THE FULLER BRUSH MAN

Expressing variety of emotions earns

entrepreneurs funding

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

VANCOUVER, Wash. - Putting on a happy face might not be enough for entrepreneurs to win over potential investors.

Despite perceptions that entrepreneurs should always be positive about their ventures, a study led by a Washington State University researcher found that entrepreneurs whose facial expressions moved through a mix of happiness, anger and fear during funding pitches were more successful.

"Our findings show that there's a role for different emotions in pitches," said Ben Warnick, WSU assistant professor in WSU's Carson College of Business and lead author on the study published in the Journal of Business Venturing. "For example, an angry facial expression can convey how much you care about something, instead of just smiling, which on the extreme end can come off as insincere or overoptimistic. It's good to balance that out. There are different reasons for using different expressions."

While previous research--and advice for entrepreneurs--has focused on using happy or positive attitudes in pitches, Warnick and his co-authors looked at several emotions: happiness, anger, fear and sadness.

For the study, the researchers analyzed nearly 500 pitch videos from the online crowdfunding site, Kickstarter. They used facial analysis software to code the presenters' facial expressions for the four emotions as well as neutral expressions for every frame of each video. They measured the percentage of the pitch that the entrepreneurs expressed each emotion. Then, they compared the display of these emotional expressions with the ultimate success of the pitch by three measures: whether the entrepreneurs met their stated fundraising goal, total amount raised and how many people contributed.

The study showed that those who used a variety of three emotional expressions--happiness, anger and fear--had the most fundraising success. The only emotion that had a negative effect on funding was sadness.

In a qualitative analysis, the authors found that many successful entrepreneurs used different emotional expressions at different points in the pitch. For instance, many entrepreneurs would start their pitch in a happy way, introducing themselves and talking about how proud they are of their team. They would then use anger to talk about their determination or the problem they were trying to address. When the entrepreneurs talked about obstacles, the risk they were taking or need for resources, they would often use facial expressions conveying fear.

In contrast, people who expressed very little emotion on their faces did not do well in garnering funds even if the words they were saying were compelling. Entrepreneurs who stuck to just one emotion also did not do as well.

Yet there were limits to the use of emotion in pitches, even if it was varied.

"There's a Goldilocks point where you can have too little or too much," said Warnick. "Expressing happiness, anger and fear all promote funding up to a point. But if you express any one of these emotions too frequently, you're hurting your funding prospects."

This study only looked at the use of facial expressions. Warnick suggested that further research might look into other channels of expression or at the connection between what people actually feel and what they express, as the two don't always align.

"Some people might be very expressive, where what they're feeling on the inside shows quite readily to other people," said Warnick. "Others might be engaging in impression management, in other words, faking it."

Study: New York City nurses experienced anxiety, depression during first wave of COVID-19

Research highlights how hospitals can support nurses during public health crises to protect their mental health

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

New York nurses caring for COVID-19 patients during the first wave of the pandemic experienced anxiety, depression, and illness--but steps their hospitals took to protect them and support from their coworkers helped buffer against the stressful conditions, according to a study led by researchers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

"A critical part of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic should be supporting the mental health of our frontline workers. Our study demonstrates that institutional resources--such as supportive staff relationships, professional development, providing temporary housing, and access to personal protective equipment--were associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression among nurses," said Christine T. Kovner, RN, PhD, the Mathey Mezey Professor of Geriatric Nursing at NYU Meyers and the study's lead author.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained health systems around the world. The public health crisis has subjected nurses--the largest group of healthcare professionals responding to the pandemic--and other frontline workers to situations of unparalleled stress, as routine roles and responsibilities were disrupted. Not only have nurses worked tirelessly to care for very ill patients, many of whom died, but they themselves have been at risk of exposure to a life-threatening disease and worry about bringing it home to their loved ones.

Research shows that nurses responding to disasters can experience anxiety and depression, but a variety of factors--both personal and in the workplace--can help nurses cope with, adapt to, and recover from stressful conditions. This study, published in Nursing Outlook, examined what factors helped nurses responding to COVID-19 thrive and what factors may have challenged their mental health.

Kovner and her colleagues surveyed 2,495 nurses across four hospitals in the New York City area that are part of NYU Langone Health. This study was conducted from May through July 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic.

Key findings include:

Anxiety and depression were common among nurses during COVID-19's first wave.

• Roughly 27 percent of nurses surveyed reported anxiety and 17 percent reported depression.
• The more that nurses cared for patients with COVID-19, the higher their depression and anxiety.
• Younger nurses were more likely to be anxious and depressed than were older nurses.
• Nurses working in intensive care units were more likely to be depressed than were those in other settings.

Workplace support protected nurses' wellbeing.

• When asked what helped the nurses to carry out their care of patients, the most common responses were coworker support (75 percent), followed by support from family and friends (58 percent).
• More than half of the respondents were assigned to a new unit as part of their hospital's response to the pandemic. Of those, 77 percent felt that they had received sufficient support from staff at the new unit.
• Less anxiety and depression were associated with more support in the workplace, better physician-nurse work relations, and access to hospital resources (e.g., adequate personal protective equipment, or PPE). Anxiety and depression were higher among those with more organizational constraints.

Nurses experienced COVID-19's impact not only at work, but in their personal and home lives as well.

• Thirteen percent of nurses reported having contracted COVID-19 and 24 percent had family or a close friend with the illness.
• Almost half of the nurses surveyed had to self-isolate and nearly one in five lived in temporary housing provided by the hospital.
• Conflict between work and home responsibilities was linked to higher levels of depression and anxiety; residing in temporary housing was linked to lower depression and anxiety.

Nurses valued professional development and training tailored to the pandemic.

• Training in the proper donning, doffing, and disposal of PPE was one of the top factors the majority of nurses identified as helping them care for patients with COVID-19.
• Having a sense of mastery at work was the most protective factor against depression and anxiety.
• Prior education and experience did not necessarily translate to a pandemic with a novel virus: 24 percent of nurses had prior experience with epidemics, and only 23 percent reported that their nursing education was helpful in caring for COVID-19 patients.

"Hospitals can play a role in building and sustaining resiliency in their workforces by understanding the triggers that contribute to stress, depression, and anxiety, and by developing resources to minimize these factors, particularly during crises," said Kovner.

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In addition to Kovner, study authors include Victoria H. Raveis of NYU College of Dentistry; Nancy Van Devanter, Gary Yu, and Kimberly Glassman of NYU Meyers; and Laura Jean Ridge of the University of Michigan School of Nursing. The research was supported by NYU Langone Health.

About NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (@NYUNursing)

NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing and health. Founded in 1932, the College offers B.S., M.S., DNP and Ph.D. degree programs providing the educational foundation to prepare the next generation of nursing leaders and researchers. NYU Meyers has several programs that are highly ranked by U.S. News & World Report and is among the top 10 nursing schools receiving NIH funding, thanks to its research mission and commitment to innovative approaches to health care worldwide.

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Show me your playlist and I'll tell you who you are

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

Research News

According to the researchers, three songs from a playlist are enough to identify the person who chose the songs. Hence, companies like YouTube and Spotify can accumulate a great deal of information about their users based only on their musical preferences.

The study was led by Dr. Ori Leshman of the Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education at Tel Aviv University and Dr. Ron Hirschprung of the Department of Management and Industrial Engineering at Ariel University. The study was published in the journal Telematics and Informatics.

The study included about 150 young people (all undergraduate students), in 4 groups of about 35 people each. Participants were asked to identify group members based on only three songs from their favorite playlist. The variety of the students' musical preferences was wide and very diverse, including, for example, both old and new Israeli music (from Sasha Argov to Kaveret, Zohar Argov, Omer Adam and Hanan Ben Ari), classic rock and pop (from the Beatles and Pink Floyd to Beyonce and Ariana Grande), Israeli and international hip hop (from Kendrick Lamar and Eminem to Hadag Nahash and Tuna) and more. The analysis of the choices was carried out according to a mathematical model developed by the scholars.

The findings surprised even the researchers. The analysis of the data showed that the group members were able to identify the study participants according to their musical taste at a very high level of between 80 and 100%, even though the group members did not know each other well and had no prior knowledge of each other's musical preferences.

Dr. Leshman and Dr. Hirschprung explain: "Music can become a form of characterization, and even an identifier. It provides commercial companies like Google and Spotify with additional and more in-depth information about us as users of these platforms. In the digital world we live in today, these findings have far-reaching implications on privacy violations, especially since information about people can be inferred from a completely unexpected source, which is therefore lacking in protection against such violations. Visiting YouTube is perceived by the ordinary person as an innocuous act, but this study shows that it can reveal a lot about that person. On the other hand, this knowledge can be used as a bridge between people and perhaps in the future lead to the creation of new diagnostic methods and fascinating intervention programs that will make use of people's favorite music."

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This study was made available online in January 2021 ahead of final publication in issue in June 2021.

Socioeconomic deprivation modifies genetic influence on higher education

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY

Research News

A comprehensive study from Uppsala University demonstrates that socioeconomic deprivation modifies genetic effects on higher education and abstract reasoning. The paper illustrates how genes play a greater role in educational attainment in more socioeconomically deprived regions of the United Kingdom. The study was recently published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Education is an important factor in an individual's life and strongly linked to economic outcomes and quality of life. The likelihood of completing higher education is partly determined by genetic factors. Common genetic variants have previously been estimated to contribute 11-13% of the variance in whether an individual completes higher education. This heritability is an estimate of how much a trait is influenced by genes.

In the current study, scientists at Uppsala University assessed the heritability of higher educational attainment and performance on a verbal and numerical reasoning test. Heritability was compared across the socioeconomic spectrum in more than 350,000 participants in the UK Biobank cohort.

The researchers found that common genetic variants contributed 13% of the variance in the least socioeconomically deprived, but almost 26% in the most deprived. "We were surprised to find that the heritability was higher in participants from more socioeconomically deprived regions of the UK. This is the opposite of what previous twin studies have found," says the lead author of the study, Dr Mathias Rask-Andersen. This type of difference in heritability across the socioeconomic spectrum is likely to represent an interaction between genes and the environment, where socioeconomic deprivation modifies genetic effects.

Previous studies in the field have mainly been performed in small twin cohorts from the United States. According to Dr Rask-Andersen, the contrasting results of the current study indicate that national differences may influence genetic effects. For instance, differences in access to and quality of education across the socioeconomic spectrum may play an important role, as well as welfare support systems and healthcare.

The current study illustrates how the environment determines how an individual's genetic makeup is propagated. "More and more studies demonstrate that environmental factors influence genetic effects," explains Dr Åsa Johansson, group leader at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University. "We have previously seen similar gene-environment interactions for other traits, such as body mass index, and it is likely that interactions also exist for many human diseases."

In the long run, gene-environment interactions offer an additional layer of information on the contribution of genetics to human traits and diseases. Identifying these interactions can potentially lead to more precise forms of interventions, not only for preventing and treating disease, but also for increasing the likelihood of successful educational outcomes.

The results from this study also have implications for notions of equality of outcome and opportunity. "The larger influence of genetic factors in more socioeconomically deprived regions could reflect greater challenges for higher education in these regions," says Dr Rask-Andersen. "Someone who is more vulnerable due to genetic factors would then face even greater challenges in a more socioeconomically deprived region."

How the study was conducted:

UK Biobank is a cross-sectional cohort of almost half a million UK residents aged 40-70 years old who were recruited in 2006-2010. Participants answered extensive questionnaires and were tested for abstract verbal and numerical reasoning. Educational attainment was determined from the self-reported professional qualifications of each participant. The level of socioeconomic deprivation for each participant was assessed from census data. Each participant was thus assigned a score for socioeconomic deprivation based on their place of residence. Each participant was genotyped and the effects of genetic variants on educational attainment and abstract reasoning were determined by association tests, providing an estimate of the effect of each genetic variant on educational attainment and abstract reasoning. The researchers divided the cohort into five quintiles based on socioeconomic deprivation and performed association tests in each quintile. The heritability in each quintile was then estimated by examining how much the genetic effects contributed to the outcomes. The researchers then compared heritabilities between quintiles.

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Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsibl

How can we stop humankind from stagnating?

UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER

Research News

 

IMAGE: ALAN TURING'S THEORY OF PATTERN FORMATION MAY EXPLAIN HUMAN POPULATION DISTRIBUTION ACROSS THE WORLD. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER

Fast growth of the global human population has long been regarded as a major challenge that faces mankind. Presently, this challenge is becoming even more serious than before, in particular because many natural resources are estimated to deplete before the end of this century.

The increasing population pressure on agriculture and ecosystems and the environment more generally is predicted to result in worldwide food and water shortages, pollution, lack of housing, poverty and social tension. The situation is exacerbated by global climate change as considerable areas of land are predicted to be flooded and hence taken out of human's use.

It is widely believed that, unless alternative scenarios of sustainable population growth and social development are identified and implemented, mankind is likely to experience stagnation or even decline.

Population growth in time is complemented with the population dynamics in space. Population distribution over space is hugely heterogeneous for a variety of reasons, to mention the climate, the history and the economy just as a few. The spatial heterogeneity may result in significant migration flows that in turn can have a significant feedback on the local demography and the population growth.

On a smaller scale of individual countries and states, understanding of the factors affecting the population distribution in space is needed to ensure adequate development of infrastructure, transport and energy network.

Poorly informed decisions are likely to result in overcrowding and social problems in urban areas and/or lower quality of life in rural neighbourhoods. Identification of scenarios of sustainable population growth and social development on various spatial and temporal scales requires good understanding of the relevant processes and mechanisms that affect both the population growth and the population distribution. Arguably, such understanding is unlikely to be achieved without a well-developed theory and the corresponding mathematical/modelling framework.

Indeed, mathematical models of human population dynamics has a long history dating back to the seventeenth century. Over the last few decades, the need for an adequate and efficient mathematical theory of the human population dynamics has been reflected by a steady growth in the number of studies where problems of demography along with related issues of economy were considered using mathematical models, tools and techniques.

In our recent paper, we use mathematical modelling to address the phenomenon of heterogeneous spatial population distribution. Heterogeneity of geographical features (mountains, forests, rivers, etc.) and natural resources (e.g. coal, iron and copper ore) are commonly accepted as factors leading to the demographic and economic heterogeneity.

Here we ask a question: is this natural heterogeneity the only underlying cause, or can there be another and perhaps more general principle responsible for emergence of heterogeneous population distribution? In order to answer this question, we first revisit available data on the population density over a few areas in different parts of the world to show that, in all cases considered, the population distribution exhibits a clear nearly periodic spatial pattern in spite of the fact that the environmental conditions are relatively uniform. Being inspired by this finding, we then consider a novel model of coupled economic-demographic dynamics in space and time and endeavour to use it to simulate the spatial population distribution. The model consists of two coupled partial-differential equations of reaction- diffusion type.

Following a similar modelling approaches that was successfully used in ecology and biology we then show that the emergence of spatial patterns in our model appears to be possible as a result of Turing instability.

Although it is not our goal to provide any direct comparison between the real-world demographic patterns and the model properties, we regard the qualitative agreement between the model predictions and the data on the human population density as an indication that the heterogeneous population distribution observed across different countries in different continents may, at least in some cases, have been caused by endogenous rather than exogenous factors, i.e. may have appeared due to intrinsic Turing instability of the corresponding economic-demographic dynamical system.

In many countries, the population distribution over space is distinctly heterogeneous, e.g. urbanized areas with a high population density alternate with rural areas with a low population density. Apparently, spatial variation in geographical and climatic factors can play a significant role in shaping the population distribution.

Our main hypothesis in our paper is the existence of a dynamical mechanism that may lead to the formation of heterogeneous population distribution regardless of the geographical heterogeneity. In our search for the real-world examples we focus on the cases where the environment may be regarded, up to a certain spatial scale, as relatively uniform. The environmental properties that we consider here as proxies for the environmental heterogeneity are the elevation, the annual mean temperature and the annual mean precipitation.

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May Day: How electricity brought power

to strikes

LUND UNIVERSITY

"ELECTRICITY PLUS STATE CAPITALISM = SOCIALISM", V.I. LENIN

Research News

 

Areas in Sweden with early access to electricity at the start of the 1900s underwent rapid change. Electrification led to more strikes, but it was not those who were threatened by the new technology who protested. Instead, it was the professional groups who had acquired a stronger negotiating position - thanks to technological development, according to new research from Lund University.

Labour market conditions are affected by new technology. Currently, the impact of automation on the labour market is often discussed, whether jobs will disappear as computers take over, or whether digitalisation drives development towards a gig economy with uncertain employment conditions. One fear is that the technological development could generate social unrest and a risk of increased conflict in society.

The ongoing automation shares many similarities with historical technological changes, such as the advent of electricity in the early 1900s. In a study recently published in the renowned Journal of Economic History, researchers Jakob Molinder, Tobias Karlsson and Kerstin Enflo show that areas in Sweden with early access to electricity from the national grid changed rapidly as a result of the new technology.

However, unlike what is feared today, the researchers show that jobs did not disappear. Demand for labour was certainly affected: in agriculture, many jobs were replaced by machines, but the need for a new labour force in other sectors more than compensated for the loss.

"Industry and service sector workers with some training and experience were particularly in demand, such as lathe operators in the manufacturing industry or electricians in construction," says Tobias Karlsson, one of the researchers behind the recently published study.

The rapid structural transformation led to conflicts in the labour market. The researchers have digitised data covering over 8 000 strikes and lockouts which took place in locations around the country between 1859 and 1938.

"The opportunity to examine where the strikes occurred provides new perspectives. By linking this data to information about the extension of the electrical grid, we can investigate the effects of the new technology on the labour market," says Jakob Molinder. The researchers also gathered information about the causes of the strikes. The data surprised them:

"Because electrification meant that many jobs could be carried out by machines instead of human power, we thought that at least some of the conflicts would be about resistance to new machinery. However, when we went through the triggers for the Swedish strikes, we noted that almost no strikes were ascribed to technological change," says Kerstin Enflo.

The strikes were mostly about wage increases, and among professional groups who, thanks to the new technology, had acquired a stronger negotiating position.

"This pattern reminds us how strong professional groups in strategic negotiating positions, such as pilots and port workers, use the weapon of strikes today", concludes Tobias Karlsson.

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Christmas Eve coke works fire followed by asthma exacerbations

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Research News

 

PITTSBURGH, April 28, 2021 - Asthma exacerbations rose following a catastrophic Christmas Eve fire two years ago that destroyed pollution controls at the Clairton Coke Works--the largest such facility in the nation, a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health analysis concludes.

The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, was possible because of a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Asthma and Environmental Lung Health Institute at UPMC and the Allegheny County Health Department, with funding from The Heinz Endowments.

"In addition to verifying that people living within a 10-mile radius of the coke works had higher rates of asthma exacerbations and use of albuterol rescue medication than those living outside the radius, we learned that nearly half of the people with asthma closest to the fire were unaware of the pollution problem and, therefore, unable to take steps to avoid exposure," said lead author Brandy Byrwa-Hill, M.S., a Ph.D. student in Pitt Public Health's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.

The Clairton Coke Works is located in a suburb south of Pittsburgh and produces highly refined coal, or "coke," which is used as fuel in the manufacture of steel. Creating coke results in several air pollutants, which are minimized through the plant's pollution controls. On Dec. 24, 2018, a fire destroyed the pollution controls, and, for 102 days, the plant emitted sulfur dioxide at levels 25 times greater than typical emissions.

Byrwa-Hill and the Pitt Public Health team used the Pitt Asthma Institute Research (AIR) registry to quickly collect information from 39 asthma patients living within 10 miles of the coke works and 44 patients living beyond that radius in the six weeks after the fire.

During the pollution control breach, participants who lived closest to the plant had an 80% increased risk of worsened asthma symptoms compared with those furthest from the plant. The difference normalized after the plant was repaired.

Despite news reports and alerts from the Allegheny County Health Department urging people with certain health conditions to take precautions, 44% of the participants were unaware of the excessive pollution.

"When we asked the participants if they would want to know about an environmental disaster, of course they said they would," said senior author James Fabisiak, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental and occupational health and director of the Center of Health Environments and Communities at Pitt Public Health. "Our study reveals that there is a need for a more robust notification system that uses many modes of communication so people can make informed, timely decisions to protect their health."

In addition, the study highlighted the benefit of having a pre-existing registry of well-characterized, geographically identified asthma patients willing to participate in research, said co-senior author Sally Wenzel, M.D., chair of Pitt Public Health's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.

"I'd encourage any city or county that is home to a significant point source of air pollution to create a similar registry," said Wenzel, who also directs Pitt's Asthma and Environmental Lung Health Institute at UPMC. "People with asthma are particularly sensitive to air pollution, and their experience can be informative to all of us when it comes to maintaining healthy air quality."

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Albert Presto, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, was a coauthor of the study.

This research was funded by National Institutes of Health grants P01 AI106684-01A1, R01 AI 145406-01A1, The Heinz Endowments grant E4820 and the Dellenback Funds.

To read this release online or share it, visit https://www.upmc.com/media/news/042821-hill-sw-coke-fire-asthma-jaci.

About the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health

The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, founded in 1948 and now one of the top-ranked schools of public health in the United States, conducts research on public health and medical care that improves the lives of millions of people around the world. Pitt Public Health is a leader in devising new methods to prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases, HIV/AIDS, cancer and other important public health problems. For more information about Pitt Public Health, visit the school's Web site at http://www.publichealth.pitt.edu.

http://www.upmc.com/media

POSTMODERN ALCHEMY; SPAGYRICS

A minty-fresh solution: Using a menthol-like compound to activate plant immune mechanisms

A menthol-like compound was found to boost the expression of genes that protect crop species from pest-related damage

TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE

Research News

 

IMAGE: REDUCTION OF INSECT-CAUSED LEAF DAMAGE BY MENT-VAL EXPOSURE view more 

CREDIT: TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE

Although plants may look fairly inactive to casual observers, research into plant biology has shown that plants can send each other signals concerning threats in their local environments. These signals take the form of airborne chemicals, called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), released from one plant and detected by another, and plant biologists have found that a diverse class of chemicals called terpenoids play a major role as airborne danger signals.

Past studies have shown that soybean and lima bean plants both release terpenoid signals that activate defense-related genes in neighboring plants of the same species, and this chemically induced gene activation can help the plants protect themselves from threats like herbivorous pests.

In recent years, scientists have realized that the capacity of these chemical signals to boost plant defense mechanisms could make them useful pest control tools for agriculture and horticulture. One such scientist is Prof. Gen-ichiro Arimura of the Tokyo University of Science, Japan. Prof. Arimura notes that "the development of agricultural technology to date has been largely reliant on the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which has resulted in environmental pollution and the destruction of ecosystems." As a greener alternative to pesticides, terpenoid signaling molecules may help farmers continue their production of vital foodstuffs while lessening the associated environmental costs.

In pursuit of this goal, Prof. Arimura and his colleagues chose to investigate the terpenoid compound menthol, which is derived from mint leaves and can activate plant immune systems. The aim of this project, which the researchers describe in an article recently published in the journal Plant Molecular Biology, was to develop compounds that are structurally similar to menthol but improve upon menthol's ability to activate plant immune systems. The researchers therefore experimented with chemically modifying menthol by attaching amino acids, which are a structurally diverse set of compounds that living cells use to construct proteins. In total, the researchers synthesized six different menthol derivatives with attached amino acids.

The researchers then tested the resulting menthol derivatives to see whether the modified compounds could outperform unmodified menthol at activating plant defense mechanisms. To do this, they treated soybean leaves with either menthol or one of the six menthol derivatives to see which of the derivatives, if any, could outclass menthol itself at boosting the expression levels of two defense-related soybean genes after 24 hours of exposure. The found that only one of the modified compounds bested menthol, and this compound is called valine menthyl ester, or "ment-Val" for short.

The researchers found that spraying soybean leaves once with a ment-Val solution boosted expression of the defense-related genes for three days, and a second spraying on the fourth day worked to boost the expression of those genes again. These findings suggest that ment-Val could provide sustainable pest control for farmers growing soybeans. Further experiments showed that ment-Val also increased the expression of defense-related genes in other crops, including peas, tobacco, lettuce, and corn. Ment-Val also proved to be quite stable under various conditions, which suggests that farmers would probably not lose the compound to degradation during storage.

Overall, these results suggest that ment-Val could be extremely useful as an alternative to the chemical pesticides that so many farmers rely on. Prof. Arimura notes that spraying ment-Val may be an effective way "to reduce pest damage to soybeans and other crops." He has applied for a patent on ment-Val's use as a crop protection agent, and he predicts that the commercialization of ment-Val "will generate billions of yen in economic benefits through its usage by companies operating in the fields of horticulture and agriculture." He also notes that ment-Val's anti-inflammatory properties could make it useful for human medicine.

The future is certainly going to be exciting for research into menthol derivatives like ment-Val!

CAPTION

A recent study found that a compound derived from menthol, which in turn comes from mint leaves, may help farmers reduce pest-related crop losses without having to rely on chemical pesticides

CREDIT

Travis Colbert on Unsplash

About The Tokyo University of Science

Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators.

With a mission of "Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field.

Website: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/

About Professor Gen-ichiro Arimura from Tokyo University of Science

Dr Gen-ichiro Arimura is a Professor in the Department of Biological Science and Technology within the Faculty of Advanced Engineering at TUS, Japan. After completing his postgraduate education at the Hiroshima University Graduate School, he worked in the field of plant biology for several years before moving to TUS in 2013. A senior and well-respected researcher, he has more than 110 publications to his credit. His key research interests include plant biotechnology, ecology, and biochemistry.

Funding information

This work was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Japan Science and Technology Agency; the Fuji Foundation for Protein Research; and the Nagase Science and Technology Foundation.

A pioneering study: Plant roots act like a drill

Plant roots screw themselves into the ground - just like a drill penetrating a wall

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

VIDEO: SINGLE-NUCLEI TRACKING ANALYSIS IN RESPONSE TO CELL-TYPE-SPECIFIC AUXIN INDUCTION. RED: 35S:H2B-RFP (MARKING NUCLEI). GREEN: DR5:VENUS (AUXIN RESPONSE MARKER). view more 

CREDIT: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

In an interdisciplinary research project carried out at Tel Aviv University, researchers from the School of Plant Sciences affiliated with the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences collaborated with their colleagues from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in order to study the course of plant root growth. The plant researchers were aided by a computational model constructed by cancer researchers studying cancer cells, which they adapted for use with plant root cells.

The fascinating and groundbreaking findings: For the first time in the world, it has been demonstrated, at the resolution of a single cell, that the root grows with a screwing motion - just like a drill penetrating a wall. In the wake of this study, the cancer researchers conjecture that cancer cells, too, are assisted by a spiral motion in order to penetrate healthy tissue in the environment of the tumor, or to create metastases in various organs of the body.

The research was led by Prof. Eilon Shani from the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security and Prof. Ilan Tsarfaty from the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University, and was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the USA, Austria and China. The article was published in March 2021 in the acclaimed journal Nature Communications.

The researchers in Prof. Shani's group, led by Dr. Yangjie Hu, used as a model the plant known as Arabidopsis. They marked the nuclei of the root cells with a fluorescent protein and observed the growing process and movement of the cells at the root tip through a powerful microscope - approximately 1000 cells in each movie. Furthermore, in order to examine what causes and controls the movement, they focused on a known hormone named auxin, which regulates growth in plants. They built a genetic system that enables activation of auxin production (like a switch) in a number of selected cells-types, and then monitored the influence of the on/off mechanism, in four dimensions - the three spatial dimensions and the dimension of time. After each instance of auxin biosynthesis, each of the thousand cells was video recorded for a period of 6 to 24 hours, thus an enormous amount of data accumulated.

CAPTION

Tracking cell-type-specific auxin-dependent root skewing. Green: DR5:VENUS (auxin response marker). Credit to Lukas Hoermayer (IST Friml lab)

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

For the next stage, the researchers were aided by the computational tools provided by Prof. Tsarfaty, which had been developed in his laboratory for the purpose of monitoring the development of cancerous growths. They used these tools to analyze the imaging data obtained in the study. Thus they were actually able, for the first time, to observe with their own eyes the corkscrew movement of the root, as well as to precisely quantify and chart some 30 root growth parameters relating to time and space - including acceleration, length, changes in cell structure, coordination between cells during the growth process and velocity - for each one of the thousand cells at the root tip. Using fluorescent reporters, the findings even allowed them to precisely assess the movement and the influence of the auxin on the root, and the way in which it controls the growth process.

Prof. Shani: "Plants present special challenges to researchers. For example, half of the plant (the hidden half), namely, the root system, is buried beneath the ground. The computational tools that were developed for cancer research have enabled us, for the first time, to precisely measure and quantify the kinetics of growth and to reveal the mechanisms that control it at the resolution of a single cell. By this they have significantly advanced plant research, an area of utmost importance for society - both from an environmental point of view and in terms of agriculture and feeding the population."

CAPTION

Single-cell nuclei tracking of the root meristem and elongation zones.

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

Prof. Shani adds: "In the course of our study we discovered a fascinating phenomenon that had not been previously observed 'live': we saw that the cells at the root tip move in a spiral motion, like a drill penetrating the earth. We also recognized that the hormone auxin controls the screwing process of the root tip. We learned and measured the directions of the auxin hormone's movement, passing from one cell to another in the root, in order to control the growth of the root and the corkscrew motion."

Prof. Tsarfaty adds: "This was a synergetic collaboration that benefited and enlightened both parties. In plants, processes take place much more rapidly, and therefore constitute an excellent model for us. In consequence of the findings provided by this plant study, we are presently examining the possibility of a similar screw-like motion in cancer cells and in metastases, in the course of their penetration into adjacent healthy tissues."

Cloth face coverings can be as effective as surgical masks at protecting against COVID-19

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

Research News

 

Researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Surrey have found that well-fitting, three-layered cloth masks can be as effective at reducing the transmission of COVID-19 as surgical masks.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, 139 countries mandated the use of face coverings in public space such as supermarkets and public transports. The World Health Organization also advises the use of face coverings and offers guidance on their effective features. Face coverings suppress the onward transmission of COVID-19 through exhalation and protect the wearer on inhalation.

In a paper published by the Physics of Fluids journal, the researchers detail how they looked at how liquid droplets are captured and filtered out in cloth masks by reviewing and modelling filtration processes, including inertial impaction.

Inertial impaction does not filter as a sieve or colander does - it works by forcing the air in your breath to twist and turn inside the mask so much that the droplets can't follow the path of the air. Instead, the droplets crash into fibres inside the mask to prevent inhalation.

The team found that, under ideal conditions and dependent on the fit, three-layered cloth masks can perform similarly to surgical masks for filtering droplets - with both reducing exposure by around 50 to 75 per cent. For example, if an infected person and a healthy individual are both wearing masks, scientists believe this could result in up to 94 per cent less exposure.

Dr Richard Sear, co-author of the study and Leader of the Soft Matter Group at the University of Surrey, said:

"While wearing a simple and relatively inexpensive cloth face mask cannot eliminate the risk of contracting COVID-19, measurements and our theoretical model suggests they are highly effective in reducing transmission. We hope that our work inspires mask designs to be optimised in the future and we hope it helps to remind people of the importance of continuing to wear masks while COVID-19 remains present in the community."

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