Heat and drought have ‘significant influence’ on food security and agricultural production, new review argues

Heat and drought are the utmost limiting abiotic factors which pose a major threat to food security and agricultural production and are exacerbated by ‘extreme and rapid’ climate change, according to a new paper in CABI Reviews

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CABI

 

IMAGE: MAIZE IS ONE MAJOR WORLD CROP AFFECTED BY ABIOTIC STRESSES INCLUDING EXTREME HEAT AND DROUGHT EXACERBATED BY CLIMATE CHANGE view more 

CREDIT: CABI

Heat and drought are the utmost limiting abiotic factors which pose a major threat to food security and agricultural production and are exacerbated by ‘extreme and rapid’ climate change, according to a new paper in CABI Reviews.

The team of international scientists suggest that it is critical to understand the biochemical, ecological and physiological responses on plants to the stresses of heat and drought in order for more practical solutions and management.

They state that plant responses to these challenges may be divided into three categories: phonological, physiological and biochemical.

Lead researcher Dr Aqarab Husnain Gondal, of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan, argues that due to physical damages, biological disruptions and biochemical abnormalities, sub-optimal water supplies and unusual temperatures negatively impact crop development and yields.

Supported by colleagues from Yarmouk University, Jordan, the National University of Huancavelica, Peru, and the Citrus Research Institute Sagodha, Dr Aqarab Husnain Gondal says a distinctive aspect of the phenomenon is comparing fundamental behaviour with abiotic stresses.

The scientists, referring to a study examining data from research published between 1980 and 2015, state that drought has reduced wheat and maize yields by up to 40% around the world. They also highlight that projections suggest that for every degree Celsius rise in temperature, this would result in a 6% loss in global wheat yields.

Dr Aqarab Husnain Gondal said, “This review gives a thorough description of the adaptation of plants towards heat and drought stress with a particular emphasis on identifying similarities and variations.

“Abiotic stresses are reducing crop yield all around the world. Heat and drought stress causes plants to respond in a variety of ways – the most notable of which is by altering their development and morphology.

“While the capacity of plants to withstand these pressures differs significantly across species, it is worthy to note that recent advances have been achieved in limiting the adverse consequences – either through the use of genetic methods or by the induction of stress tolerance.”

The scientists maintain that despite the fact that heat and drought stress may have a negative impact on the plant’s growth and development, reproductive growth is the most affected.

Anthesis or grain filling stress may have a major impact on crop production if it is mild while damage to the photosynthetic machinery, oxidative stress and membrane instability are also caused by these forces, they say.

 

Additional information

Main image: Maize is one major world crop affected by abiotic stresses including extreme heat and drought exacerbated by climate change (Credit: CABI).

Full paper reference

Aqarab Husnain Gondal, Mohammad Al Zubi, Franklin Ore Areche, Abdul Jabbar, Sana Akram and Denis Dante Corilla Flores, ‘Plants adaptability to climate change and drought stress for crop growth and production,’ CABI Reviews, 18 January (2023). DOI: 10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0004

The paper can be read open access from 00:01hrs UK time 18 January, 2023, here: https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0004

Media enquiries

For more information and an advance copy of the paper contact:

Dr Aqarab Husnain Gondal, Institute of Soil and Environmental Science, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan – email: aqarabhusnain944@gmail.com

Wayne Coles, Communications Manager, CABI – email: w.coles@cabi.org

About CABI Reviews

CABI Reviews is a reviews journal covering agriculture, global health, nutrition, natural resources and veterinary science.

About CABI

CABI is an international not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.

Through knowledge sharing and science, CABI helps address issues of global concern such as improving global food security and safeguarding the environment. We do this by helping farmers grow more and lose less of what they produce, combating threats to agriculture and the environment from pests and diseases, protecting biodiversity from invasive species, and improving access to agricultural and environmental scientific knowledge. Our 49-member countries guide and influence our core areas of work, which include development and research projects, scientific publishing and microbial services.

We gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies) including the United Kingdom (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Netherlands (Directorate-General for International Cooperation, and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). Other sources of funding include programme/project funding from development agencies, the fees paid by our member countries and profits from our publishing activities which enable CABI to support rural development and scientific research around the world.

 

 

 

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JOURNAL

CABI Reviews

DOI

10.1079/cabireviews.2023.0004 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Plants adaptability to climate change and drought stress for crop growth and production

Theoretical computations identify a solid-state hydrogen storage material's key bottleneck

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: AN INTERESTING "BURST EFFECT" WAS FOUND ON THE DEHYDROGENATION OF A TYPICAL SOLID-STATE HYDROGEN STORAGE MATERIAL, MGH2. AFTER THE SLUGGISH DEHYDROGENATION AT THE FIRST LAYER, HYDROGEN DESORPTION FROM THE SUBSEQUENT LAYERS WILL BE MUCH EASIER. view more 

CREDIT: HAO LI ET AL.

A group of researchers has identified the key stumbling block of a common solid-state hydrogen material, paving the way for future design guidelines and widespread commercial use.

Details of their findings were published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, where the article was featured as a Front Cover Article.

Hydrogen will play a significant role in powering our future. It's abundant and produces no harmful emissions when burned. But the storage and transportation of hydrogen is both costly and risky.

Currently, hydrogen is stored by three methods: high-pressure gaseous hydrogen storage, low-temperature liquid hydrogen storage, and solid-state hydrogen storage. Among solid-state hydrogen storage, solid-state materials are generally the safest and provide the most hydrogen storage density.

Metal hydrides have long been explored for their large hydrogen storage potentiality and their low cost. As these metals come into contact with gaseous hydrogen, hydrogen gets absorbed onto the surface. Further energy input leads to hydrogen atoms finding their way into the metal's crystal lattices until the metal becomes saturated with hydrogen. From there, the material can absorb and desorb hydrogen in larger amounts.

Magnesium hydride (MgH2) has shown immense promise for superior hydrogen storage capacity. However, a high temperature is necessary for MgH2 to decompose and produce hydrogen. Furthermore, the material's complex hydrogen migration and desorption, which result in sluggish dehydrogenation kinetics, have stymied its commercial application.

For decades, scientists have debated why dehydrogenation within MgH2 is so difficult. But now, the research group has uncovered an answer.

Using calculations based on spin-polarized density functional theory with van der Waals corrections, they unearthed a 'burst effect' during MgH2's dehydrogenation. The initial dehydrogenation barriers measured at 2.52 and 2.53 eV, whereas subsequent reaction barriers were 0.12-1.51 eV.

The group carried out further bond analysis with the crystal orbital Hamilton population method, where they confirmed the magnesium-hydride bond strength decreased as the dehydrogenation process continued.

"Hydrogen migration and hydrogen desorption is much easier following the initial burst effect," points out Hao Li, associate professor at Tohoku University's Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR) and corresponding author of the paper. "Structural engineering tweaks that promote this desorption process could be the key to facilitating the hydrogen desorption of MgH2."

Li and his colleagues demonstrated that hydrogen vacancies maintained a high degree of electronic localization when the first layer of atomic hydrogen exists. Analyses of the kinetic characteristics of MgH2 after surface dehydrogenation, performed by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, also provided additional evidence.

"Our findings provide a theoretical basis for the MgH2's dehydrogenation kinetics, providing important guidelines for modifying MgH2-based hydrogen storage materials," adds Li.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

DOI

10.1039/D2TA06458H 

ARTICLE TITLE

The "burst effect" of hydrogen desorption in MgH2 dehydrogenation

A precision arm for miniature robots

ETH ZURICH

 

IMAGE: USING A GLASS NEEDLE MADE TO OSCILLATE WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF ULTRASOUND, LIQUIDS CAN BE MANIPULATED AND PARTICLES CAN BE TRAPPED. view more 

CREDIT: ETH ZURICH

We are all familiar with robots equipped with moving arms. They stand in factory halls, perform mechanical work and can be programmed. A single robot can be used to carry out a variety of tasks.

Until today, miniature systems that transport miniscule amounts of liquid through fine capillaries have had little association with such robots. Developed by researchers as an aid for laboratory analysis, such systems are known as microfluidics or lab-​on-a-chip and generally make use of external pumps to move the liquid through the chips. To date, such systems have been difficult to automate, and the chips have had to be custom-​designed and manufactured for each specific application.

Ultrasound needle oscillations

Scientists led by ETH Professor Daniel Ahmed are now combining conventional robotics and microfluidics. They have developed a device that uses ultrasound and can be attached to a robotic arm. It is suitable for performing a wide range of tasks in microrobotic and microfluidic applications and can also be used to automate such applications. The scientists have reported on this development in Nature Communications.

The device comprises a thin, pointed glass needle and a piezoelectric transducer that causes the needle to oscillate. Similar transducers are used in loudspeakers, ultrasound imaging and professional dental cleaning equipment. The ETH researchers can vary the oscillation frequency of their glass needle. By dipping the needle into a liquid they create a three-​dimensional pattern composed of multiple vortices. Since this pattern depends on the oscillation frequency, it can be controlled accordingly.

The researchers were able to use this to demonstrate several applications. First, they were able to mix tiny droplets of highly viscous liquids. “The more viscous liquids are, the more difficult it is to mix them,” Professor Ahmed explains. “However, our method succeeds in doing this because it allows us to not only create a single vortex, but to also efficiently mix the liquids using a complex three-​dimensional pattern composed of multiple strong vortices.”

Second, the scientists were able to pump fluids through a mini-​channel system by creating a specific pattern of vortices and placing the oscillating glass needle close to the channel wall.

Third, they succeeded in using their robot-​assisted acoustic device to trap fine particles present in the fluid. This works because a particle’s size determines its reaction to the sound waves. Relatively large particles move towards the oscillating glass needle, where they accumulate. The researchers demonstrated how this method can capture not only inanimate particles but also fish embryos. They believe it should also be capable of capturing biological cells in the fluid. “In the past, manipulating microscopic particles in three dimensions was always challenging. Our microrobotic arm makes it easy,” Ahmed says.

“Until now, advancements in large, conventional robotics and microfluidic applications have been made separately,” Ahmed says. “Our work helps to bring the two approaches together.” As a result, future microfluidic systems could be designed similarly to today’s robotic systems. An appropriately programmed single device would be able to handle a variety of tasks. “Mixing and pumping liquids and trapping particles – we can do it all with one device,” Ahmed says. This means tomorrow’s microfluidic chips will no longer have to be custom-​developed for each specific application. The researchers would next like to combine several glass needles to create even more complex vortex patterns in liquids.

In addition to laboratory analysis, Ahmed can envisage other applications for microrobotic arms, such as sorting tiny objects. The arms could conceivably also be used in biotechnology as a way of introducing DNA into individual cells. It should ultimately be possible to employ them in additive manufacturing and 3D printing.

Durrer J, Agrawal P, Ozgul A, Neuhauss SCF, Nama N, Ahmed D: A robot-​assisted acoustofluidic end effector. Nature Communications, 26. Oktober 2022, doi: 10.1038/s41467-​022-34167-y

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-​022-34167-y 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A robot-​assisted acoustofluidic end effector

Feathered robotic wing paves way for flapping drones

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LUND UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: CHRISTOFFER JOHANSSON HOLDS THE ROBOTIC WING view more 

CREDIT: ANDERS ÖRTEGREN

Birds fly more efficiently by folding their wings during the upstroke, according to a recent study led by Lund University in Sweden. The results could mean that wing-folding is the next step in increasing the propulsive and aerodynamic efficiency of flapping drones.

Even the precursors to birds – extinct bird-like dinosaurs – benefited from folding their wings during the upstroke, as they developed active flight. Among flying animals alive today, birds are the largest and most efficient. This makes them particularly interesting as inspiration for the development of drones. However, determining which flapping strategy is best requires aerodynamic studies of various ways of flapping the wings. Therefore, a Swedish-Swiss research team has constructed a robotic wing that can achieve just that – flapping like a bird, and beyond.

“We have built a robot wing that can flap more like a bird than previous robots, but also flap in way that birds cannot do. By measuring the performance of the wing in our wind tunnel, we have studied how different ways of achieving the wing upstroke affect force and energy in flight”, says Christoffer Johansson, biology researcher at Lund University.

Previous studies have shown that birds flap their wings more horizontally when flying slowly. The new study shows that the birds probably do it, even though it requires more energy, because it is easier to create a sufficiently large forces to stay aloft and propel themselves. This is something drones can emulate to increase the range of speeds they can fly at.

“The new robotic wing can be used to answer questions about bird flight that would be impossible simply by observing flying birds. Research into the flight ability of living birds is limited to the flapping movement that the bird actually uses”, explains Christoffer Johansson.

The research explains why birds flap the way they do, by finding out which movement patterns create the most force and are the most efficient. The results can also be used in other research areas, such as better understanding how the migration of birds is affected by climate change and access to food. There are also many potential uses for drones where these insights can be put to good use. One area might be using drones to deliver goods.

“Flapping drones could be used for deliveries, but they would need to be efficient enough and able to lift the extra weight this entails. How the wings move is of great importance for performance, so this is where our research could come in handy”, concludes Christoffer Johansson.

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JOURNAL

Advanced Intelligent Systems

DOI

10.1002/aisy.202200148 

ARTICLE TITLE

Robotic Avian Wing Explains Aerodynamic Advantages of Wing Folding and Stroke Tilting in Flapping Flight

How supervisors can create a better work environment for deaf or hard-of-hearing employees

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Hearing loss cases are climbing globally — 1 in 5 adults are affected — along with a growing number of older workers who are more likely to experience hearing loss. A new study from researchers at Portland State, Oregon State and York universities sheds light on how the severity of an employee's hearing loss can impact their experience at work — and the steps managers and employers can take to create a more inclusive environment for deaf or hard-of-hearing employees.

The study builds on prior research that says employees with hearing loss experience isolation at work, which can be detrimental to their career outcomes, and finds that tailored support can counter those experiences. 

The results suggest that the severity of an employee's hearing loss influences the degree to which they rely on professional connections for their sense of self, which then has downstream consequences for career outcomes. This is especially true among employees who have an unsupportive supervisor.

The study found that employees with more severe hearing loss tend to fare better, in large part because they tend to disengage from relationships with others at work. The researchers suggest that employees with more severe hearing loss are more likely to experience awkward, anxious and frustrating interactions with co-workers and have a harder time building and maintaining professional connections. Those workers often protect themselves by putting less importance on professional connections. When they care less and are less sensitive to fewer professional connections, their sense of isolation is not as high.

"We are not recommending that managers and supervisors stop worrying about supporting employees with more severe hearing loss; we're suggesting they offer tailored support," said Liu-Qin Yang, a professor of industrial-organizational psychology at PSU. She said that even if self-isolation is an effective coping mechanism, those employees ultimately have worse career outcomes in the areas of attitudes, commitment, satisfaction and salary levels.

Yang's co-authors Brent Lyons of York University and David Baldridge of Oregon State, who are both hard of hearing, offered insights into what that tailored support could look like.

Lyons, whose hearing loss fluctuates from severe to profound to moderate, says his needs vary and it's helpful when supervisors create a sense of openness for him to request certain accommodations. In one meeting, he might need to be seated next to the speaker; in another, he might need closed captions on the screen. 

"That might not always be the case for me and my needs may change," Lyons said. "But I really appreciate when supervisors are open and touch base on a regular basis: 'How are things going? What can we do to make sure that you can fully participate?'"

Baldridge, who has experienced full hearing, deafness and now restored hearing with cochlear implants, said flexibility — focusing on the results and not how the work is done — is also important. 

When it comes to facilitating professional connections, Baldridge said that organizing a one-on-one meeting or lunch in a quiet location would be more effective for an employee with hearing loss than trying to introduce them to people at a cocktail party. Supervisors can also connect them with employee resource groups or organizations such as the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) and the Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA).

Lyons also said that it's important for supervisors to create a culture of respect and understanding among all of their employees. 

"They can advocate on my behalf so co-workers don't start to think negatively about me if I don't attend a loud, busy event," he said. "That could lead to fewer opportunities, which would negatively affect my career."

The researchers are clear that, regardless of the severity of an employee's hearing loss, managers can play a critical role in making them feel included by working to understand their abilities, perceptions and limitations and helping them build professional connections that will be helpful throughout their careers.

The study was published in the Journal of Management. Camellia Bryan, a Ph.D. student at York University, is also a co-author.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Management

DOI

10.1177/01492063221143714 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Disability severity, professional isolation perceptions, and career outcomes: When Does Leader–Member Exchange Quality matter?

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Jan-2023

Disclaimer

Swarm intelligence caused by physical mechanisms

Researchers at Leipzig University studied swarm behaviour of microswimmers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITÄT LEIPZIG

“Scientific research on herd and flock behaviour is usually based on field observations. In such cases, it is usually difficult to reliably record the internal states of the herd animals,” Kroy said. As a result, the interpretation of observations frequently relies on plausible assumptions as to which individual behavioural rules are necessary for the complex collective groups under observation. Researchers at Leipzig University therefore developed an experimental model system of microswimmers that elicits properties of natural swarm intelligence and provides complete control over the individuals’ internal states, strategies, and transformation of signal perception into a navigational reaction.

Thanks to a sophisticated laser heating system (see image), the colloidal swimmers, which are visible only under the microscope, can actively self-propel in a water container by a kind of “thermophoretic self-propulsion” while their travel is permanently disturbed in a random manner by Brownian motion. “Apart from Brownian random motion, which is ubiquitous in microphysics, the experimental set-up provides complete control over the physical parameters and navigation rules of the individual colloidal swimmers and allows long-term observations of swarms of variable sizes,” Cichos said.

According to Cichos, when just a very simple and generic navigation rule is followed identically by all of the swimmers, a surprisingly complex swarm behaviour results. For example, if the swimmers are aiming at the same fixed point, instead of them gathering at the same place a kind of carousel can form. Similar to satellites or atomic electrons, the swimmers then orbit their attractive centre on circular paths of varying heights. The only “intelligent” behavioural rule required for this is that the self-propulsion responds to environmental perception with a certain time delay, which usually occurs in natural swarm phenomena from mosquito dances to road traffic anyway. It turns out that such a “delayed” effect alone is sufficient to form complex dynamic patterns such as the carousel described above. “Physically speaking, each individual swimmer can spontaneously break the radial symmetry of the system and go into circular motion if the product of the delayed time and swimming speed is large enough,” Kroy said. In contrast, the orbits of larger swarms and their synchronisation and stabilisation depend on additional details such as the steric, phoretic and hydrodynamic interactions between the individual swimmers.

Since all signal-response interactions in the living world occur in a time-delayed manner, these findings should also further the understanding of dynamic pattern formation in natural swarm ensembles. The researchers deliberately chose primitive and uniform navigation rules for their experiment. This allowed them to develop a stringent mathematical description of the observed phenomena. In the analysis of the delayed stochastic differential equations used for this purpose, the delay-induced effective synchronisation of the swimmers with their own past turned out to be the key mechanism for the spontaneous circular motion. To a large extent, the theory allows us to mathematically predict the experimental observations. “All in all, we have succeeded in creating a laboratory for swarms of Brownian microswimmers. This can serve as a building block for future systematic studies of increasingly complex and possibly still unknown swarm behaviour, and it may also explain why puppies often circle their food bowl when they are being fed,” Cichos said.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-35427-7 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Spontaneous vortex formation by microswimmers with retarded attractions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

Therapeutic value of drugs frequently marketed using direct-to-consumer TV advertising

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: Fewer than one-third of the most common drugs featured in direct-to-consumer television advertising were rated as having high therapeutic value, defined as providing at least moderate improvement in clinical outcomes compared with existing therapies, according to the results of this analysis.

Authors: Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.50991)

 http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.50991?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=011323

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

Study: Bilingual kids could lead in ocean environmental action

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

Participation in environmental education programs can motivate children across diverse language groups to act responsibly toward the environment, a recent study from North Carolina State University researchers suggests.

In the study, researchers surveyed 644 elementary school children about how motivated they were to act in ways that would help the environment – such as by using a reusable water bottle at home or refusing to use plastic straws in restaurants – before and after participating in an environmental education program.

The program, developed by the Duke University Marine Lab, focuses on trash in oceans and other waterways, and includes lessons on how long different types of trash persist in waterways, a trash clean-up, and hands-on investigations of challenges related to marine debris. After the program, students scored higher on average on the survey gauging their motivation to act for the environment. Bilingual or multilingual students saw bigger gains on average compared to students who spoke English primarily at home – a finding researchers say is promising, and needs to be investigated further.

“What we saw was that in aggregate, the programs seemed to encourage environmentally friendly actions among everybody, but when we dug down, most of the program’s effect was explained by the response from linguistically diverse children,” said study co-author Kathryn Stevenson, associate professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at NC State. “This is encouraging, as linguistically diverse children are making up more and more of the U.S. population, and we want our programs to resonate with everyone. It also highlights how young people with different backgrounds can make important contributions.  It also makes us wonder: Are students bringing these lessons home?”

The study is part of a research series looking at how environmental education can impact children, their families and their communities. In a previous study, researchers found parents’ climate change concern increases after their children are educated. In another study, they found that local leaders’ as well as voters’ views shifted after watching children’s presentations on an environmental issue.

“We’ve been interested in the mechanisms of inter-generational learning,” Stevenson said. “We saw this program can impact all children involved, but this suggests it might work differently for children who speak more than one language. For kids who act as translators for their family, they might be even more practiced at translating on many levels – linguistically or culturally – and we want to know how that might impact inter-generational learning about the environment.”

-oleniacz-

Note to editors: The abstract follows.

“How a marine debris environmental educational program plays to strengths of linguistically diverse learners”

Authors: Jenna M. Hartley, Kathryn T. Stevenson, Sasha Pereira, M. Nils Peterson, Danielle F. Lawson and Bryan Martinez.

Published: Jan. 12, 2023, Educational Psychology

DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2022.1058864

Abstract: Although environmental education (EE) has increased focus on how to best serve diverse populations, one understudied area is how linguistically diverse learners may engage with EE programming. Linguistic diversity is on the rise across the United States; for instance nearly one-third of all children between the ages of 0 and 8 have at least one parent who speaks a language other than English in the home. This study evaluated impacts of an EE curriculum designed to promote pro-environmental behavior change with a pre-post, treatment-control experimental design among students from linguistically diverse households. In partnership with teachers, we implemented the curriculum in elementary schools across the state of North Carolina, USA. Over two school years (2018-2020), 36 teachers from 31 schools across 18 counties participated in the study, providing 644 paired pre-post student responses (n = 204 control; n = 440 treatment). About 10% of the sample (n = 49 treatment, n = 18 control) reported speaking a language other than English at home. We tested hypotheses that the curriculum would increase behavior change among all students, but particularly among those from linguistically diverse households using multiple linear regression. Results indicate that the curriculum effectively encouraged pro-environmental behaviors for all students on average, but particularly among linguistically diverse students, adding to growing examples of the equigenic effects of environmental and nature-based education. These findings are consistent with research demonstrating that EE can contribute to behavior change among young learners and may be particularly well-suited to resonate with the unique contributions of linguistically diverse learners.

 

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Education

DOI

10.3389/feduc.2022.1058864 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

How a marine debris environmental education program plays to strengths of linguistically diverse learners

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Jan-2023

Clinical trial results indicate low rate of adverse events associated with implanted brain computer interface

The system safety is comparable to other chronically implanted devices used to manage neurologic disease

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

Key Takeaways

• Brain-computer interfaces, which provide a direct communication link between the brain and a computer or other external device, may help people with difficulty communicating due to paralysis caused by ALS, brainstem stroke, spinal cord injury, and other neurologic conditions
• The most sophisticated of these devices use sensors that are surgically placed into parts of the brain that control movement; however, the safety of these chronic brain implants is unknown
• Results from the largest and longest-running clinical trial of an implanted brain computer interface suggests that the investigational BrainGate Neural Interface system safety is comparable to other chronically implanted devices used to manage neurologic disease

BOSTON – For people with paralysis caused by neurologic injury or disease—such as ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), stroke, or spinal cord injury—brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have the potential to restore communication, mobility, and independence by transmitting information directly from the brain to a computer or other assistive technology.

Although implanted brain sensors, the core component of many brain-computer interfaces, have been used in neuroscientific studies with animals for decades and have been approved for short term use (<30 days) in humans, the long-term safety of this technology in humans is unknown.

New results from the prospective, open-label, non-randomized BrainGate feasibility study, the largest and longest-running clinical trial of an implanted BCI, suggests that these sensors’ safety is similar to other chronically implanted neurologic devices.

The BrainGate clinical trial is run by a collaborative consortium of investigators at multiple institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), who are working to develop BCIs for people affected by paralysis caused by neurologic disease or injury.

This new report, which is published in Neurology by an MGH-led team, examined data from 14 adults with quadriparesis (weakness in all four limbs) from spinal cord injury, brainstem stroke, or ALS who were enrolled in the BrainGate trial from 2004 to 2021 through seven clinical sites in the United States.

Participants underwent surgical implantation of one or two microelectrode arrays in a part of the brain responsible for generating the electrical signals that control limb movement. With these “Utah” microelectrode arrays, the brain signals associated with the intent to move a limb can then be sent to a nearby computer that decodes the signal in real-time and allows the user to control an external device simply by thinking about moving a part of their body.

The authors of the study report that across the 14 enrolled research participants, the average duration of device implantation was 872 days, yielding a total of 12,203 days for safety analyses. There were 68 device-related adverse events, including 6 device-related serious adverse events.

The most common device-related adverse event was skin irritation around the portion of the device that connects the implanted sensor to the external computer system. Importantly, they report that there were no safety events that required removal of the device, no infections of the brain or nervous system, and no adverse events resulting in permanently increased disability related to the investigational device.

“This interim report demonstrates that the investigational BrainGate Neural Interface system, which is still in ongoing clinical trials, thus far has a safety profile comparable to that of many approved implanted neurologic devices, such as deep brain stimulators and responsive neurostimulators,” says lead author Daniel Rubin, MD, PhD, a physician investigator in the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery (CTNR) in the Department of Neurology at MGH and an instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

“Given the rapid recent advances in this technology and continued performance gains, these data suggest a favorable risk/benefit ratio in appropriately selected individuals to support ongoing research and development.”

Daniel Rubin, MD, PhD

Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD, director of the BrainGate consortium and clinical trials and the article’s senior author emphasized the importance of ongoing safety analyses as surgically placed brain-computer interfaces advance through clinical studies. 

“While our consortium has published more than 60 articles detailing the ever-advancing ability to harness neural signals for the intuitive control of devices for communication and mobility, safety is the sine qua non of any potentially useful medical technology,” says Hochberg, who also co-directs CNTR, and is the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Engineering at Brown University, director of the VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology at VA Providence Healthcare System, and senior lecturer on Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

“The extraordinary people who enroll in our ongoing BrainGate clinical trials, and in early trials of any neurotechnology, deserve tremendous credit. They are enrolling not to gain personal benefit, but because they want to help"

Lee Hochberg, MD, PhD

Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc, chief of MGH’s Department of Neurology, director of the Sean M. Healey & AMD Center for ALS, and Julianne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School applauded the BrainGate study. “Clinical trials of innovative neurotechnologies and BCIs are incredibly exciting, especially with respect to diseases like ALS or spinal cord injury, where there is still no cure,” she says. “Alongside platform trials of novel medications, our Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery continues to lead in directing, performing, and growing the clinical trials that are providing promising new methods to improve the quality of life for people with neurologic disease.”

Additional MGH co-authors include Laurie Barefoot, APRN, Sydney S. Cash, MD, PhD, Carol Grant, BSN, RN, CCRN, CCRP, Rose Marujo, RN, Maryam Masood, MS, and Ziv M. Williams, MD. Drs. Hochberg and Cash co-direct the CNTR at Mass General. Contributing authors are from institutions including Brown University, VA Providence Healthcare system, Stanford University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Chicago, Barrow Neurological Institute, Rush University Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, Sargent Rehabilitation Center, and Northwestern University.

This work was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs; the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD); the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR); the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); the Office of Naval Research; Simons Foundation; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Conquer Paralysis Now; American Heart Association; ALS Association; Movement Disorder Foundation (Australia); The American Academy of Neurology; L. and P. Garlick, S. and B. Reeves; the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Deane Institute, The MGH Executive Committee on Research; Stanford University Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Bio-X Institute at Stanford; Robert J. & Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science at Brown University, Brown University School of Engineering, Brown University Office of the Vice President for Research; and Harvard Catalyst. The content of this paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the United States Government.

CAUTION: Investigational Device. Limited by Federal (or U.S.) law to investigational use.

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In July 2022, Mass General was named #8 in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America’s Best Hospitals." MGH is a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.

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JOURNAL

Neurology

DOI

10.1212/WNL.0000000000201707 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Interim Safety Profile From the Feasibility Study of the BrainGate Neural Interface System

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Jan-2023

Scientists sequence and annotate majority of Red Perilla’s genome, a step toward harnessing more of its medically valuable bioactive chemicals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: SCIENTISTS SEQUENCED AND GENERATED A HIGHLY CONTIGUOUS GENOME ASSEMBLY OF RED PERILLA CULTIVAR HOKO-3 view more 

CREDIT: MISHIMA FOODS CO., LTD.

Researchers in Japan have generated a high-quality genome assembly of red perilla (Perilla frutescens), a plant most often found in Asia and commonly known in Japan as Aka-Shiso and in Great Britain and the U.S. as Beefsteak Plant for its dark magenta leaves. The high-quality genome assembly will allow scientists to harness the plant’s abundance of potentially useful bioactive chemicals, among which are perillaldehyde and rosmarinic acid. Some of P. frutescens’ bioactive chemicals are thought to have medicinal properties. Rosmarinic acid is already widely in use as a supplement, with claims including anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antifungal, and antibacterial properties, to name a few. Perillaldehyde has shown similar potential for those uses, and there is some medical evidence to back those up, despite the market for phytochemical supplements still being mostly unregulated.

The research team, led by Hidemasa Bono, professor in Hiroshima University’s Graduate School of Integrated Science for Life, recently published their findings. The high-quality genome assembly may now serve as a reference for selecting target genes for genome editing of P. frutescens, according to the paper’s authors.

The research team’s findings were published on Nov. 16 in DNA Research.

The researchers selected P. frutescens, a member of the mint family Lamiaceae, because it is widely recognized as an important herbal plant for its unusually wide range of bioactive phytochemicals. Several enzymes for the biosynthesis of the compounds rosmarinic acid and perillaldehyde alone have been identified in the plant.

“Genome editing of red perilla for providing better traits is one of the promising ways to utilize this plant more effectively,” Bono said. “To do so, high-quality genome sequences of the target species are necessary.”

Genome editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas9 have been used to engineer biosynthetic pathways in plants, effectively recruiting the plants to produce compounds desirable in the manufacture of new and existing medications. The study authors cited another recent example of targeted gene editing, the tomato fruit, which can be recruited in this manner to produce GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid).

The researchers used Hoko-3, a specific strain of the P. frutescens. The data presented in this study shows Hoko-3 is highly genetically similar from plant to plant, in part because it is a self-fertilizing crop, making it ideal as a candidate for targeted gene editing. Genetic material was taken from young hydroponically grown leaves using a Genomic-tip kit. They sequenced the DNA using PacBio's Sequel IIe sequencer multiple times and consensus building software helped them generate contiguous sequence at a very high resolution.

“We achieved a highly contiguous genome assembly of red perilla domesticated in Japan using PacBio HiFi reads,” said first author Keita Tamura. “We anchored 99.2% of the assembly into 20 pseudochromosomes, among which seven pseudochromosomes consisted of one contiguous segment. Using systematic functional annotation workflow developed for plants called “Fanflow4Plants,” we functionally annotated 72,983 genes out of 76,825 protein coding genes.”

To annotate genes in the genome assembly, two complementary processes, each with unique strengths in sequencing, were used and the data were combined. “The number of gene models annotated in this study by combining two evidence-based annotations and the gene prediction method (BRAKER2) was 86,258, which is almost twice the previously assembled P. frutescens genome (43,527 genes) and close to the number of genes reported in another Lamiaceae tetraploid species Salvia splendens (88,489 genes),” Tamura and his co-authors wrote.

Now that the researchers have a high-quality genome assembly of Hoko-3, they can proceed with next steps toward unlocking the plant’s unique potential.

“The genome assembly and functional annotations obtained in this study will be used for mining the target genes for genome editing of red perilla,” Tamura said. “It could be possible to enhance the accumulation of valuable phytochemicals inside the plant.”

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About Hiroshima University

Since its foundation in 1949, Hiroshima University has striven to become one of the most prominent and comprehensive universities in Japan for the promotion and development of scholarship and education. Consisting of 12 schools for undergraduate level and 4 graduate schools, ranging from natural sciences to humanities and social sciences, the university has grown into one of the most distinguished comprehensive research universities in Japan. English website: https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en

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JOURNAL

DNA Research

DOI

10.1093/dnares/dsac044 

ARTICLE TITLE

A highly contiguous genome assembly of red perilla (Perilla frutescens) domesticated in Japan