Bugs find bats to bite thanks to bacteria

Blood-sucking flies may be following chemicals produced by skin bacteria to locate bats to feed on

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FIELD MUSEUM

 

IMAGE: A NATAL LONG-FINGERED BAT (MINIOPTERUS NATALENSIS) PARASITIZED BY A MALE BAT FLY (PENICILLIDIA FULVIDA) ON THE WALL OF A DIATOMITE MINE IN NAKURU, KENYA. view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF HOLLY LUTZ

We humans aren’t the only animals that have to worry about bug bites. There are thousands of insect species that have evolved to specialize in feeding on different mammals and birds, but scientists are still learning how these bugs differentiate between species to track down their preferred prey. It turns out, the attraction might not even be skin-deep: a new study in Molecular Ecology found evidence that blood-sucking flies that specialize on bats may be locating their preferred hosts by following the scent of chemicals produced by bacteria on the bats’ skin.

Holly Lutz, the paper’s lead author, got the idea for the project from previous research showing that mosquitoes seem to prefer some people over others. “You know when you go to a barbeque and your friend is getting bombarded by mosquitos, but you’re fine? There is some research to support the idea that the difference in mosquito attraction is linked to your skin microbiome - the unique community of bacteria living on your skin,” says Lutz, a research associate at Chicago’s Field Museum and a project scientist with the labs of Jack Gilbert (who co-authored this study) and Rob Knight at the University of California, San Diego. “Keeping in mind that some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others, I wondered what makes insects attracted to some bats but not others.”

Lutz encountered plenty of bats during her PhD work and postdoctoral residency at the Field Museum, on fieldwork trips to bat caves in Kenya and Uganda studying malaria. “In these caves, I’d see all these different bat species or even taxonomic families roosting side by side. Some of them were loaded with bat flies, while others had none or only a few. And these flies are typically very specific to different kinds of bats-- you won’t find a fly that normally feeds on horseshoe bats crawling around on a fruit bat.” says Lutz. “I started wondering why the flies are so particular-- clearly, they can crawl over from one kind of bat to another, but they don’t really seem to be doing that.”

The flies in question are cousins of mosquitoes, and while they’re technically flies, most can’t actually fly. “They have incredibly reduced wings in many cases and can’t actually fly,” says Lutz. “And they have reduced eyesight, so they probably aren’t really operating by vision. So some other sensory mechanisms must be at play, maybe a sense of smell or an ability to detect chemical cues.”

​​”How the flies actually locate and find their bats has previously been something of a mystery,” says Carl Dick, a research associate at the Field Museum, professor of biology at Western Kentucky University, and one of the study’s co-authors. “But because most bat flies live and feed on only one bat species, it is clear that they somehow find the right host.”

Furthermore, bat flies transmit malaria between bats, and the malaria parasites are host-specific as well. It’s an intricate, complex system with important parallels to other vector-borne pathways for disease transmission, such as malarial and viral transmission among humans by anopheline mosquitoes. Previous research has shown that different bacterial species associated with skin or even the disease status of individual humans can influence feeding preferences of blood-seeking mosquitoes.

Lutz suspected that, similarly to what’s been observed in humans, the bats’ skin microbiomes may be playing a role in attracting the flies seeking them out. Skin-- whether it belongs to a human or a bat-- is covered with tiny microorganisms that help protect the body from invading pathogens, bolster the immune system, and break down natural products like sweat. Host species evolve alongside their skin microbiomes, leading to different species being home to different sets of bacteria.

All these different kinds of bacteria produce a unique bouquet of airborne chemicals as they metabolize nutrients. And, according to Lutz’s hypothesis, different kinds of insects are attracted to different chemical signals, which could help explain why some bats are more attractive to blood-sucking flies than others-- just like your friend at the barbeque.

To test this hypothesis, Lutz examined dozens of bats from a variety of species. “We went into a ton of different caves where they roost and used long bat nets, which are basically like super sturdy butterfly nets, to catch them,” says Lutz. She and her colleagues took skin and fur samples from the bats’ bodies and wings in order to examine both the bats’ DNA and the microbes living on their skin. The researchers also examined the bats for flies. “You brush the bats’ fur with your forceps, and it’s like you’re chasing the fastest little spider,” says Lutz. “The flies can disappear in a split second. They are fascinatingly creepy.”

“The flies are exquisitely evolved to stay on their bat,” says Dick. “They have special combs, spines, and claws that hold them in place in the fur, and they can run quickly in any direction to evade the biting and scratching of the bats, or the efforts by researchers to capture them.”

The researchers then analyzed the specimens back at the Field Museum’s Pritzker DNA Laboratory. “Once we were back at the lab, we extracted all the DNA from the bacteria and sequenced it. We basically created libraries of all the bacteria associated with each individual skin sample. Then we used bioinformatics methods to characterize the bacteria there and identify which ones are present across different bat groups, comparing bats that were parasitized by flies to those that were not,” says Lutz.

The team found that the different bat families had their own unique combinations of skin bacteria, even when the bats were collected from different locations. “The goal of this study was to ask, ‘Are there differences in the skin microbiome of these different bats, and are there bacteria that are common among bats that have parasites versus those that don’t?’” says Lutz. “Getting these results was really exciting-- this paper is the culmination of years of thinking and wondering and sampling.”

There are still some big questions to answer, however. “We weren’t able to collect the actual chemicals producing cue- - secondary metabolites or volatile organic compounds-- during this initial work. Without that information, we can’t definitively say that the bacteria are leading the flies to their hosts. So, next steps will be to sample bats in a way that we can actually tie these compounds to the bacteria” says Lutz, “In science, there is always a next step.”

In addition to explaining how blind, flightless flies are able to be so picky with which bats they feed on, the study gets at bigger-picture questions of how different organisms coexist. “We live in these complex communities where different types of life are always bumping into each other and interacting and sometimes depending on each other or eating each other,” says Lutz. “In a healthy natural state, these organisms partition themselves so they can coexist. But as habitats are destroyed, organisms are forced to share resources or start utilizing new ones.” Animals that used to be able to give each other a wide berth might no longer be able to, and that can lead to new diseases spreading from one organism to another.

“Humans are affecting these ecosystems, and these ecosystems can in turn affect us,” says Lutz. “That’s why it’s important to study them.”

CAPTION

One of the bat species studied in this project, Hipposideros caffer.

CREDIT

Courtesy of Holly Lutz

  

CAPTION

Eye-shine reflects from thousands of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) sampled by Lutz and her team at Kitum Cave in Mount Elgon National Park, Uganda.

CREDIT

Courtesy of Holly Lutz

CAPTION

Closeup of a bat fly (Penicillidia fulvida)

CREDIT

Courtesy of Holly Lutz

CAPTION

Natal and African long-fingered bats (Miniopterus natalensis, M. africanus), Mauritian tomb bats (Taphozous mauritianus), and Noack's roundleaf bats (Hipposideros ruber) roosting together in a fossilized coral cave in Arabuko Sokoke Forest, Kenya.

CREDIT

Courtesy of Holly Lutz

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JOURNAL

Molecular Ecology

DOI

10.1111/mec.16044

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Aug-2021

Disclaimer: AAAS and Eu

 

Astronomers probe layer-cake structure of brown dwarf’s atmosphere

Peer-Reviewed Publication

W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY

 

IMAGE: ARTIST’S CONCEPT OF 2MASS J22081363+2921215, A NEARBY BROWN DWARF. THOUGH ONLY ROUGHLY 115 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY, THE BROWN DWARF IS TOO DISTANT FOR ANY ATMOSPHERIC FEATURES TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED. INSTEAD, RESEARCHERS USED W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY’S MOSFIRE INSTRUMENT TO STUDY THE COLORS AND BRIGHTNESS VARIATIONS OF THE BROWN DWARF’S LAYER-CAKE CLOUD STRUCTURE, AS SEEN IN NEAR-INFRARED LIGHT. MOSFIRE ALSO COLLECTED THE SPECTRAL FINGERPRINTS OF VARIOUS CHEMICAL ELEMENTS CONTAINED IN THE CLOUDS AND HOW THEY CHANGE OVER TIME. view more 

CREDIT: NASA, ESA, STSCI, LEAH HUSTAK (STSCI), GREG T. BACON (STSCI)

Maunakea, Hawaiʻi – Jupiter may be the bully planet of our solar system because it’s the most massive planet, but it’s actually a runt compared to many of the giant planets found around other stars.

These alien worlds, called super-Jupiters, weigh up to 13 times Jupiter’s mass. Astronomers have analyzed the composition of some of these monsters, but it has been difficult to study their atmospheres in detail because these gas giants get lost in the glare of their parent stars.

Researchers, however, have a substitute: the atmospheres of brown dwarfs, so-called failed stars that are up to 80 times Jupiter’s mass. These hefty objects form out of a collapsing cloud of gas, as stars do, but lack the mass to become hot enough to sustain nuclear fusion in their cores, which powers stars.

Instead, brown dwarfs share a kinship with super-Jupiters. Both types of objects have similar temperatures and are extremely massive. They also have complex, varied atmospheres. The only difference, astronomers think, is their pedigree. Super-Jupiters form around stars; brown dwarfs often form in isolation.

A team of astronomers, led by Elena Manjavacas of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, has tested a new way to peer through the cloud layers of these nomadic objects. The researchers used an instrument at W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi to study in near-infrared light the colors and brightness variations of the layer-cake cloud structure in the nearby, free-floating brown dwarf known as 2MASS J22081363+2921215.

The Keck Observatory instrument, called the Multi-Object Spectrograph for Infrared Exploration (MOSFIRE), also analyzed the spectral fingerprints of various chemical elements contained in the clouds and how they change with time. This is the first time astronomers have used MOSFIRE in this type of study.

These measurements offered Manjavacas a holistic view of the brown dwarf’s atmospheric clouds, providing more detail than previous observations of this object. Pioneered by Hubble observations, this technique is difficult for ground-based telescopes to do because of contamination from Earth’s atmosphere, which absorbs certain infrared wavelengths. This absorption rate changes due to the weather.

"The only way to do this from the ground is by using Keck’s high-resolution MOSFIRE instrument because it allows us to observe multiple stars simultaneously with our brown dwarf,” said Manjavacas, a former staff astronomer at Keck Observatory and the lead author of the study. “This allows us to correct for the contamination introduced by the Earth’s atmosphere and measure the true signal from the brown dwarf with good precision. So, these observations are a proof-of-concept that MOSFIRE can do these types of studies of brown dwarf atmospheres.”

She decided to study this particular brown dwarf because it is very young and therefore extremely bright. It has not cooled off yet. Its mass and temperature are similar to those of the nearby giant exoplanet Beta Pictoris b, discovered in 2008 near-infrared images taken by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in northern Chile.

“We don’t have the ability yet with current technology to analyze in detail the atmosphere of Beta Pictoris b,” Manjavacas said. “So, we’re using our study of this brown dwarf’s atmosphere as a proxy to get an idea of what the exoplanet’s clouds might look like at different heights of its atmosphere.”

Both the brown dwarf and Beta Pictoris b are young, so they radiate heat strongly in the near-infrared. They are both members of a flock of stars and sub-stellar objects called the Beta Pictoris moving group, which shares the same origin and a common motion through space. The group, which is about 33 million years old, is the closest grouping of young stars to Earth. It is located roughly 115 light-years away.

While they're cooler than bona fide stars, brown dwarfs are still extremely hot. The brown dwarf in Manjavacas’ study is a sizzling 2,780 degrees Fahrenheit (1,527 degrees Celsius).

The giant object is about 12 times heavier than Jupiter. As a young body, it is spinning incredibly fast, completing a rotation every 3.5 hours, compared to Jupiter’s 10-hour rotation period. So, clouds are whipping around the planet, creating a dynamic, turbulent atmosphere.

Keck Observatory’s MOSFIRE instrument stared at the brown dwarf for 2.5 hours, watching how the light filtering up through the atmosphere from the dwarf’s hot interior brightens and dims over time. Bright spots that appeared on the rotating object indicate regions where researchers can see deeper into the atmosphere, where it is hotter. Infrared wavelengths allow astronomers to peer deeper into the atmosphere. The observations suggest the brown dwarf has a mottled atmosphere with scattered clouds. If viewed close-up, the planet might resemble a carved Halloween pumpkin, with light escaping from the hot interior.

Its spectrum reveals clouds of hot sand grains and other exotic elements. Potassium iodide traces the object’s upper atmosphere, which also includes magnesium silicate clouds. Moving down in the atmosphere is a layer of sodium iodide and magnesium silicate clouds. The final layer consists of aluminum oxide clouds. The atmosphere’s total depth is 446 miles (718 kilometers). The elements detected represent a typical part of the composition of brown dwarf atmospheres, Manjavacas said.

She and her team used computer models of brown dwarf atmospheres to determine the location of the chemical compounds in each cloud layer.

The study will be published in The Astronomical Journal and is available in pre-print format on arXiv.org.

Manjavacas’ plan is to use Keck Observatory’s MOSFIRE to study other atmospheres of brown dwarfs and compare them to those of gas giants. Future telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared observatory scheduled to launch later this year, will provide even more information about a brown dwarf’s atmosphere.

“JWST will give us the structure of the entire atmosphere, providing more coverage than any other telescope,” Manjavacas said.

She hopes that MOSFIRE can be used in tandem with JWST to sample a wide range of brown dwarfs and gain a better understanding of brown dwarfs and giant planets.

“Exoplanets are so much more diverse than what we see locally in the solar system,” said Keck Observatory Chief Scientist John O’Meara. “It’s work like this, and future work with Keck and JWST, that will give us a fuller picture of the diversity of planets orbiting other stars.”

CAPTION

AThis graphic shows successive layers of clouds in the atmosphere of a nearby, free-floating brown dwarf. Breaks in the upper cloud layers allowed astronomers to probe deeper into the atmosphere of the brown dwarf called 2MASS J22081363+2921215. Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but too small to sustain nuclear fusion, which powers stars. This illustration is based on infrared observations of the clouds' colors and brightness variations, as well as the spectral fingerprints of various chemical elements contained in the clouds and atmospheric modeling.

CREDIT

NASA, ESA, STScI, Andi James (STScI)

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ABOUT MOSFIRE

The Multi-Object Spectrograph for Infrared Exploration (MOSFIRE), gathers thousands of spectra from objects spanning a variety of distances, environments and physical conditions. What makes this large, vacuum-cryogenic instrument unique is its ability to select up to 46 individual objects in the field of view and then record the infrared spectrum of all 46 objects simultaneously. When a new field is selected, a robotic mechanism inside the vacuum chamber reconfigures the distribution of tiny slits in the focal plane in under six minutes. Eight years in the making with First Light in 2012, MOSFIRE's early performance results range from the discovery of ultra-cool, nearby substellar mass objects, to the detection of oxygen in young galaxies only two billion years after the Big Bang. MOSFIRE was made possible by funding provided by the National Science Foundation.

ABOUT W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY

The W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes are among the most scientifically productive on Earth. The two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes atop Maunakea on the Island of Hawaiʻi feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectrometers, and world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics systems. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at Keck Observatory, which is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the Native Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.

For more information, visit www.keckobservatory.org

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JOURNAL

The Astronomical Journal

 

Analysis: US Federal cannabis legalization would reduce arrests, but could put some social equity licensees out of business

Reports and Proceedings

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

Prohibitions on cannabis have created disparate harms, especially for Black, indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC). This has occurred largely through disparities in arrests for possession and the effects of those disparities. A new analysis describes options available for using reforms to cannabis policy to address these disparities.

The analysis concludes that federal efforts to legalize cannabis, while reducing arrests, could hinder some efforts at social equity. It also concludes that expunging or sealing convictions for cannabis possession could affect many more BIPOC than other reforms, thus advancing social equity.

The study, entitled “Cannabis legalization and social equity: some opportunities, puzzles, and trade-offs”, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the RAND Corporation, appears in the Boston University Law Review.

“Cannabis legalization is not a single, well-defined option, but rather a complex and multifaceted challenge with hundreds of policy decision points, each of which presents opportunities to narrow or widen disparities,” explains Jonathan P. Caulkins, professor of operations research and public policy at CMU’s Heinz College, who coauthored the study. “Organizations focused on legalization disagree about the potential effects on social equity outcomes, so it’s important to have research-based evidence about how cannabis policy influences inequities.”

In their analysis, Caulkins and his colleagues examine the effect on inequities in six areas: arrests and penalties, previous cannabis offences, licensing preferences, diversity in the cannabis workforce, government revenue, and health. They also detail a case study of Virginia, which legalized possession of small amounts of cannabis in July 2021; the authors look at how many people from communities disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition could benefit from expungement of records as well as from entrepreneurship and employment opportunities in the cannabis industry.

The authors recommend that those seeking to use cannabis policy reform to address social inequities clearly define the populations they want to help and the outcomes they seek to achieve. This will help policymakers choose from the many options available and address potential tradeoffs.

One of the options is increasing cannabis business opportunities for members of communities who have been disproportionately affected, especially BIPOC communities. Some states and localities are issuing social equity licenses, but progress has been slow. Proposed federal legislation to legalize cannabis could impact these efforts. Companies that produce and distribute cannabis could operate across state lines or out of the country entirely, and online cannabis shopping might provide stiff competition to retail stores. These, in turn, could drive many existing cannabis companies out of business, including those operated by equity licensees.

While not all states are poised to legalize cannabis, those keeping it illegal can take steps to address inequities, suggest the authors. In the case study of Virginia, the authors show that sealing or expunging convictions would benefit far more BIPOC than would prioritizing these individuals for entrepreneurship and employment opportunities in a legal cannabis market. Expunging records could improve the employment prospects of hundreds of thousands of people, while increasing employment opportunities for individuals in disproportionately affected communities to work in the cannabis industry could benefit thousands, and equity programs directed at the owners of cannabis businesses could directly help several dozen BIPOC, the authors note.

“Discussions about how cannabis legalization can be used to influence social equity outcomes have become more prominent and more detailed in recent years,” notes Beau Kilmer, director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, who led the study. “Our analysis should be of interest to decision makers in states that have legalized cannabis, as well as those considering alternatives to cannabis prohibition.”

The analysis was funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

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Summarized from an article in Boston University Law Review, Cannabis Legalization and Social Equity: Some Opportunities, Puzzles, and Trade-Offs by Kilmer, B (RAND Corporation), Caulkins, JP (Carnegie Mellon University), Kilborn, M (Independent Researcher), Priest, M (RAND Corporation), and Warren, KM (RAND Corporation). Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

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ARTICLE TITLE

Cannabis Legalization and Social Equity: Some Opportunities, Puzzles, and Trade-Offs

 

nTIDE June 2021 COVID Update: Unemployment numbers stabilizing at higher than pre-pandemic numbers

National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) – issued semi-monthly by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire

Business Announcement

KESSLER FOUNDATION

 

IMAGE: THIS GRAPHIC COMPARES THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON PEOPLE WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES, CAPTURING PRE-PANDEMIC AND CURRENT UNEMPLOYMENT DATA FOR JANUARY 2020 TO JUNE 2021. THE MAIN TAKEAWAY IS THAT WHILE UNEMPLOYMENT CONTINUES TO DECLINE, LEVELS REMAIN WELL ABOVE PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS. view more 

CREDIT: KESSLER FOUNDATION

East Hanover, NJ. July 28, 2021. For two consecutive months, the number of people unemployed has increased, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) COVID Update, as economic recovery continues to face the ongoing challenges of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated an unprecedented rise in furloughs and people looking for work, prompting the addition of this mid-month nTIDE COVID Update in the spring of 2020. The mid-month nTIDE follows two key unemployment indicators – furloughs, or temporary layoffs, and the number of people looking for work, comparing trends for people with and without disabilities.

June’s nTIDE COVID Update graphic shows that the number of unemployed people with and without disabilities has stabilized, but at levels higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to economist Andrew Houtenville, PhD, research director of the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, and co-author of nTIDE. The levels are substantial, with increments of 200,000 for people with disabilities, and approximately 3 million for people without disabilities, indicating that many people have not yet returned to the labor market.

Dr. Houtenville pointed out the sharp contrast with past trends: “This time of the year is traditionally the height of the summer hiring season, but in 2021, we are not seeing the usual impact of seasonal jobs for May and June. Delayed rebound in the entertainment and dining sectors may be one of the factors, and some workers may still be hesitant to return due to safety concerns.” 

Data for June show that furloughs continue at relatively low levels, approaching pre-pandemic levels, a positive sign for people with and without disabilities. Public health concerns, however, warrant caution. “Spread of the delta variant, which is more contagious and causes more serious illness, could trigger lockdowns in areas of the country where vaccination rates are low,” Dr. Houtenville noted. “If that occurs, we may see an increase in furloughs.”

Notes from the Field

Disability employment expert John O’Neill, PhD, shared the experiences of a vocational service provider that is working to maintain jobs for workers with disabilities. Dr. O’Neill, director of the Center for Employment and Disability Research at Kessler Foundation, sits on the board of Job Path NYC, a New York City-based nonprofit that provides customized employment services for people with autism and developmental disabilities. In December 2020, 70 out of 250 of Job Path’s clients were furloughed. The subsequent rate of return to work has been slow, with 42 out of 250 clients still waiting to be called back in July.  

Many of these workers have jobs in theaters, schools, and restaurants, which are slowly reopening, which may contribute to prolonged furloughs. Another factor relates to the structure of customized placements. “These jobs often rely on supports across an organization, which may be harder to restart, especially when workplaces are undergoing radical changes.”

Dr. O’Neill cautioned against extrapolating these observations, emphasizing that customized employment involves a minority of workers with disabilities. Regardless of employment type, Drs. Houtenville and O’Neill agreed on the importance of early intervention when workers with disabilities lose their jobs. “The longer they are disconnected from their employer, the harder it is to re-enter the workforce,” said Dr. Houtenville.  “State programs that emphasize rapid response to job loss are good resources for helping return-to-work and stay at work,” added Dr. O’Neill.

As the economy evolves, Dr. O’Neill pointed out the prospects for different types of jobs. “By maintaining their connections to employers, workers with disabilities will be better positioned to take advantage of new opportunities in the workplace.”

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Register for next month’s nTIDE webinars: August 6, 2021, nTIDE Jobs Report, and our August 20, 2021, COVID Update at https://researchondisability.org/home/ntide

This COVID Update is an extra edition of National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE), a joint project of Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, co-authored by Dr. Houtenville and John O'Neill, PhD, of Kessler Foundation. The nTIDE team closely monitors the job numbers, issuing semi-monthly nTIDE reports, as the labor market continues to reflect the many challenges of the pandemic.

Funding: Kessler Foundation and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) (90RT5037)

About Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research that seeks to improve cognition, mobility, and long-term outcomes -- including employment -- for people with neurological disabilities caused by diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord. Kessler Foundation leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities. For more information, visit KesslerFoundation.org.

About the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire

The Institute on Disability (IOD) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) was established in 1987 to provide a coherent university-based focus for the improvement of knowledge, policies, and practices related to the lives of persons with disabilities and their families. For information on the NIDILRR-funded Employment Policy and Measurement Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, visit ResearchonDisability.org.

Interested in trends on disability employment? Contact Carolann Murphy to arrange an interview with our experts: cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

 

Icy waters of 'Snowball Earth' may have spurred early organisms to grow bigger

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

 

IMAGE: CARL SIMPSON INSPECTS A FOSSIL OF BROOKSELLA ALTERNATA, AN INVERTEBRATE ANIMAL THAT SWAM IN THE OCEAN ROUGHLY 500 MILLION YEARS AGO. view more 

CREDIT: GLENN ASAKAWA/CU BOULDER

A new study from CU Boulder finds that hundreds of millions of years ago, small single-celled organisms may have evolved into larger multicellular life forms to better propel themselves through icy waters.

The research was led by paleobiologist Carl Simpson and appears today in the journal The American Naturalist. It hones in on a question that’s central to the history of the planet: How did life on Earth, which started off teeny-tiny, get so big?

“Once organisms get big, they have a clear ecological advantage because the physics around how they capture food become totally different,” said Simpson, assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at CU Boulder and the CU Museum of Natural History. “But the hard part for researchers has been explaining how they got big in the first place.”

In his latest study, Simpson draws on a series of mathematical equations to argue that this all-important shift may have come down to hydrodynamics—or the pursuit of a more efficient backstroke.

Roughly 750 million years ago, and for reasons that scientists are still debating, the planet became suddenly and dramatically colder—a period of time called “Snowball Earth.” To adapt to these frigid conditions, which can make swimming more difficult, small organisms like bacteria may have begun to glom together to form larger and more complex life.

Simpson still has a lot of work to do before he can prove his theory. But, the geologist said, the results could help to reveal how the ancestors of all modern multicellular life, from flowers to elephants and even people, first arose on Earth. 

“By swimming together, these cells could remain small on an individual level but still produce more power,” Simpson said. “They become both bigger and faster as a group.”

CAPTION

Two fossils of Brooksella alternata, an invertebrate animal that swam in the ocean roughly 500 million years ago.

CREDIT

Glenn Asakawa/CU Boulder

Snowball Earth

Those successes took place at a seemingly inhospitable time in the planet’s past.

During “Snowball Earth,” the globe may have been all but recognizable. Ice sheets a half-mile thick or more may have blanketed the planet for as much as 70 million years, while temperatures in the oceans plummeted to less than 32 degrees Fahrenheit. 

But even amid those frigid conditions, something spectacular happened: The first organisms made up of many different cells, not just one, began to emerge around the planet. Scientists still aren’t sure what those ancient multicellular organisms might have looked like. One theory suggests that they resembled Volvox, a type of algae that are common in oceans today and are shaped like a hollow sphere or snow globe.

“That’s something that has lodged in my mind for years,” Simpson said. “How do Snowball Earth and the rise of multicellular organisms go together?”

The answer to that counterintuitive problem may hinge on a little-known property of water.

Simpson explained that when saltwater gets colder, it also becomes several times thicker, or more viscous. Humans are too big to notice the change. But for organisms the size of modern-day bacteria, the difference can be huge. 

“When you’re small, you’re stuck,” he said. “The water moves you.”

Taking a swim

The geologist ran a series of calculations to gauge how organisms of various shapes and sizes might fare in the oceans of Snowball Earth. And, in this case, bigger might be better. 

Simpson said that modern-day bacteria and other single-celled organisms move around in aquatic environments using two different sets of tools: There are cilia—which are wavy, hair-like projections—and flagella—think the “tails” on sperm cells. Both of these tools would have been painfully slow in frigid ocean conditions, his results show.

If individual cells joined forces to make a bigger organism, in contrast, they could produce a lot more swimming power while keeping the energy needs of each cell low. 

“The advantage of the multicellular strategy is that each cell stays small and has low metabolic requirements, but these cells can swim together,” Simpson said.

He’s currently testing the theory using experiments with modern algae in a lab and by digging deeper into Earth’s fossil record. One thing is clear, Simpson said: Once life forms got big, a whole new world of possibilities became available to them. Primitive animals like sponges, for example, survive not by floating in the ocean but by actively pumping water through their bodies. 

“When you’re big, you now can move the water rather than the other way around,” Simpson said.

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JOURNAL

The American Naturalist

DOI

10.1086/716634

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Adaptation to a viscous Snowball Earth Ocean as a path to complex multicellularity

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Jul-2021

 

Indian women’s nutrition suffered during COVID-19 lockdown

Reports and Proceedings

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A YOUNG WOMAN PREPARES A MEAL IN HER HOME IN INDIA. view more 

CREDIT: TATA-CORNELL INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURE AND NUTRITION/PROVIDED

ITHACA, N.Y. - The 2020 nationwide lockdown India imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruptions that negatively impacted women’s nutrition, according to a new study from the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition.

Published in the journal Economia Politica, the study shows that women’s dietary diversity – the number of food groups consumed – declined during the lockdown compared to the same period in 2019. Most concerningly, the drop was due to decreased consumption of foods like meats, eggs, vegetables and fruits, which are rich in micronutrients that are crucial to good health and development.

“Women’s diets were lacking in diverse foods even before the pandemic, but COVID-19 has further exacerbated the situation,” said Soumya Gupta, a research economist at TCI who coauthored the study along with Prabhu Pingali, TCI director; Mathew Abraham, assistant director; and consultant Payal Seth. “Any policies addressing the impact of the pandemic on nutritional outcomes must do so through a gendered lens that reflects the specific, and often persistent, vulnerabilities faced by women.”

The Indian government instituted a national lockdown to slow down the spread of COVID-19 on March 24, 2020. Disruptions to agricultural supply chains subsequently led to price fluctuations, especially for nonstaple foods. The lockdown was lifted on May 30, 2020, though some restrictions remained in certain areas of the country.

TCI analyzed surveys of food expenditures, dietary diversity and other nutrition indicators at the national, state and district levels in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha. They found that food expenditures significantly declined during the lockdown, especially in less developed districts. Nearly 90% of survey respondents reported having less food, while 95% said they consumed fewer types of food. The largest drop in food expenditures was for micronutrient-rich fresh and dried fruits, as well as animal products such as meat, fish and eggs.

Expenditures returned to pre-lockdown levels in June 2020 at the national and state levels but remained low at the district level. Gupta and her co-authors said this suggests that underdeveloped regions were disproportionately affected by access and availability constraints.

Surveys also suggest a decrease in the quantity and quality of nutritious foods consumed by women during the pandemic. For example, some women said that during the lockdown they halved the amount of dal, or red lentils, that they prepared, or that they prepared thinner dals.

“The decline in women’s diet diversity combined with a likely decrease in quantities consumed points to a greater risk for micronutrient malnutrition as compared to before the pandemic,” Gupta said. “Due to the spillover effects of maternal malnutrition, that risk poses a threat not only to women’s productivity and well-being, but also that of their children.”

Nutrition security declined across the board during the lockdown, but researchers found reason to believe that women’s nutrition was disproportionately impacted. The number of women consuming vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables dropped by 42%.

While the data analyzed in the study does not allow for direct comparisons between women and other members of their families, a previous TCI study showed that Indian women eat less diverse diets than their households.

Many factors have been associated with gender differences in food allocation across the world, including income, bargaining power, social status, interpersonal relationships, tastes and preferences. Uneven food allocation within households has also been associated with the role of women in different family systems, including women eating after all other members have eaten.

“How food is distributed between members of the household depends in part on social norms, but also on how much food the household has to begin with,” Gupta said. “That in turn depends on income, access to markets and prices. All of these were adversely impacted during the early stages of the lockdown.”

The unequal burden on women was also caused in part due to the closure of India’s aanganwadi centers during the lockdown, the researchers said. The centers, which provide take-home rations and hot cooked meals to nursing and expecting mothers, are an important source of nutrition for women and children. According to the study, 72% of eligible households lost access to those services during the pandemic.

Policymakers should recognize the disproportionate impact of the pandemic and other disruptive events on women’s nutrition by bolstering safety-net programs to ensure they meet the needs of women and other marginalized groups, the researchers said.

The researchers also recommended market-oriented reforms, such as the removal of rules that restrict the movement of products between markets and state boundaries, commercialization of small farms, and investments in infrastructure like refrigerated supply chains.

“While it is a long-standing issue, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the relative lack of affordable nutritious foods in India to the fore,” Pingali said. “Broad reforms are needed to diversify the country’s food system and ensure that women and other marginalized groups have access to nutritious diets during the pandemic and beyond.”

TCI is part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and hosted by the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Pingali is also a professor in the Dyson School, with joint appointments in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and the Department of Global Development in CALS. The Division of Nutritional Sciences is shared by CALS and the College of Human Ecology.

 

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JOURNAL

Economia Politica

DOI

10.1007/s40888-021-00233-9

US Department of Energy announces $7.7 million for earth & environmental systems Modeling

Efforts aim to enhance understanding of earth system predictability

Grant and Award Announcement

DOE/US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $7.7 million in funding for 11 studies to improve understanding of Earth system predictability and DOE’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), a state-of-the-science climate model.

The E3SM is the first comprehensive model of the Earth system to take full advantage of the world-leading supercomputing capabilities at DOE's national laboratories. The goal of DOE’s model development and analysis efforts within Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling program is to assert and maintain an international scientific leadership position in the development of Earth system models and providing transformative insights on Earth systems, at time scales ranging from sub-seasonal to centennial, delivering knowledge foundations and science-based tools for the Nation’s planning of next-generation, resilient energy, environmental, and economic systems and infrastructures.

“By improving key elements of our Earth system model in climate-sensitive regions, we have an opportunity to model environmental systems with greater precision and predictive power than ever before by using DOE’s world-class supercomputers,” said Sharlene Weatherwax, DOE Associate Director of Biological and Environmental Research. “These studies will help provide DOE and the nation with more accurate predictions of climate change and its impacts to our infrastructures, economies, and our most vulnerable population groups.”

Studies are intended to benefit the public through increased understanding and modeling of the Earth system and climate change and will focus on a range of different topics, from improved representation of ecological systems and cloud-aerosol interactions, to quantifying uncertainties across a range of processes, scales, time horizons, and regional impacts.

Projects were selected for award in FY 2021 by competitive peer review through a DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement that was issued in FY 2020 under the Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling Program, sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), within the Department’s Office of Science.

Funding totals $7.7 million in Fiscal Year 2021 dollars for 11 projects lasting three years in duration. A list of projects can be found at the BER website under “What's New.”

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