Butterfly color diversity due to female preferences

STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: DORSAL WING COLOR BY SEX OF EUROPEAN BUTTERFLIES. view more 

CREDIT: KALLE TUNSTRÖM

Butterflies have long captured our attention due to their amazing color diversity. But why are they so colorful? A new publication led by researchers from Sweden and Germany suggests that female influence butterfly color diversity by mating with colorful males.

In many species, especially birds and butterflies, males are typically more colorful than females, a phenomenon known as dichromatism. In many dichromatic species, the more conspicuous sex is more vulnerable to predation. Certainly, the male peacock is a much easier target than the more camouflaged hen. Explaining why one member of a species would place itself in more danger was a challenge to Charles Darwin's early views on evolution by natural selection, as Darwin envisioned natural selection acting to reduce such risks.

Examples of dichromatism in fact were one of the issues that lead him to develop his theory of sexual selection, where elaborate male traits could evolve through female preference for conspicuous males, even in the face of the increased dangers such males would encounter.

Today, many naturalists and biologists alike generally ascribe the exaggerated coloration of males as being due to sexual selection. However, when we see a species in which males are more colorful than females, sexual selection is not necessarily the only answer. An alternative route to dichromatism might begin with males and females both being very colorful, followed by natural selection acting upon females to make them less conspicuous, perhaps due to the cost of being easier prey. Stated another way, perhaps females become less colorful so they are better camouflaged and therefore preyed upon less. The argument that natural selection could give rise to dichromatism was posited by Darwin's contemporary, Alfred Russel Wallace. Darwin and Wallace in fact argued for decades about the origins of dichromatism in birds and butterflies.

The reason for this long debate between Darwin and Wallace arises because, without knowing how males and females looked in evolutionary past, either sexual selection or natural selection could give rise to dichromatism. Since they had no way of formally assessing what species used to look like, their argument had few routes for resolution.

This is where researchers from Sweden (Stockholm University and Lund University) and Germany (University of Marburg) have recently made progress, by developing statistical means for inferring the ancestral color states of males and females over evolutionary time.

To do this, they first reconstructed the evolutionary relationships among European butterflies and put this into a time calibrated framework. Then they scanned scientific drawings of all these male and female butterfly species, and used that color information in its evolutionary context to estimate the direction of butterfly color evolution for each sex, and in relation to the amounts of dichromatism per species. "Tracking evolutionary colour vectors through time made it possible to quantify both the male and female contribution to dichromatism", says Dr. Dirk Zeuss from the University of Marburg, who is coauthor of the new study.

"We find that the rates of color evolution in males are faster than in females", says Dr. Wouter van der Bijl, the lead author of the study. While this finding itself suggested that males might be the target of sexual selection, further analysis was needed to rule out alternative explanations. For example, male color could be evolving rapidly when species are already dichromatic, but not when males and females start to first diverge from each other in color. By modelling both the changes in dichromatism and the changes in male and female color over evolutionary time, the researchers could calculate that changes in male color are twice as important to the evolution of dichromatism than changes in female color.

This finding suggests that Darwin was right, as it is consistent with female preference and thus sexual selection for colorful males being the driving force in color evolution. Thus, the researchers provided some resolution to the 150-year-old argument between Darwin and Wallace about the origins of dichromatism in butterflies, finding that Darwin's, but not Wallace's, model of dichromatism evolution explains the patterns better.

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More information:

The article "Butterfly dichromatism primarily evolved via Darwin's, not Wallace's, model" is published in Evolution Letters:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/evl3.199

Low-cost airlines have adapted best to COVID-19

UOC research analyses the long-term effects of low-cost carriers on European airports from 2001 to 2019

UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA (UOC)

Research News

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic reduction in travel, especially to other countries. Figures show that in the second quarter of this year, airlines suffered an 80% fall in income compared to 2019, as the passenger fleet was brought to a virtual standstill, according to data from the International Air Transport Association.

Pere Suau-Sanchez is the research leader of the Sustainability and Management Research Group (SUMA) at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) Faculty of Economics and Business and an expert in air transport. According to his estimates, "COVID-19 has caused the biggest crisis in aviation history. For 2020, there will be a 50% fall in seat numbers for the airline industry, representing almost 3 billion fewer passengers and 400 billion dollars in loss of income".

Although these shocking figures affect the whole industry, low-cost airlines have proven more adaptable to this uncertain outlook, as Suau-Sanchez reports in his research published in the Journal of Transport Geography, in conjunction with Edgar Jimenez, from Cranfield University (United Kingdom).

According to the study, these airlines have shown greater resilience than traditional ones, due to their lower exposure to international long-haul traffic, which has been considerably disrupted by the health crisis.

Indeed, the fall in seat numbers offered in March and April 2020 was much sharper in traditional airlines than low-cost ones, while the recovery is similar in both, as travel restrictions are gradually lifted.

According to the UOC researcher, "Low-cost airlines operate in regional (intracontinental) markets and are therefore less exposed to the dynamics of long-haul (intercontinental) markets, which were the first to be grounded in early February and have remained inactive for longer due to government restrictions".

Exponential growth in less than a decade

The research is using new metrics to analyse the long-term effects of low-cost airlines on European airports. It also identifies the airports that have benefited most from the consolidation of these companies since 2001.

Generally, discussions on air traffic tend to use absolute figures, which fail to show the real situation of the airport, thus the authors have developed two new metrics. The first measures the offer of low-cost seats as a proportion of the total for the airport, i.e. the market share of these companies.

The second metric standardizes the low-cost market share in each individual airport in relation to the airport offering the highest number of low-cost seats. According to Suau-Sanchez, "this allows us to compare different years with a standard, comparable measurement".

After analysing all scheduled flights in Europe from 2001 to 2019, the research shows that in 2001 low-cost airlines represented 5.3% of total seats available on the market, or 37 million out of a total of 701 million seats.

Between 2001 and 2019, European air travel doubled its offer and the low-cost market grew exponentially: it increased its size by up to 14 times, so that by 2019 the companies represented 37.3% of total seats on offer, or 534 million out of a total of 1.43 billion seats.

Democratizing air transport

The research also shows how market concentration decreases once low-cost airlines arrive. The expert pointed out that "low-cost companies have democratized air transport in Europe and led the way in developing traffic in European airports".

The study also shows that the 2008 financial crisis marked a break in the growth of these companies. Furthermore, the data shows that eastern European countries saw the expansion in these airlines some years after the rest of Europe.

The UOC researcher said: "The later development of low-cost traffic in eastern Europe was linked to some of these countries joining the European Union in 2004 and 2007."

With regard to the future, bearing in mind this new post-pandemic scenario, Suau-Sanchez foresees the air industry having fewer companies, focusing its business on larger markets, with fewer business passengers. By way of conclusion, he said: "It should focus on economic and environmental sustainability in order to cope with an increasing number of changes."

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This UOC research project contributes towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and infrastructure.

 

Back to the future of climate

ETH ZURICH

Research News

IMAGE: ETH RESEARCHERS TRYING TO FIND SIDERITES NEAR LOS ANGELES (CA). view more 

CREDIT: JOEP VAN DIJK / ETH ZURICH

Between 57 and 55 million years ago, the geological epoch known as the Paleocene ended and gave way to the Eocene. At that time, the atmosphere was essentially flooded by the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, with concentration levels reaching 1,400 ppm to 4,000 ppm. So it's not hard to imagine that temperatures on Earth must have resembled those of a sauna. It was hot and humid, and the ice on the polar caps had completely disappeared.

The climate in that era provides researchers with an indication as to how today's climate might develop. While pre-?industrial levels of atmospheric CO2 stood at 280 ppm, today's measure 412 ppm. Climate scientists believe that CO2 emissions generated by human activity could drive this figure up to 1,000 ppm by the end of the century.

Using tiny siderite minerals in soil samples taken from former swamps, a group of researchers from ETH Zurich, Pennsylvania State University and CASP in Cambridge (UK) reconstructed the climate that prevailed at the end of the Paleocene and in the early Eocene. Their study has just been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The siderite minerals formed in an oxygen-free soil environment that developed under dense vegetation in swamps, which were abundant along the hot and humid coastlines in the Paleocene and Eocene.

To reconstruct the climatic conditions from the equator to the polar regions, the researchers studied siderites from 13 different sites. These were all located in the northern hemisphere, covering all geographical latitudes from the tropics to the Arctic.

Prevailing humidity

"Our reconstruction of the climate based on the siderite samples shows that a hot atmosphere also comes with high levels of moisture," says lead author Joep van Dijk, who completed his doctorate in ETH Professor Stefano Bernasconi's group at the Geological Institute from 2015 to 2018.

Accordingly, between 57 and 55 million years ago, the mean annual air temperature at the equator where Colombia lies today was around 41 °C. In Arctic Siberia, the average summer temperature was 23 °C.

Using their siderite "hygrometer", the researchers also demonstrated that the global moisture content in the atmosphere, or the specific humidity, was much higher in the Paleocene and Eocene eras than it is today. In addition, water vapour remained in the air for longer because specific humidity increased at a greater rate than evaporation and precipitation. However, the increase in specific humidity was not the same everywhere.

Since they had access to siderite from all latitudes, the researchers were also able to study the spatial pattern of the specific humidity. They found that the tropics and higher latitudes would have had very high humidity levels.

The researchers attribute this phenomenon to water vapour that was transported to these zones from the subtropics. Specific humidity rose the least in the subtropics. While evaporation increased, precipitation decreased. This resulted in a higher level of atmospheric water vapour, which ultimately reached the poles and the equator. And the atmospheric vapour carried heat along with it.

Climate scientists still observe the flow of water vapour and heat from the subtropics to the tropics today. "Latent heat transport was likely to have been even greater during the Eocene," van Dijk says. "And the increase in the transport of heat to high latitudes may well have been conducive to the intensification of warming in the polar regions," he adds.

Not enough time to adapt

These new findings suggest that today's global warming goes hand in hand with increased transport of moisture, and by extension heat, in the atmosphere. "Atmospheric moisture transport is a key process that reinforces warming of the polar regions," van Dijk explains.

 "Although the CO2 content in the atmosphere was much higher back then than it is today, the increase in these values took place over millions of years," he points out. "Things are different today. Since industrialisation began, humans have more than doubled the level of atmospheric CO2 over a period of just 200 years," he explains. In the past, animals and plants had much more time to adapt to the changing climatic conditions. "They simply can't keep up with today's rapid development," van Dijk says.

Strenuous search for siderite crystals

Finding the siderites was not easy. For one thing, the minerals are tiny, plus they occur solely in fossil swamps, which today are often found only several kilometres below the Earth's surface. This made it difficult or even impossible for the researchers to dig up siderites themselves. "We made several expeditions to sites where we believed siderites might occur but we found them at only one of those locations," van Dijk says.

Fortunately, one of the study's co-authors - Tim White, an American from Pennsylvania State University - owns the world's largest collection of siderite.

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Precaution: Lessons from COVID-19

Which is more important in the initial phase of a pandemic: taking precautionary actions or responding to its severity? That is the question that researchers from SUTD set out to address in an article published in BioEssays.

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN

Research News

 

Which is more important in the initial phase of a pandemic: taking precautionary actions or responding to its severity? That is the question that researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) set out to address in an article published in BioEssays.

The authors explored and reported the various strategies taken by the United States of America, European group of nations (comprising nations in the European Union, the Schengen area and the United Kingdom), People's Republic of China, Japan and South Korea. By looking at how the number of new cases changed with the adoption or relaxing of strategies, the data collated suggest that the following three strategies should have been considered for implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) controlled movement by implementing some form of coordinated social distancing, stay-at-home order or extreme lockdown; (2) early and sustained implementation of containment through internal and external border controls; and (3) efficient and early testing to identify symptomatic and asymptomatic transmitters.

These are not new strategies, but were learnt from previous pandemics. However, at a time when these strategies should have been implemented in some form as a precaution to contain COVID-19 in the early days, many countries chose to "wait".

The article explained how a collective strategy is needed, not just country-wide, but globally. If the effort to contain COVID-19 is not implemented in unison, a community that opens up out of phase to the others might see new infections. The researchers observed that incoherent strategy allows waves in each territory to superposition and form a sustain wave for the virus to ride on as it hops from territory to territory, country to country, continent to continent. In particular, because these known strategies were not adopted early with sustained implementation, the US continues to account for a fifth of the world's total COVID-19 cases and is facing the start of a third wave. Another example cited was the post-summer resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Europe when measures were significantly relaxed.

"As the world moves forward and prepares itself for future pandemics of such scale, the lessons learnt from COVID-19 should be part of every country's pandemic response. When another virus of such protean nature hits us again, we will not be caught off-guard by successive wavelets constructively interfering to give a sustained wave," said Joel Lai, the lead author of the study from SUTD.

"This article identifies the effectiveness of various strategies adopted by the governments of key hotspots for COVID-19. We noticed that the strategies were not new, yet, somehow, they were not implemented as swiftly and with authority as expected. These were effective in the past, proven to be effective to tackle COVID-19 and will continue to be effective for future pandemics," Lai added.

COVID-19 has significantly changed the way of life for everyone. In the initial response to the growing number of cases, governments across the spectrum of affected countries have adopted different strategies in implementing control measures, in a hope to reduce the number of new cases. Despite not having any precedence on the nature of this coronavirus, many of the strategies to tackle infectious diseases like COVID-19 is known. The precautions that we could have taken were not implemented as a precautionary preparation, but as a reaction after COVID-19 became widespread.

"Hindsight is always 20/20, but we do not need to be deep in a crisis only to acknowledge that certain precautionary measures should have been executed earlier. This time, with hindsight, precaution was indeed better than the cure," observed Assistant Professor Kang Hao Cheong, the principal investigator for this study from SUTD. "The successes and failures of COVID-19 management thus far have set a precedent for how countries should approach future outbreaks. These should form lessons for mankind to deal with future pandemics as a precaution, not a reaction."

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 HONEY I SHRUNK THE MUSSELS

Small mussels in the Baltic are getting even smaller

STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: BLUE MUSSELS IN THE BALTIC SEA ARE GETTING SMALLER WITH TIME BUT BIGGER IN NUMBERS, ACCORDING TO A NEW STUDY FROM STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY. ANALYZING DATA FROM THE LAST 24 YEARS,... view more 

CREDIT: THOMAS TRANÅKER

Blue mussels in the Baltic Sea are getting smaller with time but bigger in numbers, according to a new study from Stockholm University. Analyzing data from the last 24 years, the main reason for this appears to be changes in food quality. The type of phytoplankton that is available for blue mussels to eat can in turn be linked to our changing climate.

Blue mussels in the Baltic Sea are already small in their nature - the length of the mussels is about the length of a nail to the mere eye. In this study, the researchers discovered that blue mussels are now weighing around half of what they used to weigh in the 90's, despite the mean length difference just being a few millimeters. But on the other hand there are now more mussels that are really tiny, sometimes as many as 1000 in one square meter compared to about 500 per square meter before.

Mussels compose the largest biomass of animals without a backbone in the Baltic, providing food to eider ducks and fish, for example. But because they are getting 'smaller' it means less food for the species feeding on them. It is also estimated that all blue mussels in the Baltic, together filter the entire waters of Baltic sea every year - and this is essential for cleaning the water from particles and helping to combat eutrophication - one of the Baltics biggest threats. Since the mussel size is affected it might therefore have effects on filtration rates, although this was not tested in this particular study:

"Even though an increase in the number of mussels to some extent may compensate for the smaller size, it is likely that important functions like filtration of the water has been reduced, which could lead to more turbid water" says Agnes Karlsson, Assistant Professor at Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) at Stockholm University.

The reason for the mussels getting smaller is likely altered mix of phytoplankton, now with greater quantities of cyanobacteria and particles from land. Warmer waters favour cyanobacteria, in turn causing increased summer blooms. Yet, the study found no direct role of increasing temperature for the decrease in mussel size. This means that indirect effects of climate change might be more important for mussels. The study is based on continuously monitored and collected samples of both mussels and phytoplankton from 1993 to 2016:

"We want to call attention to the benefits of long-term monitoring. If not for monitoring, we wouldn't have known that this key species for the Baltic is on a slippery slope", says Agnes Karlsson, Assistant Professor at Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) at Stockholm University.

The study highlights the importance of keeping an eagle eye perspective when considering how environmental changes affect key-organism in the long-run:

"There is often multiple and interacting factors responsible for changes in an organisms' condition or population and all of this likely affects the entire ecosystem functioning" says Camilla Liénart, postdoc at Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) at Stockholm University.

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The scientific publication titled Long-term changes in trophic ecology of blue mussels in a rapidly changing ecosystem doi: 10.1002/lno.11633 is published in the journal Limnology & Oceanography.

Contact details

Agnes Karlsson, Assistant Professor at Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) at Stockholm University. e-mail: agnes.karlsson@su.se phone: 073 6386720

Camilla Liénart, postdoc at Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) at Stockholm University. e-mail: camilla.lienart@su.se phone: 072 152 1838

 

Energy at risk: the impact of climate change on supply and costs

CMCC FOUNDATION - EURO-MEDITERRANEAN CENTER ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Research News

 

The energy sector is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore the main responsible of the observed human-caused changes in the climate system, but it is also vulnerable to the changing climate.

To understand the future climate impacts on energy systems, a team of scientists - included researchers from the CMCC Foundation - reviewed the literature on the subject, identifying key knowledge gaps in the existing research. The paper "Impacts of climate change on energy systems in global and regional scenarios", published in Nature Energy, encompasses a summary of 220 papers from the worldwide literature on the projected impacts of climate change on energy supply and energy demand, at both global and regional scales.

The study reveals that, at a global level, climate change is expected to influence energy demand by affecting the duration and magnitude of diurnal and seasonal heating and cooling requirements. Indeed, due to the rising temperatures, an increase in cooling demand and a decrease in heating demand is expected in the future.

"There is a sort of double impact" explain Enrica De Cian and Shouro Dasgupta, researchers at the CMCC Foundation, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, among the authors of the study. "On the one hand, as cooling demand is increasing, especially in the hot season, the energy systems are working at capacity. But at the same time, this peak energy demand in summer is coinciding with reduced transmission and distribution capacity, because high temperatures and extreme heat events will affect energy infrastructures - especially power grids and transmission lines - reducing their efficiency and thus the energy reliability".

Moreover, if thermal electricity generation bears most of the risk from heatwaves and droughts, transmission and renewable technologies are highly risk-sensitive to many other extreme climate-related events, such as cold waves, wildfires, flooding, heavy snow, ice storms and windstorms. The expected change in the frequency and strength of such events may result in more power grid and transmission lines interruptions, thus affecting energy costs and supply.

"Understanding the impacts of climate change on the energy systems at a global level is an important input for the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Moreover, results from this work can be used for studies related to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular to clarify synergies and trade-offs between SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG13 (Climate Action)", explains Dasgupta. "But deep studies at a regional and national level are also critical, because they allow us to face also behavioural issues: people's behaviour is extremely important when it comes to our energy demand in the future."

At the regional level, results from the literature are more mixed and uncertain. Large regional differences have been observed by the authors, not only due to geographic peculiarities, but also to methodological differences between studies. "Despite the uncertainties, which highlight the need for more research - especially in the context of renewable energy - we have regional results that it is worth considering", specifies De Cian. "For example, the strongest climate change impacts on the energy sector are expected in South Asia and Latin America, two emerging economies that have in common a high population density. This information is critical when it comes to plan climate change adaptation strategies."

The wide variety of methodologies and datasets that are currently being used in the literature limits the scope of assessing climate change impacts on the energy sector, leading to significant differences in results across various studies. For this reason, the authors recommend a consistent multi-model assessment framework to support regional-to-global-scale energy planning.

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The CMCC Foundation contributed to this review study in the context of its involvement within ISIMIP, The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project. CMCC is actively working to address some of the key gaps emerged from this work in the EU-funded projects ENERGYA "A study about climate change, energy and adaptation" and COACCH "CO-designing the Assessment of Climate CHange costs".

For more information:
Yalew, Seleshi G., Michelle T. H. van Vliet, David E. H. J. Gernaat, Fulco Ludwig, Ariel Miara, Chan Par, Edward Byers, Enrica De Cian, Franziska Piontek, Gokul Iye, Ioanna Mouratiadou, James Glynn, Mohamad Hejazi, Olivier Dessens, Pedro Rochedo, Robert Pietzcker, Roberto Schaeffer, Shinichiro Fujimori, Shouro Dasgupta, Silvana Mima, Silvia R. Santos da Silva, Vaibhav Chaturvedi, Robert Vautard and Detlef P. van Vuuren. 2020. "Impacts of Climate Change on Energy Systems in Global and Regional Scenarios." Nature Energy. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0664-z?

TalTech chemists' new method is a significant step towards greener pharmaceutical industry

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Research News

 

IMAGE: PROFESSOR AT TALTECH'S DIVISION OF CHEMISTRY RIINA AAV view more 

CREDIT: TALTECH

The rapid changes in the chemical industry are connected one hand with the depletion of natural resources and deepening of environmental concerns, on the other hand with the growth of environmental awareness. Green, environmentally friendly chemistry is playing an increasingly important role in the sustainable chemical industry.

The TalTech Supramolecular Chemistry Group led by Professor Riina Aav published a research article on the applications of mechanochemistry titled "Mechanochemical Synthesis of Amides with Uronium-Based Coupling Reagents: A Method for Hexa-amidation of Biotin[6]uril" in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

Mechanochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies the effects induced by mechanical action on chemical reactions. Since these reactions take place efficiently in the solid-state phase and do not require the use of solvents that generate toxic residues, it is becoming an increasingly important branch of chemistry, especially in the field of green and sustainable technology..

The TalTech Supramolecular Chemistry Group led by Professor Riina Aav published a research article on the applications of mechanochemistry titled "Mechanochemical Synthesis of Amides with Uronium-Based Coupling Reagents: A Method for Hexa-amidation of Biotin[6]uril" in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

Mechanochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies the effects induced by mechanical action on chemical reactions. Since these reactions take place efficiently in the solid-state phase and do not require the use of solvents that generate toxic residues, it is becoming an increasingly important branch of chemistry, especially in the field of green and sustainable technology.

One of the authors of the article, TalTech Professor of Chemistry Riina Aav says, "Our Supramolecular Chemistry research group is currently one of the most active research groups in this field in Estonia, investigating in depth how to expand the possible applications of the mechanochemical method in the chemicals industry. As chemists, we see this method in particular as a good solution for environmentally friendly synthesis. This means that it is now possible to produce chemicals much faster and completely residue-free."

Twenty five per cent of pharmaceuticals produced in the chemical industry contain an amide bond. Such pharmaceuticals include e.g. drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases (atorvastatin or Lipitor®), analgesics (Ibuprofen analogues), antibiotics (penicillin and chloramphenicol or Oftan Akvakol), as well as cancer drugs (methotrexate and, inter alia therapeutic peptides such as carfilzomib (KYPROLIS)). Until now, such drugs have conventionally been produced in the chemical industry using solvents. A mechanochemical process involves grinding of chemical substances without the need to use solvents. This means, however, that no toxic waste characteristic of solvent-based production is generated, and in addition, the whole process can take place tens of times faster (e.g. the required active ingredient is created within an hour, whereas the analogous solvent-based reaction requires 24-hours).

"I would like to point out that we were able to replace the organic catalysts used so far with an inorganic one to achieve the result, because dissolution of components is not necessary in mechanochemical synthesis. This further reduced our carbon footprint. We also studied the mechanism of the mechanochemical process, and the results show that the formation pathways of amides or peptides, which are essential for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products, are similar to the ones involved in protein formation in our bodies. The mechanochemical method developed by us is much simpler - the necessary elements are ground and the product obtained is washed with water," a co-author and senior researcher Dzmitry Kananovich, says.

It is a faster and and much more environmentally friendly chemical process compared to the solvent-based method. In addition, this method can be used to produce new molecular receptors biotin[6]urils, which scientists plan to apply as "chemical noses" upon developing residue capturing molecular containers.

"The developed method is great news for chemical and pharmaceutical industry, who are interested in sustainable and residue-free chemical technology solutions not only in the production of medicines, but also food supplements, detergents and other products. Our research group is a member of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology action "Mechanochemistry for Sustainable Industry", which will hopefully ensure practical application of the mechanochemical methods in the chemical industry in the near future," Riina Aav says.

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Source: ACS Sustainable Chemistry "Mechanochemical Synthesis of Amides with Uronium-Based Coupling Reagents: A Method for Hexa-amidation of Biotin[6]uril" 06.10.2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c05558

Additional information: Professor at TalTech's Division of Chemistry Riina Aav, riina.aav@taltech.ee

Kersti Vähi, TalTech Research Communications Officer

Drug resistance linked to antibiotic use and patient transfers in hospitals

Analysing the connection between antibiotic use, patient transfers and the emergence of drug-resistant microbes may help hospitals select the best preventive strategies

ELIFE

Research News

 

Understanding the role of antibiotic use patterns and patient transfers in the emergence of drug-resistant microbes is essential to crafting effective prevention strategies, suggests a study published today in eLife.

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing global health threat, but preventing it takes smart choices at the local level. The current findings, originally posted on bioRxiv*, provide insights on how antibiotic use patterns and patient transfers in hospitals drive the emergence of resistance, and suggest a new approach for tailoring prevention strategies to an individual hospital or ward.

"Hospitals continue to be important hotspots for antimicrobial resistance because of the confluence of frequent antibiotic use, fragile patients and the potential for highly resistant pathogens to spread through hospital wards when patients are transferred," explains lead author Julie Shapiro, Postdoctoral Fellow at the CIRI, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie, University of Lyon, France.

To help hospitals assess the best strategies for preventing the emergence of resistance, Shapiro and her colleagues employed a technique typically used in ecology to study the effect of antibiotic use and patient transfers on infections. They developed a computer model based on a year's worth of data around seven species of infection-causing bacteria, including drug-resistant strains, in 357 hospital wards in France.

"We found that the volume of antibiotic use at the hospital-ward level had a stronger influence on the incidence of more resistant pathogens, while patient transfers had the most influence on hospital-endemic microbes and those resistant to the last-line antibiotics carbapenems," Shapiro says.

They also found that the use of the penicillin antibiotic, piperacillin-tazobactam, was the strongest predictor of the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to the standard treatments for life-threatening blood infections. If this is confirmed in further studies, the authors suggest that the strategy of using piperacillin-tazobactam instead of carbapenems to prevent antimicrobial resistance may need to be reconsidered.

In fact, the study showed that the effects of antibiotic prescription and patient transfer patterns on the emergence of drug resistance varied among different microbes and types of infections, suggesting that a more individualised approach to preventing resistance is necessary.

"Our work highlights the need to tailor strategies against microbial resistance to specific pathogens," concludes senior author Jean-Philippe Rasigade, Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Hospices Civils de Lyon university hospital. "Applying the modelling techniques we used here to other healthcare settings could help inform local and regional antibiotic stewardship and infection control strategies."

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Reference

The paper 'Metapopulation ecology links antibiotic resistance, consumption, and patient transfers in a network of hospital wards' can be freely accessed online at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54795.
Contents, including text, figures and data, are free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license.

*This study was originally posted on the preprint server bioRxiv, at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/771790v1.

Media contact

Emily Packer,
Media Relations Manager
eLife
e.packer@elifesciences.org 01223 855373

About eLife

eLife is a non-profit organisation created by funders and led by researchers. Our mission is to accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours. We work across three major areas: publishing, technology and research culture. We aim to publish work of the highest standards and importance in all areas of biology and medicine, including Ecology and Microbiology and Infectious Disease, while exploring creative new ways to improve how research is assessed and published. We also invest in open-source technology innovation to modernise the infrastructure for science publishing and improve online tools for sharing, using and interacting with new results. eLife receives financial support and strategic guidance from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org/about.

To read the latest Ecology research published in eLife, visit https://elifesciences.org/subjects/ecology.

Sports science: quality wins games

Researchers of KIT analyze success factors in soccer - a good defense, precise and efficient moves, as well as expensive players

KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FÜR TECHNOLOGIE (KIT)

Research News

 

IMAGE: KIT RESEARCHERS IDENTIFIED THE PRECISION AND EFFICIENCY OF MOVES, HOME ADVANTAGE, AND THE MARKET VALUE OF PLAYERS TO BE MAJOR CRITERIA IN WINNING A SOCCER GAME. view more 

CREDIT: (PHOTO: AMADEUS BRAMSIEPE, KIT)

"Quality Wins Games" - this is the conclusion drawn by scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in their study "Success Factors in Football: An Analysis of the German Bundesliga." The most important success criteria they identified is avoiding errors in the defense and efficiency in scoring goals especially after counter-attacks. In addition, the study empirically confirms that the market value of the team significantly affects win or loss. The study is based on data from 918 games of the Bundesliga. The findings are reported in the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport. (DOI: 10.1080/24748668.2020.1726157)

"We found that precision and efficiency in soccer are more important than the absolute number of moves," says Hannes Lepschy from KIT's Institute of Sports and Sports Science (IfSS). "This holds for shots at the goal as well as for passes and movement paths." In his doctoral thesis, Lepschy linked and analyzed player data of 918 Bundesliga games in the seasons from 2014 to 2017 from various sources. He evaluated games with a tight outcome, in which both teams showed about the same commitment. Together with his supervisors, Professor Alexander Woll and Dr. Hagen Wäsche, Lepschy checked 29 variables for their impact on win or loss. He also considered context factors, such as the market value of the team and the average age, with home and guest teams being analyzed separately.

On this basis, Hannes Lepschy identified the most and least important factors for win or loss. "Apart from expected results, some findings surprised us," says Alexander Woll, Head of IfSS. Avoiding errors in the defense as well as the number of shots at the goal and the efficiency in scoring goals have the strongest influence on the probability to win. Contrary to expectations, the chance to win does not increase with the number of hit crosses, but the risk of goals conceded. Neither ball possession nor running performance were found to influence the result of the game. "It is not important how many kilometers a player runs or how often he has the ball. It is the quality of the space opened that decides," Lepschy explains. Hagen Wäsche adds that context variables also have to be taken into account. The average age of the team has no game-deciding influence, but home advantage and market value of the players are of decisive importance.

Lepschy, Wäsche, and Woll recommend Bundesliga coaches to work on the quality of the actions of their teams. It is important to avoid errors in the defense and to train precise and quick moves in space. "And not least, you need a good purchasing strategy," Woll says. In the next stage, the scientists will develop their method further using network analysis methods. This will improve determination of relevant performance factors and practical training recommendations for soccer coaches in the Bundesliga.

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Seasonal Forecasts Improve Food Supply

EU project CONFER started - precipitation forecasts reduce the impacts of droughts and floods in East Africa

KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FÜR TECHNOLOGIE (KIT)

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE KILIMANJARO DOMINATES THE LANDSCAPE OF EAST AFRICA. THERE, IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE CAN ALREADY BE FELT CLEARLY. view more 

CREDIT: (PHOTO: HARALD KUNSTMANN, KIT)

Developing more precise seasonal forecasts to improve food supply for a total of 365 million people in eleven countries in East Africa, this is the goal of the new CONFER project funded by the EU. In particular, more precise precipitation forecasts are deemed important to increase agricultural yields. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is one of nine partners of this international project that is funded by the European Union with a total amount of EUR 7 million.

In 2017, East Africa was affected by the most severe drought since more than half a century. In 2019, heavy precipitation produced widespread flooding within a short term. Entire regions were covered by a waist-high layer of water. Both events produced big damage in agriculture and infrastructure and represented existential threats to the population. "In East Africa, the impacts of climate change can already be felt clearly," says Professor Harald Kunstmann, Deputy Head of the Atmospheric Environmental Research Division of KIT's Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), KIT's Campus Alpine in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The Institute participates in the new EU project CONFER (Co-production of Climate Services for East Africa). The project started on September 01 and will have a duration of three and a half years. Research institutions, in close dialog with stakeholders and end users, will develop innovative climate services for energy, water, and food supply to support people in East Africa in coping with the challenges associated with climate change. A total of 365 million people in eleven countries in East Africa will profit from the findings.

Researchers Pool Data from Models, Satellites, and Measurement Stations

The international project coordinated by the Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE) is aimed at increasing the accuracy of forecasts for the next months and supplying various weather and climate data for the region. In countries like Kenya and Tanzania, where reservoirs and water power play an important role in irrigation and energy supply, improved control may contribute to increasing agricultural yields and reducing flooding risks.

"In CONFER, we use dynamic and statistical forecast models as well as methods of machine learning and pool data from models, satellites, and measurement stations," explains Kunstmann, who heads the "Regional Climate and Hydrology" Group of IMK-IFU. "Above all, we seek to improve seasonal forecasts, i.e. forecasts for several months. This will enable us to take measures in due time in order to reduce negative impacts of droughts or extremely wet periods."

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CONFER is funded by the European Union with a total of EUR 7 million under its Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. Apart from NORCE and KIT, other project partners are the Norwegian Refugee Council, Norwegian Computing Center, IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Centre (ICPAC, Kenya), Kenya Red Cross Society, University of Cape Town (South Africa), University of Leeds (UK), and Met Office (UK).

More about the KIT Climate and Environment Center:
http://www.klima-umwelt.kit.edu/english

Press contact:
Sandra Wiebe
Press Officer
Phone: +49 721 608-41172
Email: sandra.wiebe@kit.edu

Being "The Research University in the Helmholtz-Association," KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility and information. For this, about 9,300 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 24,400 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

This press release is available on the internet at https://www.kit.edu/kit/english/press_releases.php.