Monday, April 27, 2020

Honey bees could help monitor fertility loss in insects due to climate change

Research could help track how heat impacts sperm cells

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Volume 90%

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VIDEO: NEW RESEARCH FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA AND NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY COULD HELP SCIENTISTS TRACK HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS IMPACTING BEE REPRODUCTION. view more

CREDIT: UBC MEDIA RELATIONS

New research from the University of British Columbia and North Carolina State University could help scientists track how climate change is impacting the birds and the bees... of honey bees.

Heat can kill sperm cells across the animal kingdom, yet there are few ways to monitor the impact of heat on pollinators like honey bees, who are vital to ecosystems and agriculture around the world.

In a study published in Nature Sustainability, researchers used a technique called mass spectrometry to analyse sperm stored in honey bee queens and found five proteins that are activated when the queens are exposed to extreme temperatures.

The proteins could be used as a tool to monitor heat stress in queen bees, and serve as a bellwether for wider insect fertility losses due to climate change.

"Just like cholesterol levels are used to indicate the risk of heart disease in humans, these proteins could indicate whether a queen bee has experienced heat stress," said lead author Alison McAfee, a biochemist at the Michael Smith Labs at UBC and postdoc at NC State. "If we start to see patterns of heat shock emerging among bees, that's when we really need to start worrying about other insects."

Although honey bees are quite resilient compared to other non-social insects, they are a useful proxy because they are managed by humans all over the world and are easy to sample.

The researchers were particularly interested in queen bees because their reproductive capacity is directly linked to the productivity of a colony. If the sperm stored by a queen is damaged, she can "fail" when she no longer has enough live sperm to produce enough drones and worker bees to maintain a colony.

"We wanted to find out what 'safe' temperatures are for queen bees and explore two potential routes to heat exposure: during routine shipping and inside colonies," said McAfee. "This information is really important for beekeepers, who often have no way to tell what condition the queens they receive are in. That can have a really dramatic impact on their quality and quality of their colonies."

First McAfee established what the threshold for queen "failure" was, and how much heat they could withstand by exposing them to a range of temperatures and durations.

"Our data suggests that temperatures between 15 to 38 degrees Celsius are safe for queens," said McAfee. "Above 38 degrees, the percentage of live sperm dropped to or below the level we see in failed queens compared to healthy queens, which is an 11.5 per cent decrease from the normal 90 per cent."

The researchers then placed temperature loggers in seven domestic queen shipments via ground and one by air. They found that one package experienced a temperature spike to 38 degrees Celsius, while one dropped to four degrees Celsius.

"These findings can help create better guidelines for safe queen bee transportation and help buyers and sellers track the quality of queens," said co-author Leonard Foster, a professor at the Michael Smith Labs at UBC.

While bee colonies are generally thought to be good at regulating the temperature inside hives, the researchers wanted to know how much the temperature actually fluctuated. They recorded the temperatures in three hives in August in El Centro, California, when the ambient temperature in the shade below each hive reached up to 45 degrees Celsius.

They found that in all three hives, the temperatures at the two outermost frames spiked upwards of 40 degrees Celsius for two to five hours, while in two of the hives, temperatures exceeded 38 degrees Celsius one or two frames closer to the core.

"This tells us that a colony's ability to thermoregulate begins to break down in extreme heat, and queens can be vulnerable to heat stress even inside the hive," said co-author Jeff Pettis, an independent research consultant and former USDA-ARS scientist.

Having established these key parameters, the researchers will continue to refine the use of the protein signature to monitor heat stress among queen bees.

"Proteins can change quite easily, so we want to figure out how long these signatures last and how that might affect our ability to detect these heat stress events," said McAfee. "I also want to figure out if we can identify similar markers for cold and pesticide exposure, so we can make more evidence-based management decisions. If we can use the same markers as part of a wider biomonitoring program, then that's twice as useful."

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Stress in parents of children with autism: Pets may help

MU researcher examines impact of pet dogs, cats on families with autism

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

IMAGE: DR. GRETCHEN CARLISLE IS A RESEARCH SCIENTIST WITH THE RESEARCH CENTER FOR HUMAN-ANIMAL INTERACTION IN THE MU COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. view more

CREDIT: MU COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

COLUMBIA, Mo. - While current events have increased stress for all families, parents of children with autism report higher levels of stress on average than parents of typically developing kids. Feeling overwhelmed and overburdened by various responsibilities, some parents turn to pets as a source of comfort and support.

Now, research from the University of Missouri has found that pets lead to strong bonds and reduced stress for both children with autism and their parents.

Gretchen Carlisle, a research scientist with the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, surveyed more than 700 families from the Interactive Autism Network on the benefits and burdens of having a dog or cat in the family. She found that despite the responsibility of pet care, both children with autism and their parents reported strong bonds with their pets. Pet ownership was not related to parent stress, and parents with multiple pets reported more benefits.

"Given that the characteristics of autism spectrum disorder are so broad, it can be difficult to identify interventions that are widely beneficial," Carlisle said. "Some of the core challenges that children with autism face include anxiety and difficulty communicating. As pets can help increase social interaction and decrease anxiety, we found that they are not only helpful in providing comfort and support to children with autism, but to their parents as well."

For parents considering adding a pet into their family, Carlisle recommends including the child in the decision and making sure the pet's activity level is a good match with the child's.

"Some kids with autism have specific sensitivities, so a big, loud dog that is highly active might cause sensory overload for a particular child, while a quiet cat may be a better fit," Carlisle said. "My goal is to provide parents with evidence-based information so they can make informed choices for their families."

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"Exploring Human-Companion Animal Interaction in Families of Children with Autism" was recently published in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Funding for the study was provided by Nestlé Purina. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

No time to waste to avoid future food shortages

ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR TRANSLATIONAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS

DURING THE PAST FEW WEEKS, EMPTY SUPERMARKET SHELVES, WITHOUT PASTA, RICE AND FLOUR DUE TO PANIC BUYING, HAS CAUSED PUBLIC CONCERNS ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF RUNNING OUT OF FOOD. AUSTRALIAN FARMERS HAVE REASSURED CONSUMERS SAYING THAT THE COUNTRY PRODUCES ENOUGH FOOD TO FEED THREE TIMES ITS POPULATION. HOWEVER, WILL THIS STATEMENT REMAIN TRUE IN TEN TO TWENTY YEARS IN A COUNTRY SEVERELY AFFECTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE? THE ANSWER IS YES, IF WE ARE PREPARED FOR THIS AND IF THERE IS CONTINUOUS FUNDING TOWARDS CREATING SOLUTIONS TO INCREASE CROP PRODUCTION.

IMAGE: PROFESSOR ROBERT FURBANK, COETP DIRECTOR AND PROFESSOR JOHN EVANS, COETP CHIEF INVESTIGATOR AT THE ANU GLASSHOUSES IN CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA view more

CREDIT: NATALIA BATEMAN, ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR TRANSLATIONAL PHOTOSYNTHESI

"Plant scientists are punching above their weight by participating in global, interdisciplinary efforts to find ways to increase crop production under future climate change conditions. We essentially need to double the production of major cereals before 2050 to secure food availability for the rapidly growing world population," says ANU Professor Robert Furbank from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis (CoETP).

"It is similar to finding a virus vaccine to solve a pandemic, it doesn't happen overnight. We know that Australia's agriculture is going to be one area of the world that is most affected by climate extremes, so we are preparing to have a toolbox of plant innovations ready to ensure global food security in a decade or so, but to do this we need research funding to continue," Professor Furbank says.

Several examples of these innovative solutions were published recently in a special issue on Food Security Innovations in Agriculture in the Journal of Experimental Botany, including five reviews and five research articles.

Co-editor of the Special Issue, ANU Professor John Evans, says that this publication highlights the now widely accepted view that improving photosynthesis - the process by which plants convert sunlight, water and CO2 into organic matter - is a new way to increase crop production that is being developed.

"We are working on improving photosynthesis on different fronts, as the articles included in this special issue show, from finding crop varieties that need less water, to tweaking parts of the process in order to capture more carbon dioxide and sunlight. We know that there is a delay of at least a decade to get these solutions to the breeders and farmers, so we need to start developing new opportunities now before we run out of options," says Professor Evans, CoETP Chief Investigator.

The special issue includes research solutions that range from traditional breeding approaches to ambitious genetic engineering projects using completely different ends of the technological spectrum; from robot tractors, to synthetic biology. All these efforts are focused on finding ways to make crops more resistant to drought and extreme climate conditions and being more efficient in the use of land and fertilisers.

"Our research is contributing to providing food security in a global context, and people often ask what that has to do with Australian farmers and my answer is everything. Aside from the fact that economy and agriculture are globally inter-connected, if Australian farmers have a more productive resilient and stable crop variety, they are able to plan for the future, which turns into a better agribusiness and at the same time, ensures global security across the world," says Professor Furbank.

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This research has been funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis (CoETP), led by the Australian National University, which aims to improve the process of photosynthesis to increase the production of major food crops such as sorghum, wheat and rice.

This research is published in the Journal of Experimental Botany Special issue on Innovations in Agriculture for Food Security (Volume 71, Issue 7, April 2020)

Journalists who want to link to the Journal of Experimental Special issue and associated papers in their stories can use the following link: https://academic.oup.com/jxb/issue/71/7

RUSSIA

What comes after COVID-19? Special issue in the journal Population and Economics

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

IMAGE: OPEN-ACCESS PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL *POPULATION AND ECONOMICS* BY LOMONOSOV MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY (FACULTY OF ECONOMICS). view more

CREDIT: *POPULATION AND ECONOMICS*At this alarming time, when the COVID-19 pandemic is on everyone's mind, a new special issue in the open-access peer-reviewed journal *Population and Economics* by Lomonosov Moscow State University (Faculty of Economics) provides a platform for discussion on the impact of the pandemic on the population and economics, both in Russia and worldwide by opening a special issue. An introductory overview for the issue is provided by its Editor-in-Chief, Irina E. Kalabikhina of the Faculty of Economics at Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Today is still too early to draw any final conclusions, with too many things yet to happen. Nevertheless, the time is right to start a discussion on how to soften the possible consequences of the pandemic.

In the first published papers, united by the special issue, various teams of economists assess the uneasy dilemma - saving lives now or saving the economy to preserve lives in the future; demographers draw parallels with previous pandemics and its impact on demographic development; and sociologists analyse the state of various strata throughout the crisis.

The coronavirus pandemic came to Russia in mid-March - two months after China, two weeks after Spain, Italy, France, and about the same time as the United States.

As of 24th April, according to the data available at the Center for System Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University, Russia is amongst the top 10 countries by number of recorded cases. International comparability of national data on COVID-19 is a separate issue; it will be addressed in one of the special issue articles.

"Now I just want to state that Russia is affected by the pandemic, and it disturbs population and society. Moreover, a number of anti-epidemic measures taken in the country can bite the economy. In this context, the search for specific Russian consequences of the pandemic initiated by our authors along with the global consequences is particularly interesting", shares Editor-in-Chief of Population and Economics, Prof. Irina E. Kalabikhina.

All economists, demographers and sociologists are invited to consider the impact of the pandemic and its attendant recession on the population and economy in Russia and the global world. Research papers are welcome to the special issue, which will remain open for submissions until the end of June 2020.

What could the pandemic cost to globalisation, what could be the consequences of the crisis? In his paper, Dean of the Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Prof. Alexander Auzan calls to take it as a chance to change the path dependency and proposes a tax system revision. He also suggests that the reform is to be made by the law enforcement agencies.

The possible consequences of the crisis, including a technological shift and a change in the direction and volumes of trade flows, are discussed in the paper by Dr. Oleg Buklemishev from Lomonosov Moscow State University. He also examines the likelihood of the role of the State to strengthen in line with the expected deglobalisation in the face of epidemiological uncertainty.

Meanwhile, the pandemic remains "a global social drama" for the global society, as the world faces a step back to the basic needs as outlined in the Maslow pyramid. Income and wealth inequality appears to be increasing in the future, and when it all ends - we will have no choice but to establish the International Victory Day over Coronavirus, suggested in his paper Prof. Leonid Grigoryev of the Higher School of Economics (Moscow).

Every second Russian worker can be considered as a vulnerable employee, suggests the latest analysis by researchers from the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA). The highest risks are faced by young people, workers with a low level of education and the residents of the regional centers in Russia.

The most important directions of the current COVID-related crisis research are determined in Prof. Andrey Shastitko's (Lomonosov Moscow State University and Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) research. He addresses such questions as how to collect, process and report information on the pandemic relevant with regards to the phenomenon of individual cognitive errors, as well as how this information is perceived by the mass consumer and the voter. Current situation can be considered as force majeure, but life does not stop because of force majeure, which requires micro- and meso-institutions also to find the options for a way out.

Another paper by Dr. Alexander Kurdin (Lomonosov Moscow State University and Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) reveals that the pandemic has provoked the development of "intermediate" regulatory solutions in Russia and has led to the formation of a short-term "institutional continuum", which assumes the possibility of new combinations of norms. At the same time, there is some institutional uncertainty, which stems not only from the lack of legal rules that meet the new "hybrid" regimes, but also from the lack of accompanying informal rules, which often determine human behaviour. However, it is possible that extraordinary circumstances may also increase the flexibility of informal rules.

Still, one of the most vulnerable social groups in the current crisis remain migrants and refugees, who are facing economic, socio-psychological and political challenges, as described in the paper by Dr. Irina Ivakhnyuk (Global Migration Policy Associates).

Within the circumstances of the pandemic, there are many messages across the media about its positive effect on the environment. Though, Prof. Sergey Bobylev (Lomonosov Moscow State University) shares in his research, that despite the short-term reduction in the environmental impact, over the upcoming years we can expect weakened attention from the state, business and the population to environmental issues, a decrease in environmentally oriented costs, redirection of cash flows to maintain or prevent a significant drop in the material standard of living.

Other papers still remain in the press, but we already can get some insights into the future works.

The last pandemics can teach us valuable lessons, point out Dr. Natalia Gavrilova and Dr. Leonid Gavrilov (University of Chicago, Federal Research Institute for Health Organization and Informatics of Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Institute of Socio-Political Research at the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Science), who use the Spanish flu of 1918 with its peculiarities regarding mortality as an example.

Another lesson we could learn is the one from the more recent outbreak of Ebola and the following crisis in Sierra Leone, suggests Dr. Ana Androsik (the New School for Social Research, New York and Feminist Data and Research Inc.) in her research paper. Back then, the population also had to assume extra caretaking responsibilities, while the imposed by the government restrictions negatively made it harder for the people to earn their incomes, which, in turn, hit the travel and local market industries. According to Dr. Androsik, we should use this type of evidence, taken from previous public health crises, to learn the mistakes of the past and design the most efficient program interventions.

Russian families also face new issues in the conditions of self-isolation, while "dachas" (countryside family houses) play an important role during the pandemic.

Effective mechanisms to support the population in a period of temporary, yet large-scale economic decline, which could be a solution for the Russian labour market, are suggested in the paper by Dr. Irina Denisova (University of Manchester and New Economic School, Moscow).

Population and Economics' Editor-in-Chief Irina Kalabikhina addresses in her paper the demographic and social issues of the pandemic.

"We are going through difficult times, and it is hardly possible to overestimate the role of science in the quickest passing through the crisis with the least human and economic losses. We hope that our Journal will contribute to the crucially important discussion on the impact of the pandemic on the economy and population", concludes Editor-in-Chief of Population and Economics, Irina E. Kalabikhina.

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Additional information

About Population and Economics

Population and Economics is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, published by Lomonosov Moscow State University (Faculty of Economics). The journal covers basic and applied aspects of the relationship between population and economics in a broad sense.

The journal is running on the innovative scholarly publishing platform ARPHA, developed by scholarly publisher and technology provider Pensoft.

Original sources:

Kalabikhina IE (2020) What after? Essays on the expected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemics on the global and Russian economics and population. Population and Economics 4(2): 1-3. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53337

Auzan AA (2020) The economy under the pandemic and afterwards. Population and Economics 4(2): 4-12. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53403

Buklemishev OV (2020) Coronavirus crisis and its effects on the economy. Population and Economics 4(2): 13-17. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53295

Grigoryev LM (2020) Global social drama of pandemic and recession. Population and Economics 4(2): 18-25. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53325

Kartseva MA, Kuznetsova PO (2020) The economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic: which groups will suffer more in terms of loss of employment and income? Population and Economics 4(2): 26-33. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53194

Shastitko AE (2020) COVID-19: moments of truth and sources of controversy. Population and Economics 4(2): 34-38. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53285

Kurdin AA (2020) Institutional continuum in the context of the pandemic. Population and Economics 4(2): 39-42. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53299

Ivakhnyuk I (2020) Coronavirus pandemic challenges migrants worldwide and in Russia. Population and Economics 4(2): 49-55. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53201

Bobylev SN (2020) Environmental consequences of COVID-19 on the global and Russian economics. Population and Economics 4(2): 43-48. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.4.e53279

Contact:

Prof. Irina E. Kalabikhina
Editor-in-Chief of the "Population and Economics"
Email: niec@econ.msu.ru

How much does it cost California cannabis growers to safety test?

Study finds high cost to disposing of rejected product
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

The high cost of testing cannabis in California leads to higher prices for the consumer, which could drive consumers to unlicensed markets.

A new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis, finds the safety tests cost growers about 10 percent of the average wholesale price of legal cannabis. The biggest share of this expense comes from failing the test.

"Testing itself is costly," said study author Dan Sumner, a professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis. "But growers have to destroy the product that doesn't pass the test and that is where the biggest losses occur."

In California, every batch of cannabis has to be tested for more than 100 contaminants before it can be sold to consumers by a licensed retailer. The safety testing laws -- the most stringent in the nation -- include testing for 66 pesticides with tolerance levels lower than allowable by any other agricultural product.

Sumner said an elaborate track-and-trace system for cannabis plants makes it difficult for a batch that failed testing to enter the legal market.

Zero tolerance

Most testing failures are the result of the state's low- or zero-tolerance levels for pesticide residues. Food that is compliant under regulations can have higher minimum detection levels of pesticides than what is required under cannabis laws and regulations.

While labs can and often re-test cannabis if it fails, some labs have reported up to a 10 percent variation in test results taken from the same sample. The cost of testing also varies by batch size, especially for batches under 10 pounds. The maximum batch size allowed in California is 50 pounds, but many are smaller than 15 pounds. Sumner said failure rates declined from 5.6 percent in 2018 to 4 percent in 2019.

High costs vs. unlicensed market

The study finds that higher testing costs translate into higher prices for the licensed cannabis market.

"No one wants a policy shift away from testing cannabis," said Sumner. "But for price-sensitive consumers, the alternative is an illegal market. That means they consume a product with no testing at all."

Further investigation is needed to determine the costs and benefits of current regulations in relationship to the unlicensed cannabis market, he said.

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The study was published today (April 23) in the journal PLOS ONE. Co-authors include Pablo Valdes-Donoso and Robin Goldstein with UC Davis and the University of California Agricultural Issues Center.

A win-win solution -- Shredded straws can enhance soil fertility and reduce ammonia pollution
INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

IMAGE: STRAW MANAGEMENT AND AMMONIA VOLATILIZATION.

view more CREDIT: ZHOU MINGHUA

Straw incorporation--shredding and burying straws--has been widely promoted as an environmentally friendly method to increase soil organic carbon stocks and improve soil fertility. Scientists have also found crop straw incorporation could help reduce ammonia volatilization from fertilized fields, which contributes to the formation of fine particles thereby resulting in serious air pollution. Still, scientists are not clear about the long-term effects, e.g. 15 years, of crop straw incorporation approaches and rates on ammonia volatilization from calcareous soils, which are hotspots for agricultural ammonia volatilization.

Recently, Dr. Zhou Minghua and his team from the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, investigated the effects of different long-term straw management practices on ammonia volatilization from calcareous agricultural soils under a subtropical climate. Their findings were recently published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters.

"We find long-term crop straw incorporation practices could reduce annual ammonia volatilization fluxes by 16.1% to 35.1%. The magnitude of the inhibition effect increased along with the increasing straw application rate," says Zhou, the corresponding author of the study. "The inhibition effect is likely because the high C/N ratio of crop straw can increase microbial N immobilization and enhance the ammonium transformation [e.g., nitrification]".

Zhou also points out that straw burning, a traditional practice carried out by Chinese peasants but strongly discouraged by the Chinese government owing to concerns around air pollution, resulted in one-third higher annual ammonia volatilization as compared with incorporation of the same amount of unburned crop straw.

Taking into consideration both agronomical (e.g., soil fertility) and environmental performances, this study suggests that long-term crop straw incorporation could be a wise way for reducing ammonia volatilization while sustaining agricultural development.

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Crises are no excuse for lowering scientific standards, say ethicists

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

"Although crises present major logistical and practical challenges, the moral mission of research remains the same: to reduce uncertainty and enable care givers, health systems and policy makers to better address individual and public health," London and Kimmelman said.

Many of the first studies out of the gate in this pandemic have been poorly designed, not well justified, or reported in a biased manner. The deluge of studies registered in their wake threaten to duplicate efforts, concentrate resources on strategies that have received outsized media attention and increase the potential of generating false positive results purely by chance.

"All crises present exceptional situations in terms of the challenges they pose to health and welfare. But the idea that crises present an exception to the challenges of evaluating the effects drugs and vaccines is a mistake," London and Kimmelman said. "Rather than generating permission to carry out low-quality investigations, the urgency and scarcity of pandemics heighten the responsibility of key actors in the research enterprise to coordinate their activities to uphold the standards necessary to advance this mission."

The ethicists provide recommendations for multiple stakeholder groups involved in clinical trials:

Sponsors, research consortia and health agencies should prioritize research approaches that test multiple treatments side by side. The authors argue that "master protocols" enable multiple treatments to be tested under a common statistical framework.
Individual clinicians should avoid off-label use of unvalidated interventions that might interfere with trial recruitment and resist the urge to carry out small studies with no control groups. Instead, they should seek out opportunities to join larger, carefully orchestrated studies.
Regulatory agencies and public health authorities should play a leading role in identifying studies that meet rigorous standards and in fostering collaboration among a sufficient number of centers to ensure adequate recruitment and timely results. Rather than making public recommendations about interventions whose clinical merits remain to be established, health authorities can point stakeholders to recruitment milestones to elevate the profile and progress of high-quality studies.

"Rigorous research practices can't eliminate all uncertainty from medicine," London and Kimmelman said, "but they can represent the most efficient way to clarify the causal relationships clinicians hope to exploit in decisions with momentous consequences for patients and health systems."

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