Thursday, April 01, 2021

Surveys have demonstrated racial differences in the public’s willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine¹^,2 but have not directly compared vaccine intentions among health workers and the general public.³ We investigated COVID-19 vaccine intentions among racially and ethnically diverse samples of health workers and the general population.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey from November 27, 2020, to January 15, 2021, nested within 2 longitudinal cohort studies of prevalence and incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in 6 San Francisco Bay Area counties. The general population cohort comprised 3935 community-residing adults sampled from randomly selected households, and the medical center employee cohort comprised 2501 employees of 3 large medical centers, who volunteered for biweekly to monthly COVID-19 testing. The main outcome measure was likeliness of vaccine uptake, derived from 2 survey items: (1) “How likely are you to get an approved COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available?” (using a 1-7 Likert scale anchored at “not at all likely” and “very likely”), and (2) “How early would you ideally like to receive the COVID-19 vaccine?” (asked of respondents scoring ≥3 on the first item). The survey also included items asking about reasons to get, and to not get, vaccinated. Respondents self-identified race/ethnicity (see eMethods in the Supplement for details on sampling and the survey instrument). Crude results were compared using 2-tailed χ² tests, with P < .05 considered significant. Logistic regression models stratified by cohort tested association of race/ethnicity with vaccine willingness, adjusting for age, gender, and level of education. All statistical analyses were performed using SAS, version 9.4 (SAS Institute). American Association for Public Opinion Research Response Rate 1 definition was used.

The University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford Institutional Review Boards designated the general population cohort study a public health surveillance study and approved the medical center employee cohort study protocol. Written electronic informed consent was obtained at enrollment.

Results

A total of 3161 of 3935 (80.3%) participants in the general population cohort and 1803 of 2501 (72.1%) participants in the medical center employee cohort responded to the vaccine survey (Table). Although a higher proportion of medical center employees than members of the general population reported likeliness of vaccine uptake, racial/ethnic differences in likeliness were comparable in both cohorts (Figure). In the medical center cohort, the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) (95% CI) of likeliness of vaccine uptake relative to White respondents was 0.24 (0.10-0.60) for Black respondents, 0.50 (0.31-0.79) for Latinx respondents, 0.37 (0.27-0.51) for Asian respondents, 0.28 (0.15-0.53) for respondents of other races, and 0.49 (0.29-0.82) for respondents of multiple races. In the general population cohort, the aOR (95% CI) relative to White respondents was 0.29 (0.20-0.43) for Black respondents, 0.55 (0.43-0.71) for Latinx respondents, 0.57 (0.47-0.70) for Asian respondents, 0.62 (0.38-1.02) for respondents of other races, and 0.65 (0.46-0.92) for respondents of multiple races. Ratings of reasons to get vaccinated were similar across racial/ethnic groups, but Black, Latinx, and Asian respondents were significantly more likely than White respondents to endorse reasons to not get vaccinated, especially less confidence in the vaccine preventing COVID-19 (aOR [95% CI] for Black, Latinx, and Asian respondents having low confidence relative to White respondents, 2.39 [1.58-3.61], 2.04 [1.58-2.64], and 1.85 [1.51-2.27], respectively); less trust in companies making the vaccine (aOR [95% CI] for Black, Latinx, and Asian respondents having low trust relative to White respondents, 3.08 [2.00-4.73], 1.85 [1.38-2.48], and 1.34 [1.04-1.72], respectively); and more worry that government rushed the approval process (aOR [95% CI] for Black, Latinx, and Asian respondents relative to White respondents, 2.10 [1.44-3.05], 1.68 [1.34-2.10], and 1.81 [1.53-2.15], respectively).

Discussion

In this survey study including a diversity of racial/ethnic groups, occupational immersion in a health care setting did not offset disparities in COVID-19 vaccination intentions. We found that Asian individuals, multiracial individuals, and those of other races were more similar to Black and Latinx individuals than White individuals in their likeliness of vaccine uptake. Limitations of this study include that the sample was drawn from people sufficiently concerned about their risk of COVID-19 and trusting of research to volunteer for a study involving repeated COVID-19 testing and the survey not including additional domains, such as perceived access, that might influence reported likeliness of vaccine uptake. However, it is striking that even among individuals motivated to participate in a longitudinal COVID-19 testing study, there were racial/ethnic differences in COVID-19 vaccination intentions and concerns about the vaccine.

Black, Latinx, Asian, and Native American communities have borne a disproportionate toll of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US⁴; inequities in vaccination would compound these disparities. Our survey was fielded at the time of the first emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccines in the US. Vaccination rollout since then has revealed barriers to accessing vaccination among historically marginalized populations who are highly motivated to be vaccinated.⁵ Vaccination intentions must be understood as a deliberative and dynamic process; a focus on intentions must not distract from the importance of ensuring equitable access to vaccination.⁵ Special effort is required to reach historically marginalized populations, including those in health occupations, to support informed vaccination decision-making and facilitate access. Efforts must acknowledge a history of racism that has degraded the trustworthiness of health and medical science institutions among historically marginalized populations,⁶ undermined confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, and perpetuated inequitable access to care.

Article Information

Accepted for Publication: March 6, 2021.

Published Online: March 30, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.1445

Corresponding Author: Kevin Grumbach, MD, San Francisco General Hospital, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 1001 Potrero Ave, Ward 83, Room 310, San Francisco, CA 94110 (kevin.grumbach@ucsf.edu).

Salt substitution -- an effective way to reduce blood pressure in rural India

AND GLOBALLY

GEORGE INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH

Research News

Replacing regular common salt consumed by hypertensive patients in rural areas with a salt substitute can have a significant impact in terms of lowering their blood pressure, a new study by The George Institute for Global Health has revealed.

Researchers found that substituting a small part of the sodium in salt with potassium without altering the taste led to a substantial reduction in systolic blood pressure in these patients, supporting salt substitution as an effective, low-cost intervention for lowering blood pressure in rural India.

The study entitled "Effects of reduced-sodium added-potassium salt substitute on blood pressure in rural Indian hypertensive patients: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial" provides the first-of-its-kind evidence from rural India on the effectiveness of a salt substitute and has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Excess salt intake causes high blood pressure, a leading risk for cardiovascular disease. Almost all adult populations worldwide consume more than the recommended level of salt including those living in rural India, where average salt intake is nearly double the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations of less than 5 g/day (2 g/day sodium).

"A large proportion of dietary salt in India comes from salt added to food cooked at home, but whether reduced-sodium salt substitutes can help to lower blood pressure had not been tested thus far," said Dr Jie Yu, Research Fellow, Cardiovascular Program, The George Institute and lead author of the study. "Our study is the first to show that salt substitutes could make a real difference in these communities."

"The study was conducted in the Siddipet region of Telangana State, and 502 participants with hypertension from 7 villages were enrolled," She added, "Participants were randomized to receive either regular salt (100% sodium chloride) or the salt substitute (70% sodium chloride/30% potassium chloride blend) and advised to replace all home salt use with the substitute."

The primary outcome was the change in systolic blood pressure from baseline to 3 months in the salt substitute group compared to the regular salt groups. Secondary outcomes included the change in diastolic blood pressure, 24-hour urinary biomarkers, and self-reported use and satisfaction with the study salts provided.

"At 3 months, the salt substitute intervention significantly decreased average systolic blood pressure by about 4.6 units, an effect comparable to some commonly prescribed anti-hypertensive medications," said Sudhir Raj Thout, Research Fellow, The George Institute India, the study co-author who led the study's field operations.

"There was also a significant increase in the amount of potassium consumed in the salt substitute group. Participants reported that they used the study salt nearly every day of the week and rated the taste of the study salts similarly, indicating that the reduced-sodium salt substitutes are acceptable for home cooking for our study participants." he added.

The findings have policy implications. "Our data suggest that using reduced-sodium, added-potassium salt substitute to replace regular salt for home cooking will likely be an effective and scalable intervention for blood pressure control in rural India," said Jason Wu, Associate Professor and Scientia Fellow at The George Institute, and supervisor of the study.

"As none of the participants were aware of the existence of reduced-sodium salt at the beginning of the study, this suggests policymakers should consider supporting increased access to, and education about the use of such salt substitutes for hypertensive patients in India."

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON SCIENCE

The egg in the X-ray beam

Innovative time-resolved method reveals network formation by and dynamics of proteins

DEUTSCHES ELEKTRONEN-SYNCHROTRON DESY

Research News

IMAGE: WHEN HEATED, THE PROTEINS IN THE ORIGINALLY TRANSPARENT CHICKEN EGG WHITE FORM A TIGHTLY MESHED, OPAQUE NETWORK. view more
CREDIT: CREDIT: DESY, GESINE BORN

A team of scientists has been using DESY's X-ray source PETRA III to analyse the structural changes that take place in an egg when you cook it. The work reveals how the proteins in the white of a chicken egg unfold and cross-link with each other to form a solid structure when heated. Their innovative method can be of interest to the food industry as well as to the broad field of research surrounding protein analysis. The cooperation of two groups, headed by Frank Schreiber from the University of Tübingen and Christian Gutt from the University of Siegen, with scientists at DESY and European XFEL reports the research in two articles in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Eggs are among the most versatile food ingredients. They can take the form of a gel or a foam, they can be comparatively solid and also serve as the basis for emulsions. At about 80 degrees Celsius, egg white becomes solid and opaque. This is because the proteins in the egg white form a network structure. Studying the exact molecular structure of egg white calls for energetic radiation, such as X-rays, which is able to penetrate the opaque egg white and has a wavelength that is no longer than the structures being examined.

"To understand the structural evolution in detail, you have to study the phenomenon on the micrometre scale," explains Nafisa Begam, the lead author of the first study, who is an Alexander von Humboldt fellow in Schreiber's group. The scientists used so-called X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) with a specific geometry allowing them to determine the structure and the dynamics of the proteins in the egg white.

For their experiments on the P10 beamline at PETRA III the scientists used a chicken egg from a supermarket and filled the egg white into a quartz tube with a diameter of 1.5 millimetres. "Inside, the egg white was heated in a controlled manner while we analysed it with the help of the X-rays," explains DESY co-author Fabian Westermeier. "The X-ray beam was expanded to 0.1 by 0.1 millimetres, to keep the radiation dose below the damage threshold of the protein structures."

The measurements reveal the protein dynamics in the egg white over a period of about a quarter of an hour. During the first three minutes, the protein network grew exponentially, reaching a plateau after about five minutes, at which virtually no more protein links were formed. At this time, the average mesh size of the protein network was about 0.4 micrometres (thousandths of a millimetre).

In the second study, the team used the XPCS technique to investigate the self-organisation of protein solutions into domains with, respectively, high and low protein concentration, as an example of structure formation in cell biology. In the process, they were able to follow the temperature-dependent dynamics over time. "At high protein densities, mobility decreases, which slows down the phase separation. This is important for the special dynamics of the system," reports lead author Anita Girelli from Schreiber's group.

The studies, which were funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), not only reveal new details about the structural changes occurring in egg whites, but also prove the experimental concept, which can be used for other samples too, as demonstrated by the second study. "Successfully applying X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy opens up a new way to study the dynamics of biomolecules, which is essential if we are to understand them properly," Schreiber comments.

DESY is one of the world's leading particle accelerator centres and investigates the structure and function of matter - from the interaction of tiny elementary particles and the behaviour of novel nanomaterials and vital biomolecules to the great mysteries of the universe. The particle accelerators and detectors that DESY develops and builds at its locations in Hamburg and Zeuthen are unique research tools. They generate the most intense X-ray radiation in the world, accelerate particles to record energies and open up new windows onto the universe. DESY is a member of the Helmholtz Association, Germany's largest scientific association, and receives its funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (90 per cent) and the German federal states of Hamburg and Brandenburg (10 per cent).

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References:

Kinetics of Network Formation and Heterogeneous Dynamics of an Egg White Gel Revealed by Coherent X-Ray Scattering; Nafisa Begam, Anastasia Ragulskaya, Anita Girelli, Hendrik Rahmann, Sivasurender Chandran, Fabian Westermeier, Mario Reiser, Michael Sprung, Fajun Zhang, Christian Gutt, and Frank Schreiber; Physical Review Letters, 2021; DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.098001

Microscopic dynamics of liquid-liquid phase separation and domain coarsening in a protein solution revealed by XPCS; Anita Girelli, Hendrik Rahmann, Nafisa Begam, Anastasia Ragulskaya, Mario Reiser, Sivasurender Chandran, Fabian Westermeier, Michael Sprung, Fajun Zhang, Christian Gutt, and Frank Schreiber; Physical Review Letters, 2021 (accepted; in pri

Russian biologists discover a

transmissible cancer lineage in the

Far Eastern mussels

The disease can have an adverse effect on the populations of these molluscs, which are extensively farmed in Russia.

ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

IMAGE: CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY IMAGES OF HAEMOCYTES OF A DN-SUGGESTED MUSSEL (J54) STAINED WITH DAPI (BLUE) AND TRITC-LABELLED PHALLOIDIN (RED). IMAGES (A, B) ARE AT TWO DIFFERENT MAGNIFICATIONS (NOTE THE SCALE BARS).... view more
CREDIT: SPBU

'A transmissible cancer was first discovered in dogs in the middle of the 19th century. It is transmitted sexually from a sick dog to a healthy one, the cancer cells themselves being the infective agent. In the 1990s, a contagious cancer was discovered in the Tasmanian devil. Since the cancer was found in only two species of mammals, scientists used to think that it is quite rare in the nature. However, time has come to reconsider this view. A transmissible cancer appears to be fairly widespread among bivalve molluscs,' says Maria Skazina, a research associate at the Department of Applied Ecology at St Petersburg University and the first author of the publication in Scientific Reports.

Disseminated neoplasia (DN) is a large-scale, fatal cancer disease of bivalve molluscs, which can be compared to leukemia in vertebrates. Diseased mussels have cancer cells, which circulate in the hemolymph, a functional analogue of blood. As neoplasia develops, they infiltrate all tissues and organs, disrupting their work.

The causes of this disease were described for the first time in 2016 in an article published by a group of scientists under the leadership of by Michael Metzger in Nature. The authors showed that disseminated neoplasia was a transmissible cancer lineage. Its cells have their own genotype, different from those of the molluscan hosts. In a way, they are parasites transmitted from sick individuals to healthy ones.

'A study proposing a mechanism of the transfer of cancer cells between individuals was published last year. When the mussel is under stress, the cells of its haemolymph can leave the body, exist for some time in the environment and then invade other mussels. This process has been observed in healthy molluscs. Cancer cells, it would seem, might use this mechanism too,' says Maria Skazina. 'However, this is only a hypothesis. To test it, sophisticated experimental research is necessary'.

Mussels Mytilus are important commercial invertebrates. Two genetic lineages of transmissible cancer are known in them: BTN1 and BTN2 (BTN stands for bivalve transmissible neoplasia). Both of them originated from the Pacific mussel Mytilus trossulus, which is also found in the Far Eastern and Northern seas of Russia.

'So far, BTN1 lineage has been found in a single mussel population at the Pacific coast of North America. BTN2 is much more widespread. Before our research, it had been found in several mussel species in Europe and South America, though not in the parental species Mytilus trossulus,' says Maria Skazina.

In 2019, marine biologists from St Petersburg University, A.V. Zhirmunsky National Research Centre of Marine Biology, and the University of Helsinki joined forces to search for transmissible cancer lineages in the mussels of the Russian seas. To diagnose the disease, they developed an integrated approach, which included cytological and molecular genetic tests, and applied it to the mussels Mytilus trossulus from the Sea of Japan, in which disseminated neoplasia had been previously shown.

In the haemolymph of molluscs from the Gaydamak Bay near the port city of Nakhodka, flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry methods revealed neoplastic cells. They are large, have polyploid nuclei and an abnormal cytoskeleton resembling the spines of a bristling hedgehog. Genotyping of the haemolymph and other tissues by nuclear and mitochondrial characteristics revealed genetic 'chimerism' of the sick mussels, that is, the presence of more than one individual genotype. Multiple alleles (different forms of the same gene that determine the development of a particular trait) were separated by molecular cloning. All diseased mussels were found to have 'additional' genotypes corresponding to BTN2. This means that the scientists from St Petersburg University and their colleagues proved, for the first time, the presence of BTN2 in Mytilus trossulus as well as the presence of transmittable cancer in mussels from the Sea of Japan and the Northwest Pacific.

At the next stage of the research, the scientists used molecular phylogenetic methods to compare the sequences of the mitochondrial BTN genes obtained by them with all the homologous sequences of the mussels themselves stored in the NCBI genetic bank. It turned out that the mitochondria of BTN2 are most similar to those of Mytilus trossulus from the Russian seas. It was probably there that 'patient zero' lived, the mussel that 'gave birth' to this transmissible cancer.

The Baltic Sea mussels were also shown to have BTN2. In 2014, Polish biologists found an unusual mitochondrial genotype in a Baltic mussel, which they interpreted as the genotype of Mytilus trossulus. It is now clear that this was not a mussel genotype, but a BTN2 genotype. It appears that the transmissible cancer that the scientists were looking for in the Far East could be found much closer to St Petersburg. Whether this disease is common among the molluscs of the Baltic Sea remains to be found out.

'This disease is so virulent for invertebrates because they do not have a developed immune system that can reliably distinguish alien cells from their own. Transmissible cancer of molluscs cannot harm humans in any way. However, the disease can be detrimental for the mussel marine culture. We do not yet know how widespread transmissible cancer is among mussels in Russia,' says Maria Skazina.

The scientists now continue to search for transmissible cancer in mussels in different seas of Russia. Preliminary evidence suggests that it is found not only in mussels in the Sea of Japan and the Baltic Sea and that its diversity is not limited to BTN2 lineage. They are also developing a method for rapid diagnosis of the disease in order to monitor it in natural and commercial populations of molluscs.

'Hopefully, our work might be of help for comparative oncology. I think that mussels, as a research model, can tell a lot about the mechanisms of the spread of cancer in different species, including humans,' notes Maria Skazina.

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First interstellar comet may be the most pristine ever found

ESO

Research News

IMAGE: THIS IMAGE WAS TAKEN WITH THE FORS2 INSTRUMENT ON ESO'S VERY LARGE TELESCOPE IN LATE 2019, WHEN COMET 2I/BORISOV PASSED NEAR THE SUN. SINCE THE COMET WAS TRAVELLING AT BREAKNECK SPEED,... view more
CREDIT: ESO/O. HAINAUT

New observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) indicate that the rogue comet 2I/Borisov, which is only the second and most recently detected interstellar visitor to our Solar System, is one of the most pristine ever observed. Astronomers suspect that the comet most likely never passed close to a star, making it an undisturbed relic of the cloud of gas and dust it formed from.

2I/Borisov was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov in August 2019 and was confirmed to have come from beyond the Solar System a few weeks later. "2I/Borisov could represent the first truly pristine comet ever observed," says Stefano Bagnulo of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, Northern Ireland, UK, who led the new study published today in Nature Communications. The team believes that the comet had never passed close to any star before it flew by the Sun in 2019.

Bagnulo and his colleagues used the FORS2 instrument on ESO's VLT, located in northern Chile, to study 2I/Borisov in detail using a technique called polarimetry [1]. Since this technique is regularly used to study comets and other small bodies of our Solar System, this allowed the team to compare the interstellar visitor with our local comets.

The team found that 2I/Borisov has polarimetric properties distinct from those of Solar System comets, with the exception of Hale-Bopp. Comet Hale-Bopp received much public interest in the late 1990s as a result of being easily visible to the naked eye, and also because it was one of the most pristine comets astronomers had ever seen. Prior to its most recent passage, Hale-Bopp is thought to have passed by our Sun only once and had therefore barely been affected by solar wind and radiation. This means it was pristine, having a composition very similar to that of the cloud of gas and dust it -- and the rest of the Solar System -- formed from some 4.5 billion years ago.

By analysing the polarisation together with the colour of the comet to gather clues on its composition, the team concluded that 2I/Borisov is in fact even more pristine than Hale-Bopp. This means it carries untarnished signatures of the cloud of gas and dust it formed from.

"The fact that the two comets are remarkably similar suggests that the environment in which 2I/Borisov originated is not so different in composition from the environment in the early Solar System," says Alberto Cellino, a co-author of the study, from the Astrophysical Observatory of Torino, National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy.

Olivier Hainaut, an astronomer at ESO in Germany who studies comets and other near-Earth objects but was not involved in this new study, agrees. "The main result -- that 2I/Borisov is not like any other comet except Hale-Bopp -- is very strong," he says, adding that "it is very plausible they formed in very similar conditions."

"The arrival of 2I/Borisov from interstellar space represented the first opportunity to study the composition of a comet from another planetary system and check if the material that comes from this comet is somehow different from our native variety," explains Ludmilla Kolokolova, of the University of Maryland in the US, who was involved in the Nature Communications research.

Bagnulo hopes astronomers will have another, even better, opportunity to study a rogue comet in detail before the end of the decade. "ESA is planning to launch Comet Interceptor in 2029, which will have the capability of reaching another visiting interstellar object, if one on a suitable trajectory is discovered," he says, referring to an upcoming mission by the European Space Agency.

An origin story hidden in the dust

Even without a space mission, astronomers can use Earth's many telescopes to gain insight into the different properties of rogue comets like 2I/Borisov. "Imagine how lucky we were that a comet from a system light-years away simply took a trip to our doorstep by chance," says Bin Yang, an astronomer at ESO in Chile, who also took advantage of 2I/Borisov's passage through our Solar System to study this mysterious comet. Her team's results are published in Nature Astronomy.

Yang and her team used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, as well as from ESO's VLT, to study 2I/Borisov's dust grains to gather clues about the comet's birth and conditions in its home system.

They discovered that 2I/Borisov's coma -- an envelope of dust surrounding the main body of the comet -- contains compact pebbles, grains about one millimetre in size or larger. In addition, they found that the relative amounts of carbon monoxide and water in the comet changed drastically as it neared the Sun. The team, which also includes Olivier Hainaut, says this indicates that the comet is made up of materials that formed in different places in its planetary system.

The observations by Yang and her team suggest that matter in 2I/Borisov's planetary home was mixed from near its star to further out, perhaps because of the existence of giant planets, whose strong gravity stirs material in the system. Astronomers believe that a similar process occurred early in the life of our Solar System.

While 2I/Borisov was the first rogue comet to pass by the Sun, it was not the first interstellar visitor. The first interstellar object to have been observed passing by our Solar System was ?Oumuamua, another object studied with ESO's VLT back in 2017. Originally classified as a comet, ?Oumuamua was later reclassified as an asteroid as it lacked a coma.

Notes

[1] Polarimetry is a technique to measure the polarisation of light. Light becomes polarised, for example, when it goes through certain filters, like the lenses of polarised sunglasses or cometary material. By studying the properties of sunlight polarised by a comet's dust, researchers can gain insights into the physics and chemistry of comets.

More information

This research highlighted in the first part of this release was presented in the paper "Unusual polarimetric properties for interstellar comet 2I/Borisov" to appear in Nature Communications (doi: [10.1038/s41467-021-22000-x] - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22000-x ). The second part of the release highlights the study "Compact pebbles and the evolution of volatiles in the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov" to appear in Nature Astronomy (doi: [10.1038/s41550-021-01336-w] - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01336-w ).

The team who conducted the first study is composed of S. Bagnulo (Armagh Observatory & Planetarium, UK [Armagh]), A. Cellino (INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Italy), L. Kolokolova (Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, US), R. Ne�ič (Armagh; Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, UK; Centre for Planetary Science, University College London/Birkbeck, UK), T. Santana-Ros (Departamento de Fisica, Ingeniería de Sistemas y Teoría de la Señal, Universidad de Alicante, Spain; Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain), G. Borisov (Armagh; Institute of Astronomy and National Astronomical Observatory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria), A. A. Christou (Armagh), Ph. Bendjoya (Université Côte d'Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, Nice, France), and M. Devogele (Arecibo Observatory, University of Central Florida, US).

The team who conducted the second study is composed of Bin Yang (European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile [ESO Chile]), Aigen Li (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA), Martin A. Cordiner (Astrochemistry Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, USA and Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA), Chin-Shin Chang (Joint ALMA Observatory, Santiago, Chile [JAO]), Olivier R. Hainaut (European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany), Jonathan P. Williams (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, USA [IfA Hawai'i]), Karen J. Meech (IfA Hawai'i), Jacqueline V. Keane (IfA Hawai'i), and Eric Villard (JAO and ESO Chile).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world's largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

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Links

* Research papers:

* Bagnulo et. al, Nature Communications - https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2106/eso2106a.pdf

* Yang et. al, Nature Astronomy - https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2106/eso2106b.pdf

* Photos of the VLT - http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/

* Photos of the ALMA - https://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/alma/

Friends and enemies 'make sense' for long-lived animals

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

IMAGE: HYENAS ARE SLOW-LIVED AND HAVE COMPLEX SOCIAL STRUCTURES view more
CREDIT: DAVE HUDSON

It makes evolutionary sense for long-lived animals to have complex social relationships - such as friends and enemies - researchers say.

Some species and individuals focus their energy on reproduction (live fast, die young), while "slow-living" animals prioritise survival and tend to live longer lives.

In the new paper, University of Exeter scientists argue that natural selection favours complex social structures among slow-living animals - meaning that knowing their friends and enemies is easier for animals with longer lifespans, and helps them live even longer.

Meanwhile, fast-lived species should only bother with such social relationships if it increases their chances of reproduction.

"Slow-living species can afford to invest in social relationships, as they live long enough to enjoy the pay-offs," said Professor Dave Hodgson, Director of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"There is strong evidence that strong social bonds are beneficial for survival in slow-living species, including humans.

"We suggest there is a 'positive feedback' - certain social behaviours lead to a longer life, and longer lifespan promotes the development of social bonds."

Professor Hodgson said there is "growing evidence" that differentiated social relationships have a bigger positive effect on survival than on reproduction.

As a result, fast-lived species do not gain the same evolutionary advantages from social relationships as slow-lived species.

Examples of fast-living species could include shrews and crickets, while animals such as mongooses, badgers and hyenas, and indeed humans, have a slower "pace of life".

Pace of life measurements take body size into account. Larger animals tend to live longer, but pace of life can vary significantly in two species of similar size.

Dr Matthew Silk, also of the University of Exeter, said: "If we want to understand more about social relationships and lifespan, we need to think about the relationship between the two.

"More research is needed to explore the social structures of wild animals.

"This could help us understand the links between social bonds, survival and reproduction."

Professor Hodgson said: "Our proposal, that strong and weak social bonds will be more prevalent in slower-living animals, is theoretical.

"We know a lot about animal lifespans, but we know too little about the social structures of many types of animal.

"If we are right, then social bonds could really be key to longer life."

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The paper, published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, is entitled: "Differentiated social relationships and the pace-of-life-history."

The neural mechanism of a circulatory response to stress

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba discover a novel mechanism by which the brain regulates the cardiovascular system in response to stress

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Research News

Tsukuba, Japan - Although the heart beats autonomously, its function can be regulated by the brain in response to, for instance, stressful events. In a new study, researchers from the University of Tsukuba discovered a novel mechanism by which a specific part of the brain, the lateral habenula (LHb), regulates the cardiovascular system.

The cardiovascular system, specifically the heart and blood vessels, have a certain autonomy that allows them to function independently from the brain. In order for the individual to adapt to new, potentially threatening situations, the brain does have some regulatory power over the cardiovascular system. This is achieved by controlling the autonomic nervous system, which consists of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system. While the former has a stimulating effect on the cardiovascular system, including increasing the heart rate and blood pressure, the latter causes the opposite.

"From an evolutionary standpoint, the brain has had in incredibly important function in protecting the individual from predators," says lead author of the study Professor Tadachika Koganezawa. "But even in the absence of predators, our bodies react to stressful situations. In this study, we wanted to determine how the brain regulated the cardiovascular system via the autonomic nervous system."

To achieve their goal, the researchers focused on the LHb. Located deep within the brain, the LHb has been known to control behavioral responses to stressful events, and as such to elicit strong cardiovascular responses. However, the way in which it does so has remained unclear. To address this question, the researchers electrically stimulated the LHb in rats by inserting an electrode through the skull. Stimulation of the LHb resulted in bradycardia (low heart rate) and increased mean arterial pressure (MAP), which is a clinically useful parameter for assessing overall blood pressure.

To determine how the LHb interplays with the autonomic nervous system to regulate the cardiovascular system, the researchers then turned off the parasympathetic system by means of cutting the main parasympathetic nerve, the vagal nerve, or using a drug to antagonize it. While this suppressed the LHb's effect on the heart rate, it did not change the MAP. Antagonizing the sympathetic system did the opposite--it decreased the MAP but did not change the heart rate.

To understand the mechanism by which the LHb elicits these cardiovascular responses, the researchers focused on the neurotransmitter serotonin, which plays an important role in the brain in modulating mood, cognition, and memory, among other functions. While blocking all serotonin receptors significantly reduced the LHb's effect on both the MAP and heart rate, the researchers found that specific subtypes of serotonin receptors were particularly involved in the process.

"These are striking results that show how the lateral habenula controls the cardiovascular system. Our results demonstrate the mechanism of a neural circuit that plays an important role in stress-induced behavioral responses," says author of the study Professor Masayuki Matsumoto.

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The article, "Lateral habenula regulates cardiovascular autonomic responses via the serotonergic system in rats" was published in Frontiers in Neuroscience at https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.655617.

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