little incentive to invest in expanded and improved plastics recycling," Vedantam says.

"This work highlights that there is a pressing need for industry organizations and policymakers to encourage demand creation for scrap plastic and improve the quality of recyclables," says Vedantam.

Such efforts are underway. For example, the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition and U.S. Plastics Pact are voluntary initiatives where industry has committed to using recycled materials.

Additionally, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed an extended producer responsibility program that will encourage producers to invest in recycling infrastructure, make products that are easier to recycle and encourage alternatives that are more in line with the circular economy. If adopted, this proposed approach aims to build on the progress of current laws and initiatives that support recycling and reduce contamination in the recycling stream.

Further, human behavioral science and outreach/education initiatives such as the Recycle Right NY campaign are being employed to decrease contamination and improve recycling in New York State.

"A comprehensive regulatory solution may be needed in the U.S., perhaps on the scale of the European Union's circular economy package, to support recycling and help turn the tide on plastic pollution," Vedantam says.

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New and Improved Cherry Flavor Thanks to the Petunia Flower

By PURDUE UNIVERSITY MARCH 30, 2022

https://scitechdaily.com/new-and-improved-cherry-flavor-thanks-to-the-petunia-flower/

That cherry flavor you enjoy in candy and soda is likely a combination of aromatic and flavor compounds discovered through the study of plants in laboratories far from cherry trees. It and the sweet scent of your almond extract may actually be courtesy of a petunia flower.

Some flavors and aromas are more elusive than others, and a team of Purdue University researchers recently found the molecular recipe for one of the most coveted compounds by the flavor industry: benzaldehyde. It may not sound tasty, but it is key to some of the most popular flavors including cherry, almond, and raspberry. It is second only to vanillin in terms of economic value to the food industry.

Natalia Dudareva, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry in Purdue’s College of Agriculture, and postdoctoral researcher Xing-Qi Huang use petunias to discover the molecular recipe for the valuable flavor compound benzaldehyde. The compound is found in the aroma of many fruits, as well as the petunia. 

Credit: Purdue University photo/Xing-Qi Huang

“Benzaldehyde is what gives that pleasant almond-like scent and is part of the aroma of many fruits,” said Natalia Dudareva, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry in Purdue’s College of Agriculture, who led the team. “That scent attracts pollinators and, in addition to those fruits, it is found in other plants, including petunias.”

Biochemists track down the molecular recipes, called biosynthetic pathways, that make these compounds and allow them to be bottled into different flavors for the products we enjoy. When steps in the molecular recipe are missing, chemicals outside of the natural processes are used in commercial production, she explained.

“When chemical reactions are added in to fill the gaps, it can be a problem,” said Dudareva, who also is director of Purdue’s Center for Plant Biology. “It is much better and safer to use an entirely natural pathway to a flavor compound, but it is difficult to discover all of the steps. Benzaldehyde has an especially puzzling biosynthetic pathway, and it wasn’t completely revealed until now.”

Natalia Dudareva, distinguished professor of biochemistry in Purdue’s College of Agriculture, stands in her laboratory. Dudareva led a team of researchers that mapped the biosynthetic pathway of benzaldehyde, one of the most valuable flavor compounds for the food industry. 

Credit: Purdue Agricultural Communications photo/Tom Campbell

Dudareva and her team studied the scent of petunia flowers to discover the molecular recipe for benzaldehyde. The work is detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, and a patent on the process is pending.

“The goal is to have the natural process found in plants, and this discovery makes that possible for a very important flavor compound,” Dudareva said. “The alternative to synthesis is truly extracting a compound from plants, but only 1.5% of the benzaldehyde in worldwide production is obtained this way.”

The biosynthetic pathway will likely be genetically transferred to yeast or other microbes to incorporate it into the fermentation process widely used in food and beverage production, she said.

The team found that synthesis of benzaldehyde in petunia petals involves an enzyme consisting of two subunits that must combine in equal amounts to activate, said Xing-Qi Huang, an author of the paper and postdoctoral researcher in Dudareva’s lab.

Xing-Qi Huang, post-doctoral research in Purdue’s Department of Biochemistry in the College of Agriculture. Huang stands among petunia flowers he used in his work on the biosynthetic pathways of flavor and aroma compounds. 

Credit: Purdue University photo/Ya Wei

“The gene directly responsible and enzyme needed for benzaldehyde synthesis were a mystery,” he said. “We tried newer techniques, but it took a classical approach to reveal it.”

This was because of the enzyme’s uncommon need for two subunits to function, or heterodimeric structure, he said.

Because of this, earlier analysis methods looking for a single component appeared to fail.

“We estimate the size of the protein we are hunting in addition to other things we have learned about the pathway,” he said. “We weren’t finding a good indication of a single protein within that estimate. However, we noticed the presence of two components of half the size of our estimate, and we thought maybe there are two subunits.”

Further proteomic and genetic testing confirmed their idea and revealed the genes involved. Their work found the protein subunits have an interesting structure, as well. They form what is called the Rossmann fold, named after the late Purdue professor and renowned structural biologist Michael Rossmann.

“Purdue is all over the petunia,” Dudareva said. “This discovery is the most recent. We now have mapped out almost all of the genes and pathways responsible for petunia scent compounds. To also see within it proteins that embody a structure discovered by and named after a fellow faculty member adds a special connection. It is beautiful.”

In addition to Dudareva and Huang, Renqiuguo Li and Jianxin Fu participated in the research and are co-authors of the paper.

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How food and diet impact the treatment of disease

MARCH 30, 2022, by The City University of New York

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-food-diet-impact-treatment-disease.html

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Today, the Center for Food As Medicine (famcenter.org) and the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center (nycfoodpolicy.org) released its groundbreaking, 335 page (with more than 2500 citations), first ever, academic narrative review and report of the food as medicine movement, titled "Food As Medicine: How Food and Diet Impact the Treatment of Disease and Disease Management."

There is overwhelming evidence demonstrating the impact of food and diet on health, specifically among food-related diseases. Whether or not a poor diet can cause damage to the body should no longer be debated, as evidence supports the potential causal relationships between dietary factors and diet-related diseases such as ischemic heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. While diet has the potential to cause disease, it is also capable of building, maintaining, and restoring health. The report aims to bridge the gap between traditional medicine and the use of food as medicine in the prevention and treatment of disease.

This comprehensive narrative review and report is divided into five parts, including:

 1) background information on the history of using food to treat disease,

 2) modern challenges to widespread use and acceptance of food as medicine practices, 

3) current evidence about contemporary food as medicine practices (such as medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions, and functional foods),

4) literature review of food as treatment for specific disease states, and 

5) recommendations to stakeholders (including policymakers, health care professionals, and academics) to contribute to a healthier, more equitable health care system.

Here are the key findings:

Many medical schools across the country do not require that students take basic nutrition courses, leading to a lack of confidence and knowledge among health care providers when speaking to patients about using food as a treatment to manage disease.

Social media has facilitated the "hijacking" of food as medicine as a disease treatment, co-opting it into a pseudoscientific alternative medicine. This has effectively alienated many health care providers from adopting food as medicine programs and policies.

Websites with evidence-based content coexist with those containing inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading information, making it difficult for the public to decipher information about the role of food in the prevention and treatment of disease.

The increased popularity of dietary supplements, paired with a lack of regulation from the federal government regarding what many supplements contain, has caused confusion among consumers and patients about the impact of their consumption habits on disease.

The American Dietary Guidelines have long been influenced by large food corporations and interest groups, and they do not always reflect the state of the science regarding the relationship between diet and health. These guidelines are incredibly important, because they influence the nutritional standards of meals and foods provided across the country.

Marketing and health claims printed on packaged food available at the store can obfuscate consumers' understanding of the impact of food and diet on disease.

Research funded by the food industry has skewed public understanding of the impacts of certain foods on individual health.

Nutrition incentive programs (e.g., NYC's Health Bucks) and other food as medicine programs and interventions (e.g., medically tailored meals) can be an effective tool to combat food and nutritional insecurity.

Food has always been a part of medical practice, going back millennia; however, as medical procedures and treatments became more sophisticated, modern societies began to disregard the role of food in the treatment of disease. Using food to treat disease was viewed as an uncivilized approach. This led to a gap between modern medicine and the use of food to treat disease, and a lack of acceptance of food-based interventions in modern treatment plans.

Food as medicine interventions and programs need increased government funding and support to maximize their positive impact on food insecurity and public health. 

This includes:

Medically tailored meals: meals that are designed with the specific nutritional and dietary needs of patients in mind. These help individuals managing chronic disease combat food insecurity while ensuring the foods they eat are appropriate for their specific disease or condition.

Produce prescription programs: programs that provide a financial incentive (e.g. discount, bonus, or credit) to increase access to and consumption of fresh fruits in vegetables among targeted patient populations.

There is a large amount of research available to demonstrate the efficacy of different foods and dietary interventions on specific diseases and conditions. However, more robust clinical trials are needed to provide comprehensive evidence on the effectiveness of diet in the treatment of a variety of disease states.

The report also includes 10 key recommendations to stakeholders to advance food as medicine practices in the prevention and treatment of disease:

Increased Funding for Food as Medicine Research: Congress must approve increased funding to the NIH to provide grants to researchers specifically focused on the use of food in the prevention and treatment of disease. Specific topics for research should include:

Dietary patterns and interventions for the prevention and treatment of disease.

Traditional medicine practices from around the world in the prevention and treatment of disease.

Food as medicine programs (such as medically tailored meals and produce prescriptions) on health outcomes.

Incorporation of foods and dietary patterns from many different cultures to ensure food interventions are culturally appropriate for all participants.

Aggregation and Coordination of Food As Medicine Programs: Create and maintain a central repository that identifies all current food as medicine programs and interventions operating in the United States (including nutrition incentive and voucher programs, medically-tailored meals programs, produce prescription programs, and culinary medicine and education programs).

Disease-Specific Food as Medicine Research and Resource Guides: Create, curate, and update daily disease-specific food as medicine research and resource portals/guides to translate and disseminate peer-reviewed, evidence-based research to academics, researchers, physicians, health care providers, individuals, caregivers, and family members of those diagnosed as well as the general public. These guides will use evidence-based research to dispel myths and pseudoscience and bridge the gap between traditional medicine and the impact of food on disease.

Board of Experts: Develop a robust infrastructure of experts (e.g., Medical Schools, Academic Centers, Non-profits dedicated to Food As Medicine, Divisions of the NIH) who can monitor and navigate the copious research that has already been conducted in the food as medicine space and translate this research to physicians, health care providers, caregivers, and patients.

Health Care Provider Education: Mandate education about nutrition and the role of diet in the prevention and treatment of disease within educational curricula for physicians and health care providers (e.g., nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners).

Require a series of nutrition courses among the earliest core requirements in medical school and health care provider education/training curricula that provides all medical students with a background on the role of diet in the prevention and treatment of disease.

Develop and require Continuing Medical Education courses centered on food as medicine topics.

Hospitals Need to Be Food As Medicine Focused: Hospitals must be a model for advancing food as medicine and integrating dietary evidence for the prevention and treatment of disease into institutional practices and programs.

Federal, state, and local government agencies should provide financial incentives and guidance to public and private hospitals and healthcare settings that develop and maintain food as medicine programs, including medically tailored meals and produce prescriptions.

There must be a complete overhaul of the meals served at hospitals to ensure that hospital food is medically tailored to address individual patient health.

Hospitals should provide meals that are easy and simply duplicated by their patients which would allow them to prepare nutritionally sound meals in their own homes.

Improve Public Awareness: Enhance and advance public awareness of the role of food in relation to the prevention and treatment of disease.

Nutrition and food education must begin early and should be incorporated into publicly funded schools and education programs.

De-stigmatize and encourage conversation between health care providers and patients regarding the treatment options other than pharmaceuticals.

Increase Community Access to Fruits and Vegetables: All individuals should have access to culturally appropriate, unprocessed, fresh, whole foods and food as medicine programs for the prevention and treatment of disease.

Support the expansion of sources of fresh fruits and vegetables in communities that lack retail access to fruits and vegetables.

Health insurance companies must offer coverage for a wide variety of food as medicine programs and individualized nutrition counseling in the treatment of chronic diseases.

Expand Federal Programs: Congress must increase federal funding for the development and expansion of a wide variety of food as medicine programs, including medically tailored meals, produce prescriptions, and nutrition incentives.

Incorporate Food As Medicine into Policy: Expand and improve federal, state, and local policies that promote food and diet in the prevention and treatment of disease.

Update the Dietary Guidelines to reflect contemporary evidence about the relationship between diet and disease while avoiding influence from large corporations in the food industry.

Regulate terminology used by companies marketing health and wellness food products and supplements.

Expand and improve federal food assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

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Study shows strong influence of external environment on fungal communities in the primate gut

MARCH 29, 2022, by University of Minnesota

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-strong-external-environment-fungal-primate.html

Illustration of bacteria in the human gut. 

Credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health




Researchers are starting to understand the importance of gut fungi in mammals and the ways different environmental factors can shape these fungal communities, which play a crucial role in regulating immune responses.

In a new study in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, researchers from the University of Minnesota and Czech Academy of Sciences presented an overview of gut fungal community composition and fungal-bacterial interactions in different nonhuman primates (captive and wild), and human populations with a diverse set of food acquisition practices (traditional agriculturalists, hunter-gatherers and the western human population).

The research team was led by computational biologist Ashok Kumar Sharma, a postdoctoral researcher formerly with the U of M, now with Cedars-Sinai. The scientists sequenced ITS2 and 16S rRNA gene markers in fecal samples of four nonhuman primate species and three different human groups to profile fungal and bacterial community composition.

"Understanding how the fungal community adapts and interacts with bacterial communities in response to different factors such as diet and lifestyle would provide a basic framework to explore their potential roles in human health and diseases," said Sharma.

Similarities between captive apes and humans following industrialized lifestyles indicate a potential influence of diet and lifestyle factors over genetics in shaping gut fungal community composition and fungal-bacterial interactions. Higher similarities in the fungal composition between humans consuming non-industrialized diets and wild apes further support these observations.

Overall, results suggest the influence of ecological, behavioral and individual factors in shaping the primate's gut mycobiome, the communities of fungi colonizing the gastrointestinal tract of primates.

The researchers found:

There was a strong influence of host-ecological factors, including dietary lifestyle in shaping the fungal community composition in the primate's gut. This is in contrast with the gut bacterial fraction, which seems to be more influenced by the host genetics.

Ecological differences between and within primate populations not only impact the fungal communities but also how fungi and bacteria co-inhabit the gut.
Fungal and bacterial taxa with similar functional potential may interact to accomplish common metabolic roles, such as degradation of a wide range of carbohydrates.

"These data indicate the external environment may have a very strong influence on populating communities of fungi in the primate gut; whether those fungi are largely transient (short lived) or long-term colonizers remains unknown. But perhaps a more interesting question should focus on whether the lack of fungal diversity in western/industrialized human populations affects health," said Andres Gomez, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science.

"As the environmental factors probably play a more important role than host genetics in shaping the mycobiome, we could consider that mycobiome can be a better indicator of a healthy and stable ecosystem in which the primates live," said Klara Judita Petrzelkova, PhD, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

In the future, measuring the contribution of specific food sources to determine mechanisms of fungal assembly in the gastrointestinal tract would be a significant step moving forward.

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Major Birth Defects Linked With Fathers’ Use of Diabetes Drug Metformin

By AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS MARCH 29, 2022

https://scitechdaily.com/major-birth-defects-linked-with-fathers-use-of-diabetes-drug-metformin/

A large cohort study found that babies born to men who took metformin during the period of sperm development were at increased risk for birth defects, specifically genital defects in boys. These finding suggest that men with diabetes who are taking metformin should talk to their doctors about whether they should switch to another treatment when trying to conceive a child. However, because diabetes control also affects sperm quality, discontinuing metformin treatment could also affect birth outcomes. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Diabetes increasingly occurs in people of reproductive age, compromises sperm quality, and is associated with impaired male fertility. Some diabetes drugs may also affect male reproductive health.

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and Stanford University studied data from nation-wide national registries of births, patients, and prescriptions to evaluate whether the risk for birth defects varied among offspring born to men treated with insulin, metformin, or sulfonylureas prior to conception. Babies were considered exposed to a diabetes drug if their father filled at least 1 prescription during the 3 months when the fertilizing sperm were developing.

The researchers compared birth defects in the babies across diabetes drugs, different times of taking the drug relative to development of fertilizing sperm, and with unexposed siblings of the babies. Babies whose fathers took insulin had no increased risk for a birth defect compared with the general group.

Babies whose fathers took metformin had an increased risk for birth defects. There were too few babies whose fathers took sulfonylureas to determine risks for birth defects with any certainty. Taking metformin before or after sperm development did not increase the risk for birth defects. Unexposed siblings were also not at increased risk.

According to the authors, the size of the diabetes pandemic suggests that treatment of prospective fathers with diabetes, including pharmacologic management and counseling on diet, physical exercise, and weight loss, should be subject to further study.

An editorial from Germaine M. Buck Louis, PhD, MS at George Mason University emphasizes the importance of corroborating the findings, given the prevalence of metformin use as first-line therapy for type 2 diabetes. The author also calls for guidance from clinicians to help couples planning pregnancy weigh the risks and benefits of paternal metformin use relative to other medications.

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Where our thoughts come from: How microemotions affect spontaneous thought

MARCH 29, 2022, by Francois Richer, The Conversation

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-thoughts-microemotions-affect-spontaneous-thought.html

People can have several thousand thoughts per day, many of which can be classified as spontaneous or involuntary.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Our thoughts are like a private theater, and as such they can fascinate us. They are sometimes unpredictable and sometimes on cue. They can surprise us, stimulate us, move us to action and sometimes to tears. As much as thoughts can trigger emotions, they can also be triggered by them: feelings influence what is shown in our mental theater.

The fleeting images and phrases in our minds make up a good portion of our lives. By some estimates based on brain state transitions in neuroimaging data, we may have four to eight thoughts per minute. Even accounting for some periods of fatigue or apathy and many periods spent perceiving sensory input (such as reading or listening), that can add up to several thousand thoughts a day.

Several psychological disorders produce changes in stream of thought. Manic states, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) and anxiety often increase thought rate, whereas depression and dementia often reduce it.

Spontaneous thoughts

Many thoughts can be classified as spontaneous or involuntary. They spring to mind; they don't feel deliberate. Some may be ideas or intuitions relevant to a current situation, intrusive thoughts linked to preoccupations, or "free associations" while the mind wanders. Some are recollections of autobiographical memories with some link to recent experiences.

Where do spontaneous thoughts come from? An obvious source is environmental stimulation: the ideas evoked by what we see and hear. However, spontaneous thoughts often appear when the environment is relatively stable, like when walking a familiar path or sitting on a bus.

Spontaneous thoughts often emerge from long-term memory, unconscious pieces of phrases, images, actions and ideas that also give rise to dreams. These mental construction blocks are the collective activity of networks of neurons in the brain's gray matter whose connections have been strengthened by numerous experiences.

These neural networks are ordinarily inactive, but when they are excited by other brain activity, such as a stimulus, a related thought or hunger, they compete for access to consciousnessbased on their strength. The competitive strength of networks is influenced by their relevance to our situation, but also to our goals, needs, interests or emotions. We think about food more easily when we are hungry but also when we have an important dinner to prepare.

Emotions play a key role in many types of spontaneous thoughts. For example, intrusive thoughts are forced upon us by emotionsso that we focus on high-priority information like threats, frustrations or opportunities. Anxiety often produces intrusive thoughts pointing to real or imagined threats. In post-traumatic stress, it can cause repetitive flashbacks and ruminations.

While negative emotions make us focus on high priority content, positive emotions appear to facilitate more remote or unusual associations which increase memorization and creativity. During euphoria—intense happiness or pleasure that may be out of proportion to its causes—intrusive thoughts often include optimistic anticipations and imaginative ideas. Passion induces positive spontaneous thoughts.

Microemotions

Even during uneventful daily activities, weak emotions or microemotions such as worries, desires, irritation, stress, surprise or interest are involved in orienting many of our thoughts.

Microemotions are brief and often unconscious. They mainly trigger micromovements like muscle tension or facial microexpressions and they produce small physiological reactions including adrenaline secretion and cardiovascular responses.

Micro-fears often trigger what-if thoughts and worries that maintain anxiety through a positive feedback loop; this in turn can be a source of insomnia. Desires regularly activate thoughts like goals, wishes and conversation themes.

Microemotions of guilt or pride trigger moral intuitions of anticipated disapproval or approval of others, which are essential to develop pro-social behavior such as co-operation, helpfulness and other types of behavior that benefit others. Microemotions of boredom or craving for stimulation can trigger distraction or mind wandering and may underlie some symptoms of attention deficits.

Microemotions influence our thoughts in a variety of ways. They distract our attention from its present object, they sensitize perceptual systems to notice things related to their dominant theme and they facilitate the retrieval of memories relevant to that theme. Microemotions are themselves triggered by a perception or an idea, often an unconscious one, that is significant enough to subtly activate emotional systems.

The amygdala

Emotions can activate spontaneous thoughts through several brain circuits centered on a hub called the amygdala. That hub has access to our urges and desires activated in the low parts of our frontal lobe. It can interpret the emotional significance of perceptions or retrieved memories, and it can also influence them.

The amygdala hub also activates the brain's amplifiers in the brain stem that feed neuromodulators like adrenaline and serotonin to the gray matter. These systems juice up the level of neural activity and steer it toward the theme that is consistent with the emotion. When the evoked thought is itself emotion-provoking, a self-sustaining loop is created between thought and emotion that is stopped by either distraction or cognitive processes.

In essence, spontaneous thoughts are largely motivated thoughts: every minute, feelings nudge our attention, our inner voice and our mental theater in a specific direction. Better control of stress levels, emotions and daily experiences may improve the quality of these spontaneous thoughts and the satisfaction derived from them.

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Science News: Asteroid longer than 4 blue whales to fly past Earth on April Fool's Day

 

Asteroid longer than 4 blue whales to fly past Earth on April Fool's Day

Designated 2007 FF1, this asteroid has an estimated size ranging between 120 meters to 260 meters and will pass by the planet on April Fool's Day. Yes, really.

By AARON REICH, Jerusalem Post,  MARCH 29, 2022 

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-702589

An asteroid is seen approaching Earth (illustrative).  (photo credit: PIXABAY)

A large asteroid that is a minimum of four times the size of a blue whale (17.5 male giraffes) is set to pass by Earth on April Fool's Day, according to NASA's asteroid tracker.

Yes, really. 

Designated 2007 FF1, this asteroid has an estimated size ranging between 120 meters to 260 meters. The maximum length of a blue whale, the largest animal species thought to ever exist on Earth, is thought to be just under 30 meters. If looking for a non-cetacean comparison, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is just 130 meters in height.

Traveling at a speed of around 12.83 kilometers per second, the massive space rock is set to pass the planet at a distance of around 7.4 million kilometers. For comparison, the Moon orbits the Earth at a distance of around 384,000 kilometers, so it may not seem close. However, on a cosmic scale, this is closer than one might think, and NASA has even classified it as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA).

This itself makes sense considering what could happen should 2007 FF1 actually hit us. 

 

Asteroid (illustrative) (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)

The possible damage of an asteroid

Asteroids are potentially one of the most dangerous natural disasters that could ever possibly happen. This is because not only do they hold the potential to cause catastrophic devastation, but there is also currently no immediate way to stop them.

According to research from the Davidson Institute of Science, the educational arm of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, an asteroid over 140 meters in diameter would release an amount of energy at least a thousand times greater than that released by the first atomic bomb if it impacted Earth.

Something even larger – over 300 meters wide like the asteroid Apophis – could destroy an entire continent. An asteroid over a kilometer in width – like 138971 (2001 CB21), which flew past the Earth in early March – could trigger a worldwide cataclysm.

Luckily, that isn't going to happen with 2007 FF1, especially since NASA calculated that Earth was free of risk from major asteroid impacts for the next century.

But it will still fly past us, and we've literally seen it coming.

Pictures of 2007 FF1 were taken by the Virtual Telescope Project on March 24. Shared online this blurry photo depicts the asteroid at a distance of around 11.6 million kilometers away from the planet. Further, as an Apollo-class asteroid, we know 2007 FF1's orbit around the Sun crosses Earth's own orbit. 

Thankfully an impact won't happen, especially since Earth just had one weeks ago when 2022 EB5 hit the Earth's atmosphere just two hours after its discovery.

Luckily, however, this asteroid was very small, just about half the size of an average male giraffe, so it didn't cause any damage. 

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Senegal's water-stressed capital faces difficult future

MARCH 29, 2022, by Laurent Lozano

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-senegal-water-stressed-capital-difficult-future.html

A population boom in Senegal is intensifying pressure on scarce water resources.

Many residents of the Senegalese metropolis Dakar get up in the middle of the night hoping to collect water from their taps, which mostly run dry.

"We wake up at 4 or 5 am to get water, says Sidy Fall, 44, in her kitchen in a working-class neighbourhood, filled with large bottles of stored water.

If she doesn't get up in time, the water often runs out by 5:30 am. Fall's taps are sometimes dry for two or three days at a time.

A population boom in Senegal is intensifying pressure on scarce water resources in its semi-arid capital of five million people, with problems set to increase over the coming decades.

This is common to many African cities, where infrastructure investments have lagged behind strong demographics and demand for water from industry and agriculture.

In Dakar, a recent World Bank report pointed to poor water management as part of the reason for shortages, along with overexploitation and groundwater pollution.

But demand for water has kept increasing too, sending municipal officials racing to improve infrastructure to secure supply.

"Water is a source of life, but here water is a source of problems," said Khadija Mahecor Diouf, the mayor of the Dakar suburb Golf Sud, at a public meeting last week.

Population explosion

Golf Sud's population has risen from 70,000 to 125,000 people in 10 years, Diouf told AFP, and is predicted to double in the next decade.

Half of all households in the suburb have problems with water, she said.

A recent World Bank report pointed to poor water management as part of the reason for shortages.

"We have a population that has exploded, urban planning schemes that have not been respected," Diouf added, predicting that the problem would get worse.

About a third of Senegal's population of 17 million people lives in the Dakar region, which is also the country's economic nerve centre.

But there are myriad complications tied to the runaway expansion. The sewage system is often lacking, and parts of Dakar routinely flood during the rainy season.

Diouf said water cuts are a problem "all year round".

Senegal's government, for its part, said 99 percent of urbanites and 91 percent of rural dwellers had access to water.

Supply remedies

The authorities are pushing to remedy supply issues in the capital and the government says it has made considerable infrastructure investments.

Babou Ngom, from the state water company Sones, said new investments meant that supply would soon match demand.

Dakar is supplied by four plants that pump water from a lake some 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of the city—as well as from over-exploited aquifers.

The fourth plant came online last year: Ngom said it would produce 200,000 cubic metres per day by the end of 2022—which would guarantee Dakar's water supply until 2026.

Sones is also building a desalination plant on the Dakar coastline, due to open in 2024.

The government argues it has made considerable infrastructure investments.

While Dakar residents are quick to blame the government, national consumer association president Momar Ndao concedes there have been improvements.

Often water is only available on ground floors, however, and consumers are increasingly complaining about exorbitant prices, he added.

More water

Sen'eau, a private firm that has managed Dakar's water on behalf of the state since 2020, argues it is not to blame for recurrent shortages.

The firm—in which French utility company Suez has a 45-percent stake— is the target of broad popular frustration.

But Diery Ba, a Sen'eau director, said the company had inherited crumbling water infrastructure, which it has set about improving.

"Almost no neighbourhood had water 24 hours a day," he said.

While upgrades to the network had led to water cuts, this "adjustment period" was coming to an end, he added.

Higher bills were also a result of consumers simply consuming more water than they once did, he said.

Despite improvements, a question mark still hangs over Dakar's future water supply.

According to the World Bank, Senegalese water consumption is due to increase between 30 and 60 percent by 2035.

The country "urgently needs to prioritise water security," the bank said.

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Research shows unique connectivity lets highly creative people's brains take 'road less traveled' to their destination

MARCH 28, 2022, by University of California, Los Angeles

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-unique-highly-creative-people-brains.html

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain




A new study led by UCLA Health scientists shows highly creative people's brains appear to work differently from others', with an atypical approach that makes distant connections more quickly by bypassing the "hubs" seen in non-creative brains.

Exceptionally creative visual artists and scientists—called "Big C" creative types—volunteered to undergo functional MRI brain imaging, giving researchers in psychiatry, behavioral sciences and psychology a look at how regions of the brain connected and interacted when called upon to perform tasks that put creative thinking to the test.

"Our results showed that highly creative people had unique brain connectivity that tended to stay off the beaten path," said Ariana Anderson, a professor and statistician at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, the lead author of a new article in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. While non-creatives tended to follow the same routes across the brain, the highly creative people made their own roads.

Although the concept of creativity has been studied for decades, little is known about its biological bases, and even less is understood about the brain mechanisms of exceptionally creative people, said senior author Robert Bilder, director of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity at the Semel Institute. This uniquely designed study included highly creative people representing two different domains of creativity—visual arts and the sciences—and used an IQ-matched comparison group to identify markers of creativity, not just intelligence. The researchers analyzed how connections were made between brain regions globally and locally.

"Exceptional creativity was associated with more random connectivity at the global scale—a pattern that is less 'efficient' but would appear helpful in linking distant brain nodes to each other," Bilder said. "The patterns in more local brain regions varied, depending on whether people were performing tasks. Surprisingly, Big C creatives had more efficient local processing at rest, but less efficient local connectivity when performing a task demanding 'thinking outside the box.'"

Using airline route maps for comparison, the researchers said the Big C creatives' brain activity is akin to skipping flights to connecting hubs to get to a small city.

"In terms of brain connectivity, while everyone else is stuck in a three-hour layover at a major airport, the highly creatives take private planes directly to a distant destination," Anderson said. "This more random connectivity may be less efficient much of the time, but the architecture enables brain activity to 'take a road less traveled' and make novel connections."

Bilder, who has more than 30 years' experience researching brain-behavior relations, said, "The fact that Big C people had more efficient local brain connectivity, but only under certain conditions, may relate to their expertise. Consistent with some of our prior findings, they may not need to work as hard as other smart people to perform certain creative tasks."

The artists and scientists in the study were nominated by panels of experts before being validated as exceptional based on objective metrics. The "smart" comparison group was recruited from participants in a previous UCLA study who had agreed to be contacted for possible participation in future studies, and from advertisements in the community for individuals with graduate degrees. The researchers made efforts to ensure that age, sex, race and ethnicity were comparable to those of participants in the Big C groups.

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NEW YORK SUFFERS RECORD MARCH COLD; TORONTO BREAKS CENTURY-OLD LOW TEMP BENCHMARK; + UK FORECAST COLDEST START TO APRIL IN 100 YEARS

MARCH 29, 2022 CAP ALLON

https://electroverse.net/new-york-suffers-record-march-cold-toronto-breaks-century-old-low-uk-forecast-coldest-start-to-april-in-100-years/

NEW YORK SUFFERS RECORD MARCH COLD

A sharp southward shift in the jet stream is making itself known in New York City as well as across much of the rest of the Eastern United States. The unseasonable chill is breaking record-low temperatures for the month of March, and is feeling like a replay of winter for many.

Arctic air descending down from Canada is sending a wave of freezing winds over the East, with temperatures dipping into the single digits (Fahrenheit) for in the Northeast–with the conditions expected to persist until Thursday.

Bone-chilling lows in New York City began Sunday night with temps tumbling below 30F, according to the National Weather Service. Monday went on to prove a record cold day for many: Binghamton, Plattsburgh and New York all busted record low-maxes–with NYC’s dating back to 1893; while Hartford, CT and Allentown, PA were among the other Northeast locales to bust records–from 1966 and 1996, respectively.

The snow in NY has also proved impressive of late…

…as it has across the Northeast.

The below video shows a banged-up Dodge Charger sitting in the lanes of Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County, PA.

That section of I-81, at mile marker 116, was under a snow squall warning at the time of Monday’s crash, which Pennsylvania State Police confirmed involved up to 60 vehicles, multiple injuries and at least three deaths.

https://youtu.be/wHp35Fyz7qY

Nearby New Jersey has also been setting its own snow and low temperature records this week.

NWS data shows that both Trenton and Atlantic City set new records for their lowest-high temps ever logged on March 28, while nearby Newark tied its record: Trenton Mercer Airport’s highest reading of the day was 32F, which is 3F lower than the previous record set way back in 1919; Atlantic City International Airport climbed no higher than 38F on Monday, breaking the record previously held by 1996, 1959 and 1956; while Newark Liberty International Airport’s 35F tied its old record set in 1937.

In fact, the Eastern U.S. has felled hundreds of low temperature benchmarks over the past 24 hours —comfortably out-stripping the West’s heat— and there’s much more in the way of cold as the week progresses.

TORONTO BREAKS CENTURY-OLD LOW TEMP BENCHMARK

There’s been unprecedented chills north of the border, too, in Canada.

Southern Ontarians awoke to brutal sub-zero temps on Monday, lows that felt like -20C (-4F) downtown Monday morning. Temps has struggled to just -6C (21F) by late afternoon, which felt like more like -16C (3.2F).

These are dead-of-winter readings, not spring conditions — and they actually beat-out a weather record that had stood for almost a century. At -10.1C (13.8F) —without the wind chill factored in– Monday was T.O.’s coldest March 28 since 1923’s -15C (5F), with the only other years with colder late-March lows being 1873 and 1854:

UK FORECAST COLDEST START TO APRIL IN 100 YEARS

Following the UK’s coldest April since 1922 last year, it looks as if April 2022 will deliver something very similar.

“British summer time may have just started, but in terms of the weather, British winter time is about to make a return,” said Jim Dale, meteorologist for British Weather Services.

According to Dale’s forecast, the mercury will take a sharp tumble over the next few days, hitting a record-challenging -11C (12.2F) at the weekend and -10C (14F) during the start of next week. Such readings would threaten all-time daily records set more than 100 years ago (with the April 1 record being the -11.7C (10.9F) set in West Linton in 1917).

Wintry conditions, including heavy snow, will hold on into next week, with harsh frosts and sub-zero temperatures becoming “a real issue,” according John Hammond, meteorologist for weathertrending. “There could be some snow warnings,” he added.

The outlook is the same across mainland Europe, too, where record April cold and snow look set cause major disruptions:

GFS Total Snowfall (cm) March 29 – April 14 [tropicaltidbits.com].

We’re driving through the Pyrenees Thursday evening — wish us luck…

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