Category: Science

Some ants move much more methodically than previously thought, a new study shows.

When strolling through an unfamiliar grocery store, you may find yourself methodically walking down each aisle to ensure you find everything you need without crossing the same path twice. At times, you’ll stray from this orderly process, such as when you see a vibrant “sale” sign from across the store or realize that you forgot something.

According to the study in the journal iScience, some ants go about their search for food and shelter in a similar manner.

The researchers found that when a colony of rock ants is placed in an unfamiliar environment in a lab, the ants wander in a way that’s not as random as previously thought. The ants follow a systematic meandering pattern combined with some random movement—a method with the potential to optimize exploration in their natural environment.

“Previously, researchers in the field assumed that ants move in a pure random walk when searching for targets of which they don’t know their location,” says Stefan Popp, lead author of the paper and a graduate student in the ecology and evolutionary biology department at the University of Arizona. “We found that rock ants show a striking, regular meandering pattern when exploring the area around their nests.”

In Arizona, these ants can be found nesting between or under rocks in areas above elevations of 7,000 feet. These slow-moving critters are only about half the length of a medium grain of rice.

The study finds that the ants’ meandering, or zigzag, walking pattern may make their search more efficient than a purely random search. This is because the ants can explore a large area in less time, as they cross their own paths less frequently.

“These ants don’t form obvious foraging trails like many ants we are familiar with,” Popp says. “Instead, the colony depends on individual foragers finding resources, making their search strategy a crucial part of colony success.”

According to the researchers, the evolutionary advantage of meandering found in these rock ants could have possibly evolved in other species of insects and animals as well. The researchers also say that the ants’ movement could someday be used to inform the design of autonomous swarms of robots that perform search and rescue missions in disaster areas or explore landscapes on other worlds.

Because it is difficult to track ants in their natural environment, Popp and his team collected rock ant colonies from atop and around Mount Lemmon, just north of Tucson. The team then moved the ants to the lab, placing them in an enclosed arena with a paper floor. The enclosure measured 2 by 3 meters—giant compared to the tiny scurrying ants. After being introduced to a new home, the ants were eager to explore.

“These ants may have been patrolling the area for other competitor ants,” Popp says, explaining that there is a selective pressure to keep other ants from intruding on their nest. “They may have also been searching for food and new nest sites.”

The researchers soon noticed the meandering pattern of the ants as they walked around. It raised an immediate question: Were these patterns just random squiggles, or were the ants moving in a methodical, non-random way?

To address this question, the researchers set up cameras and used automatic-tracking software, coupled with manual corrections, to track the individual paths of each marching insect over the course of five hours. The ants’ journeys were then compared to simulated ants walking in a random fashion.

“We looked at whether the direction in which an ant was moving in some way depended on the direction that it was moving before,” says coauthor Anna Dornhaus, a professor in in the ecology and evolutionary biology department. “These methods helped us realize that the ants’ search behavior was not completely random, as biologists had previously thought.”

The researchers used statistics to determine that the direction an ant turned was directly correlated to the turns it had taken previously.

“Our research showed that the ants smoothly alternate left and right turns on a relatively regular length scale of roughly three body lengths,” Popp says, “For some ants, the meandering-like search pattern was even more extreme than others, kind of like a meandering river in the Amazon basin. I am fascinated by this and wonder how the ants ensure that they don’t cross their own path again and again, while still doing extreme turns and loops.”

Popp and Dornhaus note that they don’t know how this search behavior changes across an ant’s lifetime, or even if individual ants are aware of it.

Regardless, the combination of meandering and randomness may be optimal for searching for resources in an unknown environment. The systematic approach can keep an ant close to its nest without crossing back and forth on previously explored ground. The added randomness accounts for obstacles that come with an unpredictable, natural environment.

“Until now, the widespread assumption was that free-searching animals are incapable of searching for new resources methodically,” Popp says. “Most of the previous research on search behavior only focused on situations where the animal is already familiar with where it’s going, such as going back to the nest entrance or going back to a memorable food source.”

“Based on these results, many animals may be using complex combinations of random and systematic search that optimize efficiency and robustness in real and complex habitats,” Dornhaus says. “This discovery opens up a whole new way of looking at all animal movement.”

The researchers believe their discovery has the potential to unify different fields of science, including biology and robotics. The wanderings of these ants may have applications for real environments where a completely systematic search would fail when faced with an obstacle.

“This discovery could possibly lead to applications for roboticists as they program robots to be able to find their way around or search for something,” Dornhaus says. “In this way, they can make their algorithms more robust, so they don’t immediately fail as soon as the robot loses track of its exact location.”

Source: Kylianne Chadwick for University of Arizona

Researchers are identifying how scammers target victims on dating apps.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, the use of dating apps by people looking to make new connections ramps up. Unfortunately, as people are looking for love, scammers are looking for ways to steal their money.

The new research in the American Journal of Criminal Justice exposes the tactics used by scammers to gain users’ trust and make them vulnerable to cybercrime.

The phenomenon known as “romance fraud” is both often underreported and understudied, says Volkan Topalli, a professor of criminal justice and criminology and an associate with Georgia State University’s Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group.

“We have this explosion of crime taking place online. In the physical world, maybe you can scam one or two people at a time. But thanks to social media and technology, a scammer can send an email or chat message to hundreds of people at once, just trawling for victims,” Topalli says.

“The scammers are effective because they are experts in extracting funds from people, and they’re also experts in identifying a vulnerable target.”

A cybercrime report published by the FBI in 2021 found that online romance fraud losses have skyrocketed in recent years, reaching almost $956 million. That makes it the third-ranked cybercrime overall in terms of losses.

The goal of the research was to identify risk and protective factors for those targeted by so-called romance scammers in order to develop a model for victim vulnerability and resilience, says primary author Fangzhou Wang, a doctoral student in the criminal justice and criminology department.

“We really wanted to take advantage of open intelligence data sources to find out what these fraudsters were doing that was so effective. The purpose is to identify patterns and uncover strategies that users can adopt to protect themselves,” Wang says.

The researchers gathered data from online testimonials on websites where victims share stories and warn others, including stop-scammers.com and male-scammers.com, where they were able to review nearly 10,000 vetted reports.

Using data analysis software, they created a romance fraud victim database using testimonials as a basis for analysis. They then analyzed the victims’ stories to identify overarching themes.

The testimonials included those from victims who were approached on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, or on dating sites, including Tinder, Ashley Madison, and OkCupid.

The researchers identified a number of techniques and forms of deception that were most common and most successful for scammers. They include things like using visceral, emotional triggers or influences; manufacturing a crisis; exploiting likability and similarity; or eliciting the victim’s sense of guilt.

Another common tactic used by scammers is to quickly ask their victims to migrate the relationship away from the app to a private email or messaging format (like WhatsApp or Google Hangout) in order to isolate them. Often, scammers will also pressure the victim to make quick decisions.

Other red flags include online suitors refusing to have conversations on the phone, or not sending recent photographs. Of course, the biggest warning sign is that someone is asking you to part with your money. Topalli recommends checking any new online relationship against a third party, like a trusted friend or family member.

The researchers also identify common risk factors for potential victims. They include a lack of familiarity with technology, which is often seen in older people. Young people are also vulnerable because they may be overconfident or inexperienced with initiating a relationship online. Unsurprisingly, others who make a good mark for scammers are those who have been through broken relationships and are simply looking for companionship.

The research team says it’s likely that the number of victims is vastly underrepresented, taking into consideration things like victim shame or even self-incrimination. Sometimes victims won’t event accept that they’ve been scammed when confronted with evidence.

“They’re sort of hoping against hope that it’s a real thing. There are numerous stories of people who just say, ‘No, I love this person, you’ve got it wrong’ and then they will continue in the relationship,” says Topalli. “It’s painful to hear the stories.”

Wang says that since fraudsters tend to use very similar linguistic cues to deceive victims, online service providers could develop algorithm-based predictive tools to detect fraudulent attempts against potential victims that can be built into the dating and social media sites.

“Potentially, dating and social networking sites can draw from the information from our study to launch educational or awareness programs for those who were previously victims, and those who may be potential victims,” Wang says.

Romance fraud often results in not only financial loss but also long-lasting psychological trauma. The research indicates that victims of online romance scams undergo a traumatic psychological aftermath similar to victims of domestic violence. Wang says she plans to explore further research utilizing surveys and interviews to dive deeper into the mindsets of offenders and victims in the cyber world.

“There’s nothing wrong with starting a relationship online. But you’re basically putting yourself out in the Wild West,” Topalli says. “You always want to keep in mind what we call ‘cyber hygiene,’ which means really looking at your interactions online and the apps that you use and being very cognizant of protecting yourself.”

Source: Georgia State University

Labels made with inexpensive photonic fibers could improve clothing recycling, researchers report.

Less than 15% of the 92 million tons of clothing and other textiles discarded annually are recycled—in part because they are so difficult to sort.

“It’s like a barcode that’s woven directly into the fabric of a garment,” says Max Shtein, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan and corresponding author of the study in Advanced Materials Technologies.

“We can customize the photonic properties of the fibers to make them visible to the naked eye, readable only under near-infrared light or any combination.”

Ordinary tags often don’t make it to the end of a garment’s life—they may be cut away or washed until illegible, and tagless information can wear off. Recycling could be more effective if a tag was woven into the fabric, invisible until it needs to be read. This is what the new fiber could do.

Recyclers already use near-infrared sorting systems that identify different materials according to their naturally occurring optical signatures—the PET plastic in a water bottle, for example, looks different under near-infrared light than the HDPE plastic in a milk jug.

Different fabrics also have different optical signatures, but those signatures are of limited use to recyclers because of the prevalence of blended fabrics, explains lead author Brian Iezzi, a postdoctoral researcher in Shtein’s lab.

“For a truly circular recycling system to work, it’s important to know the precise composition of a fabric—a cotton recycler doesn’t want to pay for a garment that’s made of 70% polyester,” Iezzi says. “Natural optical signatures can’t provide that level of precision, but our photonic fibers can.”

To develop the technology, the team combined Iezzi and Shtein’s photonic expertise—usually applied to products like displays, solar cells, and optical filters—with the advanced textile capabilities at MIT’s Lincoln Lab. The lab worked to incorporate the photonic properties into a process that would be compatible with large-scale production.

They accomplished the task by starting with a preform—a plastic feedstock that comprises dozens of alternating layers. In this case, they used acrylic and polycarbonate. While each individual layer is clear, the combination of two materials bends and refracts light to create optical effects that can look like color. It’s the same basic phenomenon that gives butterfly wings their shimmer.

The preform is heated and then mechanically pulled—a bit like taffy—into a hair-thin strand of fiber. While the manufacturing process method differs from the extrusion technique used to make conventional synthetic fibers like polyester, it can produce the same miles-long strands of fiber. Those strands can then be processed with the same equipment already used by textile makers.

By adjusting the mix of materials and the speed at which the preform is pulled, the researchers tuned the fiber to create the desired optical properties and ensure recyclability. While the photonic fiber is more expensive than traditional textiles, the researchers estimate that it will only result in a small increase in the cost of finished goods.

“The photonic fibers only need to make up a small percentage—as little as 1% of a finished garment,” Iezzi says. “That might increase the cost of the finished product by around 25 cents—similar to the cost of those use-and-care tags we’re all familiar with.”

In addition to making recycling easier, the photonic labeling could be used to tell consumers where and how goods are made, and even to verify the authenticity of brand-name products, Shtein says. It could be a way to add important value for customers.

“As electronic devices like cell phones become more sophisticated, they could potentially have the ability to read this kind of photonic labeling,” Shtein says. “So I could imagine a future where woven-in labels are a useful feature for consumers as well as recyclers.”

The team has applied for patent protection and is evaluating ways to move forward with the commercialization of the technology.

The National Science Foundation and the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering funded the work.

Source: University of Michigan

Black children are over-reported as suspected victims of child abuse when they have traumatic injuries, even after accounting for poverty, according to new research.

The study, which drew on a national database of nearly 800,000 traumatic injuries in children, also found evidence that injuries in white children are under-reported as suspected abuse.

The study highlights the potential for bias in doctors’ and nurses’ decisions about which injuries should be reported to Child Protective Services, according to the researchers. Medical caregivers are mandated reporters, obligated to report to CPS any situations in which they think children may be victims of abuse.

Because caregivers rarely admit to injuring their children, such reports rely in part on providers’ gut feelings, making them susceptible to unconscious, systemic bias.

Bias can harm both Black and white children, says senior study author Stephanie Chao, assistant professor of surgery at Stanford Medicine.

“If you over-identify cases of suspected child abuse, you’re separating children unnecessarily from their families and creating stress that lasts a lifetime,” Chao says. “But child abuse is extremely deadly, and if you miss one event—maybe a well-to-do Caucasian child where you think, ‘No way’—you may send that child back unprotected to a very dangerous environment. The consequences are really sad and devastating on both sides.”

Child abuse and poverty

Racial disparities in reporting child abuse have been documented before, but prior studies have not controlled well for poverty, which is a risk factor for abuse. Some experts argue that disproportionate reporting of injured Black children as possible abuse victims reflects only that their families tend to have lower incomes, not that medical professionals are subject to bias. Chao’s team wanted to clarify the debate.

The new study drew on data from the National Trauma Data Bank, which is maintained by the American College of Surgeons. The researchers studied records of nearly 800,000 traumatic injuries that occurred in children ages 1 to 17 from 2010 to 2014 and from 2016 to 2017. Of these injuries, 1% were suspected to be caused by abuse, based on medical codes used to report different types of abuse. The researchers controlled their findings for whether children had public or private insurance as a marker for family income.

Suspected victims of child abuse were younger (a median age of 2 versus 10 years), more likely to have public insurance (77% versus 43%), and more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit (68% versus 48%) than the general population of children with traumatic injuries.

Suspected child abuse victims also were 10 times as likely as the general population of children with traumatic injuries to die of their injuries in the hospital, with 8.2% of suspected abuse victims versus 0.84% of all children with traumatic injuries dying during hospitalization.

Similar proportions of children in the suspected child abuse group and in the general population of injured children were of Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, American Indian, and “other” races, and similar proportions of both groups were of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.

However, Black patients were over-represented among suspected child abuse victims, comprising 33% of suspected child abuse victims and 18% of the general population of injured children. White children comprised 51% of suspected child abuse victims and 66% of the general population of injured children.

“Even when we control for income—in this case, via insurance type—African American children are still significantly over-represented as suspected victims of child abuse,” says Chao. “In addition, they were reported with lower injury severity scores, meaning there was more suspicion for children with less-severe injuries in one particular racial group.”

In general, the researchers found medical professionals had a higher threshold for suspecting white families of abuse and a lower threshold for suspecting Black families. For example, white children in the suspected abuse group were more likely than Black children to have worse injuries, and they were more likely to have been admitted to the intensive care unit.

Dire consequences of getting it wrong

Chao and her colleagues are designing more equitable ways to screen injured children for possible abuse. An important element, she says, is to make the screening universal so evaluation for possible abuse is not initiated primarily by medical providers’ gut feelings.

Chao created a universal screening system, in use at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health since 2019, in which every time a child younger than 6 years old is evaluated for an injury sustained in a private home, the electronic medical record automatically sends an alert to the organization’s child abuse team.

Composed of pediatricians and social workers with specialized training in abuse detection, the team checks the medical record for other indications of abuse. In most cases, no such signals are found, and the entire process occurs behind the scenes. However, if the medical record shows any red flags, the medical staff who admitted the patient to the emergency department or hospital can be alerted for further consideration of whether further work-up or a CPS report is warranted.

Chao is also now working with Epic, the nation’s largest electronic medical record company, to include an automated child abuse screening tool in its system. The screening tool will be tested at several medical institutions later this year.

Chao hopes the work will improve the accuracy of CPS reports, especially when it comes to reducing the impact of medical providers’ unconscious bias.

“Everyone means well here, but the consequences of getting these reports wrong are pretty dire in either direction,” she says. “If we don’t recognize bias and always chalk it up to something else, we can’t fix the problem in a thoughtful way. Now, I hope we can recognize it and work toward a solution.”

The study appears in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery.

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences funded the work.

Source: Stanford University

More US high school seniors reported vaping cannabis in states where it is legal only for medical purposes than states where all adult use is permitted, according to a new study.

About 27% of 12th graders in medical marijuana states reported vaping cannabis compared to 19% in states that prohibited cannabis or allowed it for adult use.

“More than a quarter of our youth in medical states were vaping cannabis. That’s a lot,” says Christian Maynard, a sociology PhD student at Washington State University and first author of the study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports.

“We were expecting medical and adult use states would be more similar. Instead, we didn’t find any statistical difference between prohibited and adult use states.”

“It’s possible the context of saying cannabis is for medical reasons is contributing to the fact that youth view it as less risky.”

For the study, Maynard and Jennifer Schwartz, his advising professor and a sociologist, analyzed responses from 3,770 high school seniors to the 2020 Monitoring the Future survey, a project which has surveyed US youth since 1975.

The researchers also analyzed a subset of 556 participants who had also answered questions about access to cannabis vaping products and risk perceptions. They found that 62% of the high school seniors in medical marijuana states reported very easy access to cannabis vaping cartridges or “carts,” and only 31% saw regular cannabis use as a great risk.

In both prohibited and adult use states, fewer high school seniors, 52%, reported easy access to cartridges. More also felt regular cannabis use was risky: 40% in prohibited states and 36% in adult use states.

The study could not identify exact reasons for the high rates of teen vaping in medical marijuana states, but Maynard suspects there may be a couple factors at play.

“It’s possible the context of saying cannabis is for medical reasons is contributing to the fact that youth view it as less risky,” says Maynard. “The difference in availability may also be that adult use states are providing legal cannabis to a wider range of people, which may in turn tamp down on the illegal market, and an adolescent can’t go to a dispensary.”

More research needs to be done to get to the reasons behind this difference, Maynard emphasizes.

While cannabis and tobacco use among teens has been decreasing overall, vaping has bucked that trend. Among high school seniors, cannabis vaping during the past 30 days made the second the biggest single-year jump in 2019 for any substance in the 45-year history of the Monitoring the Future study. It was only second to nicotine vaping.

Vaping remains popular even after crisis of related lung injuries in 2019 and 2020 that led to more than 2,000 hospitalizations including 68 deaths. Many of the cases were connected to cartridges sold outside of stores that contained Vitamin E, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rise in cannabis vaping among teens highlights the need for parents and educators to help inform youth of the dangers, Maynard says.

“Like it or not, cannabis legalization seems to be happening across the country,” he says. “It’s very important to talk with adolescents. We know that at a younger age, when the brain is developing that cannabis is associated with harmful side effects. It’s also not safe to buy cannabis carts off the streets. You don’t know what they’re putting in those unregulated carts.”

Source: Washington State

Children’s Valentine’s cards often introduce and reinforce stereotypes and attitudes about gender as well as expectations about young children’s bodies, interests, and behaviors, argues Deborah Borisoff.

Typically thought of as a commercial holiday for adults fueled by purchases of wine, chocolates, jewelry, and lingerie, Valentine’s Day has also served as an opportunity for children to explore friendships, budding crushes, and social circles.

In 1989, Borisoff and her coauthor Judythe Isserlis published an analysis of Valentine’s Day cards in which they shared their lack of surprise by the “cards’ portrayal of little girls as sweet, loving, lovely, fragile, or, of little boys as active and strong.”

More than 30 years later, Borisoff says the Valentine’s landscape is largely unchanged.

Here, she discusses the gendered messages of cards, the expectations and pressures they create for children, changes she has noticed in recent years, and five ways kids’ cards still make for a very gendered Valentine’s day:

1. Valentine’s Day cards for children depict distinct color palettes and fonts for boys and girls.

“Even before reading the message, one can tell at a distance which cards are intended for boys and which cards are intended for girls. Cards for young girls are remarkably consistent in using pastels such as pink, lilac, and pale blue, as well as red,” says Borisoff. “Hearts are typical on the cover as well. Moreover, the font is often swirly or in script. In contrast, bold block lettering on blue, purple, orange, yellow, and red backgrounds appear in cards for boys, and with fewer hearts.”

2. Cartoon characters and animals on cards differ according to gender too.

“Beyond coloristics and fonts, the figures on the cards convey at a glance the subject for whom the card is intended. Cartoon figures in boys’ cards are replete with athletes who play basketball, football, baseball, hockey, and golf. Race car drivers, astronauts, and ubiquitous action heroes are represented as well. In contrast, puppies, teddy bears, seal pups, bunny rabbits, and mice grace the cover of cards for young girls,” says Borisoff.

“When girls appear on the cover, they are depicted as princesses or other cartoon figures wearing makeup and having slim or hourglass figures. They are shown engaging in activities such as cheerleading, shopping, eating, and reading, and are always smiling. Often shiny stickers or other trinkets are included for girls to use. It’s important to note the absence of potential careers or sports for young girls, as those are reserved for boys’ cards, with few exceptions.”

3. Messages in cards designed for parents to give to children also reward different qualities and traits for sons and daughters.

“In light of the distinct activities reflected in Valentine’s cards that boys and girls exchange, it is not surprising that distinct qualities and traits are also conveyed in cards that parents give their children,” says Borisoff. “Sons are ‘great,’ ‘daring,’ ‘strong,’ ‘amazing,’ and ‘special.’ Parents are ‘proud’ of them. While daughters are also ‘special’ and can be ‘smart‘ as well, they are ‘loved’ and ‘treasured’ for being ‘sweet,’ ‘beautiful,’ ‘loving,’ ‘poised,’ and ‘popular.’ They can also be ‘wonderful,’ whether they ‘eat or diet,’ or are ‘outgoing or quiet.”

4. Gender-based messaging creates a number of challenges and barriers for children.

“The above-mentioned differences in the imagery and messages conveyed in Valentine’s cards for children reflect binary thinking and dividing practices that perpetuate stereotypes, presumptions, and expectations about identity and behavior,” Borisoff says.

“The traits, behaviors, and thinking about one’s body and aspirations speak volumes. These early messages comprise only one area that impacts how young children learn to navigate their lives, and it is important to consider what is absent. Ignored in the cards for boys are those who do not identify with athletes or super heroes, and the emotional landscape of kindness and care for others,” says Borisoff.

“Ignored in the cards for girls are those whose interests are not limited to how they look or their future aspirations. Whether these messages are intended or not, being sweet and caring is not solely the purview of girls, and being strong and daring is not solely the purview of boys. Early messages in the home, whether about the color of one’s room, clothing, activities, gifts, or even cards for birthdays and holidays can impact children’s experiences as they progress through school and work, as well as in the personal relationships they forge. It is a training ground for how young people learn to see themselves and how to treat one another.”

5. Valentine’s cards have yet to join other mediums that have expanded offerings regarding gender-neutral messaging and greater diversity.

“Valentines for children is but one arena of the media landscape. As shown, they largely adhere to many traditional stereotypes about gender identity. Cards don’t create, but rather they reflect societal norms, values, and stereotypes,” Borisoff says.

“I’ve found very few cards in the children’s section that include neutral messages, but examples I have found include a card for babies with a pink pastel background with 12 hearts in shades of white, pink, and red. The text reads, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ and ‘Wishing you a day filled with simple joys and all the things you love.’

“Note, there are no descriptors of ‘sweet’ or ‘brave’ to suggest traditional stereotypes of gendered traits. There are no human figures to suggest the male/female binary, but such examples are limited.

“In other arenas, changes in our current societal norms and values are increasingly reflected and celebrated. An example of such is in books for children, which I also discuss in my class. This is where I have seen a clear evolution in the representation of non-binary identifiers, same-sex families, and more direct coverage of race, culture, ethnicity, disability, class, etc. It will be interesting to see if, over time, these changes will be reflected in the cards we give our children on this special day.”

Source: NYU

A study in mice shows that a drug makes mammalian pain receptors more like those in birds—and more resistant to some forms of pain.

Researchers have discovered a possible new way to treat pain without the use of opioids. By targeting a specific area of a well-known pain receptor, they were able to reduce pain sensitivity in mice without affecting the receptor’s other functions, such as sensitivity to heat.

Their inspiration? Chickens.

Many chicken farmers know that squirrels and mice won’t eat chicken feed laced with capsaicin—the chemical that gives chili peppers their spiciness. In mammals, capsaicin activates a pain receptor to cause a burning sensation. In most bird species, capsaicin has little effect.

“It turns out that birds are naturally resistant to capsaicin,” says Eric Gross, associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

That fact prompted Gross to wonder whether it was possible for humans to have a genetic variant that made the receptor, known as transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1, or TRPV1, more birdlike—and more resistant to pain.

Bird and human pain receptors

In a study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gross’s team and their collaborators identified a specific genetic variant of TRPV1 that reduces pain sensitivity in humans. Though this variant is extremely rare, the researchers were able to replicate the effects of the altered gene with a custom-designed drug.

The researchers first used a computational approach to find genetic variants of human TRPV1 that resemble avian TRPV1. When they tested these variants in genetically modified cells, one variant, known as K710N, drastically reduced the receptor’s reaction to capsaicin.

“We were quite amazed that there was such a decrease in activity of TRPV1’s response to capsaicin when we made that genetic variant,” says Gross, who is the senior author of the study. “It was to the point where we actually tried this several times to make sure that was really what we were seeing.”

Spicy chicken feed for mice

Next, they used the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technique to create mice with the K710N mutation. The plan was to see if these mice would find palatable the capsaicin-laced bird food that normal mice reject. The response was more immediate than the researchers expected: As soon as the spicy bird food was placed on the floor of their cage, normal mice lifted their paws as much as they could to avoid touching the capsaicin—suggesting that even skin contact caused pain. The K710N mice, meanwhile, lifted their paws much less frequently and were comfortable enough with the capsaicin to sample some spicy bird food.

Based on these and other behavioral responses, Gross estimates that the mutation reduced pain by about 50%.

The TRPV1 receptors in our sensory neurons do more than generate a burning sensation when we eat chili peppers. They also respond to other stimuli such as heat and physical injury—playing an important role in protecting us from danger—and they regulate body temperature.

“You don’t want to take away the full sensation of pain,” Gross says. “You still want to have somebody, if they place their hand over a hot stove or step on a Lego, to have that pain sensation.”

The K710N mice enjoyed a happy medium—they felt less pain but could still sense harmful stimuli and maintain normal body temperatures. “We were able to dial it down rather than take it away completely,” Gross says.

TRPV1 has yet more functions throughout the body, such as protecting against organ damage. The researchers found that the K710N variant retained and even enhanced these protective benefits of TRPV1. Heart cells with the variant, for example, were less likely to die when temporarily deprived of oxygen.

A potential drug for pain

With an understanding of precisely how the K710N mutation changed the structure and function of TRPV1, the researchers were able to design a drug that had the same effect. When they gave the drug, a peptide named V1-cal, to mice by injection or infusion, it reduced their sensitivity to capsaicin and lessened chronic pain from nerve injury. Just like the K710N mutation, the drug had little impact on heat sensation and regulation of body temperature.

Compared with previous attempts at treating pain by targeting TRPV1, the new chicken-inspired drug works more selectively, with fewer side effects.

“People have always used a direct approach, so they looked at ways to specifically activate or block the receptor,” Gross says. “That’s been a challenge because activation of the receptor causes pain, while inactivation may cause unwanted changes in body temperature.”

A high concentration of capsaicin activates and eventually desensitizes the receptor, and has been used in analgesic creams or patches, but the treatments increase pain before reducing it. On the other hand, drugs that block the receptor have failed in clinical trials because they caused people to overheat.

“Instead of directly activating or inactivating the receptor, the drug we developed modulates only a specific area of the receptor,” he says. “We’re able to avoid the side effects that have been plaguing drug discovery for TRPV1 for quite some time.”

Gross’s team hopes to modify the peptide so that it is more stable and can relieve pain longer. In the study, the mice were given the drug by continuous infusion.

As an anesthesiologist, Gross often treats patients with post-operative pain. “We’re really excited to see if this is a potential therapeutic for pain after surgery, and to help us move toward an opioid-free approach.”

Researchers from the Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University in China, the Butantan Institute in Brazil, the University Hospital Munster in Germany, and Emory University also contributed to the work.

The study had funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the State Scholarship Fund of China Scholarship Council, the Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Sāo Paulo Research Foundation, Coodernacāo de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-Brasil, the Stanford Diabetes Research Center, the American Heart Association, and the German Research Foundation.

Source: Stanford University

Neglecting the psychological trauma many older adults with HIV/AIDS experience will make it difficult, if not impossible, to end the epidemic, according to a new study.

Once considered a death sentence, HIV/AIDS has evolved into a manageable illness—with the availability of antiretroviral treatments—and people with the disease are living longer. But as this population ages, they are facing mental and psychosocial health challenges that could have a profound effect on their well-being—and on the trajectory of the virus.

“Our findings support the need to target post-traumatic stress disorder and substance dependence and use among older HIV/AIDS-positive people and suggest that resilience might help increase adherence to antiretroviral therapy regimes,” says Kristen D. Krause, an instructor of urban health at the Rutgers School of Public Health and lead author of the study in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health.

In 2016, the United Nations set a global target to end HIV as a public health threat by 2030. To succeed, however, antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence—taking medication as directed and avoiding so-called “pill fatigue”—would – would need to continue. Krause says resilience, namely the ability to thrive amid challenge situations, may play an important role in ART adherence.

To understand the association between HIV-related resilience and mental health, Krause and colleagues at the Rutgers Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies (CHIBPS) surveyed 250 HIV-positive gay men ages 50 to 69 living in the New York City area between April 2017 and October 2018. Participants were recruited from dating apps, gay-related events, community-based organizations, and word of mouth.

Using an HIV-related resilience assessment tool Krause helped create, researchers asked participants a series of questions about their ability to deal with adversity, whether they had or were experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), how they viewed HIV-related stigma, and whether they’d ever had suicidal thoughts.

The researchers found that people with higher levels of HIV-related resilience were more likely to have lower levels of PTSD and substance dependence and were more likely to feel financially secure.

About 16% of participants were symptomatic for PTSD, 14% met the criteria for severe depression, 18% reported a substance dependency, 18% suffered generalized anxiety disorder, and nearly 33% expressed suicidal tendencies.

A majority of the sample (64.4%) indicated they could barely or could not get by on the money they have.

Krause says the findings point to major gaps in mental health coverage for older people living with HIV/AIDS and support calls for a more holistic approach to health care for this population.

“More and more people are surviving with HIV, and we don’t really know what the long-term effects of that will be,” Krause says. “We’re finding out in real time. Any piece of information that we can collect will help mitigate the negative impacts of HIV later in life.

“As we wait for a vaccine or a cure, it’s important to continue building a toolbox of methods and best practices to bring this epidemic to an end. Resilience is one tool in that box.”

Source: Greg Bruno for Rutgers University

TAMPA, Fla. — Viasat is exploring hybrid narrowband direct-to-smartphone services using satellites in geostationary and non-geostationary orbits, CEO Mark Dankberg said Feb. 8.

There is “plenty that can be done both at GEO as well as at non-GEO,” Dankberg said while addressing the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, and “what we’re really looking at is a harmonized system between the two.”

During Viasat’s financial results call Feb. 7, Dankberg said the GEO broadband operator is open to partnering with low Earth orbit (LEO) companies, including arch-rival SpaceX.

“Personally, we don’t rule out partnering with anybody,” he said in response to an analyst question about allying with SpaceX, “but I think we’ve shown that we can really add value in the space architectures more than we could just in lease fees for spectrum as an example — but, we never say never.”

Viasat is closing in on its acquisition of British GEO broadband and narrowband operator Inmarsat, which has global L-band spectrum rights and has been developing plans to provide services from LEO.

Dankberg told the SmallSat Symposium that while Viasat made its mulit-billion dollar offer for Inmarsat because of its international broadband presence, its direct-to-smartphone narrowband capabilities are increasingly compelling.

He said “one of the biggest potential markets is direct-to-device,” which is “going to have a big influence, both positive and negative, when it comes to … the self-interest of nations.”

Advances in technology and telecoms protocol standardization are making it easier to communicate to and from orbit without large antennas or specialized phones. 

“It’s possible to control that,” Dankberg said, “but when any cell phone in the world, or smartwatch … within your borders can connect to a space system directly, that is not consistent with the self-interest of quite a few nations in the world.”

As direct-to-smartphone efforts pick up and capabilities advance beyond emergency messaging, he sees other knock-on effects across the rest of the space industry.

These include more mass being put into orbit, increasing the threat of debris-causing collisions threatening the viability of space operations for all operators.

Small LEO satellites have been getting larger to improve their capabilities as launch economics improve, Dankberg noted.

He pointed to how SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites have increased from about 250 kilograms to the 2,000-kilogram range to add new capabilities, such as direct-to-smartphone services, into its second-generation broadband constellation.

Viasat believes “you do not need very large satellites to accomplish missions in space,” Dankberg said, and is focusing on improving payload integration to save space.

“We’re looking at standardized cubesat-type form factors that we think we can buy that will create a vibrant ecosystem,” he added, “to allow many new entrants into these into these systems.”

Viasat is still waiting on regulatory approvals from the United Kingdom and European to buy Inmarsat after announcing the deal in November 2021.

The statuary deadline for the U.K.’s competition watchdog to decide on the deal is March 30, Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss said in a recent investor note, and “then the last remaining hurdle would be the European Commission which could potentially elongate the timeline.”

Viasat, which recently completed the $2 billion sale of its tactical data communications business, reported $651 million in revenue from continuing operations in the three months to the end of December, up 4% year-on-year.

Adjusted EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, declined 15% to $139 million. 

The operator also disclosed an extra few weeks of delays for its debut next-generation ViaSat-3 satellite, designed to add significant amounts of capacity over the Americas, which is now slated for a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch in the week of April 8.

The second ViaSat-3, covering Europe, Middle East, and Africa, is counting down to a September launch on one of United Launch Alliance’s last Atlas launches.

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