How Legionella makes itself at home

Protein remodels intracellular membrane to help bacteria survive in host cells

UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER

Research News

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS THAT LEGIONELLA (RED) OSCILLATES BETWEEN THE ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM (GREEN), AND BUBBLE- OR TUBE-SHAPED STRUCTURES (BLUE) TO HELP CREATE OR SUSTAIN A STRUCTURE THAT HOUSES THIS BACTERIUM... view more 

CREDIT: UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER

DALLAS - May 10, 2021 - Scientists at UT Southwestern have discovered a key protein that helps the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease to set up house in the cells of humans and other hosts. The findings, published in Science, could offer insights into how other bacteria are able to survive inside cells, knowledge that could lead to new treatments for a wide variety of infections.

"Many infectious bacteria, from listeria to chlamydia to salmonella, use systems that allow them to dwell within their host's cells," says study leader Vincent Tagliabracci, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular biology at UTSW and member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. "Better understanding the tools they use to make this happen is teaching us some interesting biochemistry and could eventually lead to new targets for therapy."

Tagliabracci's lab studies atypical kinases, unusual forms of enzymes that transfer chemical groups called phosphates onto proteins or lipids, changing their function. Research here and elsewhere has shown that Legionella, the genus of bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease, is a particularly rich source of these noncanonical kinases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 10,000 cases of Legionnaires' disease were reported in the U.S. in 2018, though the true incidence is believed to be higher.

After identifying a new Legionella atypical kinase named MavQ, Tagliabracci and his colleagues used a live-cell imaging technique combined with a relatively new molecular tagging method to see where MavQ is found in infected human cells, a clue to its function. Rather than residing in a specific location, the researchers were surprised to see that the protein oscillated back and forth between the endoplasmic reticulum - a network of membranes important for protein and lipid synthesis - and bubble- or tube-shaped structures within the cell.

Further research suggests that MavQ, along with a partner molecule called SidP, remodels the endoplasmic reticulum so that Legionella can steal parts of the membrane to help create and sustain the vacuole, a structure that houses the parasite inside cells and protects it from immune attack.

Tagliabracci, a Michael L. Rosenberg Scholar in Medical Research and a Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar, says that he suspects other bacterial pathogens may use similar mechanisms to co-opt existing host cell structures to create their own protective dwellings.

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UTSW scientists who contributed to this study include Ting-Sung Hsieh, Victor A. Lopez, Miles H. Black, Adam Osinski, Krzysztof Pawlowski, Diana R. Tomchick, and Jen Liou, a Sowell Family Scholar in Medical Research.

This work was funded by NIH grants DP2GM137419, R01GM113079, T32GM008203-29, F30HL143859-01, Welch Foundation grants I-1911, I-1789, CPRIT grant RP170674, and Polish National Agency for Scientific Exchange scholarship PPN/BEK/2018/1/00431.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 2,800 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 117,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 3 million outpatient visits a year.

Dartmouth-led study finds overemphasis on toy giveaways in TV ads unfairly promotes fast-food to children

THE GEISEL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT DARTMOUTH

RESEARCHERS AT THE KOOP INSTITUTE AND GEISEL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT DARTMOUTH TO ANALYZE FAST-FOOD TV-ADS DIRECTED AT CHILDREN. THE... view more 

CREDIT: C. EVERETT KOOP INSTITUTE AT DARTMOUTH

A new Dartmouth-led study, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, has found that the disproportionate use of premiums within child-targeted TV advertising for children's fast-food meals is deceptive. The researchers examined thousands of advertisements from 11 fast-food restaurants, but one company--McDonald's--accounted for nearly all the airtime and, as a result, the findings.

The researchers report that these ads often overemphasize premiums such as toy giveaways and games relative to the primary product being sold, the fast food itself. This marketing practice violates the industry's own guidelines--put in place to ensure that the use of premiums in ads is not deceptive or unfair--as young children lack the cognitive ability to understand advertising.

The practice also works against childhood obesity prevention efforts. Previous studies have shown that childhood obesity is common in the U.S. About 26 percent of children ages 2-5 are overweight or obese, putting them at risk for major health consequences as they get older. Still, fast food is heavily promoted and regularly consumed by kids--nearly one-third of U.S. children eat fast-food on any given day.

"In the past, we've looked at the prevalence of child-directed food marketing and how it negatively impacts kids' diets, behaviors, and even weight status, but this is the first time we've examined if these companies are adhering to their own guidelines, in relationship to the content they can present to children," explains first author Jennifer Emond, PhD, MS, an assistant professor of biomedical data science and of pediatrics at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine.

In the study, the investigators analyzed content of all child-directed fast-food TV advertisements on four popular national networks--Disney XD, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, and Cartoon Network--aired from February 1, 2019 through January 31, 2020.

The team quantified the percent of the audio transcript (word count) and visual airtime (seconds) that included premiums or food, as well as the onscreen size of the toys or giveaways. During the study period, which included 142 hours of total airtime, more than 20,000 child-directed ads from 11 fast-food restaurants were aired on the four TV networks.

Of the 28 unique child-directed advertisements for children's fast-food meals during the study year, 27 were for McDonald's Happy Meals, accounting for nearly all (99.8 percent) of the total airtime. On average, premiums (vs. food) accounted for 53 percent (vs. 16 percent) of words in the audio transcript and 59.2 percent (vs. 54.3 percent) of the visual airtime.

Industry guidelines, which are managed through the Children's Advertising Review Unit and are administered by the BBB National Programs (formerly the Better Business Bureau), clearly state that premiums within child-directed advertising must be secondary to the advertised product to avoid undue influence.

"I find it very interesting that these are self-regulatory guidelines or pledges that the companies have signed on to as part of an industry initiative," says Emond. "But they're not even adhering to their own pledges. We need to hold them accountable--through stronger oversight of child-directed marketing in the U.S., from an independent review body or regulatory agency."

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To see a video about this research and co-author Hannah Utter D'21, a student intern at the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0kM-HFH1qs.

Other co-authors of the study include James Sargent, MD, the Scott M. and Lisa G. Stuart Professor in Pediatric Oncology, Vincent Chang D'21, Alec Eschholz D'19, and Mark Gottlieb, JD, from Northeastern University School of Law.

This study was supported by funding from the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth College and a mentored research scientist training award from the National Institute of Health (5K01DK117971).

Founded in 1797, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth strives to improve the lives of the communities it serves through excellence in learning, discovery, and healing. The Geisel School of Medicine is renowned for its leadership in medical education, healthcare policy and delivery science, biomedical research, global health, and in creating innovations that improve lives worldwide. As one of America's leading medical schools, Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine is committed to training new generations of diverse leaders who will help solve our most vexing challenges in healthcare.

Peers who boost marginalized voices help others, and themselves, study shows

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

Research News

For organizations to reach their potential, they must leverage the expertise of their employees. However, research demonstrates that lower-status employees may not be heard because their "voices" are more likely to be ignored.

New research from the University of Notre Dame is the first to show that peers can help boost marginalized voices, and at the same time benefit their own status, all while helping their organization realize the potential of its employees' diverse perspectives.

Publicly endorsing -- or amplifying -- another person's contribution, while giving attribution to that person, enhances the status of both parties, according to "Amplifying Voice in Organizations," forthcoming in the Academy of Management Journal. Nathan Meikle, postdoctoral research associate in Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, and co-lead authors Kristin Bain, Tamar Kreps and Elizabeth Tenney show that ideas that were amplified were rated as higher quality than when those same ideas were not amplified.

"Employees have a finite number of opportunities to speak up in organizations," said Meikle, who specializes in social perception and its implications for organizations. "This can create a dilemma for employees who are trying to get recognized for their contributions. Should they use these limited speaking opportunities to shine a light on themselves or on others? And if they emphasize another's contributions, does it come at a cost to themselves?"

Previous research on "voice" -- speaking up to improve one's organization -- has focused on interactions between supervisors and employees and the negative aspects of voice in such scenarios. However, Meikle and colleagues found that peers can play a crucial role in facilitating the voice process. The team found that those who publicly endorse a peer's contribution, with attribution to that person, enhance both the status of those they amplified as well as their own.

In the first study, 1,188 participants read a transcript of a sales team meeting involving employees of a fictional insurance company with declining sales. Two members offered ideas followed by a third member who ignored the previous ideas. The researchers then manipulated the scenario in one of three ways: the first member amplified the idea of the second member, voiced another idea or simply stayed quiet. The researchers found that both the first member and the second member were rated significantly higher in status in the amplification condition than the other conditions.

In a similar second study, 1,501 participants listened to the transcript rather than reading it, and gender and status were introduced. The team varied whether the first and second members were a high-status male or a low-status female. Consistent with the first study, the first member amplified the second, remained quiet or voiced a new idea. The researchers also added a condition in which the first member self-promoted their prior idea.

"We found that regardless of gender composition, amplifying was more beneficial than any of the other behaviors," Meikle said. "Furthermore, amplification increased the status of both the amplifier and the person being boosted. That was great news for us, that amplification helps even people with low status, whether they are amplifying or being amplified."

In a final study, the researchers tested whether low-status employees could be trained to amplify within their teams. The researchers collected data from 77 employees of a nonprofit educational organization serving people with developmental disabilities. The school director identified 22 employees she believed did not have the degree of influence they should have. Those 22 people were trained in amplification, and after two weeks their status significantly increased. The employees not involved in amplification maintained the same status.

"We were thrilled to see that amplification could be beneficial in a real organization," Meikle said. "We'd seen consistent results in laboratory experiments, which was obviously encouraging. But we were especially excited to see that people can use amplification to make an impact in the real world."

The researchers gained interesting insights from trying out amplification in their own group process as well. In particular, Meikle believes that the benefits of amplification may accrue subconsciously. In their research meetings, the researchers frequently amplified one another, often jokingly, but then had to point out to each other that someone had just been amplified. Meikle says these subtle actions can have a profound impact without being overt or obvious.

"The very first time we examined amplification, I was observing the amplifier as they amplified other group members, and I was surprised at how much of a leadership role the amplifier took on, simply by boosting other people," Meikle said. "Amplifying others requires no new ideas nor complicated decision making, and proves to be a very low-risk, easy strategy that can be used by anyone to help themselves and others."

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Co-lead authors of the study include Kristin Bain from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Tamar A. Kreps from the University of Hawaii and Elizabeth R. Tenney from the University of Utah.

CIA's misleading inoculation drive led to vaccine decline in Pakistan

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS USA

Research News

 

A new paper in the Journal of the European Economic Association, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that distrust generated by a 2011 CIA-led vaccination campaign ruse designed to catch Osama Bin Laden resulted in a significant vaccination rate decline in Pakistan.

Using a local doctor, the US Central Intelligence Organization planned an immunization plan in Pakistan to obtain DNA samples of children living in a compound in Abbottabad where American authorities suspected Bin Laden was hiding in order to obtain proof of Bin Laden's location (because the presence of close relatives would be a likely indication of Bin Laden's presence). Without consent from the Pakistani health authorities, the doctor began to administer hepatitis B vaccines to children in Abbottabad. The Guardian published an article revealing the vaccine project shortly after a United States military special operations unit killed Bin Laden on May 2, 2011.

Even prior to this campaign extremist groups in Pakistan have worked to discredit formal medicine and vaccines. By discrediting such services (which are provided by the state) extremist groups may increase the credibility of non-state actors such as the Taliban.

The Taliban increased propaganda efforts against vaccines in the aftermath of the publication of the Guardian article. In particular, the Taliban issued several religious edicts linking vaccination campaigns to CIA espionage activities and later used violent action against vaccination workers.

Using data from the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement on children born between January 2010 and July 2012, researchers have investigated the effects of the disclosure of this vaccination ruse on the extent to which children in Pakistan received doses of the polio, DPT, or measles vaccine. Their estimates indicate that the vaccination rate declined between 23% and 39% in districts with higher levels of electoral support for an alliance of parties espousing political extremism relative to districts with lower levels of electoral support for such groups. The researchers' investigation also revealed that the decline in girls' vaccination rates is larger than the decline in the vaccination rate of boys.

"The empirical evidence highlights that events which cast doubt on the integrity of health workers or vaccines can have severe consequences for the acceptance of health products such as vaccines," said Andreas Stegmann, one of the paper's authors. "This seems particularly relevant today as public acceptance of the new vaccines against Covid-19 is crucial to address the pandemic."

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Direct correspondence to:

Andreas Stegmann, Assistant Professor of Economics
Department of Economics, University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL, UNITED KINGDOM
University of Warwick
Andreas.Stegmann@warwick.ac.uk

To request a copy of the study, please contact:

Daniel Luzer
daniel.luzer@oup.com

Hidden within African diamonds, a billion-plus years of deep-earth history

Scientists find a new way to tell ages of the stones, and what made them

EARTH INSTITUTE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: A DIAMOND ENCAPSULATING TINY BITS OF FLUID FROM THE DEEP EARTH, HELD HERE BY FINE TWEEZERS, WAS PART OF A STUDY DELVING INTO THE AGE AND ORIGINS OF SOUTH AFRICAN... view more 

CREDIT: YAAKOV WEISS

Diamonds are sometimes described as messengers from the deep earth; scientists study them closely for insights into the otherwise inaccessible depths from which they come. But the messages are often hard to read. Now, a team has come up with a way to solve two longstanding puzzles: the ages of individual fluid-bearing diamonds, and the chemistry of their parent material. The research has allowed them to sketch out geologic events going back more than a billion years--a potential breakthrough not only in the study of diamonds, but of planetary evolution.

Gem-quality diamonds are nearly pure lattices of carbon. This elemental purity gives them them their luster; but it also means they carry very little information about their ages and origins. However, some lower-grade specimens harbor imperfections in the form of tiny pockets of liquid--remnants of the more complex fluids from which the crystals evolved. By analyzing these fluids , the scientists in the new study worked out the times when different diamonds formed, and the shifting chemical conditions around them.

"It opens a window--well, let's say, even a door--to some of the really big questions" about the evolution of the deep earth and the continents, said lead author Yaakov Weiss, an adjunct scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where the analyses were done, and senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "This is the first time we can get reliable ages for these fluids." The study was published this week in the journal Nature Communications.

Most diamonds are thought to form some 150 to 200 kilometers under the surface, in relatively cool masses of rock beneath the continents. The process may go back as far as 3.5 billion years, and probably continues today. Occasionally, they are carried upward by powerful, deep-seated volcanic eruptions called kimberlites. (Don't expect to see one erupt today; the youngest known kimberlite deposits are tens of millions of years old.)

Much of what we know about diamonds comes from lab experiments, and studies of other minerals and rocks that come up with the diamonds, or are sometimes even encased within them. The 10 diamonds the team studied came from mines founded by the De Beers company in and around Kimberley, South Africa. "We like the ones that no one else really wants," said Weiss--fibrous, dirty-looking specimens containing solid or liquid impurities that disqualify them as jewelry, but carry potentially valuable chemical information. Up to now, most researchers have concentrated on solid inclusions, such as tiny bits of garnet, to determine the ages of diamonds. But the ages that solid inclusions indicate can be debatable, because the inclusions may or may not have formed at the same time as the diamond itself. Encapsulated fluids, on the other hand, are the real thing, the stuff from which the diamond itself formed.

CAPTION

A diamond used in the study.

CREDIT

Yaakov Weiss

What Weiss and his colleagues did was find a way to date the fluids. They did this by measuring traces of radioactive thorium and uranium, and their ratios to helium-4, a rare isotope that results from their decay. The scientists also figured out the maximum rate at which the nimble little helium molecules can leak out of the diamond--without which data, conclusions about ages based on the abundance of the isotope could be thrown far off. (As it turns out, diamonds are very good at containing helium.)

The team identified three distinct periods of diamond formation. These all took place within separate rock masses that eventually coalesced into present-day Africa. The oldest took place between 2.6 billion and 700 million years ago. Fluid inclusions from that time show a distinct composition, extremely rich in carbonate minerals. The period also coincided with the buildup of great mountain ranges on the surface, apparently from the collisions and squishing together of the rocks. These collisions may have had something to do with production of the carbonate-rich fluids below, although exactly how is vague, the researchers say.

The next diamond-formation phase spanned a possible time frame of 550 million to 300 million years ago, as the proto-African continent continued to rearrange itself. At this time, the liquid inclusions show, the fluids were high in silica minerals, indicating a shift in subterranean conditions. The period also coincided with another major mountain-building episode.

The most recent known phase took place between 130 million years and 85 million years ago. Again, the fluid composition switched: Now, it was high in saline compounds containing sodium and potassium. This suggests that the carbon from which these diamonds formed did not come directly from the deep earth, but rather from an ocean floor that was dragged under a continental mass by subduction. This idea, that some diamonds' carbon may be recycled from the surface, was once considered improbable, but recent research by Weiss and others has increased its currency.

One intriguing find: At least one diamond encapsulated fluid from both the oldest and youngest eras. The shows that new layers can be added to old crystals, allowing individual diamonds to evolve over vast periods of time.

It was at the end of this most recent period, when Africa had largely assumed its current shape, that a great bloom of kimberlite eruptions carried all the diamonds the team studied to the surface. The solidified remains of these eruptions were discovered in the 1870s, and became the famous De Beers mines. Exactly what caused them to erupt is still part of the puzzle.

The tiny diamond-encased droplets provide a rare way to link events that took place long ago on the surface with what was going on at the same time far below, say the scientists. "What is fascinating is, you can constrain all these different episodes from the fluids," said Cornelia Class, a geochemist at Lamont-Doherty and coauthor of the paper. "Southern Africa is one of the best-studied places in the world, but we've very rarely been able to see beyond the indirect indications of what happened there in the past."

When asked whether the findings could help geologists find new diamond deposits, Weiss just laughed. "Probably not," he said. But, he said, the method could be applied to other diamond-producing areas of the world, including Australia, Brazil, and northern Canada and Russia, to disentangle the deep histories of those regions, and develop new insights into how continents evolve.

"These are really big questions, and it's going to take people a long time to get at them," he said. "I will go to pension, and still not have finished that walk. But at least this gives us some new ideas about how to find out how things work."

CAPTION

Lead author Yaakov Weiss in the lab at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where the analyses were done.

CREDIT

Kevin Krajick/Earth Institute

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The other authors of the study are Yael Kiro of Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science; Gisela Winckler and Steven Goldstein of Lamont-Doherty; and Jeff Harris of Scotland's University of Glasgow.

Scientist contacts:

The Earth Institute, Columbia University mobilizes the sciences, education and public policy to achieve a sustainable earth. http://www.earth.columbia.edu.

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is Columbia University's home for Earth science research. Its scientists develop fundamental knowledge about the origin, evolution and future of the natural world, from the planet's deepest interior to the outer reaches of its atmosphere, on every continent and in every ocean, providing a rational basis for the difficult choices facing humanity. http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu | @LamontEarth

Muti: Pandemic year silenced culture, leaving world stunned


RAVENNA, Italy — Maestro Riccardo Muti has once again reopened the Italian musical season in his adopted hometown of Ravenna after another — and if all goes well perhaps final — round of pandemic closures.

With a purposeful nod and flick of his baton, the 79-year-old conductor on Sunday ended what has been an unexpectedly long silence in Italian theatres, enrapturing a socially distanced and masked audience with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s first live performances since the fall — back-to-back evening concerts of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms.

The concerts launched a three-stop Italian tour by the Vienna Philharmonic to celebrate 50 years of ties with the conductor and served as a precursor to the summertime Ravenna Festival, this year celebrating the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death.

“The emotion is above all one of rebirth, which is a positive word, but it means that something died before. So, within the positivity, there is the regret over something lost. And we, for a year, lost the possibility of life, in the complete sense of the word,” Muti told The Associated Press before the concert.

“This fact, that in nearly the whole world, theatres have remained empty, orchestras were reduced to silence, is something that has never been seen before.”

After World War II, Muti said, U.S. soldiers made it a priority to reopen the San Carlo Theater in his native Naples, and in Milan city fathers rebuilt La Scala, destroyed bombs, reopening it on May 11, 1946 with a concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

DURING WWII THE LENINGRAD ORCHESTRA PLAYED EVERY DAY OF THE NAZI SEIGE

La Scala reopened to the public on Monday after a six-month COVID-19 closure, with Riccardo Chailly conducting Verdi and Wagner for the 75th anniversary of the reconstruction. The orchestra performed from risers built over the platea, while the chorus was spaced on stage.

During this year, Muti has been unable to return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he has been music director for a decade. His last European performance, the traditional Vienna New Year’s Day concert, was a triumph but was performed to an empty concert hall. In his closing remarks, he urged governments to fund culture, as a salve to mental health that suffered during the pandemic closures. “Music helps,” he said.

Nearly a year ago, Muti reopened the European musical season after Italy’s draconian spring 2020 lockdown with an outdoor concert of the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra he founded. Then, the hope was that the summer music festivals would flow smoothly into the fall concert calendar, and cultural life would resume. The fall virus spike and variants doomed that trajectory. Musicians around the world have been deprived of playing for an audience, not to mention income, and audiences the comfort of a live performance.

Muti called the experience of the past year “an unnatural global experiment” that had “stunned” the world.

“If we truly took into account how we are living, we would all go crazy. We try to maintain the illusion that we are living a normal life. It is the only way to reach the end of this absurd path,’’ he said.

Muti is plunging back into concert life. He is conducting his much-curtailed 50th anniversary tour with the Vienna Philharmonic in Florence on Monday and at Milan’s La Scala on Tuesday, before returning to Ravenna to prepare for festival appearances of his Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and for the debut of a piece of music written for the Dante anniversary based on the Divine Comedy's Purgatory canticle.

The world premiere of “Purgatory” by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian will be held in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, on July 4, part of Muti’s series of Paths of Friendship concerts in their 25th year in cities recovering from war, hatred and conflicts. It will be repeated in Ravenna for the 700th anniversary celebrations of Dante’s death in September. It is one of three, along with Inferno and Paradise, commissioned for this year’s festival.

Muti plans to be back in Chicago by the fall.

The Ravenna Festival, founded 30 years ago by Muti’s wife, Cristina Mazzavillani, reopens June 2 with an ambitious program of 120 musical, dance and theatrical performances and runs through July 31, despite uncertainty in the pace of reopening and the return of tourism. Optimistically, the program calls for 9:30 p.m. curtain times, even though a 10 p.m. curfew remains in place nationwide.

“It is a return of hope,” said general manager Antonio De Rosa. “We want to restore dignity to audiences with the possibility of listening live.”

With a regime of daily virus testing, the Vienna Philharmonic played without masks, spaced at least a meter a part. The audience was spread out across the four tiers of balconies, and every other row was removed from the floor seats, with government rules limiting seating in the 800-seat theatre to 250 people.

In between the shows, orchestra members in their gray pinstriped stage garb wandered over to see Dante’s tomb across the street, or to sit at an outdoor café next to the Alighieri Theater, named for the famed poet who died in Ravenna on Sept. 13, 1321.

“Starting again to make music means starting to live again. Starting to live again means starting to be together again,’’ Muti said. “What has not been able to happen for a year, has been a real tragedy.”

Muti has appealed to Italy’s culture minister to fund more orchestras, encouraged by the commitment he saw working in cities like Turin and Palermo this pandemic year bound largely to Italy, after decades spent mostly conducting abroad if not with his youth orchestra. “Their response was excellent, and this gives me hope,” he said.

The city of Tokyo, where Muti just spent a few weeks with his Italian opera academy, has 17 orchestras, he noted. Italy, the birthplace of lyric opera, has fewer than 30.

A cultural life, he said, is essential for healing from the pandemic year, especially for young people whose social contacts have been dramatically limited at a critical age.

“What future will they have? Will they overcome this trauma? They can overcome this shock only with trust in life, which comes through socializing, living together and sharing above all culture,” Muti said. “I have said it before, and I will say it again. It still seems that culture is not at the top of the priority list, but at nearly the bottom.”

Colleen Barry, The Associated Press

REAL ART NOT NFT
Leonardo da Vinci bear sketch could fetch over $16M

Megan C. Hills, CNN 

A tiny sketch of a bear by Leonardo da Vinci is expected to sell for over $16 million at auction.

© Courtesy Christie's Images Ltd

The item is one of only eight Leonardo drawings left in private hands, according Christie's, the auction house organizing the sale.

Measuring less than 8 square inches, the drawing was made on pale pink-beige paper using silverpoint -- a technique, taught to Leonardo by his master Andrea del Verrocchio, that involves marking chemically treated paper with silver rods or wire.

The sketch has changed hands several times over the centuries -- in fact, it was once sold by Christie's for just £2.50 (about £312, or $439, in today's money) in 1860. Titled "Head of a Bear," it has since been displayed at major institutions including the National Gallery in London, Louvre Abu Dhabi and Saint Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum.


In a press release, the chairman of Old Master paintings at Christie's New York, Ben Hall, called the sketch "one of the most important works from the Renaissance still in private hands," adding that it had "been owned by some of the most distinguished collectors in the field of Old Masters across many centuries." Notable previous owners include painter Sir Thomas Lawrence and art collector Captain Norman Robert Colville.

The drawing, which includes the artist's signature, will go on display in Hong Kong later this month. It will then move on to London, where it is expected to fetch between £8 million and £12 million ($11.21 million to $16.82 million) at a July sale.

Master of anatomy

The most expensive Leonardo sketch ever to appear at auction is "Horse and Rider," which sold for £8 million (over $11.2 million) in 2001. Stijn Alsteens, international head of the Old Masters department at Christie's Paris, said he had "every reason to believe we will achieve a new record in July for 'Head of a Bear,'" describing it in a press statement as "one of the last drawings by Leonardo that can be expected to come onto the market."

The sale price is, however, likely to fall short of the current auction record for an Old Master drawing. In 2009, Raphael's "Head of a Muse," a study for a fresco commissioned by Pope Julius II for the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican, netted almost $49 million at Christie's in London.

Though Leonardo is best known for oil paintings like the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper," the Renaissance master was also celebrated for his anatomical sketches. His drawing "The Vitruvian Man," a mathematically precise rendering of a nude male, is often hailed as one of his greatest accomplishments.

Leonardo was fascinated by the natural world, and he completed many other animal sketches in his lifetime. His drawings of cats and dogs, as well as one of a bear walking, are among those on display at institutions including the British Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Other Leonardo sketches depicted religious figures and biblical scenes. In 2016, a drawing titled "The Martyred Saint Sebastian" was set to fetch 15 million euros ($16 million at the time) at auction, though the sale was blocked after the French government declared the item to be a national treasure.

Other notable lots at the Christie's auction in July, titled "The Exceptional Sale," include an orrery clock designed by Jacques-Thomas Castel and an amethyst ormolu-mounted potpourri vase by Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis.

Investors chide Toyota's Toyoda for questioning combustion car ban

By Aaron Sheldrick 

© Reuters/PIERRE ALBOUY FILE PHOTO: Toyota logo displayed at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show

TOKYO (Reuters) - Some Toyota Motor shareholders have criticized its President Akio Toyoda for questioning Japan's plans to ban conventional cars only days after the firm said it was reviewing its climate lobbying and aimed for carbon neutrality by 2050.

The five investors, who collectively have around $500 billion in assets under management and spoke exclusively to Reuters, said the carmaker risks falling behind competitors that are rolling out electric vehicles, while giving cover for other companies seeking to avoid big changes to meet climate goals.

Japan's Toyota signalled a shift in its climate change stance last month when it said it would review its lobbying and be more transparent on what steps it was taking as it responded to increased activist and investor pressure.

Three days later though, in his capacity as head of the Japanese automobile Manufacturers Association, Toyoda questioned the country's decision to ban new internal combustion engined vehicles by 2035 in its quest for carbon neutrality.

"What Japan needs to do now is to expand its options for technology. I think regulations and legislations should follow after," Toyoda said.

"Policy that bans gasoline-powered or diesel cars from the very beginning would limit such options, and could also cause Japan to lose its strengths," he added.

Investors who had welcomed the earlier Toyota statement on lobbying said they were worried that Toyoda may not be on board with the plans.

"We're genuinely concerned that Mr. Toyoda does not seem to realize what is at stake here," said Jens Munch Holst, CEO of AkademikerPension.

The Danish fund told Reuters last month that it would consider a shareholder resolution or sell its holding in Toyota if there was no change after "intense" engagement with the company.

A Toyota spokeswoman told Reuters the company could not immediately comment on the investors' criticism but would be addressing climate issues later in the week when it announces earnings.

The company in recent years has said that electric vehicles will play a greater role in reducing emissions but other solutions should be used, like its successful hybrid or slow-selling hydrogen vehicles.

With pressure growing on carmakers to slash emissions, Toyota is scrambling to produce electric vehicles that can compete with models from the likes of Tesla, Volkswagen, General Motors and Renault, plus Chinese startups like Nio and Xpeng.

The five investors who spoke about Toyoda's comments - also including Norway's Storebrand Asset Management, Nordic investor Nordea Asset Management, the Church of England Pensions Board and KLP, Norway's biggest pension fund - said Toyota was in danger of blunting its competitiveness.

"As a shareholder in Toyota, we actively engaged with the company and received reassurances that all of its lobbying activities, including with industry associations, would be reviewed and reported on this year," said Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO of Storebrand Asset Management.

"Full electrification of transport is vital if we are to meet our climate targets and Toyota should be leading the charge on this rather than prolonging the production of new combustion engines and giving away their market share to other companies," he added.

(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Pravin Char)

New electric vehicle charging research could allow drivers to power their cars as they drive on the highway

gkay@businessinsider.com (Grace Kay) 

© Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images Electric vehicle charging.

Researchers at Cornell University are developing technology that can charge an electric car while its in motion.

US highways could embed the roads with metal plates that charge the cars as they drive over them.

The project is about five years away from a roll out, but can already power most electric vehicles.

What if you could charge your electric car while you were driving it?

Researchers out of Cornell University have been working on just that, developing a solution to one of the biggest hurdles to electric car adoption - battery range and charging availability.

Khurram Afridi, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell, is honing technology that would allow drivers to charge their electric vehicle while they are in motion. He has been working on a project for the past seven years that would implant wireless charging infrastructure into US roads.

"Highways would have a charging lane, sort of like a high occupancy lane," Afridi told Insider. "If you were running out of battery you would move into the charging lane. It would be able to identify which car went into the lane and it would later send you a bill."

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While it will be about five to 10 years before the project could be ready to be rolled out to major roadways, Afridi sees wireless charging as the best way to eliminate driver's fears related to finding charging stations and running out of battery.

Currently, there are about 1.8 million battery-powered cars on US roads, but there are only about 100,000 charging plugs for them at around 41,000 public station locations. President Joe Biden has pledged to build 500,000 new plugs over the next decade, a goal some experts say could be difficult to reach.

A recent study from University of California Davis found that one in five electric car owners switched back to a gas-powered car due to the hassle of needing EV charging stations. Data from JD Power found that anxiety related to an electric car's battery range is a primary limiting factor in the commercial viability of the vehicles.

"The only way people are going to buy electric cars is if they're just as easy to refuel as combustion engines," Afridi said. "If we had this [wireless charging] technology the electric vehicles would have even less limitations than traditional ones."
Wireless charging is not a new phenomenon

The science behind Afridi's project goes back over 100 years to Nikola Tesla, the inventor who used alternating electric fields to power lights without plugging them in. Afridi's technology would embed special metal plates in the road that are connected to a powerline and a high frequency inverter. The plates will create alternating electric fields that attract and repel a pair of matching plates attached to the bottom of the EV.

© Khurram Afridi A sketch of the wireless charging process 

In 1986, California tested a wireless charging option with roadway powered cars for its Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) program. In recent years, wireless charging for phones has also seen a push from companies like Apple and Samsung. But, overall, wireless charging efforts have fallen flat as the hardware has proven expensive and often unwieldy.

Wireless charging has failed to take off because tech companies have been focusing on magnetic fields, instead of electric ones, Afridi told Insider. Alternating magnetic fields require bulky, expensive hardware and use more energy than they provides.

Charging via electric fields has been mostly overlooked due to the high frequencies it would require and magnetic fields are also easier to generate, according to Afridi. But, the professor has long been interested in pushing technology to its highest potential frequencies, dating back to his work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1987.

"They thought it was not feasible because they did not think of going to the high level of frequencies that I was thinking of," Afridi said. "But, that has always been my area of research. It is really my passion to go to very high frequencies and push the technology to its highest potential frequency."

© Khurram Afridi Afridi and his team developed a wireless power transfer system. 

Afridi's team, a group of fellows and researchers at Cornell, has already made several advances and can power vehicles with up to 18 centimeters of clearance from the road, which accounts for most EVs. The group has also created technology that allows the vehicle to gain full power when passing over the charging plates (which would be embedded several meters apart) even if they are not fully aligned.

The biggest hurdles for the project has been finding and creating the components that would be able to conduct the high levels of electricity needed to power the vehicles, as well as electric switches that would be able to operate at the high frequencies required for efficient charging. To date the charging process takes about 4-5 hours for a full charge of a smaller vehicle like a Nissan Leaf, while larger Teslas would require an even longer charge time, Afridi said.

The infrastructure necessary for the charging lanes would require a massive overhaul of major US roadways, but Afridi told Insider one approach would be to electrify busy highways and major cities first. The metal plates would also be useful for charging at stop signs and traffic lights.

Afridi's group is already working on using its technology to power autonomous forklifts through a partnership with Toyota. While it will be several years before the technology is ready for major roadways, he told Insider the tech will likely first power the forklifts and autonomous robots in manufacturing warehouses.

Jewish group 'extremely disturbed' by reports of Hitler Youth flags in Alberta town

A prominent Jewish organization says it is “extremely disturbed” by reports of Hitler Youth flags being displayed in two Alberta towns within days of each other.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies says it filed a criminal complaint with RCMP after being alerted on the weekend to Hitler Youth and Confederate flags by a resident of Breton, Alta., about 100 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.


The Toronto-based organization says in a release that the RCMP confirmed that officers spoke to the property owner, who has refused to take down the flags.

The report came less than a week after the Jewish group filed a complaint to the RCMP about a Hitler Youth flag at a property in Boyle, Alta., about 125 kilometres north of Edmonton.

In a recent interview, RCMP spokeswoman Const. Chantelle Kelly said that property owner removed a flag after speaking with officers.

Mounties were not immediately available for comment on the Breton flag, but have said they were investigating whether hate was a factor in the Boyle case.

“Technically, flying a flag is not illegal in itself, so (investigators) have to determine whether there is motivation or something else behind it that is criminal in nature,” Kelly said in an interview last week.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said Tuesday that “it is extremely disturbing and quite disheartening to once again see a Hitler Youth flag, as well as the Confederate flag, on display.”

The organization said it has written to Breton's mayor and village council to ask that they work with police to ensure the flags are removed.

"These displays of hate go against the values that Canada stands for and are an attack on not only the Jewish and Black communities, but also on our veterans and fallen soldiers who made unspeakable sacrifices to defeat the Nazis and preserve our freedoms,” Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, the group's policy director, said in the release.

"We urge police to investigate this incident as a hate crime and for community leaders to send a message loud and clear that hate will not be tolerated in their community.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

Daniela Germano, The Canadian Press