NIH-developed HIV antibodies protect animals in proof-of-concept study

Findings support the HIV fusion peptide as a promising preventive vaccine target

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NIH/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

 

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TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROGRAPH OF HIV-1 VIRUS PARTICLES (BLUE) FROM INFECTED H9 CELLS, PRODUCED IN CELL CULTURE. THE PARTICLES EXHIBIT TWO STAGES OF REPLICATION: THE TWO “ARCS” ARE IMMATURE PARTICLES BUDDING FROM THE PLASMA MEMBRANE OF THE CELL, AND THE CENTER SPHERICAL PARTICLE IS A MATURE FORM IN EXTRACELLULAR SPACE. IMAGE CAPTURED AT THE NIAID INTEGRATED RESEARCH FACILITY IN FORT DETRICK, MARYLAND. 

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CREDIT: NIAID

WHAT:
Three different HIV antibodies each independently protected monkeys from acquiring simian-HIV (SHIV) in a placebo-controlled proof-of-concept study intended to inform development of a preventive HIV vaccine for people. The antibodies—a human broadly neutralizing antibody and two antibodies isolated from previously vaccinated monkeys—target the fusion peptide, a site on an HIV surface protein that helps the virus fuse with and enter cells. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, was led by the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. 

Antibodies that target the fusion peptide can neutralize diverse strains of HIV in vitro, that is, in a test tube or culture dish outside of a living organism. The NIAID VRC isolated a fusion peptide-directed human antibody, called VRC34.01, from a person living with HIV who donated blood samples for research. They also isolated two antibodies from rhesus macaques—a species of monkey with immune systems like humans’—who previously had received a vaccine regimen designed to generate fusion peptide-directed antibodies. Demonstrating that these antibodies protect animals would validate the fusion peptide as a target for human vaccine design. SHIV challenge—administering an infective dose of SHIV—to rhesus macaques is a widely used animal model for assessing the performance of HIV antibodies and vaccines. 

In this study, rhesus macaques in each of four groups received a single intravenous infusion of one type of antibody—a 2.5 or 10 mg/kg of bodyweight dose of VRC34.01, or one of the two vaccine-elicited rhesus macaque antibodies—and other monkeys received a placebo infusion. To determine the protective effect of the antibodies, each monkey was challenged five days after infusion with a strain of SHIV known to be sensitive to fusion peptide-directed antibodies. 

All monkeys that received a placebo infusion acquired SHIV following the challenge. Among monkeys that received VRC34.01 infusions, none receiving the 10 mg/kg dose and 25% of those receiving the 2.5 mg/kg dose acquired SHIV. Of those that received the vaccine-elicited rhesus macaque antibodies, no monkeys receiving the antibody called DFPH-a.15 acquired SHIV, and 25% of those receiving the antibody called DF1W-a.01 acquired SHIV. Over time, the concentration of antibodies in the blood of animals that received DFPH-a.15 declined. Those animals were re-challenged 30 days later to see if the lower concentration of antibodies had a decreased protective effect, and half of them acquired SHIV. 

The three antibodies studied each provided statistically significant protection from SHIV, and the effect was dose dependent, that is, highest in monkeys with greater antibody concentrations in their blood. 

According to the authors, these findings represent the proof-of-concept that fusion peptide-directed antibodies can provide protection against SHIV and help determine the concentration of antibodies a vaccine would need to generate to be protective. They suggest that their findings on vaccine-elicited antibodies in some animals support further work to design preventive HIV vaccine concepts targeting the fusion peptide. They conclude that an effective HIV vaccine targeting the HIV fusion peptide likely will need to expand upon the concepts used in this study, by generating multiple varieties of fusion peptide-directed antibodies. This would increase the likelihood that the vaccine could maintain a preventive effect across the vastly diverse HIV variants in circulation.

ARTICLE:
A Pegu et al. Antibodies targeting the fusion peptide on the HIV envelope provide protection to rhesus macaques against mucosal SHIV challenge. Science Translational Medicine DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adh9039 (2024).

NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health®
 

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JOURNAL

Science Translational Medicine

DOI

10.1126/scitranslmed.adh9039 

Chromatin modifier-centered pathway points to higher crop yield

 JAN-2024

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS

 

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TGW3 PHOSPHORYLATION OF HHC4 SHAPES RICE GRAIN SIZE THROUGH FUNCTIONAL IMPAIRMENT OF A CHROMATIN MODIFIER TERNARY COMPLEX

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CREDIT: IBCAS

Chromatin is the complex of DNA and proteins that makes up the genetic material in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. A chromatin modifier is a protein or complex of proteins that chemically modifies the structure of chromatin. Chromatin modifiers play a crucial role in regulating the expression of genes, which are segments of DNA strands, as well as in other chromatin-related processes. These modifiers mainly work by adding or subtracting chemical groups to histones, a type of protein within the chromatin, or to the DNA itself.

In the scientific effort to manipulate the expression of plant genes, such as for grain size or drought-resistance, etc., understanding the influence of chromatin modifiers is an important avenue of research.

A team led by Prof. SONG Xianjun from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, while researching a ternary protein complex in rice nuclei that affects grain size, has shown that the transcription factor bZIP23—a protein that regulates the transcription of genetic DNA information into RNA and is part of the ternary complex—recruits the chromatin-modifying histone acetyltransferase HHC4 to specific promoters on the DNA. Furthermore, they discovered that HHC4 and the adaptor protein ADA2 additively enhance the bZIP23 transactivation of target genes.

The researchers also showed that HHC4 is phosphorylated by the GSK3-like kinase TGW3, which triggers a series of negative influences on the capabilities of the ternary complex.

These findings, published in Developmental Cell, contribute to a deeper understanding of the epigenetic regulation of grain size.

A previous study by Prof. SONG showed that GRAIN WEIGHT 6a (GW6a) encodes a newly identified histone acetyltransferase (OsglHAT1) that is a positive regulator of grain size and rice yield.

“At the beginning of this study, we identified five rice homologs of OsglHAT1 on chromosomes 2, 3, 4, and 7 (hence named HHCs) and sought to investigate whether these homologs also modulate grain size,” said Dr. SHEN Shaoyan, first author of the study. "Interestingly, HHC4 regulates grain size but adopts a different cytological mechanism from GW6a."

Using a series of molecular biology techniques, including chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) and immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry (IP-MS), bZIP23 was shown to directly interact with HHC4.

The bZIP23 gene has been characterized for its role in salinity and drought resistance as well as seed vigor in rice; however, whether it could regulate grain size was unknown. The researchers subsequently discovered that overexpression of bZIP23 significantly increased rice grain size, and bZIP23 and HHC4 co-targeted and synergistically activated the expression of several positive regulators of grain size.

Furthermore, the researchers found that HHC4, ADA2, and bZIP23 interact with each other, and the resulting ternary complex facilitates the additive enhancement of bZIP23 transactivation on target genes by ADA2 and HHC4.

Meanwhile, yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) screening revealed that the GSK3-like kinase protein TGW3 also interacts with HHC4. In addition, the researchers showed that HHC4 is directly phosphorylated by TGW3.

Mutation analysis suggested that two serine residues (S189 and S190) of HHC4 are major sites of phosphorylation by TGW3.

Comparisons with mature grains of transgenic rice plants containing the mimicked phosphorylated and unphosphorylated versions of HHC4 suggested that phosphorylation is involved in grain size control.

Subsequent experimental data showed that phosphorylation exerts many negative influences, such as on the protein stability of HHC4, its interaction with bZIP23, and bZIP23's transactivation of target genes.

In addition, the researchers showed that both HHC4 overexpression and TGW3 knockout substantially increased rice grain yield by up to 24% in field trials.

Overall, these findings uncover a previously unknown chromatin modifier-centered pathway for grain size regulation in rice and provide useful genetic resources for high-yield crop breeding programs.

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JOURNAL

Developmental Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.devcel.2023.12.013 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Optimizing rice grain size by attenuating phosphorylation-triggered functional impairment of a chromatin modifier ternary complex

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2024

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M;BIG PHARMA

Panel members for new psychiatric ‘bible’ received over $14M from industry

Study finds six in 10 US physician contributors had financial ties to industry. Findings raise questions about editorial independence

BMJ

Sixty percent of US physicians serving as panel and task force members for the American Psychiatric Association’s official manual of psychiatric disorders received payments from industry totalling $14.24m, finds a study published by The BMJ.

Because of the enormous influence of diagnostic and treatment guidelines, the researchers say their findings “raise questions about the editorial independence of this diagnostic manual.”

Often referred to as the ‘bible’ of psychiatric disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR) is the latest edition of the guide that doctors use to diagnose and treat patients. It is thus critical that authors of this psychiatric taxonomy should be free of industry ties.

But until the development of Open Payments (a database of financial relationships between companies and physicians), it wasn’t possible to determine the amount of monies received by authors of diagnostic and clinical practice guidelines.

To address this, researchers used data from Open Payments to assess the extent and types of financial ties to industry of panel and task force members of the DSM-5-TR.

Their analysis included 92 physicians based in the US who served as members of either a panel (86) or task force (6) on the DSM-5-TR from 2016-19, the time during which work was initiated and completed for the 2022 text revision.

Of these 92 individuals, 55 (60%) received payments from industry. Collectively, these panel members received a total of $14.24m (£11.21m; €12.96m). Only two of the six task force members had any payments reported in Open Payments, totaling $196.02 and $792.67 for 2016-19.

The most common types of payment were for food and beverages (91%), followed by travel (69%) and consulting (69%).

The greatest proportion of compensation by category of payment was for research funding (70%) which the authors point out was excluded from the American Psychiatric Association’s disclosure policy for the previous edition (DSM-5).

They highlight some study limitations, such as not including payments to physicians based outside the US or non-physician prescribers and acknowledge that amounts listed in the database may be imprecise.

Nevertheless, they say this study “provides novel data about the appreciable conflicts of interest in the DSM-5-TR and extends past research on this topic.”

To ensure unbiased, evidence based mental health practice, there should be a rebuttable presumption of prohibiting financial conflicts of interest among the panel and task force members of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, they write.

When no independent individuals with the requisite expertise are available, they suggest that those with associations to industry could consult to the panels, but they would not have decision making authority on revisions or inclusion of new disorders.

“As researchers, clinicians, policy makers, and leaders in evidence based medicine have argued, guideline writers should be free of financial relationships with industry, especially those writers who are responsible for such an influential manual on psychiatric taxonomy,” they conclude.

 

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JOURNAL

The BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj-2023-076902 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest in DSM-5-TR: cross sectional analysis

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Jan-2024

COI STATEMENT

All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: BJP reports contributing to an osteoarthritis research team supported by Pfizer and Eli Lilly (2019-21) and reports receiving grants from the Pennsylvania Academic Clinical Research Center, outside the submitted work; no support from any organization for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

 

Is there a common link between the physical and social worlds? Two brothers think so.

A Rutgers biophysical chemist and his elder sibling, a political scientist at Berkeley, explore shared concepts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: 

BROTHERS KENNETH BRESLAUER OF RUTGERS (AT RIGHT) AND GEORGE BRESLAUER OF BERKELEY, RENOWNED SCHOLARS IN THEIR FIELDS, HAVE LONG WANTED TO COLLABORATE ON A PROJECT. A NEW RESEARCH PAPER IS THE CULMINATION OF THAT DREAM.

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CREDIT: RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

A Rutgers biophysical chemist and his brother, a political scientist on the West Coast, have joined intellectual forces, realizing a long-standing dream of co-authoring an article that bridges their disciplines involving cells and society.

In their paper, they have proposed that powerful parallels exist between the microscopic, natural world of cells and molecules and the human-forged realm of organizations and political systems.

Taking it a step further, the brothers – eminent scholars who have served as top leaders of their respective institutions – have proposed that humankind can draw lessons from what the microscopic and macroscopic worlds have in common. Ideally, they said, their perspective could alert policymakers to strategies for responding adaptively to improve the performance of their institutions and political systems.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science Nexus, Kenneth Breslauer, a Linus C. Pauling Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology with the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), and his older brother, George Breslauer, a Chancellor’s Professor of Political Science at the University of California-Berkeley, have identified and analyzed similarities in rules that apply to both the natural and social realms.

“Our focus is particularly timely given the growing global challenges to various forms of governance and the emergence of history-changing biology,” said Kenneth, who has been a member of the Rutgers faculty for 50 years and is the university’s founding dean of life sciences. “Many stability-based concepts, characteristics and phenomena within the physical sciences find analogous expression in the influences on the relative stabilities of socio-political systems.”

Kenneth, one the world’s foremost authorities on the forces that control the structure and function of biological molecules, was described in 2018 by former SAS Executive Dean Peter March as “the architect of our outstanding life science programs, which have helped establish Rutgers as a premier institution within the [Association of American Universities.]” In addition, Kenneth has been the dean of the Division of Life Sciences, the vice president for Health Science Partnerships and the vice president for Research.

His brother George is recognized as a world-renowned expert in Soviet and Russian politics and foreign relations. In his area of expertise, he is the author of 14 books. At UC Berkeley, George has been the chair of the Center for Slavic and East European Studies, dean of the social sciences, executive dean of the College of Letters and Science and executive vice chancellor and provost.

Born 14 months apart, the Breslauers grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens, raised by parents who were refugees from Nazi Germany.

“George and I are each other’s best friend,” Kenneth said.

The brothers have waited years to work together. Their paper, they said, is a “bucket list” item for both.

The two used the shared concept of “stability” as their prism.

The molecular workings of microscopic systems such as a cell or molecule are generally understood to be subject to the laws of nature, the Breslauers said, while social and political events are thought to be structured by human action and chance. However, both natural, molecular systems and sociopolitical organizations, under the influences of analogous features, they said, exhibit some level of stability, instability and even "metastability," a state of precarious stability.

For example, a chemical system can be metastable for extended periods of time, when it becomes trapped in a high energy state, until outside influences are sufficient to perturb and disrupt the stability of the trapped species. Analogously, isolated social states such as the former country of East Germany can persist in a metastable state for decades until the isolating boundaries are breached by outside influences.

The researchers likened a political science macroscopic concept, known as the “collective action” barrier, with the chemical property of cooperativity, which accelerates microscopic molecular transformations from one chemical state to another.

With respect to the societal collective action barrier, individuals who want to change an aspect of their government are less likely to act if they believe they are alone. Rather, they are more likely to advocate collectively for change if they believe they are one of many similarly minded people.

Likewise, in the natural world, when molecules are arranged in an optimal configuration, they can collectively “snowball,” accelerating a chemical transformation. This phenomenon is known as a cooperative transition.

The idea for the study arose five years ago when the Breslauer brothers were strolling near Lincoln Center in Manhattan. George mentioned that his latest work had just been published. Kenneth asked George about the theme of his research that shaped the publications.

“He told me it was proposing what features allow certain social institutions to maintain stability for extended periods of time, a characteristic that can be referred to as ‘longitudinal persistence,’” Kenneth said. “George went on to identify about five characteristics that were necessary. I stopped him at that point and said, ‘George, you just described features that are completely analogous to what provides molecules with their stability.’”

Kenneth then realized that the microscopic molecular world he studied exhibited many analogous core features with the macroscopic societal world that his brother studied, particularly in terms of the features that allow systems to form, adapt and persist, or rise and fall like the Roman Empire.

“One can think of a central government as the central nucleus of the cell,” Kenneth said. “Imagine regional governments as the embedded mitochondria and other specialized organelles. Carrying the analogy further, a country's borders are analogous to the cell membrane.”

Kenneth added; “There are so many parallels between nature and society. Identifying and examining such structural, organizational and functional analogues yields a wealth of information that is just waiting to be mined.”

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JOURNAL

PNAS Nexus

DOI

10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad401 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Political science meets physical science: The shared concept of stability

 

Wristband monitors provide detailed account of air pollution exposure

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Environmental epidemiologists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Oregon State University, Pacific Northwest National Labs, and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, report on the findings of a new study of air pollution exposures collected using personal wristband monitors worn by pregnant individuals in New York City matched with data from a questionnaire. Factors predictive of exposures to air pollution include income, time spent outdoors, maternal age, country of birth, transportation type, and season.

The researchers examined an unprecedented number of 61 air pollution compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and compared them to 75 questionnaire variables, making the study the most comprehensive analysis of its kind. PAHs are created by combustion and can be found in sources like automotive exhaust and tobacco smoke; exposure to these compounds has been linked to various adverse health effects, including those related to fetal growth and neurodevelopment. The study’s findings appear online in the Journal of Exposure Science And Environmental Epidemiology(link is external and opens in a new window).

Participants, 177 of whom were included in the final analysis, wore silicone wristbands for 48 hours during the third trimester of pregnancy to measure exposure to PAHs. They completed a questionnaire during the third trimester of their pregnancy, answering questions related to demographic and employment information, as well as their potential exposure sources, such as cooking, smoking, and transportation.

Julie Herbstman, PhD, director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health and senior author of the study, commented, “This study represents a significant advancement in our understanding of personal PAH exposure. By uncovering the variables that play a crucial role in exposure levels, we are better equipped to develop interventions aimed at reducing health risks.”

Previous studies have been restricted to a limited number of compounds or specific exposure scenarios (e.g. toll station workers or cooks).  Compared to these studies, the new study demonstrated substantially improved predictability due to the use of a larger dataset, as well as the use of a regression tree analysis, which accounted for each PAH compound as well as combined exposure to all PAHs. This approach helps researchers to identify those variables that are most important and/or predictive of exposure to a compound in the context of all other variables.

Sarah McLarnan, MPH, a PhD candidate at Columbia Mailman and the study’s first author, adds, “This study underscored the utility of silicone wristbands in evaluating PAH exposures and associated health outcomes. By combining questionnaire data with a 48-hour wristband deployment, we were able to refine measurements of exposure sources in terms of time and space, enabling more accurate source characterization.”

The study uncovered complex interactions between demographics and behaviors that shape exposure to individual compounds in different ways. Insights it gleaned require further study to understand the pathways by which various factors are linked to PAH exposures. As one example, the researchers are interested to know how maternal age and income are associated with behaviors or residential characteristics that are protective from some exposure sources but were shown to have opposite effect for some of the individual compounds.

The authors note that the wristbands are unable to detect all exposures to PAHs, particularly exposures via food. And because the wristbands were worn only for 48 hours, the exposures might not fully reflect an individual’s average exposure over the course of pregnancy.  

We all can reduce our exposure to PAHs by avoiding tobacco smoke and ensuring we have good indoor ventilation, especially when cooking; reduce our intake of smoked, grilled, and charbroiled foods; limit exposure to diesel fumes and wood smoke; use cedar shavings or blocks in place of mothballs for pest control; and wear gloves to avoid skin contact with soot or creosote-treated lumber, and wear a mask if cutting treated lumber. 

Previous research by the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health has linked prenatal exposure to PAHs with numerous adverse outcomes in the child, including asthma, obesity, and developmental delays.

Additional co-authors include Lehyla Calero, Darrell Holmes, Elizabeth A. Gibson, and Haleigh M. Cavalier from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; Lisa M. Bramer and Katrina M. Waters from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Holly M. Dixon and Kim A. Anderson from Oregon State University; Diana Rohlman and Laurel Kincl from Oregon State University; and Rachel L. Miller from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

This research was supported by National Institute of Health grants UH3OD023290, 1R21ES024718, 4R33ES024718, P30ES030287, P42ES016465, T32 ES007322; TRANSFORM TL-1 Fellowship 5TL1TR001875-07. Anderson and Rohlman disclose a financial interest in MyExposome, Inc., which is marketing products related to the research being reported. The authors have no other relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology

DOI

10.1038/s41370-023-00617-y 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Journal of Exposure Science And Environmental Epidemiology

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Jan-2024

COI STATEMENT

KAA and DR, authors of this research, disclose a financial interest in MyExposome, Inc., which is marketing products related to the research being reported.

 

Scaling up urban agriculture: Research team outlines roadmap

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: 

A COMMUNITY GARDEN IN ST. LOUIS PROVIDES FRESH PRODUCE FOR RESIDENTS.

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CREDIT: LAUREN D. QUINN, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

URBANA, Ill. — Urban agriculture has the potential to decentralize food supplies, provide environmental benefits like wildlife habitat, and mitigate environmental footprints, but researchers have identified knowledge gaps regarding both the benefits and risks of urban agriculture and the social processes of growing more food in urban areas.

In a new paper published in Nature Food, an interdisciplinary group of experts, including a researcher from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, survey existing international studies on the benefits and downsides of urban agriculture and propose a framework for scaling it up. 

Study co-author Chloe Wardropper, assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at U. of I., says more than two-thirds of the global population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050, and the resilience of these areas may be compromised by their heavy reliance on imported food. Increasing urban agriculture could reinforce the sustainability and resilience of urban regions in the future, but Wardropper says there are open questions about how best to scale up and what environmental, health, and equity concerns would need to be addressed. 

"We propose a framework of three interconnected phases to better understand and shape urban agriculture growth in the future," Wardropper said. "The first phase of growth would include expanding individuals’ interest in, knowledge of, and access to resources to undertake agriculture in urban regions. This phase should be followed by institutionalization, or the transformation of rules and organizational support for urban agriculture. Third, economic and market growth would increasingly support and diversify urban food."

She notes that urban agriculture is not a panacea; urban-rural connections will remain important for global food security and consumption. 

"We need to consider all the tools in the toolbox for sustainability and resilience under climate change," she said. "Urban agriculture could be particularly important for cities like Miami whose imports could be cut off unexpectedly by extreme weather."

The study, “Scale up urban agriculture to leverage transformative food systems change, advance social–ecological resilience and improve sustainability,” is published in Nature Food [DOI: 10.1038/s43016-023-00902-x]. Authors include Jiangxiao Qiu, Hui Zhao, Ni-Bin Chang, Chloe B. Wardropper, Catherine Campbell, Jacopo A. Baggio, Zhengfei Guan, Patrice Kohl, Joshua Newell, and Jianguo Wu.

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JOURNAL

Nature Food

DOI

10.1038/s43016-023-00902-x 

 

The fallacy of the local bar: do individuals opt to travel farther than the neighborhood watering hole?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

January 17, 2024--  Individuals travel beyond their residential neighborhood and area of work to bars, but tend to travel to liquor stores closer to home, according to a new study at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. The findings are published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review. 

“Our study aimed to characterize individuals’ trips to alcohol outlets and describe these trip locations in the context of the mixed results we have seen from previous studies on alcohol outlet density and consumption,” said Christina A. Mehranbod, in the Department of Epidemiology, and first author. “Understanding where people travel to access alcohol outlets, like bars and liquor stores, is essential for understanding the environments to which people are exposed and ultimately influence decisions related to alcohol consumption.” 

Using 2014-2018 household travel data from the Victoria Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity from Victoria, Australia, the researchers categorized trip origins and destinations by 10 place types, by total trip distance and duration, and geographic location as well as transport mode, and other personal and household level variables including age, and income, among others. 

People were willing to travel to a bar travel farther than the distance and time people were willing to travel to liquor stores. Among 23,512 respondents, 378 or 1.6 percent traveled 18 minutes and approximately 5 miles to visit a bar versus the 79 study participants or 0.3 percent for a liquor store purchase. Bar trips added slightly over 5 miles and 18 minutes to cumulative travel; 41percent attended bars co-located in participants’ home local government area.

“Trips to and from liquor stores were shorter and quicker than trips to and from bars,” observed Christopher Morrison, PhD, assistant professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and senior author.

One-one-way trips to liquor stores had a mean distance of 8.7 miles and took 12.2 minutes, but these trips added only 3 miles and 8.9 minutes to the cumulative travel distance over the full day. “We attribute this variation because trips to liquor stores are commonly part of complex trips involving multiple stops, Morrison noted. Additionally, trips to liquor stores are part of more complex daily journeys — for example, it can be a stop between someone’s workplace and home. Also people might travel farther for unique bar experiences but proximity influences liquor store purchases.”

“This finding highlights the fact that alcohol outlet placement potentially affects populations well beyond the neighborhood in which outlets are placed,” said Morrison.

In addition to describing where people travel to access bars and liquor stores, the research team also tested the impact of alcohol outlet density on trips to alcohol outlets. In sync with other literature, Morrison and team found alcohol outlet density to play a role.

“With alcohol consumption continuing to take a considerable toll on public health, we believe that refining the scientific methods for measuring exposure to alcohol outlets that may influence decisions to consume alcohol remains a research priority,” said Mehranbod.

Co-authors are Ariana Gobaud and Brady Bushover, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.  Christopher Morrison is based at Columbia University and has an adjunct appointment at Monash University.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (F31AA031193, K01AA026327, R01AA029112), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (T32DA031099), and National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (R49CE003094).

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the fourth largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.publichealth.columbia.edu

 

 

 

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JOURNAL

Drug and Alcohol Review

DOI

10.1111/dar.13808 

 

From dawn of time to dusk – our evolutionary ability to perceive time in art

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

Scientists have shown that people are able to tell apart morning from evening depictions in paintings using simple and subtle colour clues in the image.

A study by Newcastle University, UK, and Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, published in the Journal of Vision, has found that people use a combination of colour and brightness in a painting to predict the time of day in the image.

For a large range of paintings over three centuries, study participants were able to establish the timing regardless of the exact content or style of painting and this was purely based on the selection of shades used.

Visual perception

In an online behavioural experiment, 51 people rated 104 mostly little-known landscape paintings as depicting either morning, noon, afternoon, evening, or night.

Although the paintings were taken from a range of artists and from across the 17th to 20th century, the time of day ratings people gave them were surprisingly consistent.

In general, paintings with lighter, paler blues and darker yellows were viewed as morning, and those with darker blues and brighter yellows seen as evening.

Anya Hurlbert, Professor of Visual Neuroscience at Newcastle University, who led the study, said: “Our findings show painters tap into fundamental processes of visual perception that adults possess.

“They appear to be subconsciously understanding how the human brain has learned over evolution to interpret changes in daylight and this adds to our understanding of visual perception.

“This research is one of the first to show that painters deploy simple colour and brightness cues to convey something as abstract as time of day.”

From nature to art

The colour and brightness of natural daylight change regularly over the course of the day and offer subtle colour clues that this research showed most people interpreted in the same way.

Experts have shown that daylight is a mixture of direct sunlight and diffuse skylight, meaning the nuances in hue are constrained to follow a curve from blue to orange/yellow.  

At dawn, the light changes colour rapidly from a dark blue to a brighter yellow or neutral hue; at dusk, it changes in the opposite direction, becoming bluer as it darkens.  In morning and evening, when the sun is close to the horizon, daylight is dimmer than at midday. People were able to pick up on these subtle clues.

Professor Hurlbert said: “The experiment was performed online. A separate experiment in the lab, with a calibrated image display and a smaller number of participants, confirmed the results of the online one.

“Therefore, paintings make a rich source of information for scientists to understand how visual perception works.”

Reference: Time-of-day perception in paintings. Cehao Yu et al. Journal of Vision. DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.1.1

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JOURNAL

Journal of Vision

DOI

10.1167/jov.24.1.1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Content analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Time-of-day perception in paintings